HIV & AIDS Senior Health Economist, USAID

United States Agency for International Development, Bureau for Global Health, Office of HIV/AIDS, Strategic Planning, Evaluation & Reporting Division

Application Deadline:

Open until filled

BACKGROUND:

The United States Government (USG) has made the fight against HIV/AIDS a top priority, not only for humanitarian reasons, but because the HIV/AIDS crisis threatens the prosperity, stability and development of nations around the world. The U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) is a U.S. government global initiative to control the HIV/AIDS pandemic. It is the largest commitment by any nation to combat a single disease. Over the past decade, the U.S. government has committed more than $52 billion to bilateral HIV/AIDS programs, the Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and bilateral tuberculosis programs. To achieve an AIDS-free generation, PEPFAR works closely with a variety of stakeholders including partner countries, multilateral organizations, civil society, people living with and affected by HIV, the faith community, and the public and private sectors. USAID has been, and continues to be, at the forefront of the USG response in the fight against the HIV/AIDS pandemic since inception of its international HIV/AIDS program in 1986. PEPFAR is the largest commitment ever by any nation for an international health initiative dedicated to a single disease.

With a focus on transparency, accountability, and impact, PEPFAR is actively working with partners to control the HIV/AIDS pandemic to help achieve an AIDS- free generation. PEPFAR is committed to supporting activities that are grounded in science and critical to saving lives and preventing new HIV infections. PEPFAR’s core activities include a focus on health systems, including health finance; human resources for health; commodity procurement and supply chains; and laboratory systems.

PEPFAR recognizes that donor resources alone cannot meet the needs of the 36 million people that will be living with HIV in 2020. As developing economies grow and begin to more fully realize their economic potential, unlocking domestic financing for HIV becomes a critical element for achieving long-term sustainability of the HIV/AIDS response. Countries are increasingly taking the lead in managing, implementing, and even financing their national HIV responses. As a result, PEPFAR has committed funding to support countries to strengthen their ongoing efforts to increase the use of their own resources to help deliver an AIDS-free generation. Health systems strengthening (HSS) is a key strategy to secure the sustainability of its past and future achievements. PEPFAR provides an opportunity to strengthen health systems and health policy, as the USG’s and its partners’ efforts to combat HIV/AIDS transition from an initial emergency approach to a more long-term sustainable approach. USAID’s HSS program provides support to ensure that developing country health systems are effective, efficient, and equitable.

PEPFAR has recently launched an HIV & AIDS financing initiative to support countries to leverage their own domestic resources to help deliver an AIDS-Free generation. USAID will serve as the lead agency for coordinating and implementing this initiative, and we expect that efforts could yield a significant benefit and a substantial return on the initial investment for a dramatic impact on the resources these countries will be able to put towards increasing prevention, care, and treatment coverage for achieving sustainable control of the epidemic. This centrally funded initiative was developed out of collaboration between the Office of HIV/AIDS and the Office of Health Systems in the Global Health Bureau and the Bureau for Economic Growth, Education and the Environment.

USAID will partner closely with selected Missions and relevant stakeholders to support new and ongoing health financing activities that aim to increase domestic resources for health. Solutions tailored to individual country contexts will involve health financing approaches encompassing advocacy and analysis, technical efficiency, tax policy and administration, and innovative health financing, including use of the private sector. The initiative will support PEPFAR key intervention areas to ensure impact and efficiency gains, build sustainability and partnerships, and advance the human rights agenda. USAID will coordinate and collaborate across USG Agencies and with multilateral stakeholders in the design and implementation of this initiative.

The overall objective of USAID’s Bureau for Global Health (GH), Office of HIV/AIDS’s (OHA) HSS program is to provide USAID leadership in building sustainability of the HIV/AIDS response through investment in health systems. OHA views health systems strengthening as a continuous process of implementing changes in policies, management and systems within the health sector. OHA works collaboratively within USAID, with other US Government agencies, and with the international community to implement its HSS vision through coordinating activities, evaluating programs, developing guidance and supporting countries to ensure the application of up-to-date health systems development interventions in both the public and private sectors.

