Catholic Relief Services Job Vacancy: Health and HIV/AIDS Specialist - Yaoundé, Cameroon

Position: Health and HIV/AIDS Specialist

Reports to: CoP/KIDSS

Location: Yaoundé, Cameroon.

Purpose: CRS/Cameroon provides technical support to its Church and local partners in delivering HIV prevention support to at-risk orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) and support in the continuum of care for HIV positive OVC through its USAID-supported KIDSS project. The HIV Specialist position is responsible for providing technical support to OVC programs to the KIDSS’ partners, including civil society organizations (CSOs) in for ensuring appropriate implementation of OVC programs as per the approved activities, prepare periodic reports, hold technical meetings and work with the consortium members and CSOs staff to ensure that project targets are met. The Specialist, with the KIDSS team members’ support, will advance CRS desire to integrate OVC with activities implemented by the rest of the consortium. S/he will dedicate a significant amount of his/her time in the field working with CSOs to strengthen and improve referral system, as well as early child development (ECD) linkage with HIV services, including PMTCT.

In addition to supporting the KIDSS project, the HIV Specialist will support CRS Cameroon business development portfolio by identifying and developing opportunities to expand its portfolio in Health and HIV/AIDS programming to a wide range of institutional donors and partners, including US Government, Government of Cameroon (MoH, CDC), multi-lateral organizations and a variety of emerging, non-traditional sources of funding to enhance CRS’ competitive positioning for donor attention and funding. 

Specific Duties and Responsibilities
Project Coordination and Quality Implementation

• Provide guidance to country program teams and partner/s to help prioritize Health and HIV/AIDS technical and organizational capacity strengthening needs. 
• Assist technical colleagues to review existing HIV/AIDS training resources and materials and develop an HIV/AIDS curriculum that is tailored to partners’ needs and contexts, as identified through a collaborative capacity assessment process. 
• Assist program managers with the planning and facilitation, as needed, of workshops with partner/s. 
• Provide guidance and support to country program staff to support the partner/s to foster clinical linkages (this may include initiating discussions about how the partner/s can best support facilities’ and communities/families’ engagement in HIV/AIDS prevention and the continuum of care). 
• Coordinate with CRS and partner/s to share best practices and solutions to challenges during meetings with partner/s and in internal and external communities of practices.
• Ensure funding management compliance with donor regulations and fidelity to project proposal.
• Maintain up-to-date documentation related to project approval, monitoring and implementation. Ensure that complete documents are maintained in project folders. 
• In coordination with technical support team, facilitate reviews of project progress including the review of work plans, progress on benchmarks and partner capacity-building plans. 
• Conduct site monitoring visits to ensure program quality meets national and international standards for provision of HIV/AIDS services to children infected and affected by HIV/AIDS. 
• Provide technical assistance to CSOs in key areas of OVC programming, provision of pediatric services to HIV-positive children, and impact mitigation 
• Provide technical support to partners to conduct comprehensive HIV testing and counseling services (HTC) to OVC which include family counseling to facilitate disclosure and client education. 
• Provide health assistance that includes facilitating access to HIV/AIDS services such as testing and counselling, treatment, care and support;
• Monitor and regularly review with CSOs the services provided to OVC
• Participate in the planning and facilitation of technical workshops for capacity building in OVC programming, referral, HIV, HTC, AB and ART 
• Ensure that referral system for OVC is strengthened and improved to support health care and support of all OVC. 
• Provide nutritional support including food supplements for treatment of HIV positive OVC with clinical malnutrition. 
• Represent the agency in HIV and OVC Referrals forums 
• Participate in developing and managing an effective system to track and refer OVC loss-to-follow-up (LTFU).
• Monitor and report on the implementation of the project 
• Participate in project evaluations and assessments 
• Growth and Business development
• Provide technical support to the country program in identifying and pursuing future growth opportunities in Health and HIV programming. 
• Research, track and analyze new business opportunities, competitive intelligence, and CRS’ competitive positioning within the health/HIV sector. 
• Support senior management’s cultivation and strengthening of institutional relationships with donors, partner organizations, and other collaborators in the Health/HIV sector. 
• Support and guide the identification of partners and negotiation of CRS’ role on proposal consortia, ensuring a competitive position for CRS that adheres to the agency’s partnership principles and strategic directions.

