Senior Manager, Equity & Zero-Dose

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.

Every year, the Alliance provides hundreds of millions of dollars in health system strengthening (HSS) grants and technical support to help countries strengthen their health systems and immunisation programmes and achieve sustainable improvement in the coverage and equity of immunisation. The HSIS team works closely with other Secretariat teams, especially the Country Support team, and a diverse range of Alliance partners (especially WHO and UNICEF) to help countries design and implement this support. Within the Secretariat, the team leads work with partners to develop programmatic approaches in areas including equity, supply chain, data, demand, gender, community engagement, immunisation workforce and programme management; provides hands on support to help countries and Secretariat teams design Gavi’s grants; and to monitor performance and capture and disseminate lessons learned.

The Equitable Immunisation Programmes (EIP) sub-team within HSIS has a critical role in helping deliver the Alliance’s mission of reaching zero-dose and under-immunised children. The team is responsible for coordinating overall efforts across the Secretariat and Alliance to conceptualise and operationalise the equity agenda. This includes developing and scaling up innovative approaches to strengthen delivery of services that respond to the needs of communities, address gender-related barriers to immunisation, and generate sustained community demand for immunisation. The team is also responsible for leading efforts within the Secretariat and with partners to assess how health systems need to be strengthened to deliver vaccines equitably along the life course outside the traditional infant schedule (e.g., HPV vaccine, malaria vaccine) and help to adapt Gavi support accordingly.

THE ROLE

Please note this is a temporary role, until October 2024.

Key functions and deliverables:

• Working closely with Alliance partners and Gavi Secretariat teams, conceptualise and guide Gavi’s approach and investments to help countries identify and reach zero-dose children immunisation, including developing and implementing innovative approaches and tools;
• Coordinate work across the Secretariat to plan, implement and monitor the zero-dose agenda including helping to convene the Zero Dose Operational Team and provide regular reports and updates to Country Programmes Management Team;
• Oversee special investments in innovation and learning through the Zero-Dose Strategic Focus Area;
• Work with the Head of EIP to build and maintain the Zero Dose Community of Practice and convene the Alliance Zero Dose Steering Committee;
• Provide technical expertise, guidance and capacity-building for Secretariat country teams on strategies to identify and reach zero-dose children, as well as demand generation, community engagement, gender and service delivery as required, and ensure lessons learned are actively collated and shared.

MAIN DUTIES/RESPONSIBILITIES

• Work with the Head of EIP to build and maintain the Zero Dose Community of Practice and convene the Alliance Zero Dose Steering Committee;
• Provide technical expertise, guidance and capacity-building for Secretariat country teams on strategies to identify and reach zero-dose children, as well as demand generation, community engagement, gender and service delivery as required, and ensure lessons learned are actively collated and shared.
• Work with EIP colleagues and Alliance partners to develop, strengthen and quality assure tools and approaches to identify and reach zero-dose and under-immunised children, analyse demand, assess gender-related and other barriers to reaching them and design tailored approaches to reach them in different settings (e.g., urban, conflict, mobile populations);
• Work with Secretariat and Alliance colleagues to develop novel approaches to identify and reach zero children (such as community monitoring, GIS mapping, digitally enabled; microplans) and ensure a strong learning agenda to evaluate and refine these approaches;
• Work with Alliance partners, HSIS colleagues and Secretariat country teams to ensure that timely, robust data is available and translated into robust strategies to reach zero-dose children and missed communities;
• Ensure robust Secretariat and Alliance workplan for operationalisation of zero-dose agenda, track implementation and identify risks and course correction required;
• Plan and manage global / regional investments in strategies to identify and reach zero-dose children through zero-dose strategic focus area;
• Work with Head, EIP, to convene Alliance Zero-Dose Community of Practice and work wih EIP team members to align approaches and share knowledge with Alliance Demand Hub and Gender Working group;
• Provide direct support to select country teams in identifying and developing robust, evidence-driven strategies to identify and reach zero-dose children, as well as equity, gender, demand and service delivery programming as required;
• Capture and disseminate best practices and lessons learned in zero-dose agenda and identify and help fill knowledge gaps working with MEL colleagues;
• Monitor implementation of the zero-dose agenda and develop strategic communication materials for internal and external stakeholders on progress and lessons learned;
• Other duties and activities as required.

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

• Advanced university degree in Public Health, Social Sciences, Health Systems, Management, Strategy, Business Administration or related fields.

WORK EXPERIENCE

• Minimum of 8 years of experience in roles working on health systems and equity;
• Experience working at both global level and in lower middle-income countries is highly desirable;
• Demonstrable experience in strategic programme design, project management, managing partnerships and multi-stakeholder task forces is highly desirable;
• Proven experience working in diverse, multi-partner environments; experience of working in both public and private sectors is an asset.

SKILLS/COMPETENCIES

• Technical:

• Deep understanding of equity-related barriers to health including demand, gender and community engagement is essential;
• Demonstrated track record of develop strategies to overcome equity-related barriers to accessing health or social services;
• Excellent quantitative and qualitative analytic skills, with ability to evaluate and synthesise complex challenges;
• Proven ability to translate data and analysis into programmatic strategies;

• Distinctive strategic thinking and problem-solving skills;
• Excellent organisation and coordination capabilities, including demonstrated ability to prioritise;
• Excellent collaboration skills and demonstrated ability to work across multiple, multisectoral teams and organisations in pursuit of a common goal;
• Understanding of gender responsive and gender transformative programming in a variety of country settings;
• Proven ability to work under pressure and meet tight deadlines;
• High sense of responsibility, efficiency, reliability and results-focus;
• Compelling oral and written communications;
• Demonstrated ability to engage credibly with senior counterparts across multiple sectors;
• Diplomacy, tact and discretion.

LANGUAGES

• Written and spoken fluency in English;
• Fluency in French strongly desired;
• Fluency in Portuguese and other languages of Gavi-supported countries an asset.

CONTACTS

• All Gavi Secretariat teams;
• Gavi Alliance partners, including UNICEF, WHO, civil society, and academic institutions;
• Implementing country governments;
• Gavi donors.