POSITION VACANCY
We are looking for qualified and experienced professionals for the following positions within 2 of 3 projects under the Maternal, Child and Adolescent Health (MCAH) program:
Position Project Duration Location
- Project Officer Grow Healthy, Grow Strong 1st July 2024 – 30 June 2025 Kokopo, ENBP
- Project Officer Zero Dose 1st July 2024 – 31 Dec 2024 Kokopo, ENBP
PROJECT BACKGROUND:
1. Grow Healthy, Grow Strong
The Grow Healthy, Grow Strong project is currently in its second year of a 3-year funding cycle. The purpose of this project is to improve the health and well-being of children in East New Britain, PNG by improving the knowledge of health care workers, key community leaders and parents around the importance of nutrition in children under 5-years. The project is divided into two components. The first focuses on training health care workers and improving practice directly within health facilities. The second focuses on educating key community leaders and parent groups in targeted communities around the importance of nutrition in children while providing realistic, grassroots-based and implementable ideas on how to improve current nutrition practices within the community.
2. Reaching Zero-Dose and Under-Immunised Children in ENB
Routine immunisation is a life-saving public health intervention but ensuring adequate coverage in resource-limited health settings can be a challenge. Globally in 2021, 25 million children did not receive any childhood immunisation. Immunisation coverage varies widely across PNG. In addition, COVID-19 has impacted routine immunisation service delivery globally, exacerbating these issues as healthcare workers are re-deployed or fall ill, leading to reductions in routine immunisation coverage globally. Previous research from East New Britain has identified that improved population-based planning is needed to increase immunisation coverage and strengthen healthcare delivery. The aim of this project is to identify children who have not received any routine childhood immunisations (“zero-dose”) and children who have not received all their routine childhood immunisations according to schedule (“under-immunised”) in ENB and strengthen service delivery and community uptake for routine immunisation in areas with low routine immunisation coverage. This project will build on existing partnerships developed through the Burnet’s Healthy Mothers Healthy Babies program in ENB to support the Provincial Health Authority to strengthen service delivery and community uptake for routine immunisation in areas with low routine immunisation coverage.
ROLE PURPOSE:
1. Project Officer - Grow Healthy, Grow Strong
The Project Officer will assist with the implementation of the Grow Project’s community-based education program and health worker training program. The role will be based out of the Burnet Institute’s Kokopo office but will have significant field travel to implement activities. While the role will have a strong community focus, there may also be a need to support other areas of the project including health care worker trainings, key stakeholder meetings, etc.
Reporting and supervision:
The role reports directly to current Project Officer overseeing the community component of the project with oversight from the Nutrition Technical lead. They will coordinate closely with the Senior Project Manager, and finance operations, and other key Burnet staff. The Deputy Director, Operations, based in Kokopo is responsible for daily line management duties (signing timesheets etc).
Key Tasks & Responsibilities:
- Plan, coordinate and deliver community-based workshops and group discussions as per project workplan
- Plan, coordinate and deliver nutrition awareness and sensitisation sessions with community leaders and community members as needed
- Assist with the expansion of Grow’s community program into new areas under the guidance of the current project officer
- Provide technical and programmatic advice as the project progresses.
- Alert the project team to any significant delays and slow performance which require more focused attention and problem solving.
- Contribute to knowledge sharing and exchange of project lessons learned.
- Provide input to project reporting.
- Provide input into the monitoring and evaluation of the program.
- Complete all required financial and administrative documents/tasks related to travel, procurement and project delivery.
- Complete training reports following each deliverable
- Translate materials from English to Tok Pisin as needed.
- Support with design and pre-testing of information, education, and communication (IEC) materials and organise printing and shipping of these materials as needed.
- Perform other appropriate duties and responsibilities as requested by the project team.
Essential criteria:
- Experience facilitating education/training to community members, health care workers OR experience providing training around health-related topics
- Demonstrated experience in the implementation of nutrition or other primary healthcare programmatic and technical support to the implementation in a non-government organisation or a similar area.
