When CHAI was founded, many viewed this goal as unreasonable because health systems in poor countries were too weak and prices of relevant drugs and diagnostic tests were too high.CHAI played a leadership role, working alongside governments and other partners, to lower the costs of treatment and help build the in-country systems necessary to provide lifesaving treatment to millions of people. Since then, CHAI has pursued several similarly ambitious goals, from scaling up pediatric AIDS treatment in order to achieve equity with adults in a timeframe few thought possible, to rapidly accelerating the rollout of new vaccines. CHAI has achieved many of its most important successes when seeking to fundamentally change the way the world approaches an issue and pushing the boundaries of what is considered feasible in global health.
OUR VALUES
We are driven by a set of values that are fundamental to our work and that support our change-oriented agenda.
CHAI doesn’t implement stand-alone programs, nor does it build parallel health systems. Rather CHAI works at the invitation of governments to strengthen and sustain their own capacity to provide long-term healthcare to their citizens. In South Africa, for example, CHAI is supporting the government to expand antiretroviral treatment to more than 2.3 million people and to test over 15 million people for HIV in the next two years.
We work with urgency.
People are dying unnecessarily from AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis (TB), and other treatable diseases; the world often responds too slowly. We understand that the faster we act the more lives can be saved.Responsibilities
We are seeking an Associate to join the Global Vaccines Delivery Team to strengthen CHAI’s work in Immunization Supply chains both at global level and in focal countries. This role falls within the global Cold Chain Logistics (CCL) team, which works with governments to remove cold- and supply-chain issues as a barrier to improved coverage. However the position may also require working beyond CCL topics to address programmatic gaps affecting immunization objectives
The Associate Will Partner With CHAI Country Teams, CCL Team Leadership/members, And Regional Managers And Other Stakeholders On The Following Initiatives
Provide high-value strategic and programmatic support to dramatically improve the performance of country immunization supply chains in collaboration with countries
Provide critical input on the approaches needed to meet in-country grant and program objectives related to immunization cold chain and supply chains, in line with the program strategy and model
Support development of both program-wide and country-specific objectives and strategies regarding immunization cold chain and supply chain, emphasizing ambitious and transformational goals
Contribute to the design, planning and execution of high-impact projects to sustainably transform the vaccines supply chain and cold chain in one or more CHAI focal countries. Projects could include:
Supporting in-country introduction or scale up of last mile delivery approaches to improve vaccine stock availability and system efficiency for the goal of increasing immunization coverage
Supporting in-country scale-up of immunization supply chain data review mechanisms to improve program performance
Enabling improved cold chain integration to store other essential health commodities like oxytocin in vaccine cold chain equipment by assessing bottlenecks and system enablers required to scale efforts safely and effectively
Introducing effective cold chain management systems, with a focus on performance monitoring and maintenance of CCE
Identifying and implementing immunization supply chain interventions to enable service network extension strategies that increase access to immunization in under-served and/or low coverage areas
Support CHAI’s ability to deliver and disseminate high-quality and impactful work across diverse operating contexts and content areas
Support the continuous development and effective dissemination of programmatic strategy across CHAI teams, including the development of ‘tool kits’, lessons learned, and other know-how related to immunization supply chains and cold chains
Support the ramp up of new and existing CHAI staff (at both global level and in focus countries) in supply chain and cold chain topics, leveraging the institutional knowledge from the CHAI vaccines program and new insights developed by the associate
Inform global practices and policies related to immunization and immunization supply chains
Cultivate robust evidence bases, insightful analytical perspectives, and lessons-learned from CHAI and other partners to inform global policies/practices and promote improved vaccine supply chain and cold chain outcomes
Distill CHAI’s programmatic insights into formats that can influence the global immunization community, global policies and country practices beyond CHAI focus countries. This includes supporting CHAI’s participation in key working groups (e.g., EPI manager meetings, ESA regional meetings, Immunization Supply Chain Steering Committee, TechNet, etc.)
Develop and expand productive relationships with critical global stakeholders (e.g., Gavi, BMGF, UNICEF SD/PD, PATH, JSI, VillageReach) and foster effective exchange of know-how across them
Support program and grant management — with a focus on vaccines supply chain and cold chain work — in collaboration with program, regional and country leadership
Assess progress against overall objectives and milestones in focus areas and help prepare high-quality briefings for donors and CHAI management, including achievements to date, action plan going forward, and key risks/opportunities
Working with regional and program management, ensure that progress is properly monitored and evaluated, in line with grant commitments and internal review needs
Contribute as a member of the global vaccine team to the effectiveness and collegiality of the team, helping identify opportunities and improve CHAI’s vaccines program and team
Qualifications
Bachelor’s degree (Master’s preferred); preference for fields related to business, health policy, logistics systems
Atleast 4 or 5 years of relevant professional experience
Exceptional skills in problem-solving and system design
Strong analytical skills, including qualitative and quantitative data (e.g. data, business case, and health impact analyses)
Excellent communication skills in English, including synthesis and presentation across common business media (summary reports, slide decks, other presentations)
Strong interpersonal and cross-cultural communication skills, with a proven ability to build relationships in a multicultural (and often remote) work environment
Demonstrated capacity to synthesize evidence into an effective presentations and actionable recommendations for a broad range of audiences, anticipating working in-country (e.g. Ministries of Health, district officials) and globally (e.g. donors, policy makers)
High emotional intelligence, patience and thoughtfulness even in high-pressure, stressful situations. This includes a proven ability to build and maintain strong relationships in a complex environment with occasional tensions or conflicts
Proven project management skills, including the ability to work effectively in a high-pressure environment, handling multiple tasks simultaneously
Entrepreneurial mindset, including ability to set priorities, self-motivate, propose and implement new initiatives
Strong commitment to CHAI’s and the Vaccine team’s mission; a dedicated team player
Ability to travel extensively (at least 20% of time) to focus countries and other locations as need for work (for in-country support, global working groups, conferences, etc.)
Advantages
Knowledge of vaccines, health programs, health supply chains, or cold chain
Understanding of capacity development and change management approaches
Experience in a top tier management or supply chain consulting firm
Experience working with in developing countries or ‘last mile’ operating environments – preferably within health or public sectors
