The Clinton Health Access Initiative, Inc. (CHAI) is a global health organization committed to our mission of saving lives and reducing the burden of disease in low-and middle-income countries. We work at the invitation of governments to support them and the private sector to create and sustain high-quality health systems.

CHAI was founded in 2002 in response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic, with the goal of dramatically reducing the price of life-saving drugs and increasing access to these medicines in the countries with the highest burden of the disease. Over the following two decades, CHAI has expanded its focus. Today, along with HIV, we work in conjunction with our partners to prevent and treat infectious diseases such as COVID-19, malaria, tuberculosis, and hepatitis. Our work has also expanded into cancer, diabetes, hypertension, and other non-communicable diseases, and we work to accelerate the rollout of lifesaving vaccines, reduce maternal and child mortality, combat chronic malnutrition, and increase access to assistive technology. We are investing in horizontal approaches to strengthen health systems through programs in human resources for health, digital health, and health financing. With each new and innovative program, our strategy is grounded in maximizing sustainable impact at scale, ensuring that governments lead the solutions, that programs are designed to scale nationally, and learnings are shared globally.

At CHAI, our people are our greatest asset, and none of this work would be possible without their talent, time, dedication and passion for our mission and values. We are a highly diverse team of enthusiastic individuals across 40 countries with a broad range of skill sets and life experiences. CHAI is deeply grounded in the countries we work in, with the majority of our staff based in program countries. Learn more about our exciting work: http://www.clintonhealthaccess.org

CHAI is an Equal Opportunity Employer, and is committed to providing an environment of fairness, and mutual respect where all applicants have access to equal employment opportunities. CHAI values diversity and inclusion, and recognizes that our mission is best advanced by the leadership and contributions of people with diverse experience, backgrounds, and culture.

Program Overview

CHAI’s health financing program supports Ministries of Health, Finance, and government insurers to substantially and sustainably improve population access to essential health services, towards the goal of universal health coverage. Financing for health is often insufficient and overly reliant on donors and individuals paying out of pocket at facilities. Donor contributions for health have plateaued, and in many countries are likely to decline in the coming years. While domestic resources for health are increasing, the rate of growth in government spending fluctuates, is often insufficient to meet population needs, and may not be spent efficiently. Countries supported by the global health finance team include Benin, Burkina Faso, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zimbabwe.

CHAI’s health financing strategy supports governments to address these challenges through priority setting and benefits package design; investment in upgrading health systems to deliver an optimized package of services; and strengthening or improving domestic financing through public financial management and strategic purchasing. At the request of governments, our strategy for health financing is expanding to include work in health systems and management, with a focus on building primary health care systems as the foundation of equitable universal health coverage. This work builds on CHAI’s experience in sexual, reproductive, maternal, newborn, and child health; infectious diseases; and health workforce, among other areas. At CHAI, staff work closely with government partners to support evidence-based decision-making and to design systems to ensure resources go as far as possible so that providers can deliver quality care that patients can afford and access.

Position Overview

The goal of CHAI’s Sustainable Health Financing program in Malawi is to support the government to progressively move towards universal health coverage by ensuring that scarce resources are distributed and utilized equitably, efficiently and effectively for the delivery of high-quality health services. The CHAI Malawi Sustainable Health Financing team works closely with departments across the Ministry of Health (MoH), and in particular with the Department of Planning and Policy Development and District Health Management Teams, to provide technical assistance, develop analytical tools, and strengthen capacity to manage spending in Malawi’s health sector.

In Malawi, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM) is a major financing source for the health sector, providing an estimated 27% of all health funding for Fiscal Year 2024-2025.[1] In addition to disease-specific support for HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria, the GFATM contributes Resilient and Sustainable Systems for Health (RSSH) investments for strengthening wider health system building blocks. However, Malawi has historically experienced challenges in mobilizing, managing, and utilizing RSSH funding and aligning it with broader health systems reforms, as articulated in the Health Sector Strategic Plan III (HSSP III) for 2023-2030.

CHAI Malawi seeks a Senior Associate, Resilient and Sustainable Health Systems, based in Lilongwe, Malawi. The Senior Associate will work closely with the Government of Malawi to harmonize and optimize the GFATM’s RSSH investments by addressing the underlying challenges in governance, coordination, and implementation. The Senior Associate will report to the Project Manager, Sustainable Health Financing, within the office’s Health Systems Strengthening Cluster.

