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.

In India, CHAI works in partnership with its India registered affiliate William J Clinton Foundation (WJCF) under the guidance of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) at the Central and States’ levels on an array of high priority initiatives aimed at improving health outcomes. Currently, WJCF supports government partners across projects to expand access to quality care and treatment for HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis, tuberculosis, COVID-19, common cancers, sexual and reproductive health, immunization, and essential medicines.

Learn more about our exciting work: http://www.clintonhealthaccess.org

Background

With the objective of reducing maternal, child, and overall mortality from hypoxemia related cases, WJCF, under the guidance of health departments in the states of Madhya Pradesh (MP), Chhattisgarh, and Punjab is supporting initiatives to strengthen prevention and diagnosis practices and improve the supply and use of high-quality oxygen services. To that end, the Essential Medicines and Oxygen (EM O2) program focuses on the following key elements:

• Effective planning and strategies to manage oxygen systems
• Affordable, efficient, and high-quality oxygen procurement and distribution systems
• Improved clinical administration and technical management of oxygen
• Improved information systems and monitoring for oxygen access

The Program supports the state health and facility level leadership to strengthen governance structures, ensure optimal maintenance and upkeep of oxygen assets, and build capacity for management of assets and provision of clinical care. Through this support WJCF expects to ensure prevention, early diagnosis, and timely access to high quality medical oxygen to manage hypoxemia cases, while ensuring adequate preparedness to manage surge of Covid-19 cases or on account of other acute or seasonal respiratory ailments.

Position Summary

The Program Officer, EM O2 will work closely with the State Program Lead and EM O2 Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E) Lead to ensure smooth and successful implementation of program activities in the state. Based out of Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh/ Chandigarh, Punjab/ Raipur, Chhattisgarh, the Program Officer will oversee the field team operations, coordinate field-level activities, support capacity building, review and report progress, and manage government stakeholder relationships.

We seek a highly qualified and motivated individual with exceptional credentials, program planning and coordination abilities. The successful candidate will have excellent communications skills, be able to function independently with flexibility in a dynamic and often uncertain situation, be self-motivated, can thrive in challenging environments, and have a strong commitment to excellence. We place great value on relevant personal qualities: resourcefulness, responsibility, tenacity, independence, energy, and work ethic.

• Work closely with the team to ensure smooth and successful program implementation through field-level activities.
• Provide support in development of plans to improve access to medical oxygen at state, and district levels based on in-depth understanding of oxygen needs and landscape i.e., oxygen manufacturers, suppliers, users, and intermediaries.
• Manage the field team to ensure effective execution of program activities, including planning and coordinating their movements to maximize efficiency and coverage.
• Support the M&E team in building a robust tracking mechanism for project activity monitoring and facilitate ongoing evaluation and analysis for continuous program improvement.
• Monitor and review Individual Operation Plans (IOPs), monthly expense reports of field team members to align with program workplan and budgets.
• Conduct regular review meetings with field team to discuss updates, collect feedback, map challenges, and share best practices.
• Support the field team proactively in building their technical, stakeholder management, and project implementation capacities.
• Enabling regular problem solving and cross-learning among the field team to ensure that the best practices are quickly identified and adopted.
• Manage relationships with government stakeholders at the state and district levels, including engagement with public and private sector associations.
• Support in building tools, checklists, and methodologies to enhance field-level operations and optimize the field team’s outreach efforts (e.g., visit planners, visit checklists, FAQs, reporting forms, etc.).
• Undertake primary and secondary research and create data-based insights to provide credible evidence for formulating coverage improvement strategies and ensure the documentation of activities/outcomes to create replicable models and policy advocacy documents.
• Actively participate in field activities to gather first-hand information and insights on issues related to quality, supply, and administration of medical oxygen and hypoxemia management; and to ensure effective implementation of field-level activities.
• Report progress, challenges, and risks for timely resolution.
• Perform any other duties as assigned to ensure successful implementation of the program.

• Bachelor’s degree or higher in management, public health, statistics, social work, development studies or allied areas.
• At least 8 years of work experience in implementation of programs related to public health, public policy/administration, or allied areas with field experience.
• Demonstrated success in team management, developing relationships and coordinating various stakeholders/interests.
• Ability to navigate complex processes and influence decision-making in a professional and collaborative manner.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills in English and Hindi/Punjabi, including ability to create persuasive presentations and written reports.
• High emotional intelligence, patience, and thoughtfulness even in high-pressure, stressful situations.
• Ability to work independently, prioritise, and handle multiple tasks simultaneously.
• Willingness to travel extensively within and outside the program states and districts.
• Experience of working with government stakeholders and familiarity with the Indian public health system/social impact sector will be a plus.