Country

Zambia

City

Lusaka

Type

Full Time

Program (Division)

Country Programs - Zambia

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 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

The COVID-19 pandemic exposed and worsened a long-standing gap in access to medical oxygen across Zambia's health system. While the acute emergency phase of the pandemic has passed, the underlying gap it revealed has not. Medical oxygen remains in short and unreliable supply at many health facilities, undermining care not only for respiratory illness but for the much larger group of patients who need oxygen every day, including newborns and children with pneumonia, women with obstetric complications, trauma and surgical patients, and people living with chronic respiratory and cardiovascular disease.

CHAI's work on medical oxygen in Zambia is carried out as a sub-grantee of FHI 360 under the Meeting Targets and Maintaining Epidemic Control (EpiC) project, a global initiative funded by the U.S. Department of State. EpiC is led by FHI 360 together with core partners Right to Care (RTC), Palladium, and Population Services International (PSI), and provides strategic technical assistance and direct service delivery to help partner countries achieve HIV epidemic control among at-risk and vulnerable populations, while strengthening global health security. Since early 2020, EpiC has supported partner governments to prevent, prepare for, and respond to COVID-19, including by improving access to liquid oxygen (LOX).

Building on this foundation, CHAI works closely with Zambia's Ministry of Health (MoH) to consolidate pandemic-era gains into a sustainable, government-owned medical oxygen ecosystem. CHAI provides policy and technical advisory support to the Government of Zambia, helping ensure that oxygen investments are coordinated and optimized against available government and cooperating-partner resources. This includes supporting the operation and maintenance of oxygen-generating infrastructure installed during the COVID-19 response, engaging local and international oxygen suppliers and manufacturers on sustainable long-term supply models, and working with stakeholders on innovative bulk supply and bulk storage solutions, including liquid oxygen, for high-volume facilities.

Taken together, these workstreams reflect a single strategic logic: emergency-era investments in oxygen only deliver lasting value once they are absorbed into routine health system operations. CHAI's role centers on coordinating with the Ministry of Health to build a functional, sustainably financed oxygen system and a long-term national strategy that serves all patients who need oxygen, in every facility, well beyond the pandemic that first brought the issue to the world's attention.

The Program Manager, Medical Oxygen Ecosystems, will support the implementation and coordination of these interconnected workstreams, working closely with the Ministry of Health, ZAMMSA, health facilities, suppliers, cooperating partners and the national Oxygen Technical Working Group to strengthen a sustainable, integrated medical oxygen ecosystem in Zambia.

Position Overview

The Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) seeks a full-time Program Manager, Medical Oxygen Ecosystems, who will be based at the CHAI office in Lusaka and report to the Associate Director, Health Systems Strengthening. They will work closely with, and complement the efforts of, the relevant MoH departments in transitioning Zambia's medical oxygen response from an emergency pandemic footing to a sustainable, integrated component of essential health services. The Program Manager will support the coordination and implementation of activities across the medical oxygen ecosystem, including oxygen demand quantification, infrastructure and equipment, supply and distribution, market shaping and supplier engagement, procurement, quality assurance, capacity strengthening, monitoring and learning, while supporting the Ministry to strengthen systems that can sustain reliable oxygen availability and respond to future surges in demand while ensuring the system retains the capacity to respond to future surges in demand.

