Global Health Fellows Program
Technical Advisor III/IV: Senior Health Economics Advisor
Systems and Program Sustainability Division, Office of HIV/AIDS, Bureau for Global Health, United States Agency for International Development
Location: Arlington, VA
Assignment: Two year fellowship
GHFP-II-P7-263
The Global Health Fellows Program (GHFP-II) is a cooperative agreement implemented and managed by the Public Health Institute in partnership with Global Health Corps, GlobeMed, Management Systems International and PYXERA Global. GHFP-II is supported by the US Agency for International Development (USAID).
GHFP-II’s goal is to improve the effectiveness of USAID health programs by addressing the Agency’s immediate and emerging human capacity needs. The program seeks to accomplish this goal first through the recruitment, placement and support of diverse health professionals at the junior, mid and senior levels. These program participants include fellows, interns, corporate volunteers and Foreign Service National professionals. The program then provides substantial performance management and career development support to participants, including annual work planning assistance, and ensures that professional development opportunities are available.
Looking to the future, GHFP-II also seeks to establish a pool of highly-qualified global health professionals that will ensure the Agency’s ongoing technical leadership and effectiveness. This objective is supported by an extensive outreach program that brings global health opportunities and specialized career advice to a diverse range of interested individuals, with a particular focus on those underrepresented in the field of global health.
BACKGROUND:
The United States Government (USG) has made the fight against HIV and AIDS a top priority, not only for humanitarian reasons, but because the HIV & AIDS crisis threatens the prosperity, stability and development of nations around the world. The US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) is a USG global initiative to control the HIV & AIDS pandemic. It is the largest commitment by any nation to combat a single disease. Over the past decade, the US government has committed more than $52 billion to bilateral HIV and AIDS programs, the Global Fund to Fight HIV & AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and bilateral tuberculosis programs. To achieve an AIDS-free generation, PEPFAR works closely with a variety of stakeholders including partner countries, multilateral organizations, civil society, people living with and affected by HIV, the faith community, and the public and private sectors. USAID has been, and continues to be, at the forefront of the USG response in the fight against the HIV and AIDS pandemic since inception of its international HIV & AIDS program in 1986.
With a focus on transparency, accountability, and impact, PEPFAR is actively working with partners to control the HIV and AIDS pandemic to help achieve an AIDS-Free generation. PEPFAR is committed to supporting activities that are grounded in science and critical to saving lives and preventing new HIV infections. PEPFAR’s core activities include a focus on health systems, including health finance; human resources for health; commodity procurement and supply chain systems; and laboratory systems.
PEPFAR recognizes that donor resources alone cannot meet the needs of the 35 million people that will be living with HIV in 2020. As developing economies grow and begin to more fully realize their economic potential, unlocking domestic financing for HIV becomes a critical element of achieving long-term sustainability of the HIV and AIDS response. Countries are increasingly taking the lead in managing, implementing, and even financing their national HIV responses. As a result, PEPFAR has committed funding to support countries to strengthen their ongoing efforts to increase the use of their own resources to help deliver an AIDS-free generation. Health systems strengthening (HSS) is a key strategy to secure the sustainability of past and future achievements. PEPFAR provides an opportunity to strengthen health systems and health policy, as the USG’s and its partners’ efforts to combat HIV and AIDS transition from an initial emergency approach to a more long-term sustainable approach. USAID’s HSS program provides support to ensure that developing country health systems are effective, efficient, and equitable.
In late 2014, PEPFAR launched a health and HIV /AIDS financing initiative to support countries to leverage their own domestic resources in an effort to help deliver an AIDS-Free generation. USAID has served as the lead agency for coordinating and implementing this initiative, and the expectation is that efforts could yield a significant benefit and a substantial return on the initial investment for impact on the resources these countries will be able to put towards increasing prevention, care, and treatment coverage for achieving sustainable control of the epidemic. The centrally funded initiative was developed out of collaboration between the Office of HIV/AIDS and the Office of Health Systems in the Global Health Bureau and the Bureau for Economic Growth, Education and the Environment.
