Associate, Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning - Maternal and Newborn Health, Emergency Referral Systems

Overview

The Clinton Health Access Initiative, Inc. (CHAI) is a global health organization committed to our mission of saving lives and reducing the burden of disease in low-and middle-income countries. We work at the invitation of governments to support them and the private sector to create and sustain high-quality health systems.

 

CHAI was founded in 2002 in response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic with the goal of dramatically reducing the price of life-saving drugs and increasing access to these medicines in the countries with the highest burden of the disease. Over the following two decades, CHAI has expanded its focus. Today, along with HIV, we work with our partners to prevent and treat infectious diseases such as COVID-19, malaria, tuberculosis, and hepatitis. Our work has also expanded into cancer, diabetes, hypertension, and other non-communicable diseases, and we work to accelerate the rollout of lifesaving vaccines, reduce maternal and child mortality, combat chronic malnutrition, and increase access to assistive technology. We are investing in horizontal approaches to strengthen health systems through programs in human resources for health, digital health, and health financing. With each new and innovative program, our strategy is grounded in maximizing sustainable impact at scale, ensuring that governments lead the solutions, that programs are designed to scale nationally, and learnings are shared globally.

 

At CHAI, our people are our greatest asset, and none of this work would be possible without their talent, time, dedication, and passion for our mission and values. We are a highly diverse team of enthusiastic individuals across 40 countries with a broad range of skill sets and life experiences. CHAI is deeply grounded in the countries we work in, with the majority of our staff based in program countries. Learn more about our exciting work: http://www.clintonhealthaccess.org

 

CHAI is an Equal Opportunity Employer, and is committed to providing an environment of fairness, and mutual respect where all applicants have access to equal employment opportunities. CHAI values diversity and inclusion, and recognizes that our mission is best advanced by the leadership and contributions of people with diverse experience, backgrounds, and culture.

 

Position Overview

 

In partnership with the Ministry of Health, CHAI is implementing the Maternal and Newborn Health Emergency Referral Systems (ERS) project in Copperbelt and Southern Provinces. The project will strengthen community-to-facility and inter-facility referral pathways; improve the availability, deployment, and management of ambulances and motorcycle ambulances; strengthen coordination, protocols, data use and accountability; and support policies and systems that enable timely, efficient and sustainable emergency referrals.

 

CHAI is seeking a Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning Officer – Maternal and Newborn Health, Emergency Referral Systems to coordinate implementation of the project's MEL activities. The role will manage the project results framework and routine monitoring; lead CHAI's rapid internal baseline and other programmatic assessments; strengthen data quality, analysis, visualization, and use; coordinate performance reporting and learning; and serve as CHAI's MEL focal point for coordination with IDinsight's independent process evaluation.

 

The position will report to the Technical Advisor – Maternal and Newborn Health Emergency Referral Systems, be based in Lusaka, and require frequent travel to Copperbelt and Southern Provinces. The role will have no formal direct reports but will provide technical guidance to national and provincial ERS staff and government counterparts on monitoring, data quality and data use.

Responsibilities

MEL framework Routine, data systems and performance management

• Develop and maintain the ERS MEL framework and Project Monitoring Plan – indicators, targets, data sources and QA procedures – aligned with program, donor, and government requirements.
• Help the Ministry of Health strengthen the ERS call/dispatch system, HMIS, MPDSR, eLMIS and CHMIS reporting – including referral registers, ambulance logbooks, referral slips, forms, and databases with consistent definitions and secure access.

Analysis, reporting, learning, and data use

• Analyse and visualize data on progress, referral-system performance and risks; contribute to preparing accurate donor and management performance reports.
• Facilitate performance review and data-use meetings across national, provincial, and district teams; track action items and support evidence-based adaptation of plans.
• Document lessons, best practices and challenges; contribute to knowledge products; and share learning with government, CHAI, and partners.

Baseline and programmatic assessments

• Lead CHAI's internal baseline assessment – protocol, ethics approvals, tools, sampling and training – keeping it focused on program adaptation, not the independent evaluation.
• In collaboration with the Global Analytics team, manage baseline data cleaning and analysis, and lead the final report with actionable recommendations.
• Serve as CHAI's MEL focal point with IDinsight, under the Technical Advisor, keeping CHAI's monitoring and baseline work clearly separate from their independent evaluation.
• Facilitate authorized access to documents, datasets, and stakeholders; coordinate schedules and field logistics; minimize burden on participating facilities.
• Align indicator definitions and data-transfer arrangements, respond to data-quality queries and coordinate management responses to recommendations – without influencing independent findings.
• Support validation of routine data selected for review and facilitate access to findings for adaptive management, per approved ethics and data-sharing requirements.

Capacity strengthening and stakeholder support

• Build the capacity of CHAI staff, health offices, facilities, Safe Motherhood Action Groups and community health workers to use reporting tools, apply data-quality standards and act on findings.
• Work with the project team, Ministry of Health and partners to integrate MEL into implementation and align tools, reporting and data-use practices.
• Perform other duties as requested by the Technical Advisor or Senior Program Manager, consistent with the role.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in public health, statistics, demography, epidemiology, health informatics, data science, social sciences or a related field.
• At least five years of relevant experience in monitoring, evaluation, learning, health information systems, applied research or performance management within public health or a related sector.
• Demonstrated experience developing MEL frameworks, performance-monitoring plans and data-collection tools, and coordinating facility- or community-based assessments.
• Strong knowledge of quantitative and qualitative methods, research ethics, digital data collection, data-quality assurance, secure data management and routine health information systems such as DHIS2, eLMIS or CHMIS.
• Strong quantitative and analytical skills, including advanced Microsoft Excel and practical experience with at least one statistical package such as Stata, SPSS, SAS, R or Python.
• Understanding of the Zambian health system and strong communication and stakeholder-coordination skills, with the ability to synthesize complex data, manage competing priorities and travel frequently within Zambia.

Advantages

• A master's degree in public health, statistics, demography, epidemiology, health informatics, data science or a related field.
• Experience with data visualization, dashboards or GIS and with maternal and newborn health or emergency-referral datasets, including call-log or GPS-tracking data.

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