Program Officer, Governance and Strategies – Malaria Control and Elimination Partnership in Africa (MACEPA)

PATH is a global nonprofit dedicated to achieving health equity. With more than 40 years of experience forging multisector partnerships and with expertise in science, economics, technology, advocacy, and dozens of other specialties, PATH develops and scales up innovative solutions to the world’s most pressing heath challenges.

PATH is home to the Malaria Control and Evaluation Partnership in Africa (MACEPA) which works closely with National Malaria Control programs in Africa to strengthen data systems and data use to better inform strategies and targeting of resources to reduce burden. Key components of this work are to generate evidence on novel and existing malaria tools to guide decision-makers, and to work with donors to ensure the resources needed to implement these interventions are available.

PATH is currently recruiting a Governance and Strategies Officer to work with CARs SLP (Service de Lutte contre le Paludisme – National Malaria Program) to facilitate the development of data-driven national strategic plans that incorporate sub-nationally targeted interventions, are country-led and aligned with other existing national plans. The successful applicant will work with the SLP, donors, partners, as well as with global MACEPA teams to implement tools to facilitate and optimize the process of developing national and sub-national plans, including microplanning and budgeting tools to develop costed operational plans.

In addition, s/he will work with the SLP and partners to support the development of funding requests that are developed according to defined timelines and are informed by relevant strategic objectives and midterm review recommendations, consider stratification and modeling outputs and maximize the impact of interventions within allocated budget envelopes. The Governance and Strategies Officer will support the SLP to structure malaria coordination bodies at the national level and develop and implement tools to strengthen the SLP’s overall management capacities.

Responsibilities:

Support to the CAR SLP

• Identify and mobilize players involved in the fight against malaria; particularly, support the SLP in mapping the players and updating the list of contacts.
• Contribute to strengthening the humanitarian-development nexus, by taking part in discussions between the SLP and the health cluster, as well as with any other humanitarian actors implementing activities relating to the fight against malaria.
• Ongoing monitoring of the SLP’s strengths and support needs, through the context of the 2024 SLP’s needs assessment.
• Support SLP, in collaboration with the MACEPA team and partners, to revise, develop, and adapt strategic documents, tools, and resources to improve malaria governance.
• Work with the Senior Technical Manager, the MACEPA Governance and Strategies team, and SLP partners to ensure CAR’s national malaria strategic plan is revised according to the latest available evidence, that it incorporates sub-nationally targeted interventions, is aligned with existing country plans, and drives the development of annual costed operational plans.
• Provide the SLP with adequate tools and processes to engage with malaria stakeholders in the country and ensure operational plans reflect the activities of all the partners involved in the fight against malaria in CAR and that their implementation is effectively monitored.
• Support the SLP in the development and maintenance of a knowledge management system for all documents related to malaria control in CAR, ensuring key information is stored in a single place with adequate access to MOH staff, partners and donors.

PATH MACEPA support

• Support day-to-day administration including (but not limited to) contracts, sub-agreements, purchase orders, work orders, and consultant agreements.
• Maintain an active knowledge and understanding of PATH policies and procedures as well as donor rules and regulations; seek out guidance from the relevant authority to resolve policy questions.
• Any other duties as may be assigned by the Sr Technical Program Manager.

Required Skills and Experience:

• Degree in public policy, public health, science, business administration, or equivalent degree required, or an equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Minimum five years of professional program management experience with experience directly managing and coordinating complex projects; ideally in malaria projects.
• Experience and understanding of the sub-Saharan Africa health system context and malaria programming at the national and sub-national levels.
• Ability to effectively communicate and present content and results with key stakeholders to drive forward programmatic goals.
• Effective time-management and organization skills, with the ability to handle a high volume of large, complex tasks.
• Fluency in French is absolutely essential with strong oral and written presentation skills.
• Professional proficiency in English is required.
• Demonstrated ability to work well with cross-functional, cross-geographical teams to accomplish objectives.
• Demonstrated ability to work in a fast-paced, multi-year project, including supporting partner collaboration, experience with cross-cultural teams highly desirable.
• Demonstrated ability to think strategically with strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Strong communication and interpersonal skills, particularly negotiation, listening, judgment, analytical skills.
• Ability to work effectively in a fast paced, rapidly changing environment, and to work on multiple work streams and projects simultaneously.
• Previous experience in public health programming is required, experience in malaria programming is a plus.
• A cover letter is required.