Technical Advisor, Data Impact, Francophone Africa

Technical Advisor, Data Impact, Francophone Africa

Data Impact Program, Data for Health Initiative:

The Bloomberg Philanthropies Data for Health Initiative aims to enhance public health data collection and use in low- and middle-income countries. Under this Initiative, Vital Strategies, in partnership with other global public health organizations, is implementing a multi-year program to provide support to numerous countries in Africa, Latin America, Asia, and the Pacific in improving public health data systems, such as civil registration and vital statistics and cancer registries, and enhancing the use of data for decision making.

As part of the Data for Health Initiative, the Data Impact Program (DIP) provides technical assistance to government public health agencies and national statistics institutes to support capacity development in the domain of data use, i.e., analysis, presentation, dissemination and translation of data into policy. The Program’s objective is to help governments systematically strengthen the use of data in policy development and other key decision areas – to prevent data that has been collected from being “left on the shelf” (or on a computer). In each country, a specific activity plan is determined collaboratively with government partners, reflecting government priorities and requested areas of support.

Job Purpose:

The Technical Advisor (TA) will provide direct technical assistance to government partners and participate in the development and implementation of global technical assistance strategies that maximize the impacts of data on health policy and program processes and advance global knowledge on that subject. Under the guidance and supervision of the Principal Technical Advisor, the TA will participate in the development of technical content to support best practices in data analysis, synthesis, presentation, and dissemination of data for decision-making and provide technical assistance to national ministries of health and other key stakeholders. The TA will focus on digital solutions for advancing the analysis and use of data and will communicate frequently with government partners and other stakeholders. This position will be supporting our Francophone countries and requires French proficiency.

Duties and Responsibilities:

Program Development and Implementation -

• Establish relationships and collaborate with senior government officials and policy stakeholders to develop detailed country-owned work plans and oversee their implementation. ;
• Manage the provision of technical assistance to the countries to achieve work plan objectives, curate best practices, and promote the sustainability of successful approaches.
• Manage in-country project staff and consultants;
• Participate in the development, dissemination, and application of technical resources, including guidelines, training materials and toolkits, that aid stakeholders in using data effectively to enhance health policies and programs;
• Participate in training, mentoring, advising and other technical assistance activities on topics related to data use in public health policy;
• Monitor the implementation of activities, track impact against key project milestones and deliverables, and propose adjustments to work plans (as needed);
• Identify opportunities and participate in developing strategies and tools for institutionalizing best practices;
• Contribute to the development and advancement of digital solutions that promote the use of data for decision-making.
• Participate in the Data for Health community efforts to advance global knowledge based on DIP country experiences and lessons learned.

Administration/Finance -

• Ensure the execution of agreements with relevant stakeholders (e.g., Memorandum of Understanding, subgrant agreements, fiscal agent agreements, and other contractual relationships);
• Manage the allocation of available resources (e.g. staff time, money, materials) to maximize country results;
• Monitor budget and track expenses against key project milestones and deliverables;
• Serve as the primary point of communication between the Data for Health Initiative and government officials, internal technical advisors and external consultants in specific countries;
• Other duties as assigned.

Qualifications:

Education and Degree -

• Bachelor’s degree in a relevant field (e.g., public health, epidemiology, demography, data science) required. Master’s degree preferred.

Skills and Abilities -

• Ability to participate in and contribute to training, mentoring, advising, and other technical assistance activities focused on data use in public health policy and decision-making;
• Demonstrated experience and expertise related to health information systems, data management and analysis, and/or data-driven public health practice;
• Proven ability to establish and maintain relationships with senior government officials and policy stakeholders to collaboratively develop detailed, country-owned work plans and oversee their successful implementation.
• Demonstrated ability to monitor budgets and track expenses to ensure alignment with financial plans and organizational goals;
• Excellent written and oral communication skills;
• Proficiency in the design, development, or implementation of digital solutions for health care planning, management and decision-making;
• Strong interpersonal skills;
• Ability to build strong, ongoing, impactful relationships across sectors and organizational levels that involve a diverse range of cultural, generational, ethnic, racial, educational, and social backgrounds;
• Commitment to valuing diversity and contributing to an inclusive working and learning environment.

Experience:

Required -

• Eight or more years of relevant experience in epidemiology/demography, health informatics, data science, and/or global health policy;
• Proficiency in oral and written English and French is required, proficiency in other languages will be an advantage;
• Experience working in low- and middle-income countries and on projects with strong data components;
• Prior experience working in or with the government ministries that focus on public health;
• Experience delivering training or capacity strengthening to professional audiences;
• Project management experience;
• Experience with design, development or implementation of digital solutions for health care planning, management and decision-making;
• Experience with statistical software packages such as R, STATA or SPSS.

Preferred -

• Prior experience with visualization software such as Tableau or Power BI;
• Experience working and/or living in any of the Francophone nations in Africa.

Working Conditions and Physical Requirements:

• This is a full-time position that may be based in the U.S. (preferably in the New York tri-state area), Canada (Ontario or Quebec), or Rwanda. Candidates must have legal authorization to work in their respective country at the time of hire. If based in the New York tri-state area, the candidate will be expected to follow Vital’s hybrid work schedule;

• Vital Strategies offers a competitive compensation package aligned with the cost of labor in the country where the employee resides. Salary will be determined based on the candidate’s location and experience, and in accordance with local market benchmarks;

• The salary range for this position in the New York tri-state area is USD $95,000 to USD $104,500. In Canada, the salary range is CAD $94,500 to CAD $105,800;
• The candidate hired for this role will be required to travel internationally up to 30% of the time.

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