The UNAIDS Country Office (UCO) in Malawi provides leadership and coordinates the expanded UN system response on a national level, scaling up rights-based HIV services for all, focusing on underserved populations including key populations, women and girls, people living with HIV and locations most at risk. The UCO also works to ensure that equitable financing for the HIV response and broader health systems is available. It further promotes effective use of strategic information to better understand and track the epidemic and its trends, and to measure progress and sustainable impact of the response. It strengthens the capacities of communities and their meaningful engagement in health, social protection, and human rights strategies and mechanisms, and provides support and technical guidance as necessary to national partners and policymakers.
Collaborating with community members, in a way that will identify barriers and enablers to accessing and utilizing HIV services, is pivotal to the national response to HIV and ensures programming is tailor made to respond to the bottlenecks pulling back program progressive efforts. In this context, UCO Malawi has been managing the CDC/PEPFAR Community Led Monitoring (CLM) grant since 2020. CLM provides the structure and mechanism through which community data can have a sustainable impact on service quality.
The general aim of the CDC/PEPFAR-supported CLM in Malawi is to expand community monitoring for social accountability and improved access to HIV services, in 6 priority districts and 33 health and community facilities, achievable through the following objectives:
Identify barriers to access high-quality health services in health facilities and communities.
Refer and track identified barriers to relevant authorities for resolutions.
Strengthen community voices to influence HIV and TB policies and strategy development.
Improve provision of differentiated HIV testing services, antiretroviral therapy (ART) initiation and retention and the proportion of eligible ART clients with a documented viral load result (viral load coverage).
Main tasks and Responsibilities of the Position: Under the direct supervision of the UNAIDS Country Director, the Programme Manager, Community Led Monitoring performs the following functions:
Coordinating and overseeing the CLM initiative
Oversee the development and execution of annual work plan and budget and ensure that the proposed activities are aligned with overall project objectives, country programme and strategic plan.
In coordination with the UCD, lead the day-to-day decision-making in relation to CLM project activities.
Monitor the implementation and reporting of the activities by partners and provide technical guidance to them as required.
Contribute to the preparation of relevant meetings and ensure that recommendations are addressed.
Managing relationships, partnerships, policy, and advocacy efforts:
In coordination with the UCD, provide policy and strategic advice relating to CLM and scale up the partnership with the key CLM counterparts, and foster/enhance collaboration with other relevant Government bodies by building synergies and complementarities with Government counterparts and national partners.
Establishes strong ties to and with national programmes, and relevant sectoral strategies, priorities, and plans.
Coordinating monitoring and evaluation activities of the projects/initiatives under his/her portfolio:
Conduct assurance activities and monitoring related to the implementation of the project.
Set direction for monitoring and evaluation priorities in accordance with UNAIDS rules and regulations.
Guide development of overall monitoring and evaluation systems for the project and put mechanisms in place for proper and timely reporting.
Lead quarterly review meetings and annual projects reviews by monitoring the progress of project implementation, assessing results, and identifying areas of weaknesses to ensure the projects achieve the planned results in accordance with relevant plans.
Monitor and manage any strategic risks/issues facing the project;
Evaluate all key project deliverables, as well as final product to ensure traceability of requirements, high quality and client acceptance.
Facilitating knowledge management and sharing:
Manage stakeholder expectations and participate in communication activities to inform stakeholders of progress and issues.
Establish and maintain a friendly internal communication system to ensure smooth communication among and between the projects partners.
Lead the process of knowledge creation and dissemination related to national, regional, and global know-how in the areas CLM
When required, represent the project with donors, government and national and international forums relating to CLM.
Education:
Essential: Advanced university degree at Master's level or equivalent in Public Health, Medicine, Economics, Social or Political Sciences or another relevant field related to the responsibilities. A relevant first-level degree and 7 years of relevant professional experience will be considered as equivalent for internal candidates only.
Desirable: Other studies in e.g., project management, community health and public administration.
Experience:
Essential: At least five years of experience in managing projects and/or working with community and civil society organizations. Familiarity and deeper understanding of the community-led monitoring concepts and processes. Experience managing Donor assistance projects of a similar size and scope and experience managing multi-sectoral projects.
Desirable: Prior experience managing Donor assistance projects of a similar size and scope and familiarity with the PEPFAR/COP, CDC COAG and Global Fund planning, implementation and reporting processes.
Languages:
Essential: Advanced level of English.
Desirable: Knowledge of additional UN official languages.
