ThaiNGO

Job Title: Provincial Coordinator

Job Classification:  Sr. Professional 1

Job Grade: J

Reports to:  Resident Advisor

Job Summary:

RTI is currently accepting applications for a Provincial Coordinator for Thailand. This position will support the USAID-funded Country Health Information Systems and Data Use program (CHISU) in Thailand, implemented by JSI Research & Training Institute, Inc. with RTI International (RTI), Vital Strategies, Macro-Eyes, Jembi Health Systems, and Global Evaluation and Monitoring Network for Health (GEMNet-Health).

CHISU supports the Thailand Ministry of Public Health (MOPH) in the final stretch of eliminating malaria in the country.  Despite having made significant progress in reducing malaria incidence and deaths over the decades, political instability in Myanmar has resulted in a 400% increase in malaria cases particularly along the Thai-Myanmar border provinces. 

Reporting to the Resident Advisor, the Provincial Coordinator will perform a range of tasks to support malaria outbreak response activities in Thailand’s provinces, with a focus on border provinces. These activities will include coordinating with provincial staff and partners to implement malaria prevention and control interventions using data, support case finding and follow-up, and strengthen malaria surveillance systems and data quality. The candidate will support provincial teams to collect, analyze, and use available clinical and epidemiological data to inform health policy and response activities.  It is critical that the candidate be a strong communicator, with a strong ability to coordinate a data-driven, rapid, and effective response to increasing malaria case burden along the Thai-Myanmar border.

This position will work closely with the newly established Coordination Center in Tak province responding to the upsurge of malaria cases along the border. The Provincial Coordinator will support capacity strengthening to improve the utilization of data for action, health policy, and advocacy. The coordinator will also lead and participate in meetings, trainings, and workshops as required to ensure best practices and lessons learned are captured and disseminated.

This individual should have experience working with and coordinating activities with government agencies, non-governmental organizations, and other community and technical stakeholders in Thailand. Candidates must be located in one of the following provinces: Kanchanaburi, Mae Hong Son, Phetchaburi, Prachuap Khiri Khan, Ratchaburi, Tak, Chumphon, or Ranong with a preference for being based in Tak Province. The coordinator will also travel frequently to the other provinces along the Thai-Myanmar border.      

Essential Duties:

•  Develop and manage relationships with government, non-governmental and other technical and community stakeholders involved in malaria response and prevention;
• Use data to rapidly identify outbreaks, communicate and coordinate with stakeholders to identify key interventions and the resources needed to effectively respond;
• Communicate and coordinate with provincial health teams and other stakeholders to provide on-going monitoring of activities and identify needed resources for the effective continuation and support of priority activities, such as monitoring and forecasting commodity needs based on population dynamics;
• Mentor subnational counterparts to effectively analyze and use data to tailor, implement, and monitor and evaluate malaria control activities
• Support provincial health teams to ensure data quality and routine reporting into the Malaria Information System, including data on treatment of primaquine and tafenoquine.
• In collaboration with the Resident Advisor, develop templates for weekly/monthly data tabulations, reports, and presentations; Support provincial health teams to prepare data products that directly inform provincial coordination and response activities; 
• Support preparation of progress reports on the status of project implementation; contribute to other project reports such as annual work plans;
• Participate in key meetings with DVBD, USAID, and implementing partners;
• Perform other program and project activities as assigned.

Minimum Required Education & Experience

Bachelor's Degree in biology, public health, epidemiology or biostatistics, or other related field and 8 years of experience working in global public health and malaria disease control and outbreak response, or Master's degree and 6 years of experience, or PhD and 1 year of experience, or equivalent combination of education and experience.

Skills & Abilities

• Excellent communication (written and verbal), coordination and organization skills
• Excellent working knowledge of malaria surveillance and malaria control strategies in Thailand
• Proven experience in using data to drive disease control and response efforts, with a preference for malaria experience
• Strong skills in negotiation and diplomacy
• Excellent knowledge of MS Word, PowerPoint, Excel
• Data cleaning, analysis, and visualization skills
• Ability to multi-task
• Ability to work well with others
• Ability to work independently
• Attention to detail and accuracy

Physical/Mental Demands

Physical and mental demands of this role include those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job, as outlined above.  Examples include:  remaining in a stationary position for long periods of time; operating a computer and other office machinery; thinking, learning, and concentrating effectively and frequently communicating with other people, both within RTI and outside of RTI; frequently moving about inside and travel between offices and laboratories; frequently conducting laboratory site inspections (if applicable), ability to handle the stress associated in meeting frequent, multiple and tight deadlines, ability to work in excess of 40 hours per week as workload and deadlines may require, ability to have regular, reliable and predictable attendance.

Disclaimer

The above information on this description has been designed to indicate the general nature and level of work performed by employees within this classification. It is not designed to contain or be interpreted as a comprehensive inventory of all duties, responsibilities, and qualifications required of employees assigned to this job.

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