HIV/AIDS Health Finance/Costing Advisor CAMRIS International

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has contracted through CAMRIS International partnered with IAP World Services Inc., (IAPWS), to recruit and hire qualified individuals for the following position:

Title: HIV/AIDS Health Finance/Costing Advisor
United States Agency for International Development

Application Deadline: Open until filled

BACKGROUND:
The 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. USAID has been, and continues to be, at the forefront of the USG response in the fight against the HIV/AIDS pandemic, funding 10 billion dollars in activities since inception of its international HIV/AIDS program in 1986 with programs in nearly 100 countries worldwide. PEPFAR is the largest commitment ever by any nation for an international health initiative dedicated to a single disease. In July 2008, the United States Congress re-authorized the PEPFAR legislation in the amount of $48 billion, $35.4 billion of which is dedicated to HIV/AIDS services, $3.8 billion to tuberculosis, $4.8 billion to malaria, $1.7 billion to research and $2.3 billion to training health care workers. The Global Fund will receive at least $2 billion per year.
PEPFAR recognizes health systems strengthening (HSS) as a key strategy to secure the sustainability of its past and future achievements. PEPFAR's reauthorization 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. The PEPFAR II legislation prioritizes strengthening HIV/AIDS health policies and health systems and assigns USAID with the complimentary task to develop and implement a plan to strengthen host country health systems and health policies to combat HIV/AIDS. USAID's HSS program provides support to ensure that developing country health systems are effective, efficient, and equitable. USAlD's assistance in the area of health systems is an integral part of creating effective basic services in maternal and child health, infectious disease and other priority services.
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. Health systems strengthening activities may encompass all levels (national, district, community) and will address any of the six building blocks of the World Health Organization's health system framework -financing, service delivery, human resources for health, health information systems, pharmaceutical management, health policy and governance, including advocacy and civil society participation. 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.
Efforts are rapidly increasing to identify and realize potential programming efficiencies under PEPFAR and to promote efficient resource allocation within partner countries’ HIV/AIDS programs.
Cost analysis was undertaken through the FY10 Headquarters Operational Plan in the areas of adult and pediatric treatment, PMTCT, and counseling and testing. Cost analysis is expanding to OVC and other prevention activities. In fiscal year (FY) 2011, PEPFAR began to pilot routine expenditure analysis activities as a method to update cost estimates more rapidly. These analyses will begin to yield cross-program area cost data on a more regular basis, and over time will reduce the need for the type of time-consuming, labor-intensive special data calls to the field and reviews relied upon for this study.

The HIV/AIDS Health Finance and Costing 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 HSS Team Lead. S/he will focus on economic evaluation of HIV/AIDS programs and interventions, with primary emphasis on the generation of information to support efficient resource allocation decisions. Key technical emphases include costing, cost modeling, cost-effectiveness analysis and the use of cost information.

ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:
The HIV/AIDS Costing Advisor will serve as the Health Finance expert on the HSS Team and one of the Team’s focal staff on costing activities within the context of PEPFAR and the GHI, to advance OHA's vision for the use of cost information in collaboration with other technical staff. 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.
• Serve as Senior Technical Advisor to the follow-on HS2020 project on areas related to Health Finance within PEPFAR.
• Liaise with the Bureau’s Health Systems Office 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.
• Liaise with multiple technical working groups to provide technical support to cost analyses and other economic evaluation activities.
• Monitor implementing partners' economic evaluation 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 assistance and review process.
• Participate in OHA's HSS planning in PEPFAR's Headquarters Operational Plan (HOP) development.
• 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 in economic evaluation activities.

CERTIFICATIONS, LICENSE, PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS OR OTHER
EXPERTISE REQUIRED. The contractor must have:
• Master's degree or higher in health economics, health finance, health policy, 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 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 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.
• Strong interpersonal communication and writing skills and ability to work with diverse teams.
• Strong teamwork, multi-stakeholder collaboration and management skills.
• US Citizenship or Permanent Residency required.

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

CAMRIS International and IAP World Services Inc. offer competitive salaries and comprehensive benefits. Please submit your resume online at www.camris.com.

CAMRIS and IAP are Equal Opportunity Employers EOE M/F/D/V