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Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI)

Independent Contractor,
District Program Officer
Location: Three positions, one each in Lilongwe, Blantyre, and Mzimba Districts
Duration: 264 days, subject to extension dependent on performance

Organization Overview
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 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.

Program and Position Overview
CHAI is working with the Government of Malawi and a consortium of partners to develop, implement, monitor, and evaluate a robust project for strengthening maternal and newborn health (MNH) services and improving MNH outcomes.

This MNH initiative will focus on operationalizing priority interventions during antenatal care, labor and delivery, and newborn care targeted at the primary drivers of maternal and neonatal mortality and stillbirths.

Under this project, CHAI staff will work closely with the Ministry of Health and a consortium of implementing partners to implement evidence-based strategies that will:

  • Improve the availability of quality MNH commodities

  • Increase the number, competency, and skill-mix of the MNH workforce

  • Reinforce MNH data in national health information systems

  • Support maternity and neonatal unit infrastructure development

  • Strengthen referrals and emergency transport for obstetric and newborn emergencies

CHAI Malawi seeks three Independent Contractors, District Program Officer, who will each be based in Lilongwe, Blantyre, or Mzimba Districts and seconded to the respective District Health Management Team (DHMT).

The Independent Contractors will report directly to the Director of Health and Social Services in their respective districts. For administrative and contracting issues, the roles will report to the Program Manager for this initiative at CHAI.

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

Responsibilities

  • Serve as the point person at the district level for overall program coordination and implementation, including liaising closely with the DHMTs, health facility staff, and other stakeholders to plan, oversee, monitor, and evaluate program activities and ensuring strong communication among these stakeholders, the Ministry of Health, CHAI, and other implementing partners.

  • Support the scale up evidence-based interventions to address the primary drivers of maternal mortality, stillbirths, and neonatal mortality in high-burden facilities across Lilongwe, Blantyre, and Mzimba Districts. This will include coordinating and facilitating trainings, supportive supervision, skills building visits, and operational research to strengthen the capacity of health facilities to deploy MNH technologies, such as group antenatal care, point-of-care ultrasound, MNH diagnostics, and the e-MOTIVE bundle for post-partum hemorrhage.

  • Work with the project team to improve the quantification, prioritization, forecasting, procurement, regulation, and governance of MNH commodities at the subnational level. This will include facilitating activities such as district commodity tracking committee and distribution meetings, capacity building with District Drug Therapeutic Committees, reporting on commodity availability within the district, and supportive supervision by the central Ministry of Health.

    • Support the Ministry of Health and other partners to strengthen, increase and optimize the MNH workforce. This will include collaborating with the Ministry of Health and other stakeholders to revise the staff establishment at targeted health facilities in line with evidence-based health workforce targets for MNH specialists and track the deployment of health workers recruited and trained under the program.

    • Support CHAI’s Infrastructure Engineer, the Ministry of Health and other partners to improve the availability of high-quality infrastructure across Lilongwe, Blantyre, and Mzimba Districts. This will include facilitating stakeholders from the central and subnational levels, such as the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Transport and Public Works, DHMTs, health facility management teams, city/town councils, and selected contractors, supervisory firms, and clerks of work to conduct site assessments, secure relevant approvals for technical designs, and monitor the redesign, renovation, expansion, and construction of MNH infrastructure in selected health facilities. The District Program Officer will also conduct regular visits to construction sites, provide updates on construction progress to the Infrastructure Engineer and other team members, and facilitate meetings with health facility management teams, DHMTs, and other stakeholders to promote the strong implementation and alignment of this work.

    • Support a targeted subset of health facilities to identify priority MNH interventions for financing through their facility planning processes.

    • Collaborate with the Ministry of Health and other partners to improve MNH data availability and usage. This will include facilitating integrated data reviews, aligning subnational MNH data collection with government systems, and identifying and disseminating learnings to promote the scale up of MNH interventions.

    • Support overall monitoring and evaluation for the program, including operationalizing relevant data collection and analysis tools at the district level, consolidating subnational data against program indicators for reporting, and identifying strategies to strengthen ground-level program monitoring and evaluation, where necessary.

    • Support governance and implementation structures for the MNH Investment Plan, including participating in fortnightly Ministry of Health and Partner Management Team meetings and liaising with the program’s Ministry of Health Technical Team, DHMTs, donors, and other stakeholders to facilitate site visits, relevant subnational Technical Working Groups, regular meetings, on-site learning exchanges, and other convenings across targeted districts.

    • Contribute to the development of program workplans, budgets, and reporting for internal and external audiences.

    • Lead activity logistics in collaboration with the CHAI Finance and Operations teams. This will include facilitating meetings, travel, and other activities by CHAI and the program’s Ministry of Health Technical Team, such as by disbursing allowances to meeting participants and ensuring that services such as venue hire, conferencing, printing, etc. are available for activities, as relevant.

    • Lead the 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.

    • Perform any other relevant duties and lead day-to-day implementation of activities as assigned immediate supervisor and CHAI leadership.

    Qualifications

    • Bachelor’s Degree in Health Systems, Nursing, Midwifery, Medicine, Public Health, Health Sciences, or similar subject preferred; Master’s Degree is an added advantage.

    • Minimum of five years of professional experience, preferably in MNH programming, health systems or supply chain strengthening, health workforce, public health, or other relevant areas.

    • Knowledge and experience in health system programming, particularly in low- and middle-income countries.

    • Strong analytical skills and 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.

    Advantages

    • Experience strengthening subnational health systems and/or supporting governments and donors to make health policy and programming decisions at the subnational level.

    • Experience in program management, reporting, monitoring, and evaluation for donor-funded initiatives.

    • Experience working in resource-limited settings and a multicultural office environment, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa.

    All interested candidates should apply through:
    recruitmentmalawi@clintonhealthaccess.org

    Closing date: 10th October 2025

To apply for this job email your details to recruitmentmalawi@clintonhealthaccess.org