Senior Child Health Advisor

Overview

Summary Statement:

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.

Credence and its partner, the Public Health Institute (PHI), are both employers for GHTASC, and are seeking a Senior Child Health Advisor under GHTASC. This position will be hired under Public Health Institute (PHI).

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 Senior 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 Senior 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 Senior 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 reduction of infant and child mortality and improving the ability for children to thrive and achieve their full potential. As such, the Senior Advisor will provide technical support to missions and mentor Foreign Service National staff, guide the development of Country Development and Cooperation Strategies, design of new bilateral mechanisms, as well as monitoring the implementation of current ones to ensure that corrections are made in time to achieve results. The Senior Advisor will also foster relationships across the Office and Bureaus to strengthen collaboration and technical input into child health programs, particularly with Presidential Initiatives and multisector councils. The Senior Child Health Advisor will also play an important role of contributing to interagency discussions and support the participation of senior officials in preparing for Advisory Board meetings and briefings to Congress. The Senior 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 $129,740 to $195,000 per year, with the starting salary determined based on candidate’s knowledge, skills, experience, as well as budget availability.

Responsibilities

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 technical expertise in priority 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.
• Provide strategic advice on child health issues to Senior US Government Officials that represent the Agency on Adivosry Boards or when they report to Congress.
• Contribute to GH country teams, participate in country program reviews, and action plans, and serve as a technical and programmatic liaison among headquarters and mission teams on integrated case management and other child health priorities being advanced by the Global Health Bureau by other Offices to ensure leveraging the scarce resources allocated to child health by Missions looking for overlapping geographic distribution, promoting resilient health systems, and strengthening the ability of countries to respond to crisis.
• Participate and lead in national assessments of health programs i 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 priorities and connections with other USAID and MCH programs to better leverage resources to elevate child health in country priorities.
• 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, conducting field visits, analyzing outcome and impact data, and reviewing routine reports.
• Contribute technical and programmatic 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, and guiding decisions related to 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 to expert content for technical updates, briefers and other documents that describe USAID’s activities, research, and progress; prepare and discuss portfolio reviews and reports; review documents such as annual reports and operational plans, and prepare analysis of content; 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.
• Travel internationally to low- and middle-income country program sites approximately 25-30 percent of the time.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

Qualifications

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 10 years of relevant experience, bachelor’s degree with 12 years of relevant experience, Associate’s degree and 14 years of relevant experience, or High School graduate and 16 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.
• Strong ability to work collaboratively with staff of USAID missions, other USG agencies, developing country governments and organizations, and other international organizations.
• Demonstrated experience coordinating multi-donor, or multisector mechanisms in countries and domestically, or demonstrated ability to work with other donors, country governments, civil society organizations, around common agendas.
• Strong ability to work both independently and as part of a team with members at different levels of expertise or career, 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 25-30 percent of the 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 access.