Senior Technical Child Health Advisor (DOS LEAP Global) - Nigeria

ZemiTek LLC•Bethesda, MD

About The Position

The world has witnessed an extraordinary 70 percent decline in child mortality over the last 50 years, and a reduction in the burden of child deaths from nearly 12 million in 1990 to 5.2 million in 2019. Maternal deaths are also falling, and declines in maternal mortality are currently averaging five percent per year. The COVID-19 pandemic, however, widened immunity gaps, and despite global efforts to improve vaccination coverage, the number of zero-dose and under-immunized children has increased in Africa, particularly in Nigeria, which has over 2.1 million unvaccinated (zero dose) children, the highest in the continent while the total number of under-immunized children is around 8.7 million. These children are highly susceptible to vaccine-preventable diseases, increasing risks of death and illness. Significant work remains to increase coverage of high-impact interventions, strengthen the health systems that support these interventions, and address bottlenecks to ending preventable child and maternal deaths. Nigeria needs also to maintain data on their achievements, as this will help identify gaps that need to be addressed in the immunization program. The Senior Technical Child Health Advisor will support the Nigeria Ministry of Health; national primary health care development agency and the Department of state in carrying out life-saving humanitarian assistance (LHA) in full alignment with the new Presidential Executive Order (EO) directives. The primary focus of the Advisor will be technical leadership to ensure the successful implementation of cost-effective, lifesaving direct service delivery for contributing to improved child health outcomes. The Senior Child Health Advisor will provide strategic, technical, and managerial leadership contributing to improved child health and primary health outcomes in Nigeria. The position will focus on strengthening systems and services that address major causes of childhood morbidity and mortality, including malaria, pneumonia, diarrhea, and vaccine-preventable diseases (VPDs), as well as emerging issues. The Advisor will serve as an in-house subject matter leader on maternal child health and primary health care integration as a subset of an integrated health approach, and serve as a liaison for the Department of State and USG in policy, strategic, and technical engagements with the host-country Ministry of Health (MOH), National Primary Health Care Development Agency ( NPHCDA) amongst others, U.S. Government (USG) interagency, international, and bilateral organizations, and donor agencies to address technical issues and coordinate efforts in implementation of integrated maternal child health activities. The Advisor will oversee design, implementation, monitoring, and continuous improvement of interventions in child nutrition, routine immunization (RI), and polio eradication, working closely with government counterparts, donors, and implementing partners to advance national and sub-national health goals. Work may include serving as a Program/Project Manager for significant and targeted interventions, providing technical assistance to the appropriate host-country Ministry in the development of host-country policies, design and implementation plans.

Requirements

Master’s degree or local equivalent from an accredited program in Public Health, International Development, Health, Social or Behavioral Sciences, Epidemiology, Biology, Infectious Disease, Medicine, Pharmacy, or immunization
Minimum of 10 years of progressive experience in child health, immunization, or public health program management in Nigeria or similar contexts.
Demonstrated expertise in immunization, nutrition, childhood disease management, and/or polio eradication.
Minimum 3 years’ direct experience managing or advising routine immunization programs.
Proven leadership in designing, implementing, and evaluating child health programs at scale.
Strong experience engaging with government agencies, donors, and international partners.
Knowledge of disease control initiatives.
Excellent leadership, communication, and team management skills.
Excellent interpersonal skills and ability to work in a cross-cultural work environment.
Excellent written and oral communication in English.
Excellent written and oral communication
Good computer skills, including familiarity with Microsoft Office programs.
Excellent organizational, planning, negotiating and problem-solving skills.
Excellent written communication skills are required to prepare regular and ad hoc reports, activity documentation and briefing papers.

Nice To Haves

Experience with US government and or other donor funded ( UNICEF etc) projects is an advantage.
Knowledge of local culture is a plus
Experience with US government -funded public health programs.
Relevant technical experience obtained in Nigeria and or other West African countries is preferred.

