CHIEF OF PARTY – GAVI At CARE USA

CARE is an international NGO with local staff and community partners in more than 90 countries. We create local solutions to poverty and inequality and we seek dignity for everyone every day and during times of crisis. These solutions have a broad range, from clean water to access to education; from microfinance to ensuring that everyone has nutritious food; from agriculture and climate change to disaster response. CARE puts women and girls at the center of everything we do because they have proven to be the best hope for creating lasting change in the world. Our staff live where they work, which makes us effective at understanding the challenges they face. We’ve been doing this for over 70 years, since World War II. It started with the world’s first CARE Package® of food for the post-war hungry in Europe. Our work today is as important as ever, we believe that poverty and inequality are historic injustices that we can end within a generation, for good. If you share our core beliefs: poverty is an injustice; poverty is solvable; and together, we have the power to end it, join us, and fight with CARE.

Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, has issued a Request for Proposals for Partnerships in support of Gavi’s 2021-2025 Strategy (Gavi 5.0) to reach zero-dose children (children who do not receive any routine vaccine) with immunization services in selected countries in fragile and conflict settings. The RFP focuses on 12 countries across the Sahel region and Horn of Africa. Of the 4.6 million zero dose children who live in these 12 selected countries, 1.3 million are estimated to live in conflict-affected areas.

In order to improve routine childhood vaccinations, Gavi is seeking to develop new partnerships to effectively reach systematically missed communities and zero-dose children by focusing on 1) populations and displaced communities living in areas outside government control, in fragile and conflict settings and along borders and 2) mobile populations, including refugees, residing and moving across borders in areas not reached by governments. An enhanced understanding of these settings, new approaches to reach the target populations and a commitment to evaluation and learning will be required to achieve the project’s objectives.

CARE seeks to lead a consortium of partners, including local health-focused civil society organizations, to support this work in 9 countries: Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Ethiopia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Somalia and South Sudan.

The Chief of Party (COP) will serve as the senior member of the Horn of Africa Consortium and provide technical and management leadership for the project. The primary responsibility of the COP is to provide oversight and leadership to ensure successful progression of the project to meet the project objectives. The COP coordinates the development and oversight of detailed work plans, facilitates communication, coordination, and learning across technical and administrative staff and partners, and ensures provision of high quality technical support. S/he serves as the primary point of contact for the project for information on the progress of all activities under the agreement and establishes/maintains effective mechanisms to ensure that progress and implementation concerns are regularly and promptly addressed and reported. Finally, the COP manages the preparation and presentation of all implementation plans and reports.

Responsibilities:

• Oversee program direction and manage project team to achieve objectives
• Oversee program monitoring, impact evaluation, learning, and communication initiatives
• Build and/or maintain strong networks and relationships with key partners and internally within CARE
• Other duties as assigned

Qualifications:

• Master level degree or higher in public health, medicine, nursing, international development, behavioral science or other relevant fields
• 10+ years of experience successfully managing and leading complex global public health programs, including in fragile/complex settings
• Demonstrated knowledge of concepts, principles and methods to successfully implement large-scale public health programs that include a focus on improving routine childhood vaccinations, particularly in fragile settings
• Demonstrated skills to effectively lead multi-country teams
• Experience supporting health systems strengthening initiatives that include the incorporation of ICT/mobile health platforms to increase program efficiencies and effectiveness
• Experience supporting health programs targeting mobile populations in fragile settings
• Demonstrated skills in effectively collaborating with host governments, donors, UN agencies and other health stakeholders
• Proficient in French, excellent spoken and written English