Summary Statement

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is at the forefront of the U.S. Government (USG) response in the fight against HIV/AIDS. USAID is a key partner in the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), and works closely with other USG agencies on this multi-billion dollar initiative in developing countries around the world.

The Office of HIV/AIDS (OHA) provides strategic direction, technical leadership, and support to field programs around HIV/AIDS. OHA provides input to decisions concerning the strategic allocation of financial and human resources in the sector and assists in designing, implementing, monitoring, and evaluating HIV/AIDS programs.

The Systems and Program Sustainability Division (GH/OHA/SPS) provides technical leadership and strategic direction on issues related to systems strengthening and financing of HIV/AIDS programs. Under the SPS Division, the Capacity Building and Partnerships Branch (GH/OHA/SPS/CBP) coordinates with relevant USAID offices and Missions teams in support of local partner transitions efforts, implementation, and sustainability of partner and civil society engagement.

In April 2018, S/GAC announced PEPFAR Local Partner (LP) Targets at a Principal’s meeting. Targets were defined as percent funding to Local prime partners including: 25% by FY2018; 40% by FY2019; 70% by FY2020. The transition to local implementation is an essential element of PEPFAR’s vision for sustainable control of the HIV epidemic. These efforts are also in line with USAID’s vision of realizing Self- Reliance in our partner countries and represent a first step to domestic support of PEPFAR program areas like HRH, supply chain, and service delivery. USAID is well-positioned to play a leadership role in promoting Local Partnerships within PEPFAR. USAID has a long history of leadership around local ownership, capacity building and sustainability. Additionally, USAID also has a depth of experience working to strengthen civil society, FBOs, NGOs, academia, and host country governments.

Job Requirements

The Local Partner Transition Advisor will be an essential member of the Capacity Building and Partnerships (CBP) Branch within the Systems and Program Sustainability (SPS) division. The Advisor will report on a day-to-day basis to the Capacity Building and Partnerships (CBP) Branch Chief. The Advisor will be expected to perform the following duties as described below.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

1. Country specific support-

• Support Mission teams to conduct landscaping and capacity assessments of local organizations, including identifying systems and/or policy barriers in place that might support or hinder thriving local organizations
• Provide technical leadership to country teams during the project design phase for new local awards; including drafting strategic approaches, project descriptions, evaluation criteria, risk management plans, and performance monitoring and communication strategies
  • Support in developing Government to Government agreements, as needed
  • Programing to increase the capacity of local private sector, as needed
• Provide oversight of new local partner awards to ensure successful implementation
  • Review and advise Mission management team on local partner work-plans, including performance targets and capacity needs
  • Monitoring of country specific local partner performance
  • TA to local organizations and management teams to address performance issues
  • Development of risk mitigation plans as more PEPFAR programs are implemented through local organizations
• Provide technical assistance to Missions and local organizations to provide needed capacity and training in organizational development, financial management, accounting, PEPFAR M&E systems, MER indicator reporting

2. Washington specific support

• Serve as technical expert on local capacity development
• Support work with Washington-based technical advisors on transition efforts in priority PEPFAR topic areas such as: Care and Treatment (C&T) services, Human Resources for Health (HRH), Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC), Faith-based Organizations (FBO), Supply Chain, and others to address barriers and develop cross-cutting strategies for transition efforts in these areas

• Support Washington based capacity- building mechanisms designed to support PEPFAR funded organizations

• Serve as Local Partner technical advisor to USAID field staff, interagency teams and country cluster teams

• Serve as an Implementation Subject Matter Expert on local partner investments and as a resource to country teams including designing tools and programs to support partner transition plans.

Training and Professional Development:

• Understand PEPFAR data streams, and the multiple channels through which data is available, know how to access and use all systems.
• Track PEPFAR performance imperatives, analytic requests, and respond with agility to producing new visuals, comparative analyses and other systematic approaches that support the field.
• Deepen knowledge of current literature, research, policies and programmatic experiences related to the HIV response.
• Participate in professional meetings as appropriate to the position description.
• Participate in professional continuing education, skills training and professional meetings to enhance relevant technical skills and career development.
• Complete and execute and Individual Learning and Training Plan and Annual Work Plan.

Minimum Qualification Requirements

• Minimum of Master’s degree and 7 years professional experience or Bachelor’s and 9 years or more of professional experience with one or more public health technical disciplines (such as, HIV/AIDS, Infectious Disease, etc.); job duties/responsibilities generally related to PD requirements.
• At least 5 years of professional experience with two or more Backstop (BS) 50 technical disciplines (such as, HIV/AIDS, Infectious Disease, etc.); job duties/responsibilities generally related to SOW requirements.
• Field experience in the development sector, with experience working with local organizations, government, academia, civil society, or faith-based organizations.
• Organizational capacity expertise, proven experience providing capacity building TA to local organizations
• Experience using tools like organizational capacity assessment (OCA) or ITOCA to conduct organizational assessments and develop capacity plans for local organizations
• Demonstrated health systems knowledge; understanding of policy landscape that supports local organizations and successful program implementation
• Previous work with USAID or PEPFAR desired but not required.
• Experience with HIV service delivery programs and/or planning for epidemic control desired but not required
• Language skills in PEPFAR countries desired but not required
• Exceptional analytical and communication (written and verbal) skills.
• Proficiency working with large volumes of data, ability to use data to think critically and inform decisions
• High-level of proficiency in Microsoft Office and Google; particularly Excel and PowerPoint and google counterparts
• Strong interpersonal skills with the ability to build relationships and communicate effectively with people of varied professional, cultural, and educational backgrounds.
• Entrepreneurial mindset
• Ability to operate independently, self-motivate, be flexible, and set and achieve ambitious targets.
• Ability to be effective in high-pressure situations, juggle multiple tasks simultaneously, problem solve in a fast-paced environment and set priorities.
• Detail-oriented with strong organizational skills.
• Ability to travel regularly to developing countries and resource challenged settings, ranging from 10-30%, depending on assigned operational unit.
• US citizenship or US permanent residency with the ability to obtain and maintain facility access required.