- Country: Malawi
- City : Lilongwe
Founded in 2002 by President William J. Clinton, the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) is a global health organization committed to strengthening integrated health systems around the world and expanding access to care and treatment for HIV/AIDS, malaria and other illnesses. Based on the premise that business oriented strategy can facilitate solutions to global health challenges, CHAI acts as a catalyst to mobilize new resources and optimize the impact of these resources to save lives, via improved organization of commodity markets and more effective local management. By working in association with governments and other NGO partners, CHAI is focused on large scale impact and, to date, CHAI has secured lower pricing agreements for treatment options in more than 70 countries. In addition, CHAI’s teams are working side-by-side with over 30 governments to tackle many of the largest barriers to effective treatment and care.
In 2005, CHAI signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Government of Malawi (GoM) to strengthen health systems in the most challenged districts, provide national support to HIV/AIDS drug pricing and programmatic work, support the pilot and scale-up of prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV (PMTCT) initiatives, expand access to ART for children, strengthen Malawi’s lab system, and scale-up an integrated nutrition Program for children. CHAI’s support to Malawi has expanded to include Human Resources for Health (HRH), Vaccines (pneumococcal and rotavirus), and Health Financing.
CHAI’s health financing program is working with 10 of these countries to support Ministries of Health to substantially and sustainably improve access to essential health services for their populations. Health financing is often insufficient and overly reliant on donors and individuals paying out of pocket at facilities. Low income countries in Africa and South East Asia see over half of the global disease burden, are home to 40% of the global population and account for only 3% of health spending. Donor contributions for health have plateaued, and in many countries are likely to decline in the coming years. Domestic resources for health are increasing, but the rate of growth in government spending dedicated to health fluctuates and is often insufficient to meet population needs. In addition, resources that are made available may not be spent efficiently. Healthcare providers face stock-outs, ration services among patients and charge informal or formal user fees, which can act as a deterrent for patients, and particularly the poor, to seek care.
The Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) seeks an Associate, Health Financing to help the Government of Malawi (GoM) address challenges of limited resources for the health sector. The Associate will be based in Lilongwe, Malawi and will report to the Program Manager, Health Financing within the Evidence for Impact Cluster.
Malawi faces a challenge of limited resources for the health system, and CHAI has partnered with the government to seek new sources of financing and to realise maximum impact from existing financing. Currently the MoH is undertaking the development of the Health Sector Strategic Plan II (2016-2021) and revision of the country’s Essential Health Package (EHP). Over the next few years, CHAI will support the Department of Planning and Policy Development (DPPD) to overcome the health systems constraints to deliver the revised EHP to the entire population, including the quantification of key systems gaps and prioritization toward a phased EHP scale-up plan. In addition, CHAI will support DPPD in the development of systems and processes that will be improve coordination of government and donor financing for health systems investments toward Universal Health Coverage.
Through this work, the Associate will work very closely with the MoH, particularly the Department of Planning, in addition to liaising with donors, NGOs, and civil society on a regular basis. This position will have direct and immediate impact on the lives of thousands of patients. It presents an opportunity to work very closely with a government that is committed to finding opportunities for sustainable financing of the health sector, providing key evidence and developing tools that will deliver improved healthcare for the people of Malawi.
Working in close collaboration with MoH, the Associate, Health Financing will:
- Serve as a trusted technical advisor to the MoH on a broad range of health financing and systems issues, enabling MoH to mobilize more resources into the health sector and distribute them equitably, effectively and efficiently;
- Collect, clean and analyze data on various areas of the health sector to quantify the available resources, costs and gaps in the health sector to inform planning, budgeting, and aid coordination;
- Support the MoH in operationalizing the delivery of the revised Essential Health Package through the development of an evidence-based scale up plan;
- Research frameworks and develop a protocol for assessing service readiness at health facilities;
- Manage data collection, cleaning, validation, and analysis of health systems readiness gaps, including the harmonization with existing health systems data systems in Malawi;
- Contribute to the development of a mechanism for coordinating and aligning donor and government funding for health;
- Support the Aid Coordination Unit and other relevant entities in the MoH to strengthen processes for donor coordination, increased transparency, and alignment to government priorities;
- Develop and carry out proposals to build capacity of MoH and increase sustainability of the aforementioned activities; and
- Perform any other duties assigned by the Program Manager
- A minimum of a Bachelor’s degree from a well-recognised, high-calibre institution;
- A minimum of three years of professional experience, at least two of which should be in public health, health research, public policy, public sector finance, health economics, health financing, clinical experience, or other relevant private and public sector experience;
- Strong analytical skills and advanced technical proficiency with MS Excel and PowerPoint (analytical skills and proficiency levels will be tested during recruiting process);
- Demonstrated experience building and analysing quantitative models to inform decision-making;
- Demonstrated experience conducting and managing research studies and teams, supervising data collectors, working with large data sets;
- Strategically minded, able to think creatively around long-term programme objectives and the detailed steps necessary to achieve these goals;
- Excellent organization and attention to detail;
- Demonstrated ability to deliver excellence in high-pressure situations and adapt to rapidly changing environments;
- Excellent verbal, visual and written communication skills;
- English language fluency, both written and verbal.
Master’s degree in Economics, Public Health, Medicine, and/or Nursing;
Experience with VBA coding;
Knowledge, experience and interest in innovative financing approaches for developing countries;
Chichewa fluency, both written and verbal; and
Experience working in developing countries, particularly in the health sector and in Sub-Saharan Africa.