« Post-Doctoral Fellowships (1 and 2 year): Health System Performance Research Network (HSPRN) | Main | Public Health Analysts: RTI International »
May 16, 2008
Consultants, Advocacy Project for Sustainable Immunization Financing: The Albert B. Sabin Vaccine Institute [updated]
Closing date: 16 May 2008
The Albert B. Sabin Vaccine Institute is a 501(c) (3) non-profit organization established in 1993 and headquartered in Washington, DC. The mission of SVI 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.
SVI is currently recruiting five Consultants for our Advocacy Project for Sustainable Immunization Financing. The Project will engage several African and Asian countries over 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 Project will provide 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.
Each Consultant will be responsible for a three-country cluster. Preferably s/he will be a citizen of an African or Asian country.
We welcome candidates from: Senegal, Mali, Cameroon; Sierra Leone, Liberia, Nigeria; D.R. Congo, Rwanda, Mozambique; Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda; Sri Lanka, Nepal, Cambodia.
The Consultant will maintain working relations with senior policymakers, elected officials and representatives from the World Health Organization, UNICEF, the World Bank and other immunization donors. 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 successful Consultant will act as SVI’s agent 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 Consultant will report frequently to SVI, both informally and formally. (A detailed job description is provided below).
The ideal Consultant will be a seasoned development professional with extensive field experience in Africa and/or Asia. 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.
Qualified applicants are asked to submit a resume with a cover letter, including salary requirements to Michael McQuestion (Mike.McQuestion@sabin.org) by the closing date of 16 May 2008.
Only short-listed candidates will be contacted.
SVI Advocacy Project Consultant: Job Description
Consultant will work with their national counterparts to analyze the current immunization system and organize collective action efforts in each assigned project 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 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 Advocacy Project 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 Project Brief for that country, which will include an outline of the agreed-upon short-term activities, and submitting it to SVI.
During quarterly visits to each project country, Consultant will assess how well the Advocacy Project collective actors are carrying out their advocacy activities. This will entail individual consultations with the ICC members and external collective actors. Consultant will also attend ICC meetings. In consultation with the ICC members, Consultant will update the Advocacy Project Briefs each quarter based on the new information.
Each year, Consultant will prepare an annual report summarizing project activities. The report will identify actors who contributed to the Advocacy Project work and to overall immunization system fiscal sustainability. Consultant 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 project year 5).
Consultant 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 Advocacy Project countries. Consultant will propose exchanges of these Advocacy Project Advisors, demonstrating how each proposed Advisor meets a particular need in the receiving Advocacy Project country.
Consultant will distribute feedback reports and other materials from SVI to the collective actors in each project country.
Consultant will contact newspapers, television and radio stations in project countries to ensure that contributors to the national immunization systems are publicly recognized.
Consultant will represent the Advocacy Project in regional and global meetings as assigned by SVI.
Consultant will work with the Project Manager and SVI Director of International Programs to prepare individual quarterly and annual workplans. Consultant will also help prepare the annual SVI Advocacy Project work plan.
Consultant will perform other duties as assigned by the Project Manager and SVI Director of International Programs.
