Senior Program Advisor

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PATH is a global nonprofit dedicated to achieving health equity. With more than 40 years of experience forging multisector partnerships and with expertise in science, economics, technology, advocacy, and dozens of other specialties, PATH develops and scales up innovative solutions to the world’s most pressing heath challenges.

PATH’s Primary Health Care (PHC) program is comprised of multiple teams, including Integrated Maternal and Child Health and Development (IMCHD) and Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH). PATH is currently recruiting an Ethiopia-based Senior Program Officer to support activities across the IMCHD and SRH teams.

PATH’s IMCHD team has pioneered advances in optimizing care for small and sick newborns, with focus on the linkage between nutrition and newborn care. Although human milk is the recommended feeding option for these vulnerable newborns (pre-term, low birthweight, sick or small), they—and their mothers—face unique challenges due to physiologic and systems level barriers often preventing human milk consumption. To address this, PATH has established the Mother-Baby Friendly Initiative Plus, a comprehensive approach for ensuring equitable access to lifesaving human milk for small and sick newborns, including specialized lactation support, nurturing care, maternal mental health, advocacy and public policy and locally appropriate human milk banks for safe provision of donor human milk when needed.

PATH has been the Federal Ministry of Health’s primary partner in testing and implementing approaches to integrate early childhood development (ECD) services such as developmental monitoring and counseling and play sessions in health facility waiting areas into PHC. Between 2019 and 2023, PATH’s technical leadership has resulted in all PHC facilities in Addis Ababa offering such integrated ECD services. PATH expects to receive funding to work with the African Center of Excellence for ECD to scale this work beyond Addis Ababa to five additional regions.

PATH’s sexual and reproductive health (SRH) team partners with country governments, private industry, and civil society—including women and girls in all their diversity—to increase access to contraceptive options, prevent cervical cancer, and support the integration of SRH services into primary care. PATH engages in research, develops and scales up innovative health technologies, and collaborates with governments and partners to ensure that all people have access to the information, services, and supplies they need to make informed SRH choices. For example, PATH developed the BD UnijectTM injection system that enables women to self-administer subcutaneous injectable contraception (DMPA-SC). PATH played a key role in generating and sharing evidence, guidance, and tools to support the introduction and scale-up of DMPA-SC, which is now registered in 75 countries. This innovation has expanded women’s family planning options and become one of the most widely used methods of contraception in many places, including rural settings where women have limited access to health facilities.

PATH leads the Injectables Access Collaborative project, which provides data-driven technical assistance, coordination, resources, and tools to ensure that women and girls have increased access to DMPA-SC and self-injection as part of an expanded range of contraceptive methods, delivered through informed choice programming. In 2024, the project’s regional team in Uganda provided short-term technical assistance to partners in Ethiopia in support of plans for DMPA-SC and self-injection introduction.

This position will serve as the technical lead for newborn nutrition and ECD in Ethiopia and will provide strategic direction for both technical and advocacy work, manage critical relationships with partners and stakeholders, position these workstreams for further scale-up, and contribute to new business development with the goal of expanding these efforts in Ethiopia and the region. In addition, this position will coordinate short-term technical assistance within Ethiopia for the introduction of DMPA-SC and self-injection for the Injectables Access Collaborative project.

This Senior Program Advisor will report directly to the IMCHD team and will have a “dotted line” of reporting to the Ethiopia Country Program.

Responsibilities:

• Ensure quality of implementation of projects assigned to her/him.
• Guide newborn nutrition implementation research activities in Ethiopia by providing mentorship and oversight of study implementation with clinical and research partners.
• Serve as technical point of contact for newborn nutrition and ECD in Ethiopia, including maintaining successful collaborations with key partners through communication, monitoring of project milestones, and ensuring deliverables are of high quality and on-time.
• Support the creation and adaptation of newborn nutrition and ECD job aids and training materials.
• Provide technical and tactical newborn nutrition and ECD expertise in Ethiopia, to inform project planning, implementation, evaluation, and strategic expansion.
• Foster innovative ideas and opportunities through co-creation with IMCHD, PATH’s Ethiopia country program, and PATH’s regional programs.
• Assist in guiding gender integration within reproductive, maternal, newborn, and child health activities
• Coordinate short-term technical assistance within Ethiopia for the introduction of DMPA-SC and self-injection for the Injectables Access Collaborative project.
• Work with IMCHD and East Africa leadership to develop strategic partnerships to advance innovation and access to newborn nutrition, ECD, and self-injectable contraceptives.
• Identify donor priorities and cultivate relationships that lead to new opportunities.
• Contribute to positioning and proposal development efforts as needed.
• Coordinate stakeholder engagement, regional learning sessions, and policy advancement.
• Represent PATH in the three technical areas on relevant technical working groups and partner forums.
• Share learnings, challenges, and lessons learned in these forums and other strategic communications efforts to advocate for the uptake of relevant content into policies, tools, guidelines, and job aids.

Required Skills/Competencies/Experience:

• Master’s degree or higher in public health, nutrition, early childhood development, social sciences, development, public policy, or related field.
• Minimum of 10 years direct experience in child health programming—preferably in capacity building, supporting government services, and implementation research.
• Strong technical expertise in newborn nutrition/lactation, ECD within PHC, and SRH.
• Experience or solid understanding of the special needs of vulnerable newborns and their mothers/families.
• Experience providing mentorship and training to clinical staff.
• Experience collaborating with or embedded within key institutions such as the Ministry of Health at national and regional levels, pediatric associations, and other relevant government structures.
• Excellent understanding of the Ethiopia health system and related PHC structures and service providers.
• Solid skills in proposal writing and concept development.
• Fluent in English; fluency in one of the major languages of Ethiopia essential.
• Must have legal authorization to work in Ethiopia.

Functional competencies:

• Excellent attention to detail, ability to manage and prioritize multiple workstreams, and strong organizational skills.
• Excellent presentation and interpersonal skills.
• Strong analytical and oral and written communication skills.
• Ability to prepare and deliver reports and presentations of high quality.
• Strong motivation and ability to work and deliver under pressure and deadlines.
• Responds positively to critical feedback.

PATH is dedicated to building an inclusive workforce where diversity is valued.

PATH is an equal opportunity employer. Every qualified applicant will be considered for employment.

PATH does not discriminate based on race, color, religion, caste, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information, age, national origin, marital status, disability status, political ideology, military or protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state, or local law.