Child Health Advisor

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The Public Health Institute (PHI) is an independent, nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting health, well-being, and quality of life for people throughout California, across the nation and around the world. As one of the largest and most comprehensive public health organizations in the nation, we are at the forefront of research and innovations to improve the efficacy of public health statewide, nationally, and internationally.

A. Summary Statement

The Public Health Institute (PHI) is an independent, nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting health, well-being, and quality of life for people throughout California, across the nation and around the world. As one of the largest and most comprehensive public health organizations in the nation, we are at the forefront of research and innovations to improve the efficacy of public health statewide, nationally, and internationally.

The Global Health Training, Advisory and Support Contract (GHTASC) delivers effective global health programming to advance the mission of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), Bureau for Global Health (GH) through institutional support and workforce development services from junior, mid-level, senior and expert advisory, and administrative professionals.

B. Position Summary:

The world has witnessed an extraordinary 70 percent decline in child mortality over the last 50 years, and a reduction in child deaths from over 12 million in 1990 to 5. million in 2021. Despite this progress, significant work remains to increase coverage of high-impact interventions, strengthen the health systems that support these interventions, improve quality, and address equity gaps that are bottlenecks to ending preventable child and maternal deaths.

Building on the new framework for Preventing Child and Maternal Deaths and on the momentum of the June 2012 Child Survival Call to Action and the subsequent launch of A Promise Renewed, USAID is committed to use this new strategic framework to shape and support policies, practices, and country led programs that improve the quality of care, promote equity, and achieve the optimal coverage of life saving care. The Office of Maternal and Child Health and Nutrition (GH/MCHN) serves as the Agency’s technical and policy lead on maternal and newborn health; child survival; immunization; and nutrition, with a focus on ending preventable child and maternal deaths. Cross-cutting activities managed by the Office in support of this goal address private sector partnerships, social and behavior change communication, multilateral partnerships, gender, research, and monitoring and evaluation. The CHI Division provides technical and policy leadership, addressing the leading killers of children in the post-neonatal period. This includes treatment of pneumonia, diarrhea, and other major contributors to death, vaccine-preventable diseases, as well as emerging issues. The Division also manages the Agency’s significant investments in Gavi, The Vaccine Alliance as well as our contributions to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative.

The USAID Child Health Advisor will serve in the Bureau for Global Health’s (BGH) Maternal and Child Health and Nutrition Office (MCHN), Division of Child Health and Immunization (GH/MCHN/CHI), to support Agency efforts to prevent child deaths, and promote child health and wellbeing. The Advisor will work closely with the child health team to further the engagement with USAID missions to energize USAID’s child health programs, in the context of the life course care  full “continuum of care” for mothers, newborns, and children and USAID’s broader global health portfolio.

The Advisor will play a leading role in USAID’s development, implementation, and monitoring of global and country-level policies, strategies, research, programs and activities aimed at accelerating the reductioning of infant and child mortality, and improving ability for children to thrive and achieve their full potential.  The Advisor will also foster relationships across the Office and Bureaus to strengthen collaboration and technical input into child health programs. The Child Health Advisor must have the capacity and interest to promote integrated approaches to child health consistent with USAID, the Child Survival Action blueprint for advocacy and action, and other global priorities: Getting to 2030: Maternal and Child Health and Nutrition Technical Roadmap;  the Preventing Child and Maternal Deaths: A Framework for Action in a Changing World; USAID Country Level plans that have been developed to advance MCHN goals; the Integrated Global Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Pneumonia and Diarrhea (GAPPD); and the Standards for improving the quality of care for children and young adolescents in health facilities.

Full salary range for this position is $92,300 to $145,617 per year, with the starting salary determined based on candidate’s knowledge, skills, experience, as well as budget availability.

C. Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

• Providing strategic guidance and expertise, including assisting with the preparation and/or review of strategies and plans to address needs at the country level.
• Engage in and contribute expertise in priority technical areas of GH’s child health technical and program activities, with an emphasis on state-of-the-art, high-impact child health interventions.
• Provide technical advice on strategic planning and resource allocation activities for GH’s child health programs.
• Contribute to country teams, participate in country program reviews, and action plans, and serve as a technical and programmatic liaison among headquarters and country teams on integrated case management and other child health priorities being advanced by the Global Health Bureau.
• Participate and lead in national assessments of health programs in order to assist host countries in sharpening their own plans and strategies to end preventable child deaths.
• Participate in country-level, regional, and global child health discussions, identifying connections with other USAID and MCH programs as appropriate.
• Provide technical support to USAID missions in selected MCH priority countries and assist in developing child health programmatic approaches; and monitor programs through reviewing technical reports, supporting field visits, analyzing outcome and impact data, and reviewing routine reports.
• Contribute technical and program child health expertise to the planning, updating, and implementation of the GH Bureau’s child health programs, research, and policy development activities.
• Provide technical leadership and insight into child health activities supported by USAID/GH cooperating agencies, including flagship programs managed by the Office.
• Provide child health expertise in the design or evaluation of program activities (GH, regional bureau, or field mission) and participate in design committees and competitive reviews, as appropriate.
• Contribute technical updates, briefers and other documents that describe USAID’s activities, research, and progress; prepare portfolio reviews and reports; review documents such as annual reports and operational plans; and prepare responses to Q&As and other requests for information.
• Stay current and disseminate knowledge on state-of-the-art technical, policy, and programmatic developments in child health, with an emphasis on new developments in case management.

