Public Health Spec. Job Vacancy at World Bank Central African Republic

Job # 121194 Job Title Public Health Spec. Job Family Health, Nutrition & Population Location Bangui, Central African Republic Appointment Local Hire Job Posted 11-May-2012 Closing Date 28-May-2012 Language Requirements English [Essential]; French [Essential] Appointment Type Background / General description The Africa Region, Technical Health Unit (AFTHE) is currently seeking a Public Health Specialist to support the Implementation of both the Impact Evaluation and the Results based Financing Project in Bangui, CAR. Central African Republic (CAR) has made little progress towards achieving the MDGs. In fact, most key indicators of maternal and child health and nutrition have stagnated or worsened since 1990. CAR is seriously off-track for reaching the child mortality MDGs. CAR is not on track to achieving the health MDGs. About 176 of every 1,000 babies die before age five, while about 106 of every 1,000 infants born die before their first birthdays . As a result of political and social unrest in the last decade, the maternal mortality ratio increased to an unprecedented level of 1355 in 2003. It then decreased sharply to 540 in 2006. Yet, the target of 171 deaths per 100,000 in 2015 will not be achieved. HIV prevalence, among adults, is estimated at 15-18%, with peaks of 25 to 30% in the forest and diamond areas of western CAR. The Total Fertility Rate also remains high at 4.8 births per woman as of 2008 . Rural areas are considerably worse-off in terms of health than urban areas. To illustrate, the Under Five Mortality Rate (U5MR) is 126 per 1,000 in urban areas compared to 199 per 1,000 in rural areas. Similarly, the Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) is 119 per 1,000 in rural areas compared to 79 per 1,000 in urban areas . Promising results from Performance Based Financing (PBF) programs implemented in a number of countries in Sub Saharan Africa suggest that PBF may help to address many of these challenges. CAR will pilot a Result based Financing Project in nine prefecture, covering a population close to 2.5 million inhabitants. The objective of the project is “to increase the utilization and improve the quality of maternal and child health services in targeted rural areas of Central African Republic. However, important gaps in the evidence on PBF remain. Although most published studies show a positive association between PBF and service coverage and quality, the lack of controls and confounders in most studies implies that the causal impact of PBF remains open to question. The World Bank and the Ministry of Health of CAR therefore propose to implement and rigorously evaluate a pilot of PBF to be implemented in seven prefectures of three Regions provinces of CAR. The results of the impact evaluation will be used by the Ministry of Health to ascertain if and how to expand PBF across CAR. The Public Health Specialist will play a leadership role (i) in the implementation of the baseline study and in the design of the prospective impact evaluation, and (ii) in the implementation of the overall RBF project. S/He will work in close co-ordination with the research organizations hired to implement the study in CAR and will report primarily to the project TTL and also to the impact evaluation team at the World Bank. Note: If the selected candidate is a current Bank Group staff member with a Regular or Open-Ended appointment, s/he will retain his/her Regular or Open-Ended appointment. All others will be offered a 2 year renewable term appointment. Duties and Accountabilities The successful candidate will : • Assist the World Bank and research partner organizations with designing the impact evaluation and the baseline study. o Assist the World Bank impact evaluation team with finalizing the research study protocols. o Assist the World Bank impact evaluation team with implementation of randomization. o Assist the research partner organizations on research-related matters with obtaining necessary ethical clearance. Ensure that the necessary ethical clearance is obtained in a timely manner • Support research partner organizations in implementing the baseline research study protocol as it has been approved. This includes the following: o Contribute to pre-testing and finalization of instruments and protocols o Contribute to the development of the operational manual. The operational manual should outline the necessary technical details for implementing the baseline study, including quality assurance procedures o Contribute to the development of training materials for survey field teams o Ensure that any approved changes and updates in the design and implementation of the baseline research are recorded and reflected in study materials. o Provide daily technical, management, and operational guidance to implementing agencies and staff. • Co-ordinate regular communication between the implementing agencies, the World Bank impact evaluation team and other key stakeholders such as the Ministry of Health counterparts. o Ensure clear communication on study progress and concerns with all research partners and key stakeholders: o Provide regular progress updates to the World Bank TTL, highlighting any emerging issues. • Provide supervision support to the implementation of the RBF project through: o Daily consultation with the project implementation unit and other stakeholders as relevant on the progress in the development of project activities o Organization of overall supervision mission carried out by the TTL as planned o Provide inputs to reports related to the project (ISR, Aide-memoires, etc…) • Ensure policy dialogue with the Ministry of Health, Population and Fight against HIV/AIDS o Respond on a timely manner to requests from client and other donors o Represent the Bank at meetings and other activities relevant o Keep the Bank informed and updated on policy dialogue, issues and perspectives in the health sector. • Represent the TTL at donor coordination and consultation meeting. • In addition, the public health specialist will carry out any task related to World Bank business as requested by the World Bank TTL. Selection Criteria • Master degree with at least 10 years of field experience or an advanced degree (such as Ph.D) public health, epidemiology, statistics, biostatistics, social science, or other field relevant to this assignment. • Familiarity with CAR context and its health system in particular • Fluency in written and spoken French and English • Strong communication skills and demonstrated leadership potential. • Familiarity with CAR context and its health system in particular • Fluency in written and spoken French and English • Strong communication skills and demonstrated leadership potential. How to Apply; http://extjobs.worldbank.org/external/default/main?pagePK=64273552&piPK=64273556&theSitePK=1058433&JobNo=121194&order=descending&sortBy=job-req-num&location=ALL&menuPK=64262364