Act to End Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs)|East, Ethiopia

RTI International is an international, independent not-for-profit organization dedicated to improving the human condition by turning knowledge into practice. With a worldwide staff of more than 4,000 people, RTI offers innovative research and development and a full spectrum of multidisciplinary services that meet the highest standards of professional performance.

 Act to End NTDs | East is a five year cooperative agreement through which RTI supports national neglected tropical disease (NTD) programs to reach WHO NTD control and elimination goals through proven, cost-effective public health interventions which span the regions of Oromia, Tigray, Beneshangul-Gumuz and Gambella. 

Position Summary:

The Data Officer will oversee the organization, storage and in-depth analysis of data to guide program decisions for Act I East-NTDs, and any other RTI future projects.  He/she will also be responsible for managing all project specific reporting deliverables surrounding project/DSA data management and DHIS2 role out in the country.  In addition, he/she is expected to provide technical and programmatic support to the MERLA and program team by undertaking supportive supervision during MDA and Disease specific Assessments led by RTI International.

Responsibilities:

• Manage survey/disease-specific assessment data by developing data entry templates, overseeing data entry, cleaning and subsequent analysis
•  Provide technical support to FMoH NTD team and in-country partners in rolling out DHIS2  
   implementation to the regions if/when requested
•  Review data for inconsistencies that could skew analytical results and provide feedback for corrective actions where necessary
• Review all data submissions by RTI partners as necessary to ensure accuracy
• Assist the FMOH M&E advisor with occasional data entry needs surrounding the national integrated NTD database as is necessary.  Participate in the routine NTD database maintenance as needed to ensure data integrity
•  Design a system to streamline data collection and analysis procedures
•  Provides data support with monthly updates for HQ reporting
• Make recommendations for software, hardware and data storage upgrades
• Provide technical guidance to RTI NTD team and FMOH NTD case team on data management during data collection, analysis, and use
• Work with the NTD team at the FMOH on the Joint Application Program (JAP) when required
• Ensure that an integrated NTDs database or workbooks are managed to facilitate timely information updates, data quality assurance, sharing of information and learning, and data use for decision-making
• Summarize and analyze project related data and ensure consistency between data workbooks and narrative reports
• Summarize project progress on a monthly basis for changes in major indicators and share with RTI Ethiopia management for timely decision making in collaboration with M&E manager
• Provide technical support to ongoing operational researches or any of validation surveys including the design and overall coordination of the tasks
• Undertake ongoing data analysis of historical data and generate evidence for decision making on quarterly basis or as necessary
•  Conduct field visits to regions and targeted districts for any on-site technical supports needed
• Undertake supportive supervision of Disease Specific Assessments and MDAs (when needed in close collaboration with in-country implementing partners and Regional Health Bureaus
• Undertake other M & E related assignments assigned 

Qualifications and Experience

• Education
   BSc / BA in Statistics / Biostatistics, and related field with approximately 6 years’ work experience with NGOs, Ministries and/or Regional Health Bureaus

Experience

• Proven experience in monitoring and evaluation particularly in data management using excel and other data management tools

• Familiarity with modern database and information systems
• High analytical mindset with problem-solving skills
• Proficient programming skills in one or more statistical software packages (Stata, SPSS, etc.)
• Experience of working with USAID projects and knowledge of NTDs.

Skills and Abilities

• Ability to manage small and large datasets, create codebooks, manipulate data, move and merge data files from different platforms
• Experience reading, exporting, and converting data sets between multiple statistical software packages
• Experience using mobile technology for data collection and use of QGIS to generate maps as necessary is  an advantage
• Ability and experience to write data based abstracts for journals an advantage

     Special skills needed

• Proven experiences of DHIS2 database application and management in the areas of public health, mainly NTD
• Proven experiences in computer applications for data collection and management  (ODK and SDK)
• Proven skills of health research methodologies
• Proven skills of statistical software (Epi-Data, SPSS, STATA, Epi Info etc.)