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Mali Country Representative/Technical Director

Based at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, ICAP is one of the world’s largest implementation and technical assistance (TA) providers for HIV and related health programs and a global leader in HIV prevention, care, and treatment system strengthening, including in the areas of strategic information, clinical services, and program management. With its roots in comprehensive, family-focused HIV services, ICAP is widely respected for its success in both TA and capacity building of innovative, effective, and ethical programs in the most challenging of resource-limited settings. ICAP is also known for its collaborative, supportive approach to strengthening national, regional, and district-level health systems.

ICAP at Columbia University is implementing a 5-year CDC-funded project in Mali to strengthen HIV-related strategic information (SI) by providing technical assistance (TA) and capacity-building to the Government of Mali (GoM) and other U.S. government (USG) implementing partners for enhanced HIV surveillance and monitoring and evaluation (M&E) activities. Key project activities will be implemented in collaboration with the International Center for Excellence in Research (ICER) at the University of Bamako Medical School.

Overall Job Function

Reporting to the ICAP Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E) Director, the Country Representative/Technical Director - Mali will serve as the primary ICAP representative in Mali and in this role liaise with the GoM and USG in-country and provide overall in-country administrative, operational, programmatic, strategic and technical oversight and direction for all project activities. The Country Representative / Technical Director - Mali will ensure that all activities are consistent with ICAP’s goals, as well as donor initiatives and in support of the GoM.

Travel (up to 30%) within Mali may be required.

Duties and Responsibilities

Country Representative Responsibilities

  1. Lead strategy development for country program, in collaboration with ICAP-NY, GoM and donor.

  2. Strategically build and leverage strong, effective relationships with key in-country partners.

  3. Develop a supportive relationship with local and national government officials to support them in planning, designing and implementing relevant programs and activities.

  4. Liaise and work closely with ICAP-NY to respond to program requirements, solve issues as they arise, and ensure ICAP’s resources are maximized.

  5. Develop, implement and monitor annual program work plans.

  6. Lead program administration and fiscal management, including managing annual budgets and ensuring sound financial management and accountability.

  7. Establish operations and presence in-country, including managing sub-agreements and consultancies.

  8. Ensure operations are in compliance with ICAP, donor and local regulations and procedures.

  9. Ensure regular reporting on program activities to donor and to ICAP-NY.

  10. Identify strategic opportunities for ICAP to expand activities in Mali, and leads and/or participates in the preparation of grant proposals.

  11. Recruit and supervise staff and consultants.

Technical Director Responsibilities

  1. Provide technical assistance to the GoM to enhance functioning and outputs of existing national HIV SI technical working groups. Activities may include supporting the GoM to complete an inventory of all SI-related activities; develop a comprehensive national strategic plan for HIV-related SI activities; prepare a national HIV epidemiologic profile; establish regular data sharing fora; and draft national standards for surveillance and M&E.

  2. Oversee the implementation of qualitative and quantitative formative research on most at-risk population (MARP) groups, including MSM, miners, incarcerated populations, and injecting drug users, and support the GoM to prioritize and implement state-of-the-art integrated bio-behavioral surveillance for these and other MARP groups. Activities will be conducted in conjunction with other ICAP technical staff, ICER and/or consultants, and may include protocol and tool development; obtaining ethical approvals; training study teams; monitoring data collection, entry and cleaning; data analysis; report and manuscript preparation; data dissemination; and ensuring integration of study results in national HIV prevention strategies.

  3. Support the GoM to identify priority HIV M&E TA needs and implement enhancements for the M&E system for HIV. Activities may include facilitating a Monitoring and Evaluation and Surveillance System Strengthening (MESS) workshop to review the national M&E system using UNAID’s M&E 12 Component Evaluation Tool; assisting the GoM to review and enhance national indicators for clinical HIV programs including PMTCT, care and treatment, early infant diagnosis and testing and counseling; and implementing a national aggregate database to capture, manage and disseminate aggregate indicator data.

  4. Lead capacity building activities for GoM and other SI stakeholders, including the development and implementation of trainings and mentoring of key personnel in the areas of HIV-related M&E, HMIS, surveillance, data analysis, concept note development and manuscript preparation.

  5. Implement other activities as jointly prioritized by with ICAP-NY, GoM and donor.

Qualifications

• MD or PhD in epidemiology, biostatistics, public health, or a related discipline.

• 5+ years of experience in the design and implementation of M&E and/or surveillance activities in HIV or a related area.

• Demonstrated experience with HIV/AIDS service delivery preferred.

• Fluent English-French language skills. Ideally, fluent in Bambara as well.

• Demonstrated excellent project management skills.

• Strong written and verbal communications skills.

• Demonstrated excellent team and capacity building experience.

• Demonstrated experience working with government at the national or regional level in resource-constrained settings, preferably in Mali.

Travel Requirements

The Country Representative/Technical Director will be based in Mali and will be expected to regularly travel in-country. In addition, there is the possibility of one or more international trips per year.

Salary and Benefits

Candidates who have worked and lived extensively in Mali will be given preference for this position. A competitive package of salary and benefits will be offered.

How to apply:

Please send cover letter, CV, and salary requirements to: icap-jobs-mali@columbia.edu. Please indicate you are applying for position Country Representative/Technical Director – Mali in the subject line of your e-mail.