The Organization 

Vital Strategies, headquartered in New York City, is an international public health organization. Our programs strengthen public health systems and address the world’s leading causes of illness, injury and death. We work in more than 80 countries, supporting data-driven decision-making in government, advancing evidence-based public health policies, and mounting strategic communication campaigns. Vital Strategies’ priorities are driven by the greatest potential to improve and save lives. They include non-communicable disease prevention, tobacco control, road safety, food policy, environmental health, civil registration and vital statistics, and overdose prevention. Our programs are concentrated in low- and middle-income countries and cities in Africa, Latin America, Asia, and the Pacific. Please visit our website at www.vitalstrategies.org to find out more about our work.

About ImpactHDSS Ethiopia/Tets’i’noHDSS Ethiopia

Vital Strategies, in partnership with the Ministry of Health (MOH) of Ethiopia, the Ethiopian Public Health Institute’s National Data Management Center (EPHI/NDMC), Health and Demographic Surveillance System Sites (HDSSs), and other key stakeholders and collaborators has recently launched ImpactHDSS, Ethiopia through a three-year grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. 

The purpose of this project is to leverage the health and vital events data produced by Ethiopia’s current set of 13 HDSSs for public health use. These sites provide continuous, routine, and timely follow-up of pregnancies, live births, deaths, and causes of death. They also produce routinely updated direct measures of surveillance area resident populations, which provide the denominators for the calculation of rates. 

While the long-term goal remains one of strengthening Ethiopia’s national Civil Registration and Vital Statistics system to provide these data, the government of Ethiopia has elected to supplement registration data in the meantime. One approach, to be taken under this grant, is to leverage government and other partner investments in the 13, university-sponsored HDSS sites and to explore how these can supplement and be supplemented by other mortality measurement or registration activities in the country to produce a representative picture of population health and disease burdens causing premature death. 

Specifically, ImpactHDSS, Ethiopia will provide technical assistance and mentorship support to strengthen the standardization, quality, timeliness, and completeness of data collected; to undertake pooled analyses, and produce the indicators, statistics, or data required to meet documented use cases in health policy and planning. Additional emphasis will be placed on linking the HDSS systems to the civil registration system and integrating HDSS data with those from other health information system platforms (e.g., DHIS2). 

Ultimately, improved data, including mortality and cause of death estimates, fertility estimates, as well as health service utilization information, will be provided to government decision-makers in a timely manner, synchronized with decision-making processes. Vital Strategies experts will be embedded within Government of Ethiopia institutions, as well as in a small project management and support team in the Vital Strategies Ethiopia office. 

Job Purpose 

Gender is one of several critical determinants in understanding and addressing health disparities within populations. In Ethiopia, HDSS plays an important role in gathering and analyzing gender disaggregated data, which is essential for the formulation of effective and equitable health services as well as policies. This position will serve as the key manager for identifying and incorporating gender dimensions across ImpactHDSS’ activities. The role will also support ongoing efforts already initiated by HDSS in recent years to identify and address inequities and vulnerabilities. The Gender Equity Manager will contribute to gender and equity awareness, sensitivity, and intentional input into the design and review of all project outputs and deliverables. The role will be crucial in ensuring genderaware goals are made, met, and measured, and gender-related learnings are captured. The Gender Equity Manager will report directly to the Project Director and be based at the Vital Strategies office in Addis Ababa. 

Duties and Responsibilities: 

• Work closely with the Steering Committee and Technical Working Group to ensure gender and equity issues are identified and addressed from the project outset; 

• Support the network of HDSS sites to coalesce around gender-responsive national standards that will be used to generate evidence and production of standardized data;

•  Support the network of HDSS sites to strive for greater gender balance in HDSS leadership and management roles;

• Provide guidance to project colleagues on integrating gender equity activities into workplans and incorporating a gender equity perspective into the work; 

• Serve as a technical resource for gender and other equity-related subjects and capacity strengthening activities of the project, with support and guidance from colleagues at Vital Strategies with relevant experience and expertise; 

• Research, analyze, and disseminate best practices in gender-equitable programming in the global health sector; 

• With support from other Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) and the project’s leadership:

              o Mobilize implementation support and technical assistance for the project, including establishing objectives and progress indicators, developing workplans, budget management, identification, and management of technical assistance (via internal or external specialists), etc.; 

               o Directly provide technical assistance on gender-focused approaches throughout the project; 

              o Engage internal or external SMEs for technical assistance with prioritization given to local or regional experts; 

•  Represent Vital Strategies in cross-organization gender and equity program planning meetings; communicate relevant information to colleagues and country partners; 

• Serve as a member of the project team ensuring successful implementation, participate in the delivery of training, mentoring, and other technical assistance activities as required, assist with donor reporting and ensure prudent management of finances, 

• Other duties as assigned.

Job Requirements

Qualifications 

Education and degree

•  Undergraduate degree in public health, or another relevant field required. Masters preferred. 

Skills and Abilities – 

• Fundamental knowledge of concepts of gender equity/gender equality in public health, including other forms of inequity, vulnerability, and the intersectionality of these factors; 

• Strong people skills, with demonstrated ability to maintain partnerships with internal and external stakeholders; 

• Ability to conduct a landscape analysis of gender equity-focused health initiatives of similar scope and intent; 

•  Ability to conduct country-specific policy analysis of policies relevant to promoting gender equity/gender equality; 

•  General project management skills; 

•  Excellent communication skills in verbal and written forms in Amharic and English; 

• Demonstrated ability to collaborate effectively in diverse, cross-cultural, multi-sectoral environments.

Experience 

Experience required: 

• Minimum 6 - 7 years of relevant experience; 

•  Subject matter expertise gained through gender studies, training, and professional experience addressing health disparities, particularly from gender/intersectional perspectives; 

• Experience working with government partners (city/state/regional/national) specifically on gender-equity initiatives and programs; 

•  Experience working with vital event data; HDSS site data experience will be an advantage; 

• Experience in delivering training and technical assistance. 

Preferred - 

• Experience with designing, developing, implementing, and/or evaluating public health or development work; 

Working Conditions and Physical Requirements: 

• This is a full-time position that will be based out of the Vital Strategies Office located in Ethiopia; 

• Vital Strategies offers highly competitive compensation and comprehensive benefits. 

• The candidate must have authorization to work legally in Ethiopia at the time of hire; 

• Travel may be required in Ethiopia to attend in-person meetings; 

•  Vital Strategies strongly encourages qualified female candidates to apply

How to Apply

If you are interested in being considered for this role, please send a brief cover letter and CV to hermela@ethiojobs.net  Subject: “Gender Equity Manager"