Reports to: Pillar Lead
Based in: Makeni
Job Duration: 5 Months
Who we are
eHealth Africa designs and implements data-driven solutions and technologies to improve health systems for and with local communities. eHA’s technology works in low connectivity settings, and smartly uses data to drive decision-making by local governments and partner agencies to get optimum results.
We leverage our staff and department expertise across five programmatic areas:
- Health Delivery Systems
- Public Health Emergency Management Systems
- Disease Surveillance Systems
- Laboratory & Diagnostic Systems
- Nutrition & Food Security Systems
In each of these programmatic areas, we partner with governments, communities, nonprofits and other stakeholders to generate holistic solutions, because we believe that every community deserves access to the types of tools that can enable them to lead healthier lives.
Purpose of the position
Oversight, management, and coordination of all Child Health and Mortality Prevention Surveillance (CHAMPS) activities in Bombali Shebora under the guidance of the Principal Investigators
Reducing child mortality requires a ground-breaking approach. Child Health and Mortality Prevention Surveillance (CHAMPS) seeks to provide better data about how, where and why young children are getting sick and dying. The overall goal is to establish a network of high-quality sites to collect robust, standardized data that can be shared across a range of partners and stakeholders to analyze and track the preventable causes of child mortality. The resulting data can be used to develop evidence-based policy, set priorities for research and inform the provision of much-needed vaccines and medicines.
In order to collect this data, CHAMPS will systematically identify and document the causes of under-five mortality and stillbirths at sites across South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. Our objectives differ from other surveillance programs and disease studies: we aim to capture both perinatal and childhood causes of death from infectious and non-infectious etiologies. A special emphasis will be placed on identifying and classifying stillbirths and neonatal deaths, which will require special attention towards prioritizing and ensuring health services for pregnant women.
Timely, accurate data from CHAMPS sites will inform the efforts of the global health community – including ministries of health, national public health institutes, scientists, clinicians, non-governmental organizations and the general public. Use of CHAMPS data for planning of child mortality prevention interventions and government policies will be essential, as well as reporting back of results to communities as part of their engagement and ownership of CHAMPS. Our aim is to bring the communities, the government and the world the knowledge it needs to catalyse actions that dramatically reduce early childhood death and disability.
In Sierra Leone, the project is part of major efforts to strengthen epidemiology, surveillance, and health systems after the end of the Ebola epidemic, with a particular focus on maternal and child health. The area selected for CHAMPS in Sierra Leone; Bombali Sebora chiefdom in Bombali district, and the office will be based out of the District Health Medical Team office in Makeni town. This position will require consistent and strong collaboration between the co-principal investigators at the Ministry of Health and Sanitation and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Sierra Leone, the DHMT, and all implementing partners.
What you’ll do
Essential Duties and Responsibilities: To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. Other duties may be assigned.
1.Assess Needs:
- On-site supervision of personnel and activities.
- Essential on-site coordination and management of CHAMPS program activities.
- Supervision of the day to day operations, planning, implementation and coordination of activities for all CHAMPS pillars.
- Serve as a counterpart to the Bombali District Medical Officer.
- Maintain regular communication with CHAMPS principal investigators regarding implementation challenges and opportunities.
- Serve as a liaison between Emory University, CDC Atlanta and CDC Sierra Leone on strategic planning and implementation of the project
- Accommodates and plans CHAMPS Program Office, CDC and other partner visits to program site.
- Addresses other needs at the project site as they arise.
2.Prepare, develop what, etc.:
- Implementation of protocols and other documents for all CHAMPS activities at the site
- Lead recruitment for hiring CHAMPS staff
- Develops CHAMPS staff management plans
- Reviews, discusses and follows up on CHAMPS staff performance reports
- Coordinates and oversees development of guidance and materials needed to implement protocols, including standard operating procedures, field guides and training materials
- Disseminate information through written documents, presentations, and by maintaining key relationships in order to support the CHAMPS project and inform decision making and policy development.
- Coordinates and oversees development of agendas for visits from Emory, CDC and other partners
- Coordinates and oversees meetings, activities, data, reports as required for management (e.g. with pillar coordinators) or requested by principal investigators
- Provides regular implementation progress updates along with coordinators of CHAMPS pillars
- Oversee the development and maintenance of accurate budgets and spend plans for the project
- Expected Outputs/outcomes:
- CHAMPS activities implemented according to protocols
- CHAMPS program office is fully operational at all times
- CHAMPS program office staff will perform all duties as outlined in contract
- Achievement of CHAMPS targets for Social/Behavioral Science, Mortality and Pregnancy Surveillance, Laboratory, and Demographic Surveillance
Who you are
- The candidate for this position must have an advanced degree in public health epidemiology with over 15 years of demonstrated experience – both in Sierra Leone and other global settings – in leading complex epidemiological projects in maternal and child health.
- He/she is expected to have held senior level roles spanning technical guidance, management, and coordination of projects in Sierra Leone and/or other similar contexts.
- Work effectively with the Ministry of Health and Sanitation, principal investigators and a wide range of CHAMPS and maternal/child health stakeholders at local and national levels.
Above all
We believe strongly in our mission and our core values, and our teams are most successful when they do also.
IMPACT & QUALITY: We work on solving big problems. We believe in the power of technology to make a transformational difference in health systems, and we know that when we do high-quality work, we have the opportunity to change lives in the communities we impact.
INNOVATIVE PROBLEM-SOLVING: We maintain a worldview driven by possibilities, not limitations. We build smart systems that will sustain beyond our tenures. We challenge prevailing assumptions, respect the urgency of the environments we operate in, and take smart risks to search for the best solution.
PASSION: We care intensely about what we do, and about whom we do it with. We inspire others with our tenacity and commitment to our communities and each other.
HONESTY: We are honest with our communities, our partners, our donors, and ourselves. We communicate with candor, respect, and humility. We are quick to admit our own mistakes, and work to correct them with openness & expediency.
GROWTH & LEARNING: We embrace curiosity. We pursue and promote continuous learning, share our skills and knowledge, and actively work to make ourselves and those around us better
OWNERSHIP: We work to become part of the fabric of the communities in which we work. We value our seat at the table and invest in the places we call home.
Work environment
The work environment characteristics described here are representative of those an employee encounters while performing the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions
The noise level in the work environment is usually moderate but can become louder at times due to group discussions or activities.
eHealth Africa is a tobacco-free environment.