Job Opportunity for Monitoring and Evaluation Associate at CHAI in Patna

Overview

The Clinton Health Access Initiative, Inc. (CHAI) is a global health organization committed to saving lives and reducing the burden of disease in low-and middle-income countries, while strengthening the capabilities of governments and the private sector in those countries to create and sustain high-quality health systems that can succeed without our assistance. For more information, please visit: http://www.clintonhealthaccess.org

CHAI is an Equal Opportunity Employer, and is committed to providing an environment of fairness, and mutual respect where all applicants have access to equal employment opportunities. CHAI values diversity and inclusion, and recognizes that our mission is best advanced by the leadership and contributions of people with diverse experience, backgrounds, and culture.

CHAI, in partnership with its India affiliate William J Clinton Foundation (WJCF), works in close partnership with and under the guidance of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) at the Central and States’ levels on an array of high priority initiatives aimed at improving health outcomes. Currently, CHAI works across projects to expand access to quality care and treatment for HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis-C (HCV), tuberculosis, cancer, immunization and essential medicines.

Talent is the fundamental driver of WJCF’s success in helping save lives and reduce the burden of disease. WJCF’s organizational values reflect its relentless endeavour of hiring, nurturing, empowering, and celebrating diverse and high calibre individuals who come together to work as cohesive teams. WJCF places a high premium on providing its staff with an enabling environment that encourages entrepreneurship, humility, respect, equal share of voice and fosters high impact innovation to address some of the most challenging healthcare issues. 

Project Background

Through the prioritized implementation of high impact public health interventions like immunization, access to safe drinking water, improved neo-natal and infant care and access to effective treatment for pneumonia and diarrhoea, India has reduced its infant mortality rate (IMR) from 89 in 1990 to 32 in 2017 and Under-five Mortality Rate (U5MR) from 126 in 1990 to 39 in 2017. India’s Universal Immunization Program (UIP) is one of the largest public immunization programs in the world. It caters to 26.3 million infants and 30 million pregnant women annually through 9 million planned sessions. The program provides access to vaccines against 11 Vaccine Preventable Diseases (VPDs) at the national level and against two VPDs vaccines at the sub-national level.

Under the strong leadership of the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare (MoHFW) and state governments, the entire immunization ecosystem has demonstrated proactive commitment for achieving universal immunization coverage in the country in recent years. Strategic projects in this direction include but are not limited to introduction of new vaccines, rolling out of data systems, strengthening of national immunization centres such as Immunization Technical Support Unit (ITSU) and National Cold Chain & Vaccines Management Resource Centre (NCCVMRC) and successful piloting of initiatives for bolstering health worker capacity building. Coupled with these initiatives, MoHFW launched Mission Indradhanush (MI) in 2014 and Intensified Mission Indradhanush (iMI) in 2017: catch up and system strengthening campaigns to target underserved, vulnerable, resistant, and inaccessible populations. iMI has resulted in an increase of 6.7% in full immunization coverage (FIC) after the first two phases in prioritized districts. However, the government and partners recognize the need for further efforts in this direction to reduce the 802,000 infant deaths and 989,000 under-five deaths that occur annually in the country.

Bihar, the third most populous state of the country, contributes to about 11% (2.9 million) of India’s annual birth cohort of 26 million children. Government of Bihar has shown great commitment for increasing immunization coverage, wherein the immunization coverage (FIC) has almost doubled to 61.1% (NFHS) in 2015-16 from 2005-06. Additionally, recent surveys post targeted catch-up campaigns like Mission Indradhanush (MI) and Intensified Mission Indradhanush (IMI) show an average increase of 15 percentage points in immunization coverage across Bihar’s 16 IMI districts from 56.5% in 2015-16 (NFHS) to 71.8% in 2018. Over the years, inequities in immunization coverage across socio-economic groups in the state have reduced but are still high. Government of Bihar (GoB) aims to achieve 90% full immunization coverage (FIC) across the state, sustain the coverage across age group cohorts and strengthen health systems for improving long term immunization outcomes.

