AMR Consultant

Terms of Reference – AMR Consultant
Clinton Health Access Initiative, Vietnam and Laos

Position/Title: AMR Consultant - CLICK HERE FOR BILINGUAL TOR
Base Location: Vietnam
Length of position: December 2021 to March 2022
Reports to: AMR Program Manager and Country Director

Background

The Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) is a trusted advisor to governments worldwide, helping them transform the way they provide health services. Established in Vietnam in 2006, CHAI works with a number of departments in the Ministry of Health to help control and/or eliminate TB, hepatitis, malaria, COVID-19, and other vaccine preventable diseases. CHAI has emphasized a sustainable and integrative approach to health systems strengthening premised on a close partnership with government to build national capacity so that programs can continue without our support. CHAI’s team in Vietnam consists of 18 staff in addition to resources available at the regional and global levels.

Description

CHAI is seeking an Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) Consultant to support the Program Manager on a short-term AMR grant on in-country research, information gathering and data analysis using a formulated questionnaire. Antimicrobial Resistance is a novel area to CHAI yet is linked to all of CHAI’s communicable disease areas e.g. HIV, TB and Malaria. It is a growing threat globally with often poor diagnosis of infections leading to overuse of antibiotics; and the lack of new antibiotics and novel antibiotic classes resulted in increased mortality and morbidity for patients diagnosed with infections. AMR also is also associated with higher costs to health care facilities and patients, as well as increased length of hospital stay, ultimately worsening the patient experience. AMR must not only be addressed at the health care facility/health care professional level, but at a governance level most importantly, as there is a need to have robust infrastructure at the national level to better facilitate AMR management such as implementing national action plans, surveillance systems, consumption monitoring, infection and antibiotic guidelines, and regulation of antibiotics and diagnostics. Finally, AMR is cross-sectoral, animal husbandry and agriculture industry also entail antimicrobial use and so the questionnaire will look to gather information on the country’s “One Health” approach as well as the individual sectors.

The consultant may represent CHAI in meetings with government officials, partners and other stakeholders including health-care professionals, diagnostic and laboratory professionals to gather data, information and country position on various AMR initiatives and policies, with the main focus on two diseases areas: sepsis and gonorrhea. The consultant will support the Program Manager to facilitate these meetings and provide guidance on understanding the AMR questionnaire and which stakeholders to contact.

Main Responsibilities

• Organise, coordinate and facilitate meetings with key stakeholders to ascertain the status of AMR in-country including existing policies, strategies and capabilities
• Be the focal point for all communications with key stakeholders such as government officials, health-care professionals and partners.
• Support the AMR questionnaire process which include areas such as:
  
  • Regulation/policy
  • Surveillance
  • Infrastructure
  • Diagnostic and Treatment guidelines & formularies
  • Governance
• Gather, analyse and consolidate data and documents provided from key stakeholders
• Support development of a report detailing the findings and recommendations of the questionnaire to AMR Project Leadership.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in a medical discipline, public health or business
• 4+ years of work experience
• Experience in working with AMR and/or other infectious diseases e.g. HIV or TB. Experience working in health-care facilities is strongly desired.
• Experience working with Asian governments and institutions
• Good knowledge and experience of health and lab related programs
• Excellent oral and written communication skills in English
• Strong interpersonal skills and ability to build relationships in a challenging multicultural environment
• Proficient in Excel, Powerpoint, and Word
• Fluency in Vietnamese and/or Lao

A one-page cover letter should specify the position sought and highlight why the candidate believes they are the right person for the position. A CV detailing professional experience, relevant qualifications. Interested candidates should send materials in English to [email protected]. Indicate position sought in the subject line. Applications will
be reviewed as they arrive but must be received by 30 December 2021. Only shortlisted candidates will be invited for interviews.