Capacity-Strengthening Strategic Information Expert (based in Cameroon)

Company Profile
Palladium develops and delivers innovative, locally relevant, evidence-based solutions to improve the health and well-being of people around the world. Since 1971, we have assisted governmental and non-governmental agencies, foundations, and the private sector by designing, implementing, and evaluating programs in HIV/AIDS, sexual and reproductive health, population and family planning, maternal and child health, infectious diseases, and gender. Palladium has deep expertise in policy and advocacy, research and strategic information, health markets and private sector engagement, modeling and economic analysis, patient monitoring and management/HMIS, strategic consulting, and program management.

Project Overview
Data for Implementation (Data.FI) is a five-year project funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) that helps countries strengthen and sustain access to mission-critical, high-quality data to accelerate HIV and COVID-19 epidemic control. The project provides end-to-end solutions from streamlining information needs to building sustainable and scalable data systems, and supports global monitoring, evaluation and learning through the development of global guidance, indicators, tools and curricula, and research. Data.FI is providing support to USAID/Cameroon to the strategic information and monitoring and evaluation (M&E) capacity of the 4 PEPFAR-funded local partners providing community services in Cameroon. This consultancy will be supervised by the Data.FI Activity Manager and will be based in Cameroon, with preference for Yaoundé.

Purpose of Position
Data.FI is seeking a Capacity-Strengthening Strategic Information (SI) Consultant to support the implementation of this activity in Cameroon. The Capacity-Strengthening SI consultant will be the lead in-country implementer of this activity, and will be the main provider of technical support and capacity strengthening to the four selected local partners, in collaboration with the Information Systems consultant based in Cameroon, and technical experts and the Activity Manager based in the U.S.

Key Responsibilities

• Coordinate with USAID/Cameroon and USAID PEPFAR IPs (e.g. Maintaining Epidemic Control (EpiC) and Accelerating Support to Advance Local Partners (ASAP)) as necessary, to conduct a desk review of available local IP assessment documentation and recommendations for capacity strengthening and if needed, conduct baseline assessment of each local partner’s SI capacity to complement existing documentation.
• In collaboration with Activity Manager and Technical Experts, design capacity strengthening plan for each local implementing partner.
• With support from technical experts and the in-country Information Systems consultant, implement capacity strengthening plan. Implementation will include but is not limited to the following: organizing workshops, hands on coaching, etc. with the goal of training local partner staff to improve skills in data analysis, visualization, and use, as well as data quality.
• Develop high quality training materials and guidance documents for local partners based on their SI needs.
• Train and mentor local partners based on their SI needs.
• Support local partners to develop high quality visualizations for internal PEPFAR meetings.
• Support the Activity Manager during monthly updates on activities supporting local partner capacity strengthening to USAID/Cameroon and other stakeholders, as necessary.
• At the conclusion of this activity, in collaboration with Activity Manager, lead endline strategic information capacity assessment.
• In collaboration with Activity Manager, develop summary of accomplishments in PowerPoint format of joint capacity-strengthening plan, end line strategic information capacity assessment results, and recommendations for next steps.
• Liaise closely with remote Activity Manager through frequent management check-ins.

Candidate Requirements

• Strong familiarity and demonstrated professional experience in monitoring, evaluation, learning and research, with a preference for local experience in public health programs, for example HIV/AIDS, maternal and child health, or other health areas.
• Demonstrated experience developing and implementing PMPs or other results frameworks, with strong familiarity with development and use of project indicators (especially PEPFAR MER indicators).
• Demonstrated experience in data analysis, data mining, BI (Tableau, Power BI, GIS, and other tools) and analytics development or other related analytical projects with recent proven experience developing data visualizations, dashboards, and reporting. Proficient in development of infographics and packaging of information products to facilitate data use for decision-making.
• Demonstrated skills in capacity strengthening through technical assistance, mentoring, and coaching both face-to-face and at a distance. This includes strong skills in public speaking and delivering trainings and workshops.
• Experience in digital health, information systems, data management, data analytics, and data use required.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
• Fluency in French and English required.
• Authorization to work in Cameroon required.