Malaria Technical Advisor

The Public Health Institute (PHI) is an independent, nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting health, well-being, and quality of life for people throughout California, across the nation and around the world. As one of the largest and most comprehensive public health organizations in the nation, we are at the forefront of research and innovations to improve the efficacy of public health statewide, nationally, and internationally.

The Global Health Training, Advisory and Support Contract (GHTASC) delivers effective global health programming to advance the mission of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), Bureau for Global Health (GH) through institutional support and workforce development services from junior, mid-level, senior and expert advisory and administrative professionals.

The Africa Bureau’s Office of Sustainable Development (AFR/SD) provides intellectual, technical, and strategic leadership to the bureau on sectoral policies, priorities, and budgets through analyses, strategy development, program design, technical assistance, advocacy, and information dissemination. It comprises four divisions: health; education; conflict, peacebuilding, and governance; and economic growth, agriculture and trade. AFR/SD’s Health Division (where this position will sit) is dedicated to improving health outcomes across Africa and supporting our Missions to do so. Programming roughly $14 million USD each year, the team focuses on: (1) strengthening, supporting, and elevating regional institutions and partnerships; (2) recognizing and leveraging multi-sectoral approaches responsive to key health and development challenges; and (3) identifying and communicating regional trends, challenges, and opportunities. The team, comprised of more than twenty technical experts spanning COVID-19, HIV, TB, malaria, maternal and child health, family planning, health systems strengthening, and global health security- builds relationships between AFR and other work units across the Agency and interagency, ensuring that AFR context is applied to global health policy, programming, and decision-making.

Within the Africa Region, the U.S. President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI) is the USG’s flagship global malaria initiative led by USAID and implemented together with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). The aim of PMI is to reduce the intolerable burden of malaria and help relieve poverty on the African continent. When PMI was launched in 2005, the goal was to reduce malaria-related mortality by 50% by a rapid scale-up of a package of proven malaria prevention and treatment measures: artemisinin-based combination therapy; insecticide-treated mosquito nets, intermittent preventive treatment in pregnancy, and indoor residual spraying. USAID is the lead agency for implementation of the PMI. The contributions of PMI, together with those of other partners, have led to dramatic improvements in the coverage of malaria control interventions in PMI-supported countries, and all 15 original countries have documented substantial declines in all-cause mortality rates among children less than five years of age.

• Provide strategic and programmatic support to a subset of PMI priority countries in Africa, including francophone countries, and participate as an integral member of the PMI interagency country support teams.
• Provide technical expertise to the formulation and review of country specific malaria operational plans and the development of program design and awards for PMI-related activities.
• Contribute expert technical advice to the development of new technical and programmatic guidance on malaria for implementation by PMI programs in Africa.
• Serve as technical advisor and/or activity manager for awards within AFR/SD that contain malaria-specific activities, including AFR/SD’s work to strengthen regional institutions.
• Identify and advance opportunities between malaria and other development sectors to achieve development objectives through cross-sectoral and multi-sectoral integration, as appropriate.
• Monitor and track overall progress of PMI-funded activities managed by AFR and share activity development and progress in various documents and fora, including AFR Health Team and PMI operational plans, progress reports, annual reports, and annual portfolio reviews.
• Serve as a member of the global health country team support system, providing direct support to certain African countries in the region, with a particular focus on PMI priority countries.
• Contribute technical expertise and support PMI representation to interagency technical working groups as well as to high-level meetings to review latest evidence and develop new guidelines.
• Advise AFR leadership and other stakeholders internal and external to the USG about malaria developments and USAID’s role by preparing and conducting presentations and writing papers and other communication materials.
• Serve as a liaison between counterparts in the Bureaus for Africa and Global Health, PMI, and other intra- and inter-Agency colleagues to ensure coordinated support for countries and sub-regions within Africa; advance agency-wide and PMI initiatives; and identify and take advantage of opportunities to increase visibility of the PMI within the global health, development, and foreign policy spaces.
• Travel domestically and internationally (anticipate up to 25%)
• Perform other duties as assigned.

• Master’s degree with 6 years of relevant experience, bachelor’s degree with 8 years of relevant experience, Associate’s degree and 10 years of relevant experience, or High School graduate and 12 years of relevant experience.

• Experience in design, implementation, and evaluation of international health programs.
• Demonstrated ability to identify and solve problems, and coordinate, manage, and support activities that lead to mutual success across the different sectors.
• Demonstrated experience in working with major international donors, multilateral agencies, and nongovernmental/private voluntary organizations.
• Excellent interpersonal and diplomacy skills and demonstrated ability to work both independently and in a team environment.
• High degree of judgment, ingenuity, and originality to interpret strategy and to analyze, develop, and present work results.
• Demonstrated ability to provide intellectual leadership and operate strategically.
• Excellent verbal and written communications skills, including ability to write technical documents and give state-of-the-art presentations to colleagues in and outside of USAID.
• Ability and willingness to travel domestically and internationally (anticipate up to 25%)
• Working-level proficiency in French is preferred.
• US citizenship with the ability to obtain and maintain a Secret Clearance required.

• Innovation: Employee takes initiative to propose new ideas/approaches and demonstrates ability to find new and better ways to accomplish work.
• Customer Service: Handles customer questions and complaints, communicates with customers, handles service problems politely and efficiently, always available for customers, follows procedure to solve customer problems, understands company products and services, maintains pleasant and professional image.
• Accountability: Takes ownership of work responsibilities and holds high standards. Keeps commitments and takes appropriate actions to ensure obligations are met. Pursues efficiency and effectiveness and adheres to organization policies and procedures.
• Interpersonal Skills: Employee demonstrates ability to work in cooperation with others and communicate effectively with co-workers, supervisors, subordinates, clients, and other outside contacts.
• Continual Learning: Assesses and recognizes own strengths and weaknesses; pursues professional development that is aligned with organizational role, contribution, and goals. Proactively shares knowledge with others to foster learning across the organization.