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Senior Technical Advisor, Community-Based Care and Orphans & Vulnerable Children

Overview

MSH seeks a Senior Technical Advisor with experience setting up and managing community-based care programs for Orphans & Vulnerable Children (OVC) and/or people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA), for a Regional and Bilateral Capacity Building Project in the Southern Africa region. The program aims to contribute to the USAID Regional HIV/AIDS Program (RHAP) goal to strengthen the overall sustainability, quality, and reach of evidence-based interventions in the region. With a primary focus on implementing activities in Lesotho, the project is intended to increase the capacity of governments and indigenous civil society organizations to respond effectively to the survival and development needs of OVC as well as their caregivers, especially those living with HIV/AIDS by raising the standards of care and ensuring that implementing partners and service providers are working in coordination.

The Senior Technical Advisor will lead the local team and will work primarily with the Ministry of Health Department of Social Welfare (MOHSW) to 1) improve the leadership and management competencies of their staff at the central and district level; 2) improve coordination of efforts across other ministries, implementation of relevant policies and referrals between clinical and community-based services; 3) work with academic institutions to improve and contextualize training of practitioners in the field of social work and child protection; and 4) improve the standards of care used by local service providers so that the response is coordinated, age and gender specific and focuses on the family.

SPECIFIC RESPONSIBILITIES
1. Ensure program adaptation to local needs and conduct ongoing regular program reviews.
2. Liaise closely with the international and national OVC and HIV/AIDS partners to ensure strategy alignment and implementation of integrated programs with the public sector.
3. Build and manage productive professional relationships with key stakeholders.
4. Communicate with clients and USAID and other United States Government agencies, and other external parties as requested, including contributing to written reports and/or presentations.
5. Work to build the leadership, management and OVC service provision capacity of staff at key CSOs, CBOs, FBOs and public sector through technical assistance, trainings and coaching.
6. Provide technical support as needed to CSOs, CBOs and FBOs to improve their capacity to reach service delivery targets and to provide age and gender specific programming to vulnerable households through (a) supporting the integration of strategies to reduce stigma and discrimination; (b) operating through proven community-based models; (c) strengthening community networks, systems, and leveraging wrap-around programs; (d) establishing strong linkages with other HIV/AIDS prevention, care and support services, such as treatment sites, palliative or home-based care, legal and other related services.
7. Identify and work with health and development consultants, larger NGOs, and training institutions that can also provide technical assistance to CSO/CBO/FBO and public sector clients.
8. Assist national programs to align with international and national standards of care in the six plus areas for OVC of food and nutrition, psychosocial support, health, education, shelter, child protection, and economic strengthening, ensuring that project staff and CSO/CBO/FBO clients understand, adapt and use these standards.
9. Document best practices and results to share at international HIV/AIDS, OVC and/or community-based care knowledge exchange initiatives in the region to make sure that key local interventions and programming models are documented and contribute to worldwide knowledge.
10. Prepare internal reports and/or communications.
11. Contribute to PEPFAR/Lesotho’s overall technical assistance strategy, especially in meeting project goals and guidelines and strengthening the CSOs.
12. Support ongoing efforts to develop and revise national OVC strategies, policies and assessment data and ensure their appropriate integration into the project’s programming.
13. Develop annual workplans and work closely with the monitoring and evaluation (M&E) and data management team to develop a system for collecting baseline information and monitoring progress and results.

QUALIFICATIONS

1. Post-graduate degree (MPH, MD, MSW, MPA or other relevant degree) with a minimum of 5-8 years of relevant field experience, preferably in Southern Africa.
2. Demonstrated expertise in OVC program design, implementation and management.
3. Minimum of four years experience in a senior position providing technical assistance to NGOs, CBOs, and FBOs in HIV/AIDS prevention and OVC.
4. Knowledge of best practices related to OVC and HIV/AIDS programming.
5. Sensitivity to cultural differences and understanding of the political and ethical issues surrounding HIV/AIDS.
6. High degree of personal and professional integrity.
7. Demonstrated ability to create and maintain effective working relations with USAID and other partners.
8. Demonstrated competence in assessing priorities and in managing a variety of activities in a time-sensitive environment, and in meeting deadlines with attention to detail and quality.
9. Commitment to working closely with MSH’s home office and partner organizations on a collaborative basis.
10. Demonstrated strategic agility, diplomacy, conflict management, team building, written and oral communication, and negotiation skills.
11. Excellent written, oral, and interpersonal English-language communication skills.
12. Ability to travel frequently within Lesotho.
How to apply
To apply for this position, please visit the Employment Opportunities section of our website at https://jobs-msh.icims.com