Clinton Health Access Initiative - Regional Manager - Vaccines Program

Overview: 

The Clinton Health Access Initiative, Inc. (CHAI) is a global health organization committed to saving lives and reducing the burden of disease in low-and middle-income countries, while strengthening the capabilities of governments and the private sector in those countries to create and sustain high-quality health systems that can succeed without our assistance. For more information, please visit: http://www.clintonhealthaccess.org

Overview of CHAI's Vaccines Program: 

- Immunization is one of the most successful public health interventions in history. National immunization programs reach >100 million infants every year and have averted globally two to three million deaths every year since the launch of the Expanded Program for Immunization (EPI) in 1974, whilst the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV) and rotavirus vaccines could save ~1 million lives per year. Furthermore, great advances in discovering and financing new vaccines provides a great opportunity for countries to further reduce burden of disease such as human papillomavirus (HPV). Despite these successes, 1.5 million children still die each year of vaccine-preventable diseases, many of them in low-income countries, as immunization programs there face unprecedented challenges.

- In 2010, CHAI launched a vaccine program to reduce mortality and morbidity from vaccine preventable diseases by improving access to immunization services through national immunization programs and by leveraging its experience in-country to improve the global immunization ecosystem. Since then, CHAI has become a core partner in the immunization space and is pursuing five complementary strategic objectives:

1. Improving affordability and supply security of vaccines;

2. Accelerating the uptake of new or under-utilized vaccines;

3. Improving effective immunization coverage and reaching the unreached;

4. Supporting successful transition from Gavi support; and

5. Strengthening the management system and capacity of immunization programs.

CHAI's vaccine program very closely supports the national immunization programs in 13 focus countries - Cameroon, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Lao PDR, Lesotho, Nigeria, Tanzania, Sierra Leone, Uganda, Papua New Guinea and Vietnam - and also engages with global stakeholders such as Gavi, WHO and UNICEF to inform global policies and practices.

Overview of Vaccines Regional Manager, Asia Role

- CHAI is seeking a Regional Manager to work with a set of vaccines program countries in Asia including India, Lao PDR, Vietnam, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. The Regional Manager will work as a member of CHAI's global vaccines team and work alongside CHAI's country teams to help government partners improve national improve immunization programs.

- This is a new role in the Global Vaccines Delivery team so it will be continued to be refined as Regional Managers start their activities. Hence, one key expectation for this role is the ability to contribute to making this role a success by providing feedback and adapting the role as needed.

- We are seeking a highly motivated individual with outstanding leadership and management skills. The candidate must be able to drive the development and implementation of vaccines program in program countries with significant autonomy, have deep personal commitment to producing results, and have the ability to lead in a challenging and multi-cultural professional environment.

- The Regional Manager will have substantial opportunity to shape CHAI's approach in developing these programs across focus countries. S/he will be expected to manage strong internal and external relationships, develop an exceptional team, work with CHAI's country and technical teams to devise evidence-based strategic plans, and provide effective management to execute high-impact programs.

- This position will be ideally based in Laos or Cambodia, other countries in the region will be considered depending on country leadership approvals.

Responsibilities :

1. Overview of in-country responsibilities

a) Strategy and fundraising of the vaccines program in-country

- Work with country and global technical staff to develop or update evidence-based and technically sound strategic plans to improve immunization outcomes in-country and to contribute to advancing the immunization agenda globally

- Inform CHAI's global vaccines strategy with priority country needs and insights

- Support country fundraising and grant development in line with CHAI's vaccine strategy, model, competing priorities and capabilities, both at country and global level

- In-country planning of effective immunization programs, building on local and cross-country insights, needs, and capabilities

- Support country teams in developing and revising effective priorities, milestones and costed work-plans (at the level of grant, the upcoming year and quarters), and ensure those plans reflect program objectives, funding parameters, CHAI's programmatic know-how, and synergies across CHAI focus countries

- Plan with country management and global technical managers' priorities for and high-level allocation of global team support

- Support the development and revision of multi-year income allocation across all vaccines work and in alignment with program priorities and funding, including working with country teams to determine annual allocations and identify under- or over-spends

b) In-country implementation and progress review across entire vaccines program in-country

c) Ensure global support to country implementation is effective

d) Work with country program manager, and in conjunction with other relevant global staff, to ensure critical decisions and deliverables reflect the best of CHAI, are taking into account lessons learned from other geographies, global strategies and policies and are made in the spirit of joint accountability

e) Work with country management to foster effective and collegial collaboration between global and country team members (e.g., regularly monitoring communication and collaboration; promoting good practices and mutual understanding; troubleshooting issues as they arise)

- Provide management support for in-country implementation as needed

f) Support country teams to manage the implementation of all ongoing immunization programs, including hiring, staffing, or other general management issues

g) Work with country management to strengthen management capacity and programmatic expertise as needed

- Monitor progress against target results and provide troubleshooting support and redirect efforts as needed

- Organize regular joint review of program performance with the country and global leadership

- Regularly assess progress against targets, identify operational bottlenecks or risks, and work with country and global leadership to strengthen programs as necessary

- Work with country teams to develop strong and timely programmatic and financial updates for donor reporting and engage effectively donors.

- Contribute to sharing insights and lessons learned with other CHAI countries and with global partners

2. Overview of transversal responsibilities: 

a) Engagement between global vaccines team, country teams, and other stakeholders

- Streamline communications between global leadership and global staff and country teams, and provide regular updates on opportunities and progress to each

- Engage with relevant partners for the countries in the region (notably WHO and UNICEF regional offices, Gavi regional manager) to foster better collaboration and results in-country

b) Design and implementation of Regional Manager model, in collaboration with global vaccines delivery

- Communicate on the role and rationale & value-add within CHAI

- Identify improvement opportunities on the role as it is designed and implemented

- Develop and regularly update key processes and tools to support regional managers' effectiveness

c) Leadership role in the vaccines program, as a key member of the global vaccine management team

- Contribute as a member of the global vaccine management team to the effectiveness and collegiality of the team, help identify opportunities and improve CHAI's vaccines program and team

- Represent CHAI and scope of work externally

- Role model CHAI values and mission

- Other responsibilities as needed

Qualifications :

- Bachelor's degree/PG and at least 7 years of working experience in the private or public sector, with increasing levels of responsibility and leadership

- At least 3 years of program management experience with wider portfolio of technical areas or program countries

- Exceptional problem-solving solving skills and analytical capabilities

- Excellent oral and written communication skills, including ability to create persuasive presentations and written reports

- Demonstrated experience managing complex projects involving multiple teams, including priority setting, planning, budgeting, performance review and management; and influencing with limited authority

- Ability to handle multiple tasks simultaneously, set priorities, and work independently

- Ability to balance and find productive trade-offs between various tensions (personal style, incentives, timeframe)

- Strong interpersonal skills and proven ability to build and maintain strong relationships in a complex and multicultural environment with occasional tensions or conflicts

- High emotional intelligence, patience and thoughtfulness even in high-pressure, stressful situations

- Strong organizational abilities

- Ability to travel, mainly to CHAI focus countries and other global/regional engagements (approximately 40% of the time)

Advantages :

- Previous experience working on a CHAI country team

- Knowledge of vaccines, health systems strengthening, and/or health financing

- Previous experience working in management consulting and/or public health especially governance, systems strengthening, financing and /or management of operations at a sub-national level, or similar fast-paced, output-oriented environments

- Strong experience of engaging with government officials and multilateral organizations in developing countries

- Professional proficiency in a second language of a CHAI vaccine program country in Asia