HIV Advisor

Job Description

SUSTAINING TECHNICAL AND ANALYTIC RESOURCES

FELLOWSHIP TITLE: HIV Advisor
HOST ORGANIZATION: Health Office, Nepal, United States Agency for International Development

LOCATION: Kathmandu, Nepal

POSITION LEVEL: Mid-Career Technical Advisor

STAR-P1-034

TRAVEL: 20% estimated travel

ABOUT THE FELLOWSHIP

The STAR Fellowship is a two-year global health and learning opportunity with:

• Individualized, tailored support to enhance the fellow’s achievement personal and professional goals
• Personalized learning plans and access to learning resources (courses, conferences, mentoring) based on fellow’s learning style and preferences.
• Access to broad professional networks to enhance peer learning and knowledge sharing.

FELLOWSHIP OPPORTUNITY DESCRIPTION

Background:

Nepal has approximately 47,500 people living with HIV and is characterized as a concentrated epidemic with prevalence under 0.5%. The epidemic is key populations driven, with predominately heterosexual transmission. People who inject drugs, men who have sex with men, male sex workers, female sex workers, transgender people, and seasonal labor migrants (migrating to high HIV prevalence areas in India) are the key populations at higher risk for HIV.

Nepal was recently identified by the Office of the Global AIDS Coordinator (O/GAC) as an “Accelerate and Achieve” country in the Asia region, on track to attain HIV epidemic control (90-90-90) over the next two years. The Government of Nepal (GON) has developed and leads a national HIV prevention and treatment program with support by donors. Nepal’s largest HIV donor is the Global Fund (GF), followed by USAID. USAID is the only U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) funded agency in Nepal. USAID’s budget for HIV/AIDS has doubled in the last four months and now constitutes 16% of USAID’s health assistance to Nepal.

USAID’s HIV programs in Nepal began in 1993 and have contributed to the GON’s national HIV response. These contributions have resulted in the development of epidemic-tailored programs for Nepal’s key populations and people living with HIV and their families. USAID’s HIV and reproductive health programs have improved access to sexually transmitted infections management and HIV-related prevention, care, support, and treatment services in Nepal. Largely due to the implementation of evidence-based, targeted prevention interventions among key population groups, new infections have significantly decreased over time.

Introduction:

The HIV Advisor (Advisor) will provide technical advice for USAID/Nepal’s growing HIV portfolio, specifically focusing on HIV clinical services. The Advisor will coordinate with other USAID offices (in Nepal and the Regional Development Mission for Asia), the PEPFAR Asia Regional Coordination Unit (PARCU) in Bangkok, O/GAC, development partners, the GON, and civil society; and serve as a liaison with GF to advance the GON’s, US Government’s (USG), GF’s, and other stakeholders’ shared plan to achieve epidemic control. They will provide technical direction for the design of all new HIV programs, and the adjustment of current programs to accelerate the achievement of epidemic control. They will coordinate data quality reviews, management, and evaluation of all USAID/PEPFAR HIV investments. They will advise USAID senior management on all HIV strategy and operations, and will incorporate evidence-informed programming, maximizing impact by coordinating across sectors, and leveraging investments of other development partners and all levels of the GON. The Advisor will provide technical guidance to both USAID/Nepal and the Chief of Mission (COM) on HIV technical direction. The Advisor is expected to provide technical guidance and participate with the USG in shaping the national HIV dialogue and response plan leading to the attainment of near epidemic control over a two-year period.

Reporting structure:

The Advisor will be based at the USAID office in Nepal. They will work closely with and receive technical direction from HIV & Family Planning Team Leader and the Health Office Director. The Health Office Director will serve as their Onsite Manager.

Essential Duties and Outcomes:

The Advisor will provide technical guidance and advice related to HIV clinical services to USAID; support program management including PEPFAR administrative requirements, monitoring and evaluation (M&E) and partner management; and serve as a key technical advisor within the HIV sector, including coordination with donors and GON, etc. The Advisor will also provide capacity building and technical guidance to USAID staff. They will also play a key coordination and communication role for PEPFAR Nepal with the PEPFAR Asia Regional Coordination Unit in Bangkok and as needed, with O/GAC.

