Following the scale up of effective malaria prevention and
treatment measures, Zanzibar has undergone a dramatic decrease in malaria
endemicity with prevalence of Plasmodium falciparum estimated
at below 1% in 2011. Zanzibar is currently strengthening its control measures
in order to reach the malaria ‘pre-elimination’ phase, including increasing
access to diagnosis and effective malaria treatment. Malaria diagnosis and
treatment are widely available in the public sector and Zanzibar is working to
close gaps in the private sector.
Over the past three years, CHAI has provided support to the
Zanzibar Malaria Control Program to scale up access to high-quality treatment
for malaria in the private and public sectors. More recently, the dramatic
reduction in the malaria burden has highlighted the need to improve case
management by targeting malaria treatments to patients with confirmed
infection. In order to support and optimize the scale-up of diagnostics,
since 2011 CHAI has supported the Zanzibar Malaria Control Program (ZMCP) on an
operational research project to assess the feasibility of introducing low-cost
rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) into the private health sector. Findings from the
study will help to inform future strategies for case management in the private
sector in Zanzibar.
CHAI is currently seeking a highly motivated,
entrepreneurial individual with outstanding research, problem-solving,
managerial, analytical, and communication skills to support the implementation
of the operational research study in Zanzibar and provide technical assistance
to support Zanzibar’s case management efforts. In particular, for the
operational research study, the Case Management Analyst would oversee the third
and final data collection round and facilitate translating study results into
policy. With regard to technical assistance, the Analyst would support Zanzibar
in ensuring access to affordable diagnosis and treatment in the private sector,
including utilizing Global Fund grants and/or resources from other donors.
The Case Management Analyst would serve for a period of 6-9
months starting from August/September 2013 and be located in Stone Town,
Zanzibar with modest travel in the country (both in the mainland and Zanzibar)
and in the region. The Case Management Analyst will report to a CHAI Tanzania
Malaria Program Manager and will be supported by the CHAI Malaria Case
Management and Evaluation Teams.
Responsibilities:
Main Tasks and Responsibilities:
Operational Research
- Liaise
with the Zanzibar government, international and in-country partners, and
the private sector to ensure strong communication throughout the OR
project;
- Support
the Zanzibar Food and Drugs Board (ZFDB) to conduct regulatory activities
to help target ACTs to confirmed malaria cases;
- Liaise
with relevant private sector stakeholders, in particular the
pharmaceutical importer serving as distributor for the project, to collect
market intelligence on RDTs;
- Serve
as primary point of contact for the subcontractor managing the data
collection;
- Manage
the subcontractor to carry out the third and final data collection round
for the OR project, consisting of a household survey, health facility
survey, mystery client survey and qualitative components;
- Oversee
the subcontractor to clean and hand over a complete data set;
- Assist
CHAI’s global malaria team to conduct data cleaning and analysis;
- Write
project reports and draft policy memos as needed;
- Liaise
with the Zanzibar government, international and in-country partners, and
the private sector to ensure policy translation of OR results for
Zanzibar’s case management strategy;
- Support
other OR dissemination tasks as needed.
Technical Assistance
- Provide
support to the Zanzibar Malaria Control Program (ZMCP) and other partners
in planning and implementing their private sector malaria case
management strategy to – 1) Identify approaches to maximize available
funding, 2) Outline critical supporting interventions, drawing from
undisbursed funds and unallocated resources;
- Support
Zanzibar to develop a robust, country-driven plan for sustaining
continuous access to affordable, high quality ACTs and malaria diagnosis;
- Ensure
that the ZMCP will be well positioned to implement any of these case
management access plans from 2013 by building management and technical
capacity;
- Ensure
hand-over of technical assistance responsibilities, including any tools or
documents developed by CHAI, to leaders/implementers at ZMCP;
- Contribute
towards information gathering and documentation of programmatic best
practices and lessons learned for national and global audiences.
Qualifications:
- Experience
in social science / epidemiological field research
- Exceptional
problem solving skills and analytical capabilities
- Strong
written and oral communication skills
- Excellent
management and organizational skills
- Strong
interpersonal skills and ability to build relationships with senior
government and NGO representatives
- Ability
to work independently in unstructured settings, and communicate
effectively within a remote, decentralized team
- High
level of proficiency in relevant computer applications, including STATA or
other statistical software program, Microsoft Excel, PowerPoint and Word
- Experience
living and working in developing countries a plus
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