Immunization Technical Consultant at JSI Research & Training Institute, Inc.

Job Details:
Technical support for immunization activities for the Ghana CDC Gender-Based Intervention for Immunization Project.

Purpose:

• Serve as the project’s main technical consultant.
• JSI is looking for an Immunization Technical Officer to work in Accra, Ghana. This person will be the lead consultant for a project funded by the CDC that is looking into gender-based interventions to increase routine immunization.
• The goal of the project is to learn more about how families make decisions about immunizations and get more families involved. This will be done by doing exploratory research on how families in Ghana make decisions about immunization and the barriers and opportunities that come with being a girl or a boy. The team will create and deliver tailored engagement strategies and messages about immunization that focus on a family-based approach. Community-based actors, such as community health workers, will reach out to mothers, fathers, and other important family members of children eligible for vaccinations (CHWs).
• The interventions will encourage healthy behaviors that are good for both routine immunization and immunization against COVID-19. Interventions will be looked at to see if they make families more involved in and supportive of immunization; if male caregivers and other family members know about, think about, and act on immunization; and if children get immunized.

Responsibilities:

• Working closely with the Ghanaian EPI at the national and sub-district levels to introduce, orient, and work together on program activities.
• Help organize introductory meetings at the national and district levels and keep stakeholders up to date on project work.
• Serve as the main investigator for the baseline data collection; keep an eye on the data collection firm (selection, training, data collection, data cleaning, and final deliverables to Washington, DC); and help with data analysis, reporting, and sharing.
• Help find and hire consultants for HCD and gender issues
• Together with the HCD and Gender consultants (and the Washington, DC, team), plan a co-ideation workshop for communities and community health workers to look at the current barriers to routine immunization and the things that help it happen.
• Lastly, Support the analysis and use of the data from the co-ideation workshop to finalize the design of gender-based interventions and training for community health workers.

Deliverables:

• IRB protocol and approval (collaboration effort across all team members)
• All meetings will have an agenda and a list of participants.
• Support for a report on collecting baseline data (specific roles to be discussed with a team)
• Summary report from the co-ideation workshop, with an action plan for carrying it out (collaboration effort across all team members)
• Plans for CHW training sessions and how they will be run (collaboration effort across all team members)
• Weekly meetings with the boss (email and standing weekly calls)
• Full evaluation reports, data sets, PowerPoint presentations, and briefs
• Fill out and turn in expense reports on time for all trips;
• A detailed report on every trip taken;

Skills or Experience Needed:

• A master’s degree in public health, social work, international development, or a similar field
• At least 10 years of experience in the health or development fields
• Excellent skills and past experience in designing and supporting immunization interventions at (sub)national and national levels in low-resource health settings (experience with gender-based strategies is a plus).
• Strong background in monitoring, evaluating, learning, and implementing research. High level of creativity, adaptability, and expertise in providing technical assistance or consulting services to social entrepreneurs, innovators, and mission-driven international organizations.
• It would be helpful to know about new HCD research methods, tools, and ways to present the results.
• Ability to work with people from other teams, even when under pressure, while showing initiative and adaptability.
• Experience working with a variety of parties, from the Ministry of Health to partners to frontline healthcare workers
• Proficiency in both English and Ghanian at a professional level
• Excellent interpersonal communication skills are needed to work well with project managers and partners.
• Ability to travel within the country as needed