- Experience working with and providing primary healthcare programmatic support to provincial authorities or civil society organisations.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including in the areas of presentation and report writing, networking and representation of Burnet Institute in relevant forums.
- Willingness and ability to travel to field locations.
- Experience in, or capacity to quickly understand, nutrition health messaging
Core qualities:
- Excellent organisational and time management skills, including the capacity to manage concurrent priorities and meet deadlines.
- Excellent judgement to manage and advise on sensitive issues that may involve reputational risk.
- Ability to work well both within a team environment and autonomously.
- Interest in advocating for improving access to nutrition and child health and wellbeing in PNG.
- Clear written and verbal communication skills, including confidence to train community members and healthcare workers, contribute to reporting, and present findings on behalf of the study
- Capacity to problem solve and raise emerging issues with the project as they present themselves to the project team
2. Project Officer – Zero Dose
The Project Officer will assist with the implementation of the Zero Dose Project’s community sensitisation and health worker training programs. The role will be based out of the Burnet Institute’s Kokopo office but will have significant field travel to implement activities (in the following LLGs: Bitapaka, Kokopo Urban, Toma-Vunadadir, Duke of York, Inland Baining). While the role will have a strong community focus, there may also be a need to support other areas of the project including health care worker trainings, planning of other communications methods, key stakeholder meetings, etc.
Reporting and supervision:
The role reports directly to the Senior Research Officer (based in Australia) for the duration of the parental leave cover. When the Project Coordinator returns from parental leave, the role reports to the Project Coordinator (based in Kokopo). They will coordinate closely with the Senior Project Manager, and finance operations, and other key Burnet staff. The Deputy Director, Operations, based in Kokopo is responsible for daily line management duties (signing timesheets etc).
Key Tasks & Responsibilities:
- Plan, coordinate and deliver immunisation awareness and sensitisation sessions with community leaders and community members as per project workplan
- Plan for and support Project Coordinator to delivery healthcare worker trainings on immunisation
- Provide technical and programmatic advice as the project progresses.
- Alert the project team to any significant delays and slow performance which require more focused attention and problem solving.
- Contribute to knowledge sharing and exchange of project lessons learned.
- Provide input to project reporting.
- Provide input into the monitoring and evaluation of the program.
- Complete all required financial and administrative documents/tasks related to travel, procurement and project delivery.
- Complete training reports following each deliverable
- Translate materials from English to Tok Pisin as needed.
- Support with design and pre-testing of information, education, and communication (IEC) materials and organise printing and shipping of these materials as needed.
- Collaborate with Burnet Institute’s GROW nutrition project as required
- Arrange Project Advisory Panel meetings as required
- Perform other appropriate duties and responsibilities as requested by the project team.
Essential criteria:
- Experience facilitating education/training to community members, health care workers OR experience providing training around health-related topics
- Demonstrated experience in the implementation of immunisation or other primary healthcare programmatic and technical support to the implementation in a non-government organisation or a similar area.
- Experience working with and providing primary healthcare programmatic support to provincial authorities or civil society organisations.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including in the areas of presentation and report writing, networking and representation of Burnet Institute in relevant forums.
- Willingness and ability to travel to field locations including remote LLGs (Local Level Governments) Duke of York and Inland Baining.
Core qualities:
- Excellent organisational and time management skills, including the capacity to manage concurrent priorities and meet deadlines.
- Excellent judgement to manage and advise on sensitive issues that may involve reputational risk.
- Ability to work well both within a team environment and autonomously.
- Interest in advocating for improving access to immunisation and child health and wellbeing in PNG.
- Clear written and verbal communication skills, including confidence to train community members and healthcare workers, contribute to reporting, and present findings on behalf of the study
- Capacity to problem solve and raise emerging issues with the project as they present themselves to the project team
Applications close on 24th June 2024 and can be emailed to: [email protected].