Responsibilities

Program Planning and Implementation: NPHCDA and DOS
Strategic Leadership & Technical Guidance
Provide overall technical direction for child health programming, with emphasis on childhood immunization, nutrition, and childhood diseases management (not limited to malaria, pneumonia, and diarrhea).
Guide evidence-based strategies to reduce under-five morbidity and mortality and ensure alignment with national child health policies and global standards (WHO, UNICEF, Gavi).
Shape program design by developing performance frameworks and budgets that prioritize life-saving Maternal Child Nutrition Health services.
Routine Immunization & Vaccine-Preventable Diseases (VPDs)
Oversee the design and implementation of strategies to strengthen RI programs at national, state, and community levels.
Monitor immunization coverage, equity, and quality; identify and address bottlenecks in vaccine delivery and uptake.
Provide technical leadership in the introduction and scale-up of new vaccines.
Collaborate with government and partners to improve cold chain, supply chain, and vaccine logistics systems.
Polio Eradication Efforts
Support surveillance, outbreak detection, and rapid response to polio and other VPDs.
Provide technical oversight of supplemental immunization campaigns, ensuring quality, timeliness, and reach to underserved populations.
Strengthen community engagement and demand generation strategies to improve acceptance of polio and RI vaccines.
Liaise with the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), WHO, UNICEF, and partners to ensure alignment with the Global Polio Eradication Initiative.
Childhood Disease Management & Nutrition
Lead strategies for prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of major childhood illnesses (malaria, pneumonia, diarrhea) through integrated service delivery.
Promote scale-up of Integrated Community Case Management (iCCM) and facility-based child health services.
Support implementation of nutrition interventions, including Infant and Young Child Feeding (IYCF), vitamin A supplementation, and management of acute malnutrition.
Keep abreast of disease outbreaks and support national efforts at preventing and mitigation against the effects of such.
Monitoring, Evaluation & Learning (MEL)
Oversee collection, analysis, and use of data to drive decision-making and continuous improvement in child health outcomes.
Monitor key performance indicators for immunization, nutrition, and child diseases and outbreaks management and reporting.
Facilitate routine reviews, including service delivery processes, program reviews, and Data Quality Assessments, ensuring evidence-based adjustments to strategies and operational plans.
Collaborate with technical advisors and MOH staff to document, institutionalize and scale up quality best practices, lessons learned, and innovations in child health programming.
Support to the Department of State (DoS) Health Assistance Office
Provide technical oversight of the MNCH portfolio, ensuring alignment with U.S. government global health strategy and Nigeria’s National MNCH and Primary Health Care Programmatic strategies.
Guide evidence-based strategies to reduce under-five morbidity and mortality and ensure alignment with national child health policies and global standards (WHO, UNICEF, Gavi).
Shape program design by developing performance frameworks and budgets that prioritize life-saving child health services.
Review implementing partners’ workplans and progress reports to ensure compliance with program designs and strategies optimize service delivery and results-based management to enhance decision-making.
Produce high-quality documentation, including briefing notes, portfolio summaries, and technical reports, to synthesize progress, highlight achievements, and outline challenges with actionable recommendations.
Serve as liaison for DOS to strengthen efficiency and expand the capacity of Nigeria’s health systems (governance, coordination, logistics and data use) to improve and deliver sustainable health systems improvements for comprehensive and integrated maternal and child health.
Capacity Building & Partnership Management
Strengthen national, state, and local health systems to deliver sustainable, high-quality child health services.
Provide capacity building and mentorship to health workers, program staff, and local partners on child health and immunization best practices.
Facilitate collaboration among government (NPHCDA, SPHCDA), NGOs, CSOs, private sector, and development partners (UNICEF, WHO, USG) to harmonize programming and strengthen collaboration for child health priorities.
Participate in interagency, domestic, and global meetings, consultations, working groups, and negotiations related to routine immunization, Polio, and VPDs technical assistance.