Program Overview

Since 2015, WJCF has been collaborating with partner governments for achieving the national goal of 90% Full Immunization Coverage in priority states and districts to protect children against high burden vaccine preventable diseases such as childhood pneumonia; diarrhoea; polio; measles; tetanus etc. Under the aegis of the state governments of Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, and Uttar Pradesh, WJCF helps government actors improve Routine Immunization outcomes through system strengthening initiatives. Additionally, WJCF also supports the Immunization Division, MoHFW on similar initiatives sustainable coverage improvements. For working towards its coverage and equity vision, WJCF focuses on augmenting governance outcomes by capacitating programme managers, data handlers, and front-line workers to undertake data-driven decision making for identifying and immunizing Zero Dose children in a systematic manner on the one hand and strengthen the running programme’s effectiveness for segments whom the system already reaches on the other hand.  This approach is anchored in tools, frameworks, and operating models that are co-created and contextualised in partnership with the government actors themselves. Alongside data-based decision making for programme management, WJCF also works on strategic planning, demand generation initiatives, and supply chain optimization.

Position Summary

WJCF is seeking a highly motivated individual with outstanding credentials and demonstrated experience for the role of M&E Analyst. The Analyst will report to the State Team Lead of WJCF’s Immunization team in Bihar and will be responsible for progress monitoring of the immunization program of WJCF. The Analyst will evaluate the impact of the interventions from WJCF on immunization outcomes as well as broader public health systems. The Analyst must be able to function independently, be comfortable working and coordinating the operations of cross-functional teams, be flexible, and have a strong commitment to excellence. WJCF places great value on relevant personal qualities: resourcefulness, responsibility, tenacity, independence, energy, and work ethic.

Responsibilities

• Support the State Team Lead in developing and implementing of the WJCF programme ensuring for supporting improvements in data systems and review mechanisms, service delivery, supply chain, and other Routine Immunization aspects
• Craft program management frameworks and implementation and reporting mechanisms and optimize the existing ones in alignment with WJCF’s strategy and immunization context to facilitate effective oversight and management, encompassing key processes impact indicators, and effective measurement mechanisms
• Lead the implementation of the Monitoring & Evaluation framework through the WJCF team
• Conceptualize, design and coordinate program impact and progress evaluation surveys
• Assimilate and triangulate information from multiple sources to monitor performance and inform strategy refresh where required
• Significantly contribute to documenting programme progress through reports, presentations and templates for effective internal use and dissemination of reports at state and national levels
• Collaborate with government to ensure skills transfer and government ownership, identify the most critical hurdles to scaling up, and develop innovative strategies to address them
• Travel on short notice to the various parts of the state
• Undertake any other duties as requested by the State Team Lead

Qualifications

• Master’s/Bachelor’s degree in operations research, statistics, economics, or allied areas
• 3+ years of relevant work experience in public health demographics, M&E, advanced analytics, big data, and related fields
• Prior experience in survey design, sampling, and running field assessments
• Proficiency in advance statistical methods and data analysis using STATA, SPSS, SAS, R, and other statistical packages
• High level of proficiency in Microsoft Office, particularly Excel, PowerPoint, and Word
• Demonstrated ability to build strong professional relationships with a range of stakeholders in a challenging, multi-cultural environment
• Excellent analytical (qualitative and quantitative) and communication (written and verbal) skills
• Entrepreneurial mind-set, including ability to work independently, self-motivate, and propose and implement new initiatives
• Ability to think strategically, handle ambiguity, and problem solve in a fast-paced, limited-structure
• Fluency in English and Hindi

Preferred Skills & Traits:

• Experience of M&E in a public-health context
• Proficiency in analytical tools such as Tableau, Power BI, Databricks, etc.
• Strong understanding of immunization/public health context