Senior Associate, Health Financing

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

Program Overview

CHAI’s global health financing program supports Ministries of Health, Finance and government insurers to substantially and sustainably improve access to essential health services for their populations, towards the goal of universal health coverage. Health financing is often insufficient and overly reliant on donors and individuals paying out of pocket at facilities. Low-income countries in Africa and Southeast Asia see over half of the global disease burden, are home to 40% of the global population, and yet account for only 3% of health spending. Donor contributions for health have plateaued, and in many countries are likely to decline in the coming years. Domestic resources for health are increasing, but the rate of growth in government spending dedicated to health fluctuates and is often insufficient to meet population needs. Resources that are made available may not be spent efficiently. Healthcare providers face stock-outs, ration services among patients and charge informal or formal user fees; a deterrent for patients, and particularly the poor, to seek care. Even when patients can afford these fees and funds are available, primary health care systems are often fragmented and weak. This situation has been exacerbated with the onset of COVID-19 and ensuing economic crisis which is putting pressure on resources at a time when more health spending is needed.

CHAI’s health financing strategy supports governments to address these challenges by supporting priority setting and benefits package design, investment in upgrading health systems to deliver an optimized package of services, and strengthening or improving domestic financing through public financial management and strategic purchasing. At the request of governments, our strategy for health financing is expanding to include work in health systems and management, with a focus on building primary health care systems towards the goal of UHC. This work builds on CHAI’s experience in SRMNCH, health financing, and health workforce, among other areas.

At CHAI, staff members work closely with government partners to support evidence-based decision making and design systems to ensure those resources go as far as possible so that providers can deliver quality care that patients can afford and access. The global health financing team works closely with health financing advisors based in Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia.

Responsibilities

The Senior Associate will play a key role in coordinating cross-country programming and contributing to global strategy across CHAI’s global portfolio for health financing during an exciting time of growth. This is a challenging, fast-paced and rewarding position, which offers a unique opportunity to work closely with governments and technical advisors who are leading change in the region to achieve the ambitious goals of universal health coverage. The successful candidate can expect to gain broad exposure to key technical areas of health financing across a variety of health system contexts.

The Senior Associate will report to a Senior Program Manager on the global health financing team. We are open to candidates based in the United States, or in one of CHAI’s program offices in Sub-Saharan Africa. Countries where CHAI does health financing work – all being supported by the global health financing team – include Benin, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Mali, Malawi, Nigeria, South Africa, Rwanda, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Uganda, and India. The Senior Associate will play a key role supporting overall strategy and documentation of strategy, cross-team coordination including production of knowledge products and exchange between teams (on key topics from aid coordination to health insurance), and contribute to donor engagement from proposals to monitoring and evaluation. They must therefore have excellent written and relationship management skills, strong writing and presentation skills, and strong attention to detail for managing complex projects and outputs.

Key responsibilities include the following:

Global Strategy and Multi-Country Support

• Actively participate in global strategy planning, problem-solving discussions, and review of program outputs. Support drafting program updates, presentations, concept notes, and meeting plans, as needed.
• Provide targeted support to global technical leads and country advisors working with government leadership in the design and implementation of health financing interventions and reforms, including through the production of written documents, presentations, data analysis and models. These technical areas of support include but are not limited to: aid coordination/domestic resource mobilization, benefits package and insurance system design, gender mainstreaming in health financing, and strengthening financial management systems.
• Pursue opportunities for collaboration with other CHAI teams, helping to build a cross-cutting community of practice.

Knowledge Production & Management

• Support global team technical leads on cross-cutting projects to develop health financing knowledge products on the key areas previously mentioned. These knowledge products will be utilized by a range of CHAI, government, and other external audiences, and include case studies, reports, publications, toolkits and publications.
• Support and participate in the development and organization of regular knowledge exchanges between countries and partner governments in the form of in-person and virtual summits, meetings, and trainings.
• Organize and centralize information exchange across CHAI country team in the form of regular newsletters and communications.
• Maintain a repository for global resources on health financing and strengthen team use of Box as the repository for project and learning documents; facilitate awareness and use of these materials within and across CHAI teams.
• Develop and maintain technical expertise in health financing, and stay abreast of key challenges.

Donor Engagement and Monitoring & Evaluation

• Support and provide input into the program planning and development cycles across global and country teams through the development and implementation of necessary processes and project management tools, including workplans and templates.
• Work closely with country teams to support oversight of multi-year M&E frameworks and track global progress against grant milestones, working with country and global team leadership to identify challenges and mitigate risks to achieving goals.
• Coordinate the documentation of program progress and grant-related outcomes.
• Contribute to the conceptualization and development of funding proposals and the production of donor reports and other associated resources (e.g. slide decks, concept notes, one-pagers).
• Other responsibilities as requested by manager

This role requires up to 40% travel within the Sub-Saharan Africa region and amount of travel will vary based on needs and in accordance with travel restrictions.**Qualifications**

• Graduate/Post Graduate University degree in public health, social science, medicine or master’s in social work and other related fields with approximately 5-7+ years of work experience, with strong written and oral communication skills
• Experience working in Sub-Saharan Africa;
• Direct experience working with government institutions, informing development of government strategy, policy, and operational plans, preferably in health financing or health system;
• Demonstrated experience shaping and leading complex projects, from strategy design to implementation and managing ambiguity, preferably in the public sector;
• Ability to think strategically and in a structured manner, handle ambiguity and work in a very fast-paced, limited-structure, multicultural environment;
• Affinity for analytics and information management, with strong analytical and problem solving skills;
• Excellent communication and presentation skills with the ability to write in a clear and concise manner, including for technical documents, workplans, and reports;
• Entrepreneurial mindset, including ability to work independently, self-motivate, and take initiative;
• Ability to learn on the job quickly and absorb and synthesize a broad range of information;
• High level of proficiency in Microsoft Office, particularly Excel, PowerPoint, and Word;
• English fluency; French language skills are an advantage.

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