Country

Cameroon

Program (Division)

Country Programs – Cameroon

Additional Location Description

Yaoundé

The Clinton Health Access Initiative, Inc. (CHAI) is a global health organization committed to our mission of saving lives and reducing the burden of disease in low-and middle-income countries. We work at the invitation of governments to support them and the private sector to create and sustain high-quality health systems.

 

CHAI was founded in 2002 in response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic with the goal of dramatically reducing the price of life-saving drugs and increasing access to these medicines in the countries with the highest burden of the disease. Over the following two decades, CHAI has expanded its focus. Today, along with HIV, we work in conjunction with our partners to prevent and treat infectious diseases such as COVID-19, malaria, tuberculosis, and hepatitis. Our work has also expanded into cancer, diabetes, hypertension, and other non-communicable diseases, and we work to accelerate the rollout of lifesaving vaccines, reduce maternal and child mortality, combat chronic malnutrition, and increase access to assistive technology. We are investing in horizontal approaches to strengthen health systems through programs in human resources for health, digital health, and health financing. With each new and innovative program, our strategy is grounded in maximizing sustainable impact at scale, ensuring that governments lead the solutions, that programs are designed to scale nationally, and learnings are shared globally.

 

At CHAI, our people are our greatest asset, and none of this work would be possible without their talent, time, dedication and passion for our mission and values. We are a highly diverse team of enthusiastic individuals across 40 countries with a broad range of skillsets and life experiences. CHAI is deeply grounded in the countries we work in, with majority of our staff based in program countries. Learn more about our exciting work: http://www.clintonhealthaccess.org

CHAI is an Equal Opportunity Employer, and is committed to providing an environment of fairness, and mutual respect where all applicants have access to equal employment opportunities. CHAI values diversity and inclusion and recognizes that our mission is best advanced by the leadership and contributions of people with diverse experience, backgrounds, and culture.

 

Program Overview

CHAI began work in Cameroon in 2007 with a focus on improving access to HIV diagnosis, care, and treatment. Since then, the partnership between Cameroon’s MOH and CHAI has evolved from being HIV to a wide range of cross cutting health system challenges across various vertical programs including HIV, Malaria, NCDs, MNCH, Sexual and Reproductive health and the EPI. CHAI has been providing technical support to the Cameroon EPI for the past 10 years, building a good relationship with stakeholders and ultimately positioning itself as the go to partner for generating and providing evidence for decision. CHAI recently obtained a grant from Gavi to embark on the improvement of HPV vaccination coverage through Multi-Age Cohort (MAC) campaigns and engagement with religious and traditional leaders as well as other Civil Society Organizations (CSOs).

CHAI intends to select CSOs to conduct advocacy sensitization and communication with various stakeholders (such as religious and traditional leaders) and leverage their experience working with communities to improve routine immunization coverage including the HPV vaccine. Religious leaders hold considerable communication influence, and this grant will seek to leverage their influence to bridge the gaps between medical knowledge and cultural sensitivities, nurturing a collaborative dialogue that resonates deeply within communities, to foster a receptive environment for immunization uptake. While working alongside these CSO, CHAI will pay a special emphasis on improving their program performance management (broadly defined as the system, including structures and processes, for setting goals and activity plans as well as monitoring and reviewing progress against them) in order to reach the defined goals effectively and efficiently and thus improving outcomes for key immunization indicators in Cameroon.

 

Role Overview

CHAI is seeking a dynamic, energetic, and high-motivated individual with excellent interpersonal skills, strong critical thinking, communication and advocacy skills for the role of Program Manager, Vaccines, HPV–CSOs. This position requires an individual with a self-starter attitude with the ability to apply innovative and systems thinking to their everyday work. The successful candidate will have demonstrated program management experience, strong analytical and problem-solving skills, and the ability to work independently with minimal supervision.

The primary responsibility of the Program Manager will be to oversee the implementation of the program and provide technical support across various workstreams including the MAC application design in collaboration with the EPI, the development and implementation of an HPV vaccination school strategy and routinization plan, and the improvement of routine immunization coverage (including HPV) through CSO engagement and capacity enhancement. The Program Manager will work to support the government’s efforts to increase HPV vaccination coverage by engaging CSOs, supporting them in their advocacy, sensitization, and communication activities related to HPV vaccination and other vaccine-preventable diseases, and developing/implementing strategies to enhance their capacity and translate their designated responsibilities into concrete and impactful actions.

