Program Officer – Family Planning, Breakthrough ACTION

Job Description

General Summary/Purpose

Breakthrough ACTION is a five-year cooperative agreement funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to lead their social behavior change (SBC) programming around the world. Breakthrough ACTION is a partnership led by the Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs (CCP) in collaboration with Save the Children, ThinkAction, ideas42, Camber Collective, International Center for Research on Women, and Viamo. The project works in partnership with governments, civil society and communities to implement creative and sustainable SBC programming, nurture SBC champions, mainstream new techniques and technologies and advocate for strategic and sustained investment in SBC.

The Breakthrough ACTION core family planning program develops and tests new SBC tools, provides technical assistance to national, regional and global partners, and leads work around global and regional level advocacy for SBC in family planning and fostering shared agendas of work among global partners.

The Program Officer will provide technical, programmatic, and administrative assistance to the family planning team as part of the Breakthrough ACTION project. The Program Officer provides day-to-day input into technical work, writing and editing, program management, problem solving, and procurement processing as required related to several family planning and/or gender-related activities. The Program Officer will travel internationally to deliver short-term technical assistance (STTA) with direction.

Specific Duties & Responsibilities

Technical Work

• Contribute to technical work, including strategies, toolkits, communication materials, scripts, job aides, independently.
  • Gather, summarize, synthesize relevant background information to inform the above technical work
  • Use tools, processes, best-practices and colleague review to ensure all products and documents are of the highest quality possible
• Contribute to in-country STTA, including trainings, workshops, and program support, with direction

Program Management

• Manage project activities, independently
  • Format, edit and produce documents and presentations as needed
  • Contribute to work plans, reports and budgets
  • Organize in-person and virtual meetings and consultations
  • Act as liaison for consultant activities, ensuring statement of work, contract and deliverables are in place
  • Initiate, track and monitor procurements, contracts, work plans and other administrative and programmatic documents
  • Work closely with finance and administrative staff to ensure timely and compliant spending
  • Maintain frequent, open, ongoing communication with program team members in all locations (offsite, in headquarters, and internationally)
  • Liaise with internal and external partners
  • Adhere to JHU, CCP and donor rules, regulations and policies
  • Upload and save deliverables on relevant knowledge management platforms

People Management

• May independently manage work of student employees
• Assist in orienting and training new staff members
• May manage group work with support, including task coordination and management
• This position has no assigned supervisory duties

Professional and Organizational Growth

• Contribute to center-wide initiatives, independently
  • May include brown bags, communities of practice, etc.
• Contribute to proposal development (technical, budget, coordination) with direction
• Represent JHU and CCP at relevant external meetings and events
  • May include delivering technical presentations, networking and relationship building
• Stay abreast of technical updates in the field of family planning
• Professionally engage and collaborate with other programs across the Center
• Proactively seek opportunities to expand leadership and management skills
  • Complete at least two JHU training courses related to job duties per year.
• Request or initiate quarterly check-in meetings with supervisor to assess performance, strengths and areas for improvement in your current position, and establish professional goals
• Work with senior staff and peers to identify opportunities for professional development, including JHU courses and seminars, conferences, etc.

Minimum Qualifications (Required)

Master’s degree (M.A., MHS, MPH) required.

• Three (3) years related experience required in family planning and social and behavior change, with knowledge of relevant research, programs, global stakeholders and coordinating initiatives working in family planning. Excellent writing skills are essential. Strong interpersonal and presentation skills required.

Additional relevant experience and/or training may substitute for some education, to the extent permitted by the JHU equivalency formula.

Preferred Qualifications

French language working proficiency strongly preferred.

• Experience in gender integration and gender transformative programs preferred.
• International experience preferred.
• Experience in advocacy a plus.
• Strong interpersonal and presentation skills required.
• Excellent writing skills are essential.

About the Organization

Helping people make healthy choices has been the goal of CCP since its formal opening in 1988. But our history starts a decade before that, when, in 1979, Dr. Phyllis Piotrow brought the project that became the Population Information Program to the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. In 1982, she added the Population Communication Services project.

In 1988, in recognition of the crucial role of communication in public health, JHU established the Center for Communication Programs, better known around the world as CCP. Since that time, CCP’s powerful programming, teaching and research has touched a billion people. Today, CCP has more than 60 projects that reach people in more than 40 countries and has yearly expenditures of over $100 million. Our major donors include the United States Agency for International Development, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, UNICEF, DFID, and more. CCP is now based within the Department of Health, Behavior and Society at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

We invite you to learn more about our work, our staff and our vision for the future of communication in public health.

Learn more about CCP here: https://ccp.jhu.edu/about-ccp/