Program Officer, Community Health
Yaoundé
- Organization: CHAI - Clinton Health Access Initiative
- Location: Yaoundé
- Grade: Junior level - Entry Level - Open for both International and National Professionals
-
Occupational Groups:
- Public Health and Health Service
- Social Affairs
- Civil Society and Local governance
- Project and Programme Management
- Closing Date:
Program Officer, Community Health
- Country
- Cameroon
- Type
- Full Time
- Program (Division)
- Health Systems Strengthening - Health Workforce
- Telecommute
- No
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 make big changes that challenge what people think is possible to help millions of people stay healthy and live longer.
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. Today, thanks in part to CHAI’s efforts, over 20 million people in low- and middle-income countries have access to high-quality medicines. Drugs that used to cost US$10,000 per patient per year now cost US$45 per patient per year. See more on our role in catalysing the change here.
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 malaria, tuberculosis, and hepatitis. Our work has also expanded into sexual and reproductive health, 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 skillsets and life experiences. CHAI is deeply grounded in the countries we work in, with 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.
Country Program Overview
CHAI began working in Cameroon in 2007 to improve HIV diagnosis, treatment, and care. We’ve partnered with the Ministry of Public Health to expand access to pediatric and second-line antiretroviral therapy, enhance laboratory systems, and introduce point-of-care testing and mobile health technology for early infant diagnosis. By integrating HIV, viral load, and tuberculosis testing, we’ve improved disease management. We also support access to newer HIV medications and maternal and child health initiatives, including family planning and severe malaria treatment.
Recently, CHAI has intensified collaboration with the National Malaria Control Program (NMCP), the Directorate of Healthcare Organization and Health Technologies (DOSTS), and government partners to strengthen health service delivery, surveillance systems, and data utilization for informed decision-making. These engagements seek to accelerate progress over the next four years toward malaria elimination while simultaneously strengthening public health infrastructure from community through facility levels. With co-funding through the Global Fund’s Building Integrated Readiness for Community Health (BIRCH) initiative, we are working with the government to strengthen a sustainable national community health program.
Position Overview
CHAI has a long history of supporting ministries of health to strengthen community-based approaches to expand access to care, increase service uptake, and accelerate progress toward universal health coverage and disease-specific objectives. We focus on developing evidence-based community health policies and implementation plans, building robust community-based information systems, fostering multi-sectoral collaboration, and aligning Community Health Worker (CHW) programs with best practices. CHAI seeks a highly motivated individual to lead this portfolio of work within Cameroon.
This role involves supporting the government of Cameroon in fortifying existing CHW platforms to optimize their case management and surveillance contributions. The goal is to integrate CHWs as sustainable, cross-cutting community health infrastructure within the country's health system. Beyond providing technical support to ongoing CHW programs, the successful candidate will identify and pursue strategic opportunities to further strengthen community health. This includes contributing to the implementation of the BIRCH project, developing sustainable, scalable community health systems integrated into primary healthcare, and optimizing CHW contributions to preventive and curative malaria, TB, and HIV intervention coverages.
The ideal candidate has experience strengthening CHW programs, from a policy or implementation standpoint. The individual should possess strong technical, organizational, and project management skills, coupled with exceptional communication and cultural sensitivity. The ability to conduct rapid analysis and effectively convey findings is essential. Given the role's focus on Cameroon, frequent domestic travel is required.
- Serve as a trusted community health advisor to the CHAI country team and external stakeholders, including (national and subnational) government bodies and non-governmental organizations.
- Lead comprehensive assessments of the community health program to generate evidence for updating the national CHW strategy, including conducting midterm reviews, maturity assessments, financial resource mapping, gap analysis, and developing strategic tools and interventions.
- Assist in developing and executing evidence-based community health policies, strategies, and operational plans to increase effective coverage of community-based malaria and non-malaria interventions.
- Strengthen systems and processes for the collection, integration and analysis of CHW data.
- Routinely track and analyse CHW data to make recommendations for continuous quality improvement processes within CHW programs; use data and evidence to inform targeted improvements to training and supervision, resource mobilization strategies, and grant applications.
- Identify opportunities for multi-sectoral collaboration, ensuring that community health is integrated across health initiatives and that efforts are aligned with broader health and development goals.
- Lead knowledge-sharing activities to document and exchange lessons learned across regions.
- Foster strong relationships and collaboration with community leaders and organizations and engage them to contribute to building effective community health systems.
- Identify new opportunities within Cameroon for collaboration, partnership, and funding.
- Bachelor’s degree or equivalent with 5 years of work experience; or advanced degree with 2 years of relevant work experience.
- Fluency in English and French, with proficiency in both written and verbal communication.
- Demonstrated technical expertise in community health systems and community health work.
- Strong cross-cultural communication and diplomacy skills.
- Demonstrated analytical, leadership, and problem-solving skills.
- Experience conducting evaluations and literature reviews.
- Ability to work independently and with teams across time zones and locations, managing multiple tasks effectively in high-pressure situations.
- Experience working in high-risk and low/middle-income countries
- Strong work ethic, integrity, credibility, and dedication to CHAI’s mission and values.
- High proficiency with Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.
Advantages
- Experience working and communicating with government officials and multilateral organizations in Africa.
- An MPH or MS in public health, Epidemiology, or relevant public health experience.
- Familiarity with monitoring and evaluation of surveillance systems and public health programs.
- Experience with research or programming on malaria or other infectious diseases.
- Experience with case management, disease surveillance, and/or supply chain management.
- Practical experience in providing technical support in developing countries, preferably in Africa.
This position offers a unique opportunity to significantly impact public health in Cameroon. If you are passionate about health systems - especially community health systems - and possess the necessary skills and experience, we encourage you to apply.
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Applications from non-qualifying applicants will most likely be discarded by the recruiting manager.