The Program Manager will work closely with CHAI’s Global Vaccines Delivery Team and Country Leadership to leverage expertise and resources for program improvement and optimization, and with stakeholders including government agencies, health facilities, NGOs, and CSOs to ensure effective coordination and collaboration.

This position will be based in Yaoundé with frequent local travel. The duration of the assignment will be for a period of 12 months renewable, contingent on performance and the availability of funding. The Program Manager Vaccines, HPV–CSOs will report to the Senior Program Manager Vaccines.

If you are passionate about making a sustainable impact on public health, specifically in the field of vaccines, and possess the skills and qualifications outlined above, whatever your background, we invite you to apply for this exciting opportunity.

• Support the development of the MAC catch-up plan to include equity-based strategies, in order to ensure no one is left behind with HPV vaccination.
• Monitor closely the implementation of the MAC campaign activities.
• Develop and support implementation of an HPV vaccination school strategy and routinization plan.
• Involve CSO to conduct advocacy, sensitization and communication on HPV vaccination and other VPD at various levels
• Ensure that each CSO has the appropriate systems in place to effectively and efficiently execute responsibilities assigned to them.
• Support the designated CSO to develop and execute an advocacy plan for preventing VPD, including HPV, among religious and traditional leaders in targeted communities.
• Support the designated CSO to design an integrated ‘household’ immunization approach and oversee its implementation through pilot initiatives carried out by CSOs in selected underserved communities.
• Support the designated CSO to design and execute an advocacy plan for preventing VPD, including HPV, among Regional Councilors in the Centre, Littoral and West Regions.

Other responsibilities:

• Integrate the MOH vaccination platform and build relationship with all relevant MOH staff in the EPI; act as secretariat to the working group, which may include drafting presentations, meeting agendas, and taking meeting minutes amongst others.
• Support broader advocacy and resource mobilization efforts for the vaccine program e.g. drafting grant proposals, concept notes, presentations, budgets, contracts.
• Develop monitoring & evaluation tools for the grant
• Institute clinical training and mentoring plan for the CSO, including core financial and programmatic aspects of a functional organization
• Strengthen the CSO management systems, through development of management tools, and standard operating procedures (SOPs)
• Liaise regularly with MOH units, other government agencies, NGOs and international multilateral organizations for vaccine-related work and serve as focal person at relevant workshops and meetings.
• Lead internal communications on key donor reporting deadlines to relevant team members – work closely with Finance and Administration teams to ensure activity plans and programmatic budgets are shared proactively-coordinate with Country Leadership to ensure any major risks and challenges for programmatic objectives are escalated and addressed accordingly.
• Develop materials and document internal updates to share with other CHAI Cameroon and global team members; highlight opportunities for integration and coordination across work streams wherever possible.
• Conduct literature reviews and research activities as needed, and undertake other duties related to improving oxygen access in Cameroon.
• Other responsibilities as assigned and needed.

• Bachelor’s degree in Management, International Relations, Public health or related discipline with 6+ years of professional experience. Master’s degree in a related field will be an added advantage.
• Experience conducting desk and literature reviews; ability to streamline and synthesize large amounts of information into high-quality documents for a wide range of stakeholders.
• Significant experience in convening stakeholder meetings and facilitating discussions among multidisciplinary groups of stakeholders; previous experience working with government stakeholders is a strong plus.
• Excellent analytical and communication skills (verbal and written) with high proficiency in MS Office Suite, particularly Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Outlook.
• Proven ability to develop and deliver high quality presentations and programmatic documents.
• Strong critical thinking skills and ability to problem-solve independently.
• Keen attention to detail, with exceptional organizational, coordination, and time management skills.
• Able to quickly learn and become well-versed in all relevant aspects of immunization across components of supply chain, equipment management, human resources, and clinical training, etc.
• Solid experience in the planning and execution of large-scale projects; including budgeting and activity planning.
• Proven ability to work independently and effectively in high-pressure, fast-paced environment and handle multiple tasks simultaneously.
• Solid mastery of English and French and ability to build relationships and influence stakeholders in both languages.
• Understanding of and sensitivity to limitations in low-resource settings.
• Prior experience in Cameroon or other low-resource settings strongly preferred.
• Excellent command of the English language and working proficiency in French.

 

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