USAID will partner closely with selected Missions and relevant stakeholders to support new and ongoing health financing activities that aim to increase domestic resources for the health. Solutions tailored to individual country contexts will involve health financing approaches encompassing advocacy and analysis, technical efficiency, tax policy and administration, and innovative health financing, including use of the private sector. The initiative will support PEPFAR key interventions areas to ensure impact and efficiency gains, build sustainability and partnerships, and advance the human rights agenda. USAID will coordinate and collaborate across USG Agencies and with multilateral stakeholders in the design and implementation of this initiative.
INTRODUCTION:
The overall objective of USAID’s Bureau for Global Health (GH), Office of HIV/AIDS’s (OHA) HSS program is to provide USAID leadership in building sustainability of the HIV & AIDS response through investment in health systems. OHA views health systems strengthening as a continuous process of implementing changes in policies, management and systems within the health sector. OHA works collaboratively within USAID, with other USG agencies, and with the international community to implement its HSS vision through coordinating activities, evaluating programs, developing guidance and supporting countries to ensure the application of up-to-date health systems development interventions in both the public and private sectors.
The Senior HIV/AIDS Health Economic Advisor (Senior Advisor) will focus on health and HIV/AIDS financing, with key technical emphases on technical efficiency, domestic resource mobilization, public financial management, efficient resource allocation, economic evaluation, and generation of data and information for informed decision-making.
S/he will be assigned to the Bureau for Global Health, Office of HIV/AIDS, Systems and Program Sustainability Division (SPS) and will receive programmatic and technical guidance from the Health Economics, Finance and Policy (HFE) Team Branch Chief who will serve as her/his onsite manager. The Systems and Program Sustainability Division (GH/OHA/SPS) provides technical leadership and strategic direction on issues related to systems strengthening, financing, health workforce, advancing sustainability, commodity social marketing and public-private partnerships for HIV/AIDS programs. SPS consists of three branches –the Health Finance and Economics Branch, the Health Workforce Branch and the Capacity Building and Partnerships Branch.
ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:
The Senior Health Economics Advisor will serve primarily as a health economics and finance expert on the OHA/SPS, Health Finance and Economics Branch, and will provide key technical and programmatic support to the GH Bureau’s Cross-Office Team for USAID’s HIV and AIDS Sustainable Financing Initiative. S/he will advance OHA’s vision and goals for domestic resource mobilization for HIV/AIDS and long-term sustainable programming for control of the epidemic.
The Senior Advisor will be responsible for:
- Providing technical guidance, planning and program development support for USAID’s HIV/AIDS Sustainable Financing Initiative (SFI), including participating in the coordination of SFI’s portfolio in specific countries.
- Serving as a member of PEPFAR Epidemic Control Teams or as an Interagency Subject Matter Expert on areas relating to health finance and economics.
- Providing technical guidance to USAID GH projects on areas related to health finance and economics within PEPFAR.
- Serving as a technical lead for GH/OHA to support USAID missions and PEPFAR country teams in areas of health finance and the assessment, design and implementation of HIV-related financing strategies.
- Providing technical assistance to improve budgeting, budget execution, resource tracking and allocation as it relates to health finance programming.
- Liaising with the Global Health Bureau’s Office of Health Systems and the Bureau for Economic Growth, Education and the Environment on health finance issues as related to PEPFAR.
- Supporting preparation of information, data analyses and materials for GH/OHA and the Office of the Global AIDS Coordinator (OGAC) briefings, management updates and communications.
- Liaising with multiple PEPFAR technical working groups to provide technical guidance and coordination support to financing, expenditure analyses and other economic evaluation activities.
- Monitoring implementing partners’ health financing work in the field, including fulfillment of a technical advisory role on specific projects as assigned.
- Serving as a liaison and technical resource to the Office of the Global AIDS Coordinator (OGAC) and other PEPFAR implementing agencies on OHA-led and jointly led health finance activities.
- Supporting the annual development of the OHA PEPFAR Headquarters Operational Plan, including for funding and activity design for health and HIV/AIDS financing.
