Organization:
CAMRIS InternationalCountry: United States of America
Closing date:
06 Sep 2013Opportunity in Washington, DC
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has contracted through CAMRIS International partnered with IAP World Services Inc., (IAPWS), to recruit and hire qualified individuals for the following position:
Title: Senior Advisor for Monitoring & Evaluation in Maternal, Newborn, and Child HealthUnited States Agency for International Development (USAID), Bureau for Global Health, Office of Health, Infectious Diseases and Nutrition, Maternal and Child Health Division (USAID/GH/HIDN/MCH)
Application Deadline: Open until filled
INTRODUCTION:USAID’s Maternal and Child Health (MCH) Division, Bureau for Global Health, is seeking a dynamic individual with excellent technical and communications skills in monitoring and evaluation to provide support for a growing and evolving MCH program at headquarters and field levels. This senior-level position will directly contribute to one of USAID’s global health objectives getting attention at the highest levels of the Agency: Ending Preventable Child and Maternal Deaths.
BACKGROUND:The world has witnessed an extraordinary 70 percent decline in child mortality over the last 50 years, and a reduction in the burden of child deaths from nearly 12 million in 1990 to 6.9 million in 2011. Maternal deaths are also falling and declines in maternal mortality are currently averaging 5 percent per year. Despite this progress, the disparities between countries in maternal and child mortality are huge, and significant work remains in order to increase coverage of high-impact interventions, strengthen the health systems that support these interventions, and address equity gaps that are bottlenecks to ending preventable child and maternal deaths.
Building on the momentum of the June 2012 Child Survival Call to Action and the subsequent launch of A Promised Renewed (see http://5thbday.usaid.gov/ and http://apromiserenewed.org/), USAID’s Bureau for Global Health is mobilized to support countries in ending preventable child and maternal deaths, focusing on 24 countries where three-quarters of these deaths occur (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Benin, Cambodia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guatemala, Haiti, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda, Yemen, and Zambia). USAID’s Maternal and Child Health (MCH) Division in the Bureau for Global Health focuses on the scale-up of proven evidence-based interventions to prevent maternal and newborn deaths, reach every child with immunization services, prevent and treat pneumonia and diarrhea, and mitigate key environmental drivers of child illness (e.g. poor hygiene or levels of indoor smoke). Key cross-cutting interventions include those focused on MCH commodities (including diagnostics, pharmaceuticals, and equipment), behavior change, and various dimensions of strengthening health systems (e.g. development of human resources, quality improvement, etc.) Effective coordination and, as appropriate, integrated programming with USAID malaria, family planning, nutrition, HIV/AIDS, and water supply and sanitation activities is another important feature of USAID’s MCH programming.
At both global and country levels, MCH Division staff are actively engaged with UNICEF, WHO, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, World Bank, bilateral donors, and other partners to coordinate assistance to countries and in the formulation and promotion of key policies. This collaboration extends to coordination on measurement, monitoring, and evaluation in maternal, newborn, and child health.
Against this backdrop, the ability to measure changes in mortality, intervention coverage, and key process indicators is critical to maintain momentum as well as policy and political support for the goal of ending preventable child and maternal deaths. However, in many cases this is a technically complex task. For example, for under-five mortality, annual estimation (as opposed to direct measurement) represents the state-of-the-art in most places without functioning health management information systems including vital registration. There is an ongoing effort to define what is and what is not doable, especially in the face of demands by policymakers for close to real-time information on the rate of change in mortality and key intervention coverage. This includes determining the practical limitations on the frequency and scale of specialized measurement tools, such as the Demographic and Health Surveys, including the challenges of program success – as maternal and child mortality decline, deaths become rarer and the measurement of mortality more uncertain. There is also a need to determine if output-level indicators, such as those that count beneficiaries (e.g. number of children immunized or number of women receiving uterotonics), are an appropriate means of measuring progress and, if so, how such output measures will be measured and interpreted. To the technical challenges must also be added a communications challenge – how to present this sometimes complex and nuanced information to key policy audiences, including senior USAID leadership, the U.S. Congress, and country-level decision-makers. To these ends, USAID explores a wide variety of tools and innovations to supportive measurement and analytic efforts, including efficient survey designs (such as Lot Quality Assurance Sampling methods and continuous survey methods) and the use of e-health and mobile technologies in support of data collection and analysis.
ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:
The Senior Advisor for Monitoring and Evaluation in Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health (“M&E Advisor”) will provide Agency-wide leadership in monitoring and evaluation for MCH in addressing these challenging issues. Working closely and directly with other M&E staff in the Global Health Bureau, including those in the Office of Policy, Programs, and Planning, the M&E Advisor will be responsible for helping guide the application of USAID MCH financial resources to the highest priority problem areas and interventions, at both headquarters and field program levels. In each of Fiscal Years 2012 and 2013, USAID resources directed to support MCH programs totaled over $600 million.
The M&E Advisor will be responsible for organizing USAID’s analytic work in MCH measurement and impact modeling globally and at country level, such as the application of the Lives Saved Tool to estimate intervention impact on mortality or the development of data-based scorecards for communicating impact. The Advisor will also be responsible for leading the USAID interface with various interagency (USG and non-USG) Technical Advisory Groups and working groups on various dimensions of MCH measurement, including mortality with the U.N.’s Interagency Group on Mortality Estimation and intervention coverage with Countdown to 2015.