Enhancing CRS’ Understanding of and Capacity for Work with Partners

• Work with country-, regional-, and headquarters-level staff to facilitate agency cross-learning about how CRS can work most effectively on capacity strengthening and Health and HIV/AIDS programming with Government and other partner/s 
• Work with CRS Human Resources and PIQA's Partnership and Capacity Strengthening (P/CS) unit to ensure integration of information specifically related to work with partner into existing training modules. 
• Work with country-, regional-, and headquarters-level colleagues to establish effective systems for reviewing the quality of CRS’ partnerships with the partner/s under KIDSS, including use of CRS’ Partnership Scorecard, and soliciting partner/s’ feedback as part of agency performance management systems. 
• Develop materials and support country program staff to organize workshops for all staff in target areas focusing on the mission, service, structures, motivations, and approaches of the program

Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability, and Learning (MEAL)

• Work with technical colleagues including from the MEAL area to support country program staff in discussions with partner/s on the appropriate methodology for measuring project success, including determining criteria for assessing the sustainability of the HIV/AIDS capacity and institutional strengthening approaches, as well as measuring changes in partner/s program implementation and networking capacity. 
• Ensure country programs document and share project successes and lessons learned for sharing with the donor and other stakeholders. 
• With the PIQA MEAL and Partnership and Capacity Strengthening (P/CS) units, contribute to documentation and wider distribution of key promising practices and lessons learned, particularly in the U.S., and support Country Program staff and partner/s to disseminate learning within their country/region. 
• Manage reporting and review of regular partner/s reports, including: compiling and disseminating for technical review; facilitating a process to identify issues, challenges and innovative responses highlighted in reports; and organizing and sharing compiled feedback for improvements in project quality and partner/s support. 
• Collaborate with CoP on the preparation, review, and finalization of quarterly, yearly and/or final KIDSS project report e.g. quantitative and qualitative/narrative and financial reports for submission to the donor. 
• Collaborate with CoP on participatory planning and implementation of a final evaluation process to capture learning and results from the life of the KIDSS project. 

Key Working Relationships

Internal:
CRS Cameroon: KIDSS CoP, deputy CoPs, MEAL PM, Project Managers, Head of Programming, Country Representative, Finance staff, and other key management and technical staff in Cameroon
Regional Office: Deputy Regional Director for Program Quality (DRD/PQ; Deputy Regional Director for Management Quality (DRD/MQ); Regional Technical Advisors for Central Africa Regional Office.

Headquarters: Senior Technical Advisor for Education, Senior Technical Advisor for Health and HIV, Director of the Partnership and Capacity Strengthening Unit, other PIQA Partnership/Capacity Strengthening, Health and HIV Unit, Health and HIV team colleagues; Human Resources staff responsible for staff development; Sr. Program Development Officer in the Foundation & Corporate Engagement Unit.

External: Technical counterparts within U.S. Government agencies (implementing PEPFAR-funded projects, including USAID); Cameroonian government ministries that manage activities in the areas of OVC, Health (particularly HIV/AIDS) and provision of social services; Community leaders, including faith based associations/organizations; health facilities (particular HIV/AIDS Approved Treatment Centers) staff and leadership of other grantees of KIDSS’ donors; other foundations and donors which support OVC HIV work in Africa. 

Required Qualifications/Skills

• MD or university degree in Nursing, Public Health, Social Sciences or other relevant area of study 
• Solid working knowledge (practical skills) in OVC, HTC, AB and pediatric ART 
• Minimum five years of experience implementing OVC and HIV/AIDS projects, preferably in an NGO setting.
• Experience in implementing US Government-funded projects. 
• Demonstrated ability to transfer knowledge through formal and informal training 
• Willingness to travel under difficult circumstances 
• Demonstrated ability to work in a team 
• Demonstrated ability to communicate in English and French (written and oral) 
• Excellent computer skills (Microsoft office programs).

Physical Requirements/Environment

• Frequent field visits, especially during first year, to familiarize himself/herself with KIDSS program managers, partners and others engaged in the project.

How to apply: 

Email applications to Raymond.stewart@crs.org or Pierremarie.kemmegne@crs.org

Deadline: 18 Mar 2016

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