Associate, Oxygen Access

Akwajobs   (Yaoundé, Centre, Cameroun)

Posted : 15 July, 2021

Category : Healthcare & Sustainable Development   Location : Yaoundé, Centre, Cameroun

Job type : Full Time

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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

In 2007, CHAI began work in Cameroon with a focus on improving access to HIV diagnosis, care, and treatment. Since then, the partnership between Cameroon’s MOH and CHAI has evolved from being HIV-centered to a wide range of cross cutting health system challenges. CHAI has since supported the MOH in strengthening health financing, developing a universal health coverage scheme, supply chain management, and provided technical assistance across various vertical programs including HIV, EPI, MNCH, sexual and reproductive health, malaria, cancer and more recently COVID-19 diagnosis.

Hypoxemia, abnormally low levels of oxygen in the blood, is a common potentially-fatal complication in multitude of illnesses including pneumonia, meningitis, malaria, neonatal sepsis and respiratory distress syndrome. Affecting many patient groups and regardless of disease, hypoxemia increases mortality by up to 7 times. Oxygen therapy is the only treatment for hypoxemia (and has the potential to reduce mortality, , particularly in vulnerable populations such as newborns, children, and pregnant women. CHAI’s Essential Medicines team has historically been working to expand access to medical oxygen in countries with high rates of mortality for paediatric pneumonia. More recently, the team has begun work in additional geographies catalysed by the critical need for oxygen access in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic response. With funding from Unitaid, CHAI is supporting the government of Cameroon to improve and ensure reliable access to a comprehensive respiratory care treatment package, both as part of the immediate COVID-19 response and longer-term.

CHAI Cameroon is seeking a dynamic, energetic, and high-motivated individual with exceptional people skills to fit the position of Associate for Oxygen Access to support the government in increasing access to oxygen therapy. The ideal candidate will have excellent interpersonal skills and engage with a wide variety of stakeholders, providing technical support across multiple workstreams including national strategy development and costing; procurement, supply chain, and inventory management; clinical training and mentoring; and health information systems amongst others. The associate will be able to work independently and with flexibility with a strong commitment to work excellence. We are keen to hear from people with above attributes.

This position requires an individual with a self-starter attitude who is comfortable working with minimal direction, with the ability to apply systems thinking to their everyday work. The position also requires that the individual be capable of building strong and effective working relationships with a variety of stakeholders in the government, health facilities, and NGOs.

The Associate for Oxygen Access will report to CHAI Cameroon’s Country Representative and work closely with Country Leadership and other team members, as well as CHAI’s global Essential Medicines Team. This position will be based in Yaoundé, with significant local travel and minimal travel to other counties. The duration of the assignment will be for an initial period of 7 months.

• Provide technical and coordination support to the Cameroon’s MOH to develop a national strategy or roadmap to scale-up oxygen access, and conduct costing of validated roadmap.
• Support establishment of a dedicated ministry working group for oxygen access and build the capacity of relevant MOH staff in coordination of all oxygen-related activities in the country; act as secretariat to the working group, which may include drafting presentations, meeting agendas, and taking meeting minutes amongst others.
• Support broader advocacy and resource mobilization efforts for oxygen access, e.g. drafting grant proposals, concept notes, presentations, budgets.
• Support national quantification exercises for oxygen equipment and supplies.
• Support integration of oxygen equipment procurement and distribution into existing routine supply chain processes and systems, such as the country’s logistics management information system (LMIS/eLMIS).
• Develop or update national standards and guidelines for oxygen equipment (or biomedical equipment [BME]) procurement, donation, and regulation.
• Develop monitoring & evaluation tools and data collection processes for CHAI and ministry use, at the national, county, and health facility levels.
• Support integration of hypoxemia-related indicators into national HMIS
• Support planning and implementation of clinical training and mentoring in oxygen, including revision of training and mentoring materials, tracking training gaps and progress.
• Support improvement of the Ministry’s oxygen equipment or BME inventory management systems, through development of inventory management tools, routine maintenance schedules and standard operating procedures (SOPs) and supporting capacity-building of biomedical technicians (BMETs) and facility health workers.
• Regularly liaise with MOH units, other government agencies, NGOs and international multilateral organizations for oxygen-related work and serve as focal person at relevant workshops and meetings.
• Lead internal communications on key donor reporting deadlines to relevant team members - work closely with Finance and Administration teams to ensure activity plans and programmatic budgets are shared proactively-coordinate with Country Leadership to ensure any major risks and challenges for programmatic objectives are escalated and addressed accordingly.
• Develop materials and document internal updates to share with other CHAI Cameroon and global team members; highlight opportunities for integration and coordination across work streams wherever possible.
• Conduct literature reviews and research activities as needed, and undertake other duties related to improving oxygen access in Cameroon.
• Other responsibilities as assigned and needed.
• Bachelor’s degree (public health, biomedical sciences or engineering, supply chain, or related discipline) and at least 3 years of professional experience in health systems strengthening, or master’s degree and at least 2 years of relevant experience.
• Experience conducting desk and literature reviews; ability to streamline and synthesize large amounts of information into high-quality documents for a wide range of stakeholders.
• Experience in convening meetings and facilitating discussions among multidisciplinary group of stakeholders; previous experience working with government stakeholders is a strong plus.
• Excellent analytical and communication skills (verbal and written) with high proficiency in MS Office Suite, particularly Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Outlook.
• Proven ability to ability to develop and deliver presentations and program documents with highest standards.
• Strong critical thinking skills and ability to problem-solve independently.
• Great attention to detail, with exceptional organizational, coordination, and time management skills.
• Able to quickly learn and become well-versed in all relevant aspects of oxygen delivery, across components of supply chain, equipment management, human resources, and clinical training, etc.
• Experience in the planning and execution of large-scale projects; including budgeting and activity planning.
• Ability to work independently and effectively in high-pressure, fast-paced environment and handle multiple tasks simultaneously.
• Good mastery of English and French and ability to build relationships and influence stakeholders in both languages.
• Understanding of and sensitivity to limitations in low-resource settings.
• Prior experience in West Africa or other low-resource settings strongly preferred.

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