This is a challenging but rewarding position which will directly impact the government’s capacity to deliver improved health services for the population of Malawi. It presents an opportunity to work closely with a government that is committed to finding opportunities for sustainable financing of the health sector and delivering a stronger health system for the people of Malawi.

Strengthening the governance and harmonization of RSSH and other health sector investments

• Provide technical assistance to the Ministry of Health in developing, operationalizing, and monitoring its vision for the single PIU structure in line with the Ministry of Health’s “One Plan, One Budget, One Report” approach for improving aid alignment and the Lusaka Agenda. This includes supporting stakeholders to establish a shared vision for this PIU, defining its structure and functions, and creating a phased approach with the Ministry and donors for gradually moving towards the single PIU
• Undertake an assessment of financial management bottlenecks and gaps that would preclude GFATM’s involvement in the single PIU, while supporting both the Ministry of Health and GFATM to develop and operationalize strategies to strengthen the requisite financial systems and address these potential barriers (e.g. supporting the revision of guidelines, standard operating procedures, and other resources to harmonize grant management and compliance process across GFATM and different donors)
• Support the development of the RSSH application for the next GFATM funding cycle, including by ensuring that the HSSP III and its key reforms, such as integrated service delivery and evidence-based health workforce modelling, serve as the basis for the financing request

Strengthening operational coherence across GHIs, including supporting a vision for further sustainability, decentralization, and integration of funding within government systems

• Provide technical assistance to the Ministry of Health in conducting a bottleneck analysis of the grant-making and funding processes of major donors, with the goal of identifying opportunities for maximizing efficiencies and ensuring that resources are channeled to the frontlines of HSSP III implementation. This will include identifying challenges within the proposal development and grant-making processes of Malawi’s major donors and barriers to utilizing the HSSP III to effectively shape funding applications
• Support the development and implementation of strategies for harmonizing sustainability approaches and grant-making requirements across partners, decentralizing funding to the subnational level, and sustainably integrating donor financing within government systems, based on findings from the bottleneck analysis

Cross-cutting

• Build strategic relationships and facilitate meetings with government, donors and external stakeholders to drive operational and policy changes
• Backstop fundraising and resource mobilization efforts for the team, including through targeted technical and coordination support and proposal development
• Contribute to the development of program workplans, budgets, and reporting for internal and external audiences
• Lead preparation of activity budgets and ensure timely liquidation of all activities once completed, in line with CHAI and donor best practices and policies for sound financial management
• Lead activity logistics in collaboration with the CHAI Finance and Operations teams, including disbursing allowances to meeting participants and ensuring that services such as venue hire, conferencing, printing, etc. are available for activities as relevant
• Perform any other relevant duties and lead day-to-day implementation of activities as assigned

• Master’s degree in health systems, health economics, public health, health sciences, public policy, or similar subject preferred; bachelor’s degree with relevant experience will also be considered
• Minimum of three years of professional experience, preferably in health systems strengthening, health financing, health economics, health workforce, public health, public policy, public sector finance, consulting, or other relevant experience
• Knowledge and experience in health systems and health financing, particularly in low- and middle-income countries
• Experience supporting funding applications for GFATM or other major donors, especially for RSSH, and/or working with their financial management systems
• Outstanding analytical skills and advanced proficiency with Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint
• Strategically minded and able to think creatively about long-term program goals and objectives, and the detailed steps necessary to achieve these goals
• Structured thinker with experience analyzing and interpreting complex datasets to identify key trends and to translate them into actionable options for decision-makers
• Strong diplomatic and interpersonal skills and ability to build strategic relationships with government partners, donors and other stakeholders
• Demonstrated ability to deliver excellence in high-pressure situations, set priorities, and adapt to rapidly changing environments
• Excellent organizational and problem-solving skills without need for extensive structural or operational support
• Strong writer, facilitator, and oral communicator, able to distill and explain complex concepts to varied audiences, with demonstrated skills in report and proposal writing
• Self-motivated and able to lead workstreams with a high degree of independence and autonomy
• Team player with the desire and capacity to effectively coach others, based on the team’s professional development needs and as assigned by the supervisor

Advantages

• Experience supporting governments and donors to make health policy, health financing, and health workforce decisions at the national and subnational levels
• Experience with programming/coding, including VBA coding and/or Stata
• Experience working in resource-limited settings and a multicultural office environment, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa

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