Vital Strategies, in partnership with other global public health organizations, oversees programs to strengthen health systems and address leading causes of morbidity and mortality. Public health programs include road safety, mental health, and activities to strengthen public health data systems and the use of public health data to guide policy and decision-making. Activities are based in low and middle income countries and municipalities in Africa, Latin America, Asia and the Pacific.

The Position

Vital Strategies is looking for a Program Associate for an exciting new program to reduce maternal mortality in three countries. Our new Data-Driven Policy Initiative to Improve Women’s Health (DDP for WH) aims to reduce maternal morbidity and mortality resulting from unintended pregnancies, unsafe abortions, and complications of pregnancy and childbirth in Bangladesh, Rwanda and Uganda. The program will work closely with national ministries of health to strengthen capacity to collect, analyze and apply data to develop evidence-based policies. This initiative applies a data-to-policy model to support improved access to, and surveillance of, family planning, contraceptives, abortion care, and other sexual and reproductive health services. The program complements existing efforts in these three countries and leverages Vital Strategies’ expertise in health data, epidemiology, surveillance, health policy and public health law, and strategic communication and advocacy.

The program’s theory of change is based on the assumption that clear and compelling data and evidence, along with effective advocacy, are fundamental to creating meaningful and high-impact policy and program improvements. Anchoring the first year activities will be an intensive effort to build capacity to collect, analyze and understand data as a basis for policy analysis and development.

This is a 12-month position and will be based in the New York City Vital Strategies office.

Overall Role

The overall role of the Program Associate is to help execute the administrative and operational needs of the program across several countries and sub-teams. This is primarily expected to be a support role, assisting the Program Director and other program staff in the implementation and delivery of program commitments. Typical responsibilities may include management of the team calendar, coordination of meetings, note-taking and recording of meeting minutes including key action steps from team and partner meetings; budget and expense reporting, in coordination with grants managers and finance staff; procurement and some contract process management. Other responsibilities may include document management (cloud-based file and folder management), organization of travel of staff, consultants, program partners and/or guests (when work-related travel resumes). Provides additional programmatic support as needed, such as coordination of trainings and workshops and desk review/literature searches, drafting of content for presentations on core reproductive thematic topics, etc. Prepares other background materials for meetings/funder requests and compiles monthly and quarterly progress reports for internal and external partners. The Program Associate will report to the Program Director, DDP for WH.

Specific Duties: In addition to responsibilities summarized above,

• Scheduling, coordination and record keeping of meetings through variety of platforms and software (Outlook, Zoom, Skype, Slack, Team, AirTable, etc.)
• Support general logistics – conference and meetings (e.g. hotel bookings, travel coordination, catering, per diem or expense reporting)
• Support task and project management by tracking action steps and deliverables through various platforms including Monday.
• Assist in developing service agreements (procurement), consultant/contractor agreements, and other purchases on behalf on the program
• Drafting letters, tables, charts, graphs, maps, data tables, presentations, and other visual aids as necessary
• Assist in the editing and formatting of project reports and related materials
• Work closely with other staff; provide support when needed

Requirements:

• At least 2-3 years work experience, preferably in the non-profit sector
• Bachelors’ degree in a related field from an accredited university
• Exceptional attention to detail; excellent organizational and time management skills
• Excellent computer skills: proficient user of Microsoft Office suite (MS Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint); knowledge of MS Project, MS Forms or Smartsheet will be an advantage
• Excellent interpersonal communication
• Ability to work as part of a team, particularly with multi-cultural, multi-regional context
• Adaptability to change
• Excellent English language fluency (written and spoken)
• In addition to English, proficiency in another language preferred

How to Apply:

Please submit a cover letter and resume through the Vital Strategies Career page. The application deadline is January 22, 2021.