Project Assistant / Project Officer – SHOPS Plus at Abt Associates

Abt Associates is an engine for social impact, fueled by caring, curiosity and cutting-edge research that moves people from vulnerability to security. Whether it’s welfare or weather disasters, the environment or economics, agriculture or HIV and AIDS, we address the world’s most pressing issues. Our work is diverse and so is our bold workforce. We never fail to ask “What if?” We identify patterns, we search for the best way.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: Project Assistant / Project Officer – SHOPS Plus Nigeria

Req Id: 64680
Location: Nigeria

Project Description

Sustaining Health Outcomes through the Private Sector (SHOPS) Plus is USAID’s flagship initiative in private sector health.
The project seeks to harness the full potential of the private sector and catalyze public-private engagement to improve health outcomes in family planning, HIV/AIDS, maternal and child health, and other health areas.
SHOPS Plus supports the achievement of US government health priorities and improves the equity and quality of the total health system.

Job Summary

Abt Associates seeks a qualified Kano State Project Officer to support a private sector tuberculosis (TB) project under SHOPS Plus in Kano State. In Nigeria, SHOPS Plus supports private providers to scale up tuberculosis case finding, diagnosis, treatment and reporting in Lagos and Kano States.
The project officer will support implementation of a TB services expansion project that will increase availability of TB services in the private sector, improve flow of presumptive TB into detection and treatment system, improve the quality of private sector TB services, and strengthen health systems to foster and sustain Public Private Mix (PPM) models for TB care.

Key Roles and Responsibilities

The project officer will provide a full range of technical and project support to the Kano State technical team including:

Work closely with the state coordinator to implement private sector TB program in Kano state
Assist in developing and implementing detailed action plans for activities
Support the technical team in capacity building through trainings and on-site mentoring activities
Plan and carry out supportive supervisory visits to a local intermediary organization (IO) and the network providers engaged by the IO using developed checklists
Strengthen IO operations by providing technical and managerial oversight for network support
Work with IO network officers to implement referral system within the private sector network and to/from the public sector
Support the state coordinator as a liaison among communities, facilities, and local government authority
Support the state coordinator to develop and review technical resource materials (e.g., training materials, social and behavior change activity plans, strategy documents, job aids) and programming tools to support meeting project objectives
Work with administrative and finance staff to plan and organize logistics for training and other events
Support the state coordinator to carry out administrative duties including preparing and managing schedules, official correspondence and follow up, tracking budgets and managing cash advances
Contribute to communication, advocacy and knowledge management tasks including documentation and program report writing

Preferred Qualifications

Bachelor’s (BS) or Master’s (MS) degree in Health Management, Public Health, Health Administration, or other relevant field
Five years (BS) or four years (MS) of relevant work experience, especially TB or other infectious diseases
Experience with private sector health service delivery
Ability to write technical papers and reports
Strong abilities to implement capacity building activities, training and workshops
Ability to assess problems and develop solutions
Computer skills in MS Windows and office package especially MS Excel, MS Word and MS PowerPoint
Ability to travel within the state approximately 50% of the time
Excellent organization skills and oral and written communication skills in English
Previous experience in tuberculosis projects with USAID funding or other donor agencies

Minimum Qualifications