« January 15, 2008 | Main | January 22, 2008 »
January 17, 2008
Senior Program Officer, Sustainable Immunization Financing Program: Sabin Vaccine Institute
Location: Democratic Republic of Congo, Madagascar or Rwanda
Sabin Vaccine Institute is a 501(c) (3) non-profit organization established in 1993 and headquartered in Washington, DC, USA. The mission of the Institute is to actively reduce human suffering from infectious and neglected tropical diseases by providing greater access to vaccines and essential medicines through a program of vaccine research, development and advocacy.
Sabin Vaccine Institute is currently seeking a full-time Senior Program Officer for our Sustainable Immunization Financing program. This program is engaging several African and Asian countries, each for a five-year period. Its aim is to enlarge the fiscal space at country level by strengthening alliances between Ministries of Health and Finance and Parliaments. The program provides these groups with the information they need to better understand the benefits of improved health and the contribution that immunization can make in this regard.
The Senior Program Officer will be responsible for field activities in D.R. Congo, Rwanda, and Madagascar. S/he will maintain working relations with senior policymakers, elected officials in those countries, as well as with representatives from the World Health Organization, UNICEF, the World Bank and other immunization partners Within the GAVI Alliance. S/he will also work directly with civil society organizations, the private business sector and media counterparts to increase immunization program stakeholdership in each country. The Senior Program Officer will act as a facilitator to these principals, identifying resource needs, fostering teamwork and developing creative approaches to immunization finance. S/he will help build managerial capacity among counterparts in ministries of health, finance and planning. The Officer will report frequently to the Institute, both informally and formally. (A detailed job description is provided below).
Because the Senior Program Officer will be based in one of the three target countries (D.R. Congo, Rwanda,
or Madagascar) and responsible for field activities in all three countries, the ideal candidate will already be a
resident of one of these countries. S/he will be a seasoned development professional with extensive field
experience in Africa. S/he will be intimately familiar with public finance and public expenditure
management and will possess the initiative and diplomatic skills necessary to instrument collective action by
an array of national and international immunization actors. S/he will be detail-oriented, possess strong
oral/written communication skills and be comfortable using a web-based management information system.
S/he will also be proficient in French and English.
The Senior Program Officer will be appointed for an initial one year term, with the possibility of renewal for up to five years.
Qualified applicants are asked to submit a resume and cover letter, including salary requirements, to Christina Morgan (Christina.Morgan@sabin.org). In the cover letter, the candidate should describe how his/her skills, experiences, or training would contribute to his/her performance as a Senior Program Officer for Sabin’s Sustainable Immunization Financing Program.
Only short-listed candidates will be contacted.
For more information about Sabin Vaccine Institute’s Sustainable Immunization Financing Program, please visit http://www.sabin.org/sif.
Sustainable Immunization Financing Senior Program Officer: Job Description
The Senior Program Officer will work with their national counterparts to analyze the current immunization system and organize collective action efforts in each assigned program country. This will entail regularly:
- Reviewing basic immunization system documents, particularly its financing component;
- Contacting and interacting with senior government officials (ministries of finance, health and
legislators) to assess government immunization planning, levels and trends of fiscal support and health legislation affecting immunization; - Contacting representatives of the national Interagency Coordinating Committee for immunization (WHO, UNICEF, World Bank, other partners) to discuss details of the financial sustainability of the national Comprehensive Multi-Year Plan (cMYP);
- Working through the ICC to identify and invite key individuals from immunization stakeholder agencies to become program collective actors;
- Orienting and educating new collective actors on immunization issues;
- Identifying proposed short-term activities each ICC member can undertake to meet cMYP fiscal benchmarks;
- Preparing the first Advocacy Brief for that country, which will include an outline of the agreed-upon short-term activities, and submitting it to Sabin.
During quarterly visits to each program country, the Senior Program Officer will assess how well collective actors are carrying out their advocacy activities. This will entail individual consultations with the ICC members and external collective actors. S/he will also attend ICC meetings. In consultation with the ICC members, s/he will update the Advocacy Briefs each quarter based on the new information.
Each year, the Senior Program Officer will prepare an annual report summarizing program activities. The report will identify actors who contributed to the program’s work and to overall immunization system fiscal sustainability. S/he will then work with the ICC to identify a second set of short-term activities and prepare a revised workplan for the subsequent year (up to program year 5).
The Senior Program Officer will identify key ministry of finance, ministry of health and legislative branch officials whose particular skills and experience may be relevant to peers in other program countries. S/he will propose exchanges of these Program Advisors, demonstrating how each proposed Advisor meets a particular need in the receiving program country.
The Senior Program Officer will distribute feedback reports and other materials from Sabin to the collective actors in each program country.
The Senior Program Officer will contact newspapers, television and radio stations in program countries to ensure that contributors to the national immunization systems are publicly recognized.
The Senior Program Officer will represent the Sustainable Immunization Financing program in regional and global meetings as assigned by Sabin.
The Senior Program Officer will work with the Program Manager and the Institute’s Executive Vice- President to prepare individual quarterly and annual workplans. S/he will also help prepare the program’s annual work plan.
The Senior Program Officer will perform other duties as assigned by the Program Manager and Institute’s Executive Vice-President.