Strategic and Technical Leadership

• Oversee the planning and execution of the Oxygen Program cluster activities in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and other stakeholders, and in alignment with the National Medical Oxygen Strategic Plan.
• Lead engagements with country stakeholders to conduct periodic assessments to update the country’s oxygen needs, inform quantification exercises specifically on required investments for the procurement of medical oxygen, accessories, and installation of infrastructure, and support development of appropriate policy recommendations.
• Work closely with the MoH Department of Clinical Care and Diagnostics and the Department of Public Health and other relevant departments to coordinate medical oxygen availability and utilization across essential health services, including newborn and child health, maternal health, surgery and trauma, and infectious and non-communicable respiratory disease.
• Strengthen MoH and facility-level technical capacity for medical oxygen quantification, management, operation and preventive maintenance of oxygen-generating systems.
• Work with the MoH coordinating team to strengthen quality control and quality assurance systems for monitoring the quality of all medical oxygen used across facilities in Zambia, in line with WHO/UNICEF technical specifications for oxygen therapy.
• Lead advocacy efforts with the MoH and ZAMMSA to secure government budget lines for medical oxygen, facilitate the integration of medical oxygen procurement under Ministry/facility ownership, and manage the transition of LOX financing and procurement from donor-led to government-led mechanisms.
• Oversee the installation of medical gas pipeline systems (MGPS) at Ndola and Kitwe Teaching Hospitals.
• Develop and share weekly progress trackers with the grant’s donor.
• Work closely with the CHAI global team to coordinate scoping efforts to identify opportunities for future investments in the medical oxygen space in Zambia.

Supply Chain and Market Engagement

• Liaise with the CHAI global team to monitor the operationalization of the national LOX storage and distribution hub including providing support to facilitate the hub’s installation, monitoring the progress of manufacturing the storage and transportation equipment against project timelines, and providing regular updates to the Ministry of Health and donors.
• Monitor the implementation of the LOX supply agreement and pricing commitment to ensure alignment with the terms of engagement between CHAI and the LOX supplier.
• Proactively monitor the oxygen ecosystem to identify risks and opportunities to shape market dynamics for medical oxygen, surfacing risks and adapting program strategy as needed.
• Assist the MoH in developing and maintaining a standard monitoring tool for the medical oxygen supply chain, including a facility-level tracking system to determine utilization and inform planning.
• Support the MoH and relevant stakeholders to aggregate oxygen demand across existing and newly commissioned LOX-enabled facilities to strengthen purchasing power, improve supply predictability and inform procurement and contracting decisions.

Partnerships and Stakeholder Coordination

• Develop strong, trusted working relationships with key stakeholders across government, professional bodies, regulatory authorities, donors, partners and NGOs, and ensure coordination of resources and efforts.
• Undertake consultative processes with stakeholders to strengthen systems for efficient and effective program implementation.
• Coordinate closely with MoH, partners, and the national Oxygen Technical Working Group to increase collaboration and reduce duplication.
• Facilitate a coordination role between MoH and cooperating partners on medical oxygen, linking with relevant health system strengthening and public health emergency preparedness coordination platforms in Zambia.
• Collaborate with the Government of Zambia and other partners to strengthen government systems for medical oxygen planning, procurement, infrastructure management, supply, quality assurance and utilization.

Program Management, Monitoring and Reporting

• Oversee the planning, coordination and implementation of the medical oxygen program, ensuring activities are delivered against agreed priorities, timelines, budgets and quality standards.
• Oversee collection and analysis of program data to allow for monitoring, evaluation and learning to guarantee program performance and inform timely course correction.
• Prepare annual donor reports and other program reports as needed, ensuring reports from the country level are of the highest quality.
• Analyze risks and opportunities as the program evolves, including risks to the sustainability of pandemic-era oxygen infrastructure, and work with the CHAI team to manage these accordingly.

People Management and Leadership

• Manage an Associate, including providing mentorship and performance feedback.

• Bachelor’s Degree in Community Health, Public Health, or Social Sciences with 8 years’ experience in the health sector. Advanced degree in a related field will be an added advantage.
• Experience in capacity building and policy design and implementation, in collaboration with the Ministries of Health and stakeholders.
• Demonstrated strong analytical, organizational, leadership, and problem-solving skills.
• Exceptional diplomatic and interpersonal skills, and able to build strong professional relationships with a range of stakeholders in a challenging, multicultural environment.
• Demonstrated ability to multitask, be effective in high-pressure situations, and adapt to fast-paced and changing environments with a strong commitment to excellence, both internally and externally, and with limited structural support, while maintaining maximum efficiency and impact.
• Experience working effectively with diverse teams.
• Willingness to travel domestically.

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