Manager, Strategy

Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance is a public-private partnership committed to saving children’s lives and protecting people’s health by increasing equitable use of vaccines in lower-income countries. The Vaccine Alliance brings together implementing country and donor governments, the World Health Organisation, UNICEF, the World Bank, the vaccine industry, technical agencies, civil society, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and other private sector partners. Gavi uses innovative finance mechanisms, including co-financing by recipient countries, to secure sustainable funding and adequate supply of quality vaccines. Since 2000, Gavi has contributed to the immunisation of more than 981 million children and the prevention of more than 16 million future deaths.

THE ROLE

Gavi’s strategy for the 2021-25 period (‘Gavi 5.0’), updated for 2023-25 as ‘Gavi 5.1’, focuses on increasing equity of immunisation programmes by reaching marginalised children in the world’s poorest countries with the objective to save millions of lives. The new strategy also includes a focus on ensuring continued success of immunisation programmes in former Gavi-eligible countries, and on providing access to new Covid-19 vaccines to address the health and economic impacts of the largest pandemic in a century.

The Strategy team is supporting the Alliance leadership and Board in accelerating the roll-out of Gavi 5.0/5.1. This includes (i) designing and operationalising Gavi’s approach in a number of focus areas (including reaching zero dose children and marginalised communities, optimising Gavi’s portfolio management processes), (ii) supporting the Gavi country teams in designing and rolling out transformative strategies for key countries, (iii) defining Gavi’s new partnership model and partnership investments at global and regional level, and (iv) strengthening the performance management process in the Gavi Secretariat to ensure Gavi’s leadership steers the organisation towards results. The team will also lead on the development of Gavi’s 6.0 strategy starting in 2023.

MAIN DUTIES/RESPONSIBILITIES

The Manager will support the design and launch of new approaches for Gavi 5.0.
Reporting to the Head, Strategy, the Manager will support the development of strategies/approaches in a subset of these areas by both providing analytical insight, thought leadership and process oversight. He/ she will coordinate project teams staffed with members across the Alliance to develop an evidence base which will inform the discussions of the Alliance leadership. He/she will support the development of options and recommendations for the CEO’s and Board’s consideration, and help move new approaches into implementation. As examples, the initiatives that the Strategy team will support will tackle the following questions:
• What programmatic and financing approach to sustainably reach zero-dose children with life-saving vaccines in different country settings, for example in conflicts and emergencies? How to ensure global uptake and smooth implementation?
• How can Gavi accelerate progress in reaching unreached children with life-saving vaccines in key countries such as Nigeria and India? What are the impactful and innovative investments that Gavi should support?
• In the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, the increase in fragility and conflicts, climate change, new blockbuster vaccines coming to the market, the renewed world attention on future pandemic preparedness, and the evolving global health architecture, how will Gavi’s goals, objectives and operating model evolve in the Gavi 6.0 strategic period?
• How to optimise the performance management process within the Gavi Secretariat to ensure that Gavi is on track to deliver against its strategic priorities?

Note: The essential functions listed in this section are not exhaustive of the job responsibilities; other duties may be assigned consistently with the department needs.

QUALIFICATIONS

ACADEMIC

• University degree in business administration, public health, medicine, public policy, economics or international development required. Masters highly preferred.

WORK EXPERIENCE

• At least 5 years of professional experience, including experience in the field of strategy development and/or in a management consulting firm;
• Experience in global health and/or the non-profit sector is an asset.

SKILLS/COMPETENCIES

• Excellent analytical skills, including excellent knowledge of global health;
• Structured strategic thinking;
• Excellent project management skills;
• Ability to influence outside of formal hierarchical structures;
• Excellent writing, communication and presentation skills;
• Ability to work in a multicultural environment and establish harmonious working relationships with multiple teams;
• Confidence and poise when dealing with senior leadership;
• Ability to work independently, under pressure and with resilience, demonstrating initiative and flexibility.

LANGUAGES

• Fluent in English;
• Other languages desirable, particularly French.

CONTACTS

• Head, Strategy (direct report);
• Frequent interactions with Board members, CEO, COO, Gavi leadership team;
• Collaboration with all teams in Gavi Secretariat;
• Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance partners.