Volunteer, Malaria Case Management

Country: Tanzania

City: Zanzibar

Type: International Volunteer

Business Unit: In-country Operations

Job Location: Zanzibar

Overview:

Following the scale up of effective malaria prevention and treatment measures, Zanzibar has undergone a dramatic decrease in malaria endemicity  with prevalence of Plasmodium falciparum estimated at below 1% in 2011. Zanzibar is currently strengthening its control measures in order to reach the malaria ‘pre-elimination’ phase, including increasing access to diagnosis and effective malaria treatment. Malaria diagnosis and treatment are widely available in the public sector and Zanzibar is working to close gaps in the private sector.    Over the past three years, CHAI has provided support to the Zanzibar Malaria Control Program to scale up access to high-quality treatment for malaria in the private and public sectors. More recently, the dramatic reduction in the malaria burden has highlighted the need to improve case management by targeting malaria treatments to patients with confirmed infection. In order to support and optimize the  scale-up of diagnostics, since 2011 CHAI has supported the Zanzibar Malaria Control Program (ZMCP) on an operational research project to assess the feasibility of introducing low-cost rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) into the private health sector. Findings from the study will help to inform future strategies for case management in the private sector in Zanzibar.   CHAI is currently seeking a highly motivated, entrepreneurial individual with outstanding research, problem-solving, managerial, analytical, and communication skills to support the implementation of the operational research study in Zanzibar and provide technical assistance to support Zanzibar’s case management efforts. In particular, for the operational research study, the Case Management Analyst would oversee the third and final data collection round and facilitate translating study results into policy. With regard to technical assistance, the Analyst would support Zanzibar in ensuring access to affordable diagnosis and treatment in the private sector, including utilizing Global Fund grants and/or resources from other donors. The Case Management Analyst would serve for a period of 6-9 months starting from August/September 2013 and be located in Stone Town, Zanzibar with modest travel in the country (both in the mainland and Zanzibar) and in the region. The Case Management Analyst will report to a CHAI Tanzania Malaria Program Manager and will be supported by the CHAI Malaria Case Management and Evaluation Teams.

Responsibilities:

Main Tasks and Responsibilities:  Operational Research Liaise with the Zanzibar government, international and in-country partners, and the private sector to ensure strong communication throughout the OR project;  Support the Zanzibar Food and Drugs Board (ZFDB) to conduct regulatory activities to help target ACTs to confirmed malaria cases;  Liaise with relevant private sector stakeholders, in particular the pharmaceutical importer serving as distributor for the project, to collect market intelligence on RDTs;  Serve as primary point of contact for the subcontractor managing the data collection;  Manage the subcontractor to carry out the third and final data collection round for the OR project, consisting of a household survey, health facility survey, mystery client survey and qualitative components;  Oversee the subcontractor to clean and hand over a complete data set;  Assist CHAI’s global malaria team to conduct data cleaning and analysis;  Write project reports and draft policy memos as needed;  Liaise with the Zanzibar government, international and in-country partners, and the private sector to ensure policy translation of OR results for Zanzibar’s case management strategy;  Support other OR dissemination tasks as needed. Technical Assistance  Provide support to the Zanzibar Malaria Control Program (ZMCP) and other partners in planning and implementing  their private sector malaria case management strategy to – 1) Identify approaches to maximize available funding, 2) Outline critical supporting interventions, drawing from undisbursed funds and unallocated resources; Support Zanzibar to develop a robust, country-driven plan for sustaining continuous access to affordable, high quality ACTs and malaria diagnosis; Ensure that the ZMCP will be well positioned to implement any of these case management access plans from 2013 by building management and technical capacity; Ensure hand-over of technical assistance responsibilities, including any tools or documents developed by CHAI, to leaders/implementers at ZMCP;  Contribute towards information gathering and documentation of programmatic best practices and lessons learned for national and global audiences.

Qualifications:

Experience in social science / epidemiological field research Exceptional problem solving skills and analytical capabilities Strong written and oral communication skills Excellent management and organizational skills Strong interpersonal skills and ability to build relationships with senior government and NGO representatives Ability to work independently in unstructured settings, and communicate effectively within a remote, decentralized team High level of proficiency in relevant computer applications, including STATA or other statistical software program, Microsoft Excel, PowerPoint and Word Experience living and working in developing countries a plus

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