As an active member of the USAID MCH Division and MCH Element Team, the M&E Advisor will contribute to the overall development of MCH strategies and activities and setting priorities. This is done within a very dynamic collaborative context globally with other donors and multilateral agencies (particularly UNICEF and WHO) and by supporting USAID Mission staff within countries. The M&E Advisor’s duties will be equally divided among technical leadership in MCH monitoring and evaluation, MCH M&E support to USAID country programs, and M&E oversight on MCH components of GH Bureau projects and activities, as follows:
Technical leadership in MCH monitoring and evaluation• Participate in the GH Bureau M&E team to provide technical leadership and guidance on MCH data collection, analysis, and reporting requirements• Coordinate and direct analysis of MCH data and information to respond to queries and in order to prepare reports, including reports to Congress, and annual reports• Provide technical guidance in MCH indicator development • Serve as the HIDN point person for Demographic and Health Surveys and related efforts.• Liaise with MCH M&E activities at relevant US Government Agencies and donors (UNICEF, World Bank, WHO, regional development banks, CDC, private foundations)• In coordination with other MCH Division staff, represent USAID MCH M&E interests in global, regional, and national-level MCH fora• Participate in strategic planning and resource allocation activities for GH's MCH Element programs• Stay current and share new knowledge on state-of-the art technical, policy, and programmatic developments in MCH M&E• Participate in MCH M&E technical working groups, task forces, and professional meetings• Participate in professional continuing education, skills training and USAID training activities, as appropriate • Prepare and submit papers to professional journals and meetings related to MCH M&E • Facilitate global sharing and adoption of M&E best practices from the USAID MCH Program
MCH M&E support to USAID country programs• Join country teams, participate in country program reviews and action plans, and serve as technical and programmatic liaison among headquarters, the RMNCH flagship program, and country teams on MCH M&E• Provide technical support to USAID missions in selected MCH priority countries and assist in developing MCH M&E plans, including multi-country programs such as Saving Mothers, Giving Life• Provide MCH M&E expertise in the design of country program activities • Provide technical advice to ensure that country programs are consistent with state-of-the-art MCH M&E standards/recommendations and with USAID M&E guidance • Participate in the design of independent evaluations of USAID’s MCH investments • Participate in MCH regional meetings and country stakeholder meetings related to M&E
M&E oversight on MCH components of GH Bureau projects and activities• Provide programming guidance related to MCH M&E, including assisting with the preparation and/or review of strategies and project work plans • Provide technical and program oversight of MCH M&E activities supported by USAID/GH cooperating agencies, including flagship programs managed by the MCH Division• Participate as a member of USAID GH teams established for project management, including substantial involvement in work plan development, for cooperating agencies charged with collecting and analyzing MCH data required for USAID reporting, such as the Demographic and Health Surveys.• Maintain the USAID MCH M&E system to ensure the most recent data is available for future programming and reporting purposes.
Other tasks or responsibilities may be assigned at the direction of the MCH Division Chief.
CERTIFICATIONS, LICENSE, PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS OR OTHEREXPERTISE REQUIRED. The contractor must have:
The contractor must have: • A minimum of a master’s degree in public health, international health, social sciences, or other relevant degree from a recognized institution. Specialized studies in biostatistics, survey research methods, and epidemiology at the doctorate level are desirable. • Knowledge and specialized experience in maternal and child health programs is desirable.• At least six years of progressively more responsible experience designing, implementing, and managing health program monitoring, progress-tracking and impact measurement systems in developing countries is strongly preferred.• At least two years’ experience working as resident in a resource poor setting is strongly preferred. • Excellent analytical skills and understanding of the current concepts, priorities, and issues in epidemiology, statistical analysis of health data, and program data collection is preferred. • Excellent knowledge of data management and visualization tools such as Excel is preferred.• Experience working in international working groups on M&E issues, preferably applied to maternal and child health.• Proven knowledge and experience with USAID programs, procedures, and systems for program design, monitoring, evaluation is preferred.• Demonstrated technical leadership, policy experience, and problem-solving skills working on complex projects are required.• Excellent leadership, communications and interpersonal skills to work effectively with a broad range of partners and USG personnel. • Demonstrated ability to work in a team environment and to communicate technical health information to both health and non-health audiences.• Excellent verbal and written communication skills and proven ability to communicate quickly, clearly and concisely – both verbally and in writing in English.• Demonstrated ability to make oral presentations logically and persuasively to senior officials.• Availability to travel overseas up to approximately 25% time.• US Citizenship or US Permanent Residency required. The ability to obtain a “secret” security clearance is preferred.
This is an opportunity for employment or a contract, but we reserve the right to make no selection or award.
CAMRIS International and IAP World Services Inc. offer competitive salaries and comprehensive benefits.
CAMRIS and IAP are Equal Opportunity Employers EOE M/F/D/V
How to apply:Please submit your resume online at http://careers-camris.icims.com.