- Supporting the annual PEPFAR Country Operational Plan (COP) technical review process for health and HIV/AIDS finance and economics.
- Supporting the annual Headquarters Operational Planning (HOP) process.
- Participating in the PEPFAR Interagency Collaborative for Program Improvement to support health economics activities.
- Maintaining knowledge of state of the art health finance and economic evaluation practices and serving as a technical resource for OHA, USAID, and PEPFAR.
SENIOR LEVEL IV
A Senior Advisor at the level IV- will be further responsible for:
- Serving as an expert member on any interagency finance and economics short or long-term working groups and ad hoc modeling working groups.
- Providing high-level technical leadership in the development and design of country plans and programs for USAID’s PEPFAR and HIV/AIDS Sustainable Financing Initiative.
- Serving as a subject matter expert for USAID GH projects covering health finance and economics within PEPFAR.
- Serving as a coordinator and liaison with ability to provide technical advice and guidance to GH/OHA, serve as a senior technical liaison to GH/OHA and USAID Missions, and – leverage strategic partnerships for results to advance sustainable financing approaches for the HIV/AIDS response and epidemic control.
- Mentoring junior team members and other staff on health and HIV and AIDS financing.
International and domestic travel approximately 20-25%.
TRAINING AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT (7%)
- Keeping abreast of the state-of-the-art health financing, economic evaluation and cost analysis for HIV/AIDS programming and interventions.
- Deepening knowledge of health financing, economic evaluation and cost analysis for HIV/AIDS programming and interventions. Participating in interagency and intra-agency working groups as appropriate to the scope of work.
- Participating in professional meetings as appropriate to SOW.
- Participating in professional continuing education and skills training within the purview of GHFP-II.
REQUIRED SKILLS, KNOWLEDGE & EXPERIENCE:
- Master’s degree or higher in economics, health economics, health finance, or other relevant field.
- Demonstrated understanding of and ability to apply accepted tools, techniques and frameworks for health financing, economic evaluation and cost analysis of HIV & AIDS interventions.
- High degree of judgment, ingenuity and originality to interpret strategy, to analyze, develop and present work and to monitor and evaluate implementation of programs.
- Strong leadership and group facilitation skills.
- Demonstrated experience working with a wide range of development partners, including multilateral and bilateral donors as well as private foundations and civil society.
- Demonstrated knowledge of internal processes within the USG and other health sector development partners, (e.g. thematic priorities, decision-making mechanisms, and preferred funding channels).
- Experience with global health partnerships and disease-specific initiatives.
- Excellent interpersonal, communication and writing skills.
- Demonstrated ability to work with diverse teams.
- Strong teamwork, multi-stakeholder collaboration and management skills.
- Ability to travel internationally.
- US citizenship or US permanent residency required.
In addition to the above, the position requires the following at each level:
TECHNICAL ADVISOR III
- Minimum ten (10) years’ experience in finance and economics, with at least three to five (3-5) years in health finance, resource mobilization, research management and implementation, with experience in international or resource-challenged settings.
- Minimum of ten (10) years’ experience in cost analysis, economic evaluation and capacity building in developing countries, and research design.
TECHNICAL ADVISOR IV
Minimum fifteen (15) years’ experience in finance and economics, with at least five (5) years in health finance, resource mobilization, research management and implementation, with experience in international or resource-challenged settings.
Minimum of fifteen (15) years’ experience in cost analysis, economic evaluation and capacity building in developing countries, and research design.
SALARY AND BENEFITS:
Salary based on commensurate experience and earnings history. The Public Health Institute offers a comprehensive benefits package including professional development programs.
TO APPLY:
All applicants are required to apply for this position through GHFP-II’s online recruitment system at https://www.ghfp.net/recruitment/, which allows you to store your CV, profile and bio data form in our database. A separate cover letter describing your qualifications and experience, interest and familiarity with issues relating to this position, and how this position relates to your career goals is required for each application. All online applications must be submitted by March 6, 2018 by 5:00 pm Eastern time.
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