HIV prevention, treatment, control and support programs in Nepal are accelerated to achieve epidemic control (50%)

• Provide expert technical guidance and advice to the USG in Nepal, including USAID and other Agencies (primarily Department of State), as well as to advice to relevant stakeholders outside the US Embassy, including GON, other donors, civil society, and others.
• Engage in the national dialogue on HIV, moving the national response forward technically and programmatically.
• Identify target sites/or districts/provinces for future USAID support based on data analysis; research; and political, donor, and USAID programming landscape analysis.
• Identify and work to scale-up the capacity of local implementing partners (IPs) and lead the development of a local partners’ strategy.
• Develop scale-up plans for accelerating achievement of epidemic control, including case finding, Antiretroviral Therapy enrollment and retention, and viral load testing.

• Provide technical guidance and advice on the design of new HIV activities to ensure their relevance to epidemic control.
• Play a coordination and communication function for PEPFAR Nepal, ensuring that the program responds to O/GAC and PARCU data and information requests in a timely manner.

Build the capacity of USAID/Nepal, GON and Implementing Partners to leverage USAID/PEPFAR investments to achieve epidemic control through donor coordination and use of data analysis for program decision making. (40%)

• Work with development partners and the GON to target and align PEPFAR programs with epidemiological and program data and areas of unmet need for HIV services.
• Work with USAID M&E staff, lead USAID/PEPFAR’s data quality assurance plans.
• Work with the GON on setting annual targets and ensure that IPs successfully communicate performance against targets, key challenges and suggestions to overcome obstacles.
• Design and regularly update USAID’s HIV data presentations as new information becomes available.
• Review USAID IP performance on a regular basis; Provide advice and guidance on the on-going monitoring, evaluation, and partner management for all HIV activities, ensuring that adjustments are made to increase effectiveness and address problems promptly as needed.
• Strengthen HIV donor coordination and technical collaboration to achieve the greatest synergies with available resources.
• Strengthen coordination and collaboration among USAID’s PEPFAR IPs, the GON, and other donors, including the GF.
• Facilitate engagement and information sharing among technical staff at USAID.

Anticipated learning outcomes: * Required 10% time

• Demonstrate proficiency across the core global health competencies defined as development practice, cross cultural awareness, communication, capacity strengthening, ethics of public health, health equity, gender equality and global burden of disease that is necessary for persons practicing in global health.
• Cultivate mentorship skills based on the STAR GH mentorship curriculum to more effectively support and improve knowledge transfer and skills acquisition of staff, incoming fellows and interns.
• Advance leadership skills to successful support capacity building and knowledge sharing activities, and mentor and develop junior staff.
• Apply leadership skills and technical expertise to support programmatic growth and scale up of HIV epidemic control programs.

FELLOWSHIP REQUIREMENTS

Required:

• A medical degree is required.
• A minimum of 7 years of experience with HIV clincal and/or public health programming.
• Demonstrated success in managing or supporting HIV programming, including services for high risk key populations, preferably in Asia, is required.
• A minimum of three years of prior PEPFAR program experience is essential and is required.
• Demonstrated success in coordination and collaboration with a variety of development partners.
• Ability to analyze, communicate, and translate data/evidence into program and policy guidance.
• Excellent HIV data presentation skills are essential for this position.
• Strong interpersonal skills and excellent oral communication and writing skills.
• Ability to work in teams and advance teamwork.
• Demonstrated flexibility and openness in responding to PEPFAR and O/GAC work priorities and deadlines.
• Full professional proficiency in English.

About the Organization

STAR PROGRAM DESCRIPTION

Sustaining Technical and Analytic Resources (STAR) is a project of the Public Health Institute (PHI) supported by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) Global Health (GH) Bureau. Its purpose is twofold: (1) Through individual fellowships, STAR will help strengthen the capacity of diverse American and low-and-middle-income country (LMIC) health professionals at all levels to make innovative contributions to global health (GH); and (2) STAR will create ground-breaking opportunities for both US and LMIC GH academic institutions and other groups, including professional associations, to create systems for open-access knowledge sharing, resulting in effective partnerships. STAR’s individual and institutional participants are contributing to the development of self-sustaining systems and tools that will produce global citizens with the full spectrum of relevant health competencies. STAR is managed by the Public Health Institute and implemented in partnership with Johns Hopkins University (JHU), the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), and the Consortium of Universities for Global Health (CUGH).