Maternal and Child Health (MCH) Technical Advisor

PATH is a global nonprofit dedicated to achieving health equity. With more than 40 years of experience forging multisector partnerships and with expertise in science, economics, technology, advocacy, and dozens of other specialties, PATH develops and scales up innovative solutions to the world’s most pressing heath challenges.

PATH is a global nonprofit dedicated to achieving health equity. With more than 40 years of experience forging multisector partnerships and with expertise in science, economics, technology, advocacy, and dozens of other specialties, PATH develops and scales up innovative solutions to the world’s most pressing heath challenges.

PATH’s Malaria, Neglected Tropical Diseases program is a leader in the effort to end malaria illnesses and deaths, refines and develops tools and approaches, invests in national programs, and builds data to empower national governments to pursue malaria control and elimination.

PATH seeks a Maternal and Child Health (MCH) Technical Advisor (TA) for the U.S. Government (USG)-funded Reaching Every At-risk Community and Household with malaria services (REACH Malaria) global project. REACH Malaria aims to provide implementation support services and technical assistance to countries to accelerate progress in comprehensive delivery of facility and community-based malaria services, including malaria case management, prevention of malaria in pregnancy (MiP), malaria diagnostics, community health, data collection and use for service delivery, and other malaria prevention interventions. Additionally, PMI Malaria REACH in Malawi will support MCH activities at national, facility and community levels, and will predominantly target health facilities in selected districts with poor MCH indicators.

The MCH TA will support the development and execution of technical assistance strategies for Malawi that advance the quality of services during antenatal care, labour and delivery and the postnatal period, newborn care, and clinical and community case management of childhood illnesses including malaria, pneumonia and diarrhoea, and nutrition. The advisor will contribute to activities to strengthen referral systems, community case management, and pre- and in-service capacity building in malaria case management, MiP, and Maternal and Child Health.

PATH is seeking a highly motivated individual with strong public health skills with a focus on MCH technical skills and public health implementation experience, significant experience in directly supporting the ministries of health, MCH divisions, and country-level stakeholders, robust analytical and writing skills, and strong communication skills, including high-level proficiency in English.

Key Responsibilities

• Provide overall MCH technical backstop for the project in the country.
• Lead technical, management, and monitoring aspects of project activity implementation, and ensure adherence to USG technical guidance and global best practices.
• Provide technical guidance to national and subnational levels in development of policies, guidelines, training materials in MCH and participate in relevant MCH technical working groups.
• Provide technical support for the implementation of REACH activities in Malawi, with a focus on improving the quality of clinical and community management of MCH programs, immunization including malaria vaccine, and linkage to malaria prevention and case management and malaria in pregnancy, strengthening referral systems, and pre- and in-service capacity building.
• Maintain current technical knowledge on malaria, MCH, nutrition, and other related public health topics, and manage introduction and scale-up of best practices and technical interventions
• Assist the Chief of Party in developing annual work plans, budgets and performance reports.
• Manage and supervise technical teams in implementation of program activities
• Work with the MoH to actively use data for decision-making and to identify how malaria control activities and the impact can be sustained over time.
• Take on duties as may be assigned by the Chief of Party and other senior partners

REQUIRED SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE

• Clinical degree qualification (MD, clinical officer, nursing, midwife) preferred.
• Masters degree in Public Health, reproductive health, paediatrics, obstetrics, gynaecology, epidemiology, medical or related field.
• At least 7-10 years of progressive experience in providing technical assistance and/or direct implementation experience of public health programs, preferably within the Malawian health system.
•  Experience designing and/or implementing integrated health programs with a focus on MCH.
• Excellent technical skills in the areas of maternal and child health, immunization, public health programs including malaria, with experience in surveillance, monitoring, and evaluation with the ability to deliver quality, high impact projects while providing value to donors.
• Expertise in working with Ministries of Health and other stakeholders, donors, and partners to develop and build consensus on implementation plans and manage them to success.
• Experience working with USG funding mechanisms.
• Demonstrated experience working in coordination with international, regional, and national NGOs.
• Excellent interpersonal skills with ability to interact in a culturally sensitive manner with diverse internal and external individuals.
• Critical thinker, creative problem-solver, and innovator.
• Strong writing skills are an advantage.
• Ability to travel for an estimated 20-30% of the time.

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