Officer, HPV Vaccination and Gender Project

• Position Title: Officer, HPV Vaccination and Gender Project 
• Department/Program: SRH /RISE
• Level:  TBD
• Reports to: Direct – Area Office SRH Manager, Dotted line/technical – HPV vaccination project manager 
• Required Number:  4 (1 for each woreda)
• Based in: Hawella woreda health office of Sidama region (1), Sokoru woreda health office of Oromia region (1), Gomma woreda health office of Oromia region (1), and Awbare woreda health office of Somali region (1)
• Duration of contract:  Indefinite based on performance and availability of funds
• Remuneration:  As per organization pay scale plus other PSI Ethiopia staff benefits.
• Vacancy Posted on: November 28, 2024
• Application Deadline: December 11, 2024

Who we are

We’re Population Services International (PSI), the world’s leading non‐profit social marketing organization. We work to make it easier for people in the developing world to lead healthier lives and plan the families they desire by marketing affordable products and services that range from mosquito nets to contraceptives to HIV testing. We are a $560m enterprise based in Washington, DC, operating in the private and public sectors in more than 65 countries.

Join us!

There are over 9,000 “PSI’ers” around the world. It’s a diverse group of entrepreneurs and professionals with an unusually wide range of backgrounds – from the medical industry to the music business – all with unique skills we bring to the job.

PSI/Ethiopia wants reimagine healthcare, put the consumer at the center, and whenever possible, bring quality care to the front door. We achieve health impact in Ethiopia by working with both government and private partners and harvesting technology innovation to bring quality care closer to communities, schools, and homes.  We empower consumers by including them in the design of healthcare solutions, offering them more healthcare choices, and helping them to have a voice in influencing national priorities. We work with all market actors in the health system to understand their needs, designing and delivering solutions so that market systems can sustainably serve consumers for the long term, helping to support the Government of Ethiopia in achieving Universal Health Coverage.

We are looking for

HPV Vaccination and Gender Project Officer who will be responsible to lead the day-to-day activities of the project by providing technical support to Woreda Health Offices and PHCU’s to ensure the integration of gender-sensitive approaches into HPV vaccine delivery, implementation research, monitoring and evaluation in the assigned woreda. S/he will closely coordinate with Woreda Health offices, PHCUs, HEWs and community structures to harmonize efforts toward the successful implementation of the HPV Vaccination activities. The Officer will also support the overall project management and coordination of vaccine implementation, with a special focus on understanding and addressing gender-related barriers and opportunities in improving and routinization of HPV vaccination uptake among 9-14 years old girls. The project will be implemented in four intervention woredas located in three regions- Oromia, Sidama and Somali.  Addis Ababa University, School of Public Health, Center for Implementation Sciences is a sub awardee who leads the research aspect of the project. Hence, the Project Officer will be specifically responsible for coordinating the implementation of this research in collaboration with the Project manager, research investigators from both PSI and AAU to ensure seamless implementation of the research project at the selected woredas.

Sounds like you? Read on!

Your contribution

You will work under the direct supervision of PSI’s area office SRH Manager, with dotted line technical relationship with the project manager based at PSIE headquarters .  More specifically, your roles involve:

Technical 

• Provide Technical support on the launching, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of the project in the designated Woredas.
• Supports/Assist the Woreda Health Offices and PHCUs to integrate adolescent girl-centered approaches for the planning of demand-generation activities for the routinization of HPV vaccine.
• Supports the Woreda Health Office communication and social mobilization teams to produce and implement an evidence-based, integrated adolescent, demand generation and mobilization plan for the HPV vaccine routinization uptake,
• Supports the Woreda HPV advisor or ACSM (Advocacy, Communication, and Social Mobilization) working group for the HPV routinization to support the development of adolescent-friendly local social media messages as may be appropriate
• Supports the identification and coordination of Woreda-level and PHCUs-level stakeholders (education, women affairs, NGOs, faith-based, youth, etc.) for community engagement, mobilization, mapping of adolescent-friendly platforms, networks, and enumeration of eligible 9-14 years old girls in and out of school
• Supports the PHCUs teams to identify facilities and map catchment areas for facility-led community outreach services of HVP vaccine
• Provides technical assistance to the Woreda Communication/Social Mobilization Technical Working Groups on updating the weekly dashboard.
• Provides updates to Woreda and regional HPV advisory group, PSI area lead, AAU research leads, and PSI Country Office teams by completing daily and weekly updates through the area office and providing any other updates on request.
• Provide regular feedback to PHCUs, HP, and Woreda Health Offices and support them to draw action points for course correction.
• Attends communication/social mobilization meetings and workshops as directed by supervisors, HPV TWG/advisory group and as maybe required by the woreda health office teams.
• Routinely identifies gender barriers, enablers and facilitators to promote routinization of HPV vaccine uptake especially among out of schoolgirls aged 9-14 years
• Strengthen the collaboration within health structures and with that of education, women and social affairs offices,  etc by regularly coordinating meetings, joint visits, etc
• Leverage and capacitate local community platforms such as idirs, afosha, equb , etc promote  the importance and necessity of HPV vaccine
• Support the Woreda Health Offices to systematically document lessons learnt, best practices on gender specific HPV Vaccination program and encourage experience sharing
• Provide technical support to Woreda Health Office and PHCUs to enhance social norms shift to girl’s immunization
• Engage with community leaders to develop a context specific strategy to create an enabling environment that promote girls’ immunization
•  Coordinate with other agencies to break rumors circulating in the community related to girls’ immunization
•  Empower girls as the change agent of girls’ immunization
• Conducts gender analysis to identify and address inequalities, barriers, and opportunities.
• In collaboration with the AAU implementation research teams, conducts gender analysis in the project locations and utilize recommendations to inform project implementation.
• Facilitates and supports the integration of gender perspectives in the programming across the different stages of the project cycle (research, model development, implementation, monitoring, evaluation and reporting.
• Reviews project plans and budgets with support from the area SRH Manager and HPV Project Manager to ensure that adequate attention is given, and resources are allocated to the promotion of gender equality across research, model development, implementation, and monitoring and reporting.
• Work closely with the HPV project manager to develop a Gender action plan (GAP) on how to implement the gender analysis recommendations and Capacity-building:
• Train Woreda Health office and PHCUs staff, HEWs and community structures on Gender equality and Protection of VYAG from sexual exploitation and abuse (PSEA).
• Support Woreda Health Office in the provision and facilitation of Orientation and sensitization sessions for health care workers, teachers, community leaders, and local stakeholders on over all HPV vaccine implementation.