The HIV & AIDS Senior Health Economist/ Finance Advisor will be assigned to the Bureau for Global Health, Office of HIV/AIDS, Strategic Planning, Evaluation and Reporting (SPER) Division and will receive programmatic and technical guidance from the Health Economics, Finance and Policy (HEFP) Team Lead. S/he will focus on health financing for HIV/AIDS programs and interventions, with key technical emphases on technical efficiency, domestic resource mobilization, cost modeling and cost effectiveness analyses, efficient resource allocation, economic evaluation, and generation of data and information for informed decision-making.

ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

The HIV& AIDS Senior Health Economist/ Finance Advisor will serve primarily as a health finance expert on the OHA/SPER Health Economics, Finance and Policy Team, and will provide key technical and programmatic support to the Global Health (GH) Bureau Cross-Office Team for USAID’s HIV & AIDS Sustainable Financing Initiative. S/he will advance OHA’s vision and goals for domestic resource mobilization for HIV& AIDS and long-term sustainable programming for control of the epidemic.

S/he will perform the following duties:

Serve as Co-chair of the interagency Finance and Economics Working Group (FEWG) and ad hoc modeling working group.
Participate in planning and program development for USAID’s HIV & AIDS Sustainable Financing Initiative and in the development of PEPFAR’s Headquarters Operational Plan (HOP) to support implementation.
Serve as Senior Technical Advisor to the Health Finance and Governance Project on areas related to Health Finance within PEPFAR.
Liaise with the Bureau’s Office of Health Systems on Health Finance issues as related to PEPFAR.
Provide technical assistance to other OHA divisions, USAID missions and PEPFAR country teams in areas of health finance and the assessment, design and implementation of HIV-related economic evaluations and cost analyses.
Participate in the PEPFAR Interagency Collaborative for Program Improvement
Liaise with multiple PEPFAR technical working groups to provide technical support to cost analyses, expenditure analyses and other economic evaluation activities.
Monitor implementing partners’ health financing work in the field, including fulfillment of a technical advisory role on specific projects as assigned.
Serve as a liaison and technical resource to the Office of the Global AIDS Coordinator (OGAC) and other PEPFAR implementing agencies on OHA-led and jointly led health finance activities.
Participate in the annual PEPFAR Country Operational Plan (COP) technical review process.
Maintain knowledge of state of the art health finance and economic evaluation practices and serve as a technical resource for OHA, USAID, and PEPFAR.
Mentor junior team members and other staff on health finance activities.

CERTIFICATIONS, LICENSE, PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS OR OTHER EXPERTISE REQUIRED:

The contractor must have:

Master’s degree or higher in health economics, health finance, or other relevant field.
Minimum ten years’ experience in health finance, resource mobilization, research management and implementation, with experience in international or resource-poor settings.
Minimum ten years’ experience in health finance, cost analysis, economic evaluation and capacity building in developing countries, including research design.
Demonstrated understanding of and ability to apply accepted tools, techniques and frameworks for health financing, economic evaluation and cost analysis of HIV/AIDS interventions.
High degree of judgment, maturity, ingenuity and originality to interpret strategy, to analyze, develop and present work and to monitor and evaluate implementation of programs.
Strong leadership and group facilitation skills.
Demonstrated experience working with a wide range of development partners, including multilateral and bilateral donors as well as private foundations and civil society.
Demonstrated knowledge of internal processes within the US Government and other health sector development partners, (e.g. thematic priorities, decision-making mechanisms, and preferred funding channels).
Experience with global health partnerships and disease-specific initiatives.
Excellent interpersonal, communication and writing skills, and the ability to work with diverse teams.
Strong teamwork, multi-stakeholder collaboration and management skills.
US Citizenship, Permanent Residency or Green Card required.

This is an opportunity for employment or a contract, but we reserve the right to make no selection or award.

HOW TO APPLY:

CAMRIS International and IAP World Services Inc. offer competitive salaries and comprehensive benefits. Please submit your resume online at https://careers-camris.icims.com.

CAMRIS and IAP are Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employers. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, protected veteran status, or disability status.