Placement Organization: THALAS Project — Joint Clinical Research Centre
Placement Location: Kampala, Uganda
Eligible Citizenship: Ugandan

 

About: JCRC is a non-profit organization founded in 1991 as a collaboration between Makerere University’s School of Medicine and Uganda’s Ministries of Health (MoH) and Defense to serve as a national AIDS research centre to address the challenges of HIV/AIDS in Uganda.  The mission of JCRC is to conduct quality medical research and training, provide equitable and sustainable HIV/AIDS care and other health care services in Uganda and other parts of Africa. Its vision is to have a vibrant self -sustaining centre of excellence in medical research, training and health care services. The strategic priorities of the institution are: research with major emphasis on HIV/AIDS and TB; management and delivery of comprehensive clinical services a network of JCRC supported facilities, management and delivery of laboratory services and training that targets health care providers. Some of strategic priorities are achieved through implementation of projects like the Targeted HIV/AIDS and Laboratory Services (THALAS) project, a five-year, USAID funded project to which the fellow will be attached.

 

Position Overview: The fellow will work with the THALAS project to augment achievements gained in the past two years of implementation, and will further support, develop, and implement sustainable practices to support public health systems and adopt laboratory improvement approaches introduced. The fellow will review performance trends, document best practices and lessons learnt and suggest various methods for dissemination for reach by other partners.  He/She will further support the host institution to identify and propose sustainability measures by scanning for policy and donor priorities and offering guidance on how to incorporate them in the strategic plans of the Institution.

 

Responsibilities: Support the project to augment achievements gained in strengthening public health laboratories through documentation and identification of sustainable practices for adoption.

Key Deliverables

  • Identify and document best practices for strengthening public laboratories
  • Establish appropriate communication forum/ mechanism to enable continuous distance technical support for the mentorship program (e.g. Newsletter, Blogs)
  • Identify, document, and propose actions required to link the organizational strategies to global health priorities

Expectations

  • Guide the project team on best approaches that have worked to strengthen public laboratories
  • Support the development of mentorship progress tools that can be adopted for the national program
  • Participate in site visits and monitoring of project activities
  • Research and prepare briefers on current global health priorities, linking them to the organizational strategic priorities and provide guidance for future implementation
  • Work closely with the monitoring and evaluation team
  • Support production of IEC materials and play a leading role in distributing them
  • Participate in planning and implementation of program activities
  • Keep website information and content updated

 

Required Skills and Experience:

  • Fluency in written and spoken English
  • Ability to work in with donor agencies like USAID, and government agencies and collaborate with other implementing partners to leverage resources.
  • Excellent computer skills especially in the routinely used packages- MS Word, Excel, and Powerpoint
  • Analytical & decision making skills
  • Ability to work under pressure
  • Strong interest in global public health
  • Ability to work in a team environment, but with self-sufficiency and self-motivation.
  • Strong interpersonal skills coupled with excellent communication skills: verbal, written, listening, presentation and facilitation.
  • Ability to multi-task: flexible and capable of working under pressure and tight deadlines with demonstrated ability to prioritize across multiple projects and relationships.

 

Preferred Skills and Experience:

  • Previous work experience in health communications and documentation
  • Strong organizational, interpersonal and communication skills (oral and written)
  • Knowledge and experience working with or supporting public health systems for improved HIV/AIDS care

 

Living Conditions: Fellows will be provided with housing, health insurance and a living stipend of $550/month. Fellows will also receive an award of $1500 upon successful completion of the fellowship year.  Flights to and from the placement site and all other costs associated with GHC programming are included. GHC fellows will be based in the JCRC office in Kampala and have access to landline phones, computers and all office basics that JCRC staff access.