Program Officer, GAVI Transition, Indonesia Vaccines Delivery Team

Job Description

CHAI’s Vaccines program

Immunization is one of the most successful public health interventions in history. National immunization programs reach >100 million infants every year and have averted globally two to three million deaths every year since the launch of the Expanded Program for Immunization (EPI) in 1974, whilst the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV) and rotavirus vaccines could save ~1 million lives per year. Furthermore, great advances in discovering and financing new vaccines provides a great opportunity for countries to further reduce burden of disease such as human papillomavirus (HPV). Despite these successes, 1.5 million children still die each year of vaccine-preventable diseases, many of them in low-income countries, as immunization programs there face unprecedented challenges.

Since 2010, the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) has worked to save lives and reduce the burden from vaccine preventable diseases by improving access to immunization services in resource-limited setting by strengthening national immunization programs and by leveraging its experience in-country to improve the global immunization ecosystem. CHAI is pursuing six complementary strategic goals:
1. Improving affordability and supply security of immunization products;
2. Accelerating the uptake of new or under-utilized vaccines;
3. Enhancing the performance of vaccine cold chain and logistics systems to increase effective immunization coverage;
4. Improving the design and implementation of service delivery to reach the unreached
5. Supporting successful transition from Gavi support; and
6. Strengthening the management system and capacity of immunization programs

CHAI’s vaccine program very closely supports the national immunization programs in 11 focus countries - Cameroon, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Lao PDR, Lesotho, Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda and Vietnam- and also engages with global stakeholders such as Gavi, WHO and UNICEF to inform global policies and practices.

Gavi transition

In Gavi-supported countries, Gavi often bears over 70% of immunization costs - a large fraction of this consisting of subsidies for new vaccines introduced with Gavi support. Thus, one of the key concerns is whether countries that transition from Gavi support will be able to sustain their immunization schedule and coverage rates when they are fully self-financing. Countries approaching or currently in transition thus need to think strategically about their financial planning, which new vaccines to introduce, and to plan and mobilize domestic and external resources early to ensure those new vaccine costs can be sustained post-transition.

Once countries are fully self-financing, they will also no longer have access to Gavi Health System Strengthening (HSS) funds, which are the primary source of “change money” for many countries and thus critical to fund much needed improvements to their vaccine delivery system. Once Gavi support ends, countries will lose processes to conduct immunization program planning, review and monitoring with a minimum frequency and quality, currently embedded in Gavi applications and program reviews such as the Gavi Joint Appraisal (JA).

To address these challenges, CHAI will support focus countries (Vietnam, Lao PDR, Indonesia, Kenya, Nigeria) to sustain high immunization coverage, while effectively deploying the limited amount of Gavi support they have before it phases out and ensure high risks and dependencies at the national and subnational level are addressed.

We are seeking a Program Officer to join the Indonesian Vaccines Delivery team and support CHAI’s work in helping the Indonesia government navigate and plan for Gavi transition.
We are seeking a motivated individual with excellent skills in health economic analysis, strong understanding of the Indonesian health financing system and its health decentralization landscape. The candidate should excel at both sound knowledge of historical background in Indonesian health financing and the present institutional arrangement for health planning and budgeting.

The successful candidate will provide support to the vaccine program manager in the following areas:

● Sustainable financing for immunization, including introduction of new vaccines;
● Access to affordable vaccines via effective procurement, payment and financing processes;
● Strengthening of institutional capabilities, in the context of the transition, to ensure sustained program performance;
● Adequate and timely preparations for a successful transition from Gavi support.

Responsibilities:

• Provide operational support for the design and implementation of sustainable financing for immunization particularly for the new vaccines
• Contribute to identifing the gap within the health financing system in Indonesia and other key economic drivers which hinder a succesfully transition especially not limited to new vaccine introductions;
• Provide support to the Indonesian vaccine delivery team in assessing key economic alternatives with respect to the health financing system and with the Indonesian budgeting and planning system;
• Proactively work with corresponding government institution in the area of immunization financing and planning, both within MoH and other relevant ministries, together with the program manager.
• Provide operational support for alternative access to procurement, particularly for new vaccines
• Assist in the analysis of regulatory barriers for new vaccine procurements;
• Contribute to the mapping of stakeholders involved in procurement;
• Provide assistance in cross-communication strategy amongs a variety of stakeholders both within and outside of MoH in procurement.
• To assist in improving and strengthening government institutions particularly in the planning and budgeting both at national and sub-national level
• Provide support in identifying key institutional gaps, capacity and risks affecting the transitioning process, particularly in planning and budgeting;
• Assist in developing key operational planning strategies, and programmatic support to fill the existing gaps and address identified risks;
• Support in developing key economic and institutional analysis relevant to the transitioning process;
• Support the communication and coordination of the vaccine team among key institution for transition, both in planning/budgeting and programmatic management.
• Support the overall preparation of succesfully post-transition period
• Facilitate and assist inter-coordination planning;
• Inform the team and stay updated with recent issues including political and social aspects affecting health and immunization;
• Support in data collection and analysis relevant to the overall program support and strategy.

Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree (Masters-level or above in business, finance, or health science preferred) + at least 3 years of relevant professional experience in public or private sector
• Sound knowledge in Indonesian health financing system, health decentralization and related challenges
• Proficient understanding in Indonesian health planning and budgeting both at national and subnational system and practices
• Good communication and familiarity with Indonesian government style-bureaucratic culture and official communication
• Exceptional problem-solving and analytical skills (qualitative and quantitative), including experience with data analysis, business case analysis, and study design
• Excellent interpersonal and cross-cultural communication skills, with proven track record of building strong & effective working relationships remotely
• Demonstrated capacity to synthesize evidence into effective presentations and actionable recommendations for a broad range of audience, including Ministries of Health, National Planning Biro, Ministry of Finance, global donors and policy makers
• High emotional intelligence, patience and thoughtfulness even in high-pressure, stressful situations; proven ability to build and maintain strong relationships in a complex environment with occasional tensions or conflicts
• Proven project management skills, ability to work effectively in a high-pressure environment and handle multiple tasks simultaneously
• Entrepreneurial mindset, including ability to set priorities, self-motivate, propose and implement new initiatives
• Strong commitment to CHAI’s and the team’s mission, dedicated team player
• Ability to travel extensively (at least 35% of time) to focus countries and other locations as needed for work
• Fluent in English

Advantages

• Knowledge of vaccines, GAVI and other global economic of immunization, including Indonesian macro-economy situation.
• Understanding both national and subnational procurement regulation on health and the role of state-own health manufacturers,
• Experience working in management consulting, investment banking, or similar fast-paced, output-oriented environments
• Experience working and communicating with government officials and multilateral organizations in developing countries

About the Organization

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