D. Qualification Requirements

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required.

Minimum Qualifications

• Master’s degree with 6 years of relevant experience, or bachelor’s degree with 8 years of relevant experience, OR Associate’s degree with 10 years of relevant experience, OR High School graduate with 12 years of relevant experience.

Other Qualifications

• Advanced Degree (strongly preferred) in public health, and/or international public health programs, with a focus on maternal and child health programs in developing countries, with at least the equivalent of seven (7) years’ experience on-the-ground in developing countries preferred.
• Demonstrated experience in child health program design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation.
• Ability to work collaboratively with staff of USAID missions, other USG agencies, developing country governments and organizations, and other international organizations.
• Strong ability to work both independently and as part of a team and demonstrated experience to provide technical assistance and subject matter expertise.
• Excellent technical writing and presentation skills.
• Willingness/ability to travel internationally to low- and middle-income country program sites approximately 25 percent of time.
• Functional language ability (particularly in French and Portuguese), is highly desirable, though not required.
• US citizen or US permanent resident with the ability to obtain and maintain facility clearance.

E. Competencies

• Communication: Communicates well both verbally and in writing, creates accurate and punctual reports, delivers presentations, shares information and ideas with others, has good listening skills.
• Compliance with Policy, Law, and Regulation: Employee demonstrates compliance with safety regulations, rules of conduct, other applicable laws and regulations and company policies.
• Customer Focus: Builds customer confidence, is committed to increasing customer satisfaction, sets achievable customer expectations, assumes responsibility for solving customer problems, ensures commitments to customers are met, solicits opinions and ideas from customers, responds to internal customers.
• Dependability: Meets commitments, works independently, accepts accountability, handles change, sets personal standards, stays focused under pressure, meets attendance/punctuality requirements.
• Initiative: Tackles problems and takes independent action, seeks out new responsibilities, acts on opportunities, generates new ideas, practices self-development.
• Interpersonal Skills: Has good listening skills, builds strong relationships, is flexible/open-minded, negotiates effectively, solicits performance feedback, and handles constructive criticism.
• Job Knowledge: Understands duties and responsibilities, has necessary job knowledge, has necessary technical skills, understands company mission/values, keeps job knowledge current, is in command of critical issues.
• Judgment: Employee demonstrates ability to exercise good judgment and make appropriate decisions as situations arise.
• Planning: Develops realistic plans, sets goals, aligns plans with company goals, plans for and manages resources, creates contingency plans, coordinates/cooperates with others.
• Problem Solving/Analysis: Breaks down problems into smaller components, understands underlying issues, can simplify and process complex issues, understands the difference between critical details and unimportant facts.
• Teamwork: Meets all team deadlines and responsibilities, listens to others and values opinions, helps team leader to meet goals, welcomes newcomers, and promotes a team atmosphere.

F. Application Information:

Prior to submitting your application your resume must include relevant paid and non-paid experience showing dates held with month, year and hours worked per week for each position. Please ensure that all relevant experience and education is documented on your resume. There is no limitation to resume length; updates to resumes will not be accepted during the interview and selection process.

FAIR LABOR STANDARDS ACT (FLSA) STATUS

This position is classified as exempt based on the job duties. However, based on the FTE, salary level of the employee, or federal/state/local laws, the employee may be classified as nonexempt.

PHI WORKFORCE MANDATORY COVID-19 VACCINATION POLICY

Per the PHI Workforce Mandatory COVID-19 Vaccination Policy, it is a condition of employment for all domestic based employees to be fully vaccinated for COVID-19, unless they are granted a reasonable accommodation under applicable law.

New hires need to provide proof of full vaccination prior to their start date or apply for an exemption/accommodation within three business days after their start date. Depending on the circumstances, new hires who do not comply with this Policy, or who cannot be reasonably accommodated, will either have their employment suspended or terminated. Candidates who are non-compliant will have their offers rescinded.

EEO STATEMENT

The Public Health Institute is committed to a policy that provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, sex, religion, national origin, ancestry, age, marital status, pregnancy, medical condition including genetic characteristics, physical or mental disability, veteran status, gender identification and expression, sexual orientation, and to make all employment decisions so as to further this principle of equal employment opportunity. To this end, the PHI will not discriminate against any employee or applicant for employment because of race, color, sex, religion, national origin, ancestry, age, marital status, pregnancy, medical condition including genetic characteristics, physical or mental disability, veteran status, gender identification and expression, sexual orientation, and will take affirmative action to ensure that applicants are offered employment and employees are treated during employment without regard to these characteristics.

For further information regarding Equal Employment Opportunity, copy and paste the following URL into your web browser: http://www.dol.gov/ofccp/regs/compliance/posters/pdf/eeopost.pdf

ADA STATEMENT

The Public Health Institute is committed to providing access and reasonable accommodation in its services, programs, activities and employment for individuals with disabilities. To request disability accommodation in the application process, contact the Recruitment Team at least 48 hours in advance at Recruitment@phi.org.

This position described in this announcement falls under a contract with the Federal Government, and therefore is subject to the provisions put forward in OMB Circular A-76 which prohibit contractors from performing inherently governmental functions.  Specifically, employees placed in agency positions will not perform inherently governmental functions, nor supervise any personnel other than the contractor’s own staff, nor make final decisions or sign documents that commit the U.S. Government