Cameroon: Senior Associate, Family Planning

Founded in 2002 by President William J. Clinton, the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) is a global health organization committed to strengthening integrated health systems around the world and expanding access to care and treatment for HIV/AIDS, malaria and other illnesses. Based on the premise that business oriented strategy can facilitate solutions to global health challenges, CHAI acts as a catalyst to mobilize new resources and optimize the impact of these resources to save lives, via improved organization of commodity markets and more effective local management. By working in association with governments and other NGO partners, CHAI is focused on large scale impact and, to date, CHAI has secured lower pricing agreements for treatment options in more than 70 countries. In addition, CHAI's teams are working side-by-side with over 30 governments to tackle many of the largest barriers to effective treatment and care.

Over 200 million women around the world have an unmet need for family planning, indicating they would like to stop or limit childbearing, but do not have access to methods to do so. Increasing access to family planning has the potential to reduce maternal and infant mortality, reduce the number of deaths due to unsafe abortion, and improve the health outcomes of women and families overall. In Cameroon, 17% of women have an unmet need for family planning and it is estimated that only 16% of all women are currently using modern methods of family planning.
Since 2012, CHAI has worked with governments, partners and manufacturers to reduce the price of contraceptives and increase access to family planning supplies and services. In sub-Saharan Africa, CHAI supports Ministries to plan, coordinate, and implement family planning scale up, by providing a strong foundation of rigorous analysis and management support to more effectively target interventions, allocate resources, and fill gaps to align contraceptive supplies with human resource capacity and client demand. One particular focus of CHAI's work is to improve quantification and forecasting practices and ensure that sufficient supplies are received nationally and then appropriately distributed where needed sub-nationally. Over the past 2 years, CHAI has supported the Department of Family Health (DSF) within the Ministry of Public Health (MoH) in Cameroon to advance the family planning agenda with data backed and evidence based initiatives. CHAI's support of the MoH and collaboration with UNFPA and other FP partners has significantly improved contraceptive availability throughout the supply chain and enabled a greater financial and geographic accessibility to family planning services.

CHAI in partnership with UNFPA is looking for a Family Planning Senior Associate to support the Ministry of Public Health in Cameroon and collaborate with partners to assemble, organize, and analyze data and generate evidence to inform the continued expansion of quality family planning services to rapidly increase access. The Senior Associate will specifically support the MoH to improve contraceptive security in Cameroon through ensuring a yearly robust quantification and appropriate contraceptive procurement and by monitoring and troubleshooting contraceptive distribution throughout the supply chain. Additionally, the Senior Associate will support the Department of Pharmacy, Medicine, and Laboratory (DPML) with the rollout of an electronic logistics management information system (eLMIS), which will link the central and regional levels of the supply chain with the aim to improve the management of contraceptives and essential medicines.

The Senior Associate will be based Yaoundé and will report to the Country Director with support from the the DRC Program Manager and the CHAI Family Planning global staff. Frequent travel in-country will be required. The Senior Associate will work very closely with the DSF, the DPML, and UNFPA as well as, interacting on a regular basis with donors and implementing partners, to perform the analysis needed to ensure contraceptive security and complete rollout of the eLMIS.

In providing technical assistance to the Ministry of Public Health, the Senior Associate must be able to adapt quickly to new environments and scenarios, problem solve independently and with limited supervision, and process large amounts of information logically and efficiently. The Senior Associate must develop a thorough understanding of the family planning supply chain and service delivery systems in Cameroon, and stay up to date on issues of interest in the space.

The Family Planning Senior Associate will work with the Ministry of Public Health, UNFPA, and relevant partners to:

· Ensure a robust yearly quantification of contraceptive needs that reflects the true demand for family planning commodities and work with UNFPA and the MoH to coordinate procurement
• Analyze contraceptive volumes and distribution patterns at the regional level to rationalize distribution and provide ongoing troubleshooting throughout the supply chain to ensure volumes distributed match needs and human resource capacity
• Support the Department of Pharmacy, Medicine, and Laboratory with the rollout of the eLMIS for pharmaceutical products at central and regional level
• Quantify gaps in funding needed for the eLMIS rollout and provide additional analysis as needed to advocate for this funding
• Support the Department of Family Health/MoH with the implementation and monitoring of the activities in the Family Planning Operational Plan, including year FP training plans

• Collaborate with government to ensure skills transfer and government ownership, identify the most critical hurdles to scale-up, and develop innovative strategies to address them.
• Liaise closely with technical partners in government to monitor and evaluate interventions against objectives and targets, bringing in technical expertise when needed to ensure rapid implementation
• Develop strong working relationships with key stakeholders in government, international partners, donors and NGOs, and ensure maximum coordination of resources and effort for successful implementation and scale-up
• Perform other tasks as necessary

Bachelor's degree and a minimum of three years of work experience in a demanding and fast-paced environment
• Excellent problem solving, analytical, and quantitative skills, including very high proficiency in Excel
• Strong diplomatic and interpersonal skills, and ability to build strong, intercultural, professional relationships with a range of stakeholders
• Ability to learn quickly and absorb and synthesize a broad range of information
• Ability to handle multiple work streams in parallel, set priorities, and work independently and quickly with limited supervision
• Strong organizational skills
• Strong written and oral communication skills in English and French

Preferred qualifications:
• Master Degree in Public Health, or other relevant field
• Experience working in developing countries, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa and with governments
• Experience working in procurement and supply chain management
• Experience with quantification and forecasting of commodities

High levels of proficiency in Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and internet applications

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