Group Summary
The goal of the Global Development Program is to increase opportunities for people in the developing world to lift themselves out of hunger and poverty and to help deliver targeted healthcare solutions in these regions. Our strategies focus on Maternal, Newborn and Child Health, Nutrition, and Family Planning. These strategies are supported by functional teams that focus on Vaccine Delivery and Integrated Delivery as well as country offices in India, Nigeria and Ethiopia.
ABOUT MATERNAL, NEWBORN, AND CHILD HEALTH AT THE FOUNDATION
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health (MNCH) team is committed to ensuring that mothers, newborns and children are healthy and able to live up to their full potential. We envision a world where healthy mothers deliver healthy babies. We focus on strengthening health systems that tackle the issue of mothers’ and children’s vulnerability to poor health. Specifically, this work will focus on: testing new interventions that target maternal and newborn morbidity and mortality; strengthening health systems and accelerating coverage of key MNCH interventions; creating recommendations that accelerate the adoption of innovation by country decision makers; ensuring that the best evidence is identified and applied at the global and country level; and increasing the adoption of proven interventions to reduce underlying vulnerability and preventable deaths.
Position Summary & Responsibilities
This Senior Program Officer (SPO) position sits within the MNCH team and is responsible for defined areas of work in the Innovation & Implementation Research Initiative, and the Demonstration for Scale Initiative. The incumbent will collaborate with MNCH team members working in remaining initiatives, i.e. the Data & Evidence Initiative, the Global Impact Initiative and the Policy, Advocacy and Communications Initiative. This role may manage a portfolio of investments including defining new areas of interest in the broader maternal-newborn health field, liaising with possible grantees, developing grants, monitoring/supporting grantees, and other projects in support of programmatic strategic goals. They will also provide technical input to reproductive health questions across the foundation, in addition to maternal/newborn health, such as Nutrition, Family Planning, Sexually Transmitted Infections and (STIs).
Areas of deep involvement will be:
Ensuring appropriate investment in defined bodies of MNH work: The MNCH Strategy Refresh of BMGF in 2017-18 is articulating well-defined Bodies of Work, that need execution in the coming 4-5 year period. The incumbent will as a key member of the MNCH team ensure that appropriate investments are made to meet that execution plan. This implies helping to define adequate investments, identify possible grantees, and help develop investments with the selected grantees. For existing or new grants, the incumbent will monitor the development, and support grantees.
Help lead innovation and research in the maternal/newborn health field: The incumbent will help follow major trends in the evolution of maternal and newborn health and health care globally, with special reference to opportunities in LMICs. This requires networking, following the scientific literature, and keeping contact with both the scientific field and communities of practice.
Help lead implementation research: As the strengths and weaknesses of MNH care innovations emerge (efficacy) from research funded by BMGF or others, there will be need to test these innovations for effectiveness in LMIC settings. Design and investment into implementation research is thus one of the major responsibilities of the Innovations & Implementation Research and Demonstration for Scale initiatives, including the incumbent.
Help lead demonstration for scale projects in key implementation areas: Once a series of new approaches have been tested in an implementation research proposal, funded by BMGF or otherwise, there is often a need to combine a set of interventions into a “bundle” that will be adapted, piloted and implemented in a purposefully chosen set of 4-5 countries; normally with a full country scale-up period of 4-5 years. The members will thus initiate and design investments that on a national scale demonstrate the effectiveness of the respective bundle, and through a comprehensive set of outputs enable a host of different set of countries to learn from and introduce similar approaches to improving maternal and newborn health.
Help triage pediatric health innovation ideas: BMGF receives many unsolicited requests for funding. The steady stream of proposals needs triaging, in close collaboration with colleagues working in MNCH Discovery, Integrated Delivery, Family Planning and Nutrition. The incumbent, one of few with newborn health care expertise within the foundation, will have a lead role in this collaboration.
Additional areas of Key Involvement:
Contribute to Global Impact, Policy and Evidence: In the MNCH team, the incumbent will be contributing to policy setting, data and evidence gathering and analysis, and strategies for Global Impact within MNH and MNH care. Also for maintaining contacts with focus geographies and moderate engagement countries, the entire MNCH team will share the responsibilities of being a focal person for the various countries/geographies.
Qualifications
- Previous work and specialization in pediatrics, with work experience and/or sub-specialization in neonatology
- MD with at least fifteen years of experience
- At least five years of work in/with several low/middle income countries
- Research experience, i.e. either active research background or working with interpretation of research results
- Experience of innovation in maternal/newborn health
- Health system strengthening experience
- Excellent organization skills and attention to detail, deadlines and policy compliance
- Excellent oral and written communication skills
- Creative, solutions-oriented mindset
- Proficient in MS Office Suite
- Experience working in a dynamic environment
- Ability to work independently and as part of an integrated, diverse team and be comfortable in multiple, high varied and ambiguous settings, and tight deadlines with different work and learning styles
- Ability to manage multiple and competing demands and establish priorities
As part of our standard hiring process for new employees, employment with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will be contingent upon successful completion of a background check.