Monitoring, Evaluation and Research Technical Advisor – Malawi (Lighthouse Trust Clinic)
The International Training and Education Center for Health (I-TECH) is a center in the University of Washington's Department of Global Health, in partnership with the University of California, San Francisco. I-TECH has offices in Africa, India, and Haiti, and projects in more than twenty countries. I-TECH's approximately 500 worldwide staff work with local ministries of health, universities, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), medical facilities, and other partners to support the development of a skilled health work force and well-organized national health delivery systems. I-TECH's activities occur primarily in the technical areas of health system strengthening; health workforce development; operations research and evaluation; and prevention, care, and treatment of infectious diseases.
Position Description:
The primary purpose of the Monitoring, Evaluation and Research Technical Advisor is to strengthen the capacity of the Lighthouse Trust clinic to consistently monitor and evaluate program implementation; conduct collaborative operations research and epidemiologic analyses that build on routine and non-routine data collection. The ability of the Lighthouse Trust clinic to lead such research will support clinical programs and the translation of pilot studies into evidence based practice for more than 30, 000 patients on long life antiretroviral therapy in active care. The Technical Advisor will work to systematically build the skills of Lighthouse staff to identify, design, implement and report on clinical and program oriented operations research that addresses gaps in the provision of quality care for pre-ART and ART patients in the public sector in Malawi. Mentorship and capacity building is expected in the areas of project performance assessment, program level data analysis, research methods, and technical writing and reporting.
The Lighthouse Trust is an HIV and AIDS clinic based in Lilongwe, Malawi, at Kamuzu Central Hospital with operations at Bwaila District hospital and several health centres in Lilongwe district. Currently, Lighthouse provides technical assistance to 10 additional facilities in Lilongwe district, in addition to operating the HIV testing services in 3 additional districts: Dedza, Mchinji and Ntcheu. (Link: www.mwlighthouse.org). Lighthouse Trust, a recognized World Health Organization Center of Excellence, was among the first public clinics to provide free, life-saving anti-retroviral therapy in Malawi. Lighthouse is currently the largest ART clinic in the Central Region, and has the capacity to manage the ART initiation of 550 patients and follow-up with 15,000+ patient visits per month. Lighthouse's nationally-recognized HIV services are provided through its integrated approach to patient-centered care: managing the largest HIV Counseling and Testing service in the country; operating 2 'super high burden' ART clinics; offering integrated TB treatment and care; including family planning services and cervical cancer screening in routine visits; and implementing an innovative Community Health Services.
The Technical Advisor will functionally report to the Executive Director of the Lighthouse Trust clinic in addition to their University of Washington I-TECH direct report, represented in Malawi by the Country Director. The Technical Advisor will serve as a liaison between the Lighthouse Trust, the HIV department, other I-TECH TAs and will be a link to other University of Washington academic resources, including faculty mentorship, partnership on collaborative grant proposals, distance learning, and institutional support. This position will also work closely with counterparts in the Ministry of Health HIV and AIDS Department to translate best practices from the Lighthouse Trust to HIV treatment clinics nationally.
This is a full time position to run for two years with the possibility to extend based on re-evaluation of program priorities. The position requires a dynamic individual with strong research and program evaluation experience in HIV care.
Duties:
Capacity Building and Mentoring: 35%
- Mentor clinical staff and data team members in program monitoring and evaluation, study design, epidemiologic analyses, technical writing/reporting, human subjects materials and manuscript preparation
- Provide guidance in outcome measurement, target setting, and data quality assessment and validation
- Advise in best data management practices including development of SOPs and database management
- Provide strategic leadership in evidence-based quality improvement of integrated service provision including TB/HIV and sexual and reproductive health.
Conduct Operations Research and Impact Evaluations: 35%
- Participate in planning, implementing and reporting on program activities
- Track progress against targets, analyze data sets and make recommendations for enhanced program planning, coordination, and management of treatment and prevention services
- Guide the development and implementation of research protocols in partnership with the Lighthouse Research Committee
- Provide scientific guidance to study design, including development of study protocols and human subjects materials, coordination with key stakeholders and international colleagues, data analysis and manuscript preparation
- Collaborate with partners in development of newly funded research initiatives
- Recommend clinical program areas that would benefit from further evaluation and/or operational research to the Lighthouse Trust management team
Dissemination: 20%
- Respond to both internal and external ad hoc requests for information, provide data for briefing documents, sites visits and other Team information requests
- Communicate outcomes and recommendations to internal and external partners, prepare and present monitoring and evaluation data to a wide variety of audiences
- Support the Lighthouse Trust clinic in disseminating key findings, lessons learned and best practices locally and internationally via conferences, presentations, technical reports, and peer reviewed publications
Collaboration: 10%
Support the scale-up of proven interventions and integrated care models, through partnership with other PEPFAR implementing partners and departments within MOH:
- Department of HIV and AIDS: Advocate for translation of best practices into national implementation guidelines;
- National Tuberculosis Programme: Develop, evaluate and champion national TB/HIV integration models;
- Department of Planning and Policy Development, including Central Monitoring and Evaluation Division: inform the interoperability of various health systems, validation of data entered and reports generated, and use of reports generated to inform decisions
- National AIDS Commission: Translate best practices to policy development and contribute to the technical working groups.
- Quality Management Unit: inform the development national quality management strategies and dissemination of lessons learned
- Support the M&E team at the Lighthouse Trust clinic to provide M&E and operational research support to the national HIV and AIDS programs
- Participate in the MOH, HIV and AIDS Department quarterly operational research meeting focusing on the biomedical HIV response.
- Participate in the national supportive supervision visits to ART clinics, conducted quarterly by the Ministry of Health HIV and AIDS Department, and provide mentoring on effective use of M&E systems and routinizing M&E procedures
Requirements:
- Minimum of Master’s level degree in epidemiology, or related field, with strong quantitative research methods skills.
- A minimum 5 years of experience in public health research including designing and implementing evaluation activities and operational research in HIV programmes.
- Knowledge of implementation science methodology
- Strong clinical epidemiology skills and experience with analyses of longitudinal data
- Data management expertise including database management, quality assurance, analysis reporting and standard operating procedures
- Expertise in quality improvement and use of mixed methods research designs preferred
- Proven track record in working in HIV related programmes in resource limited settings, preferably in Africa
- Strong mentoring and teaching skills
- Proficiency in statistical software such as STATA, SAS or SPSS
- Strong writing skills, including writing of reports, proposals and scientific manuscripts
- Demonstrated flexibility and openness in responding to changing work priorities and environment
- High degree of diplomacy, cultural competency and ability to function in a team based environment
- Demonstrated ability to transfer knowledge and skills through training and mentoring
- Excellent written and oral communication skills in English
- Excellent computer skills
- Strong interpersonal skills
Applicant Instructions:
Apply online HERE Requisition # 139693
Closing Date: 18 December 2017
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