Deliverables:

The incumbent will:

• Accountable to deliver target, and ensure quality of care
• Conduct Baseline assessment, develop PIPs and follow the implementation of the action plan to ensure increase in uptake of HPV Vaccine
• Ensures the recording, documentation, reporting and use of data as related to routinization  of HPV vaccine , gender and community engagement
• Prepare regular and timely progress reports on the implementation of HPV vaccination performance focusing on gender-specific findings, challenges, and successes.
• Submits a work plan at the beginning of each month to the SRH manager and HPV project manager including the plans for activities and travel if there are any.
• Compiles a detailed Woreda micro plan for adolescent mobilization and the advocacy communication and social mobilization plan for the HPV routinization
• Maps the Woreda-level and PHCUs-level stakeholders (education, women affairs, NGOs, faith-based, youth, etc) for community engagement, mobilization, mapping of adolescent-friendly platforms, networks, and enumeration of eligible girls, in and out of school.
• Supports the development of innovative IEC materials for the mobilization of mothers/care givers of very young adolescent girls and key community influencers engagement for HPV vaccine routinization and sustained uptake
• Provides an update on the pre-introduction, introduction, and post-introduction processes and decision-making for the smooth introduction of the HPV vaccine to the area office and the country office.
• Identifies and maps VYAG-friendly social media influencers for an intensive VYAG-friendly access and use of HPV vaccine
• Coordinates the orientation of parents and caregivers of VYAG, WDAs, HEWs, Woreda health office teams, PHCUs, and stakeholders towards community mobilization and demand generation for HPV vaccines.
• Identifies the strengthens and/or suitability of the model and give insights on gray areas that need modification
• Work collaboratively with internal and external teams including AAU, MOH, RHBs, etc to facilitate the smooth implementation of the research project.
• Execute other tasks given by the project manager and Project PI/Co-PI/Co-Investigators

Monitoring and Evaluation

• Integrate gender indicators into health facilities monitoring evaluation checklists
• Collect and analyze disaggregated data to inform regional authorities and PSI central team for decision
• Supports the collection and analysis of sex- and age- disaggregated data (quantitative, qualitative and anecdotal) as well as streamline the needs assessment, collection and analysis so that it can be more effective in meeting beneficiary needs.
• Follow up and support the implementation of actionable recommendations that come from meetings, field visits, communications, data review.
• Document minutes, reports, plans, visit reports, etc and share as required.
• Supports the Design and implementation of a knowledge management plan for innovative documentation and reporting of every stage of the research and implementation – including dashboards, infographics, human interest stories, etc.
• Monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of gender-sensitive strategies in increasing vaccine uptake and improving vaccination outcomes among 9-14 year old girls.

What it takes to succeed

• System Thinker: Who understand the Ethiopian Primary Health care system and able to easily identify, leaver and amplify the nuances for system influence.
• A self-starter: You have the ability to work independently with minimal supervision; you are someone who is proactive in looking for new opportunities.
• Consistent and determined: Influencing system is time taking and labor intensive which requires to understand people and their interest in doing their routine. Someone who is determined and always look at the bigger picture regardless of the challenges on the daily basis is needed
• Eager and Passionate to serve young people: RISE is for and with the young people in general and married adolescent girls/couples in particular.
• Communicator: who has excellent interpersonal and written communication skill
• Evidence based decision Maker: capable to interpret both qualitative and quantitative data, transform it in to compelling communication material to influence both mind sets and skill sets as system is all about infrastructure as well as people.
• Flexible: who is capable to see other alternatives when trail/attempts fail; someone with strong conviction that CHANGE is possible!