CHAI RWANDA

VACANCY ANNOUNCEMENT (Re-advertised)

TITLE: Health Economist (1 position – MPH / Economics)

Program: Sustainable Health Financing

Job Location: Kigali, Rwanda

Type: Full-Time Paid

Start date: Immediate

Overview

The Clinton Health Access Initiative, Inc. (CHAI) is a global health organization committed to saving lives and reducing the burden of disease in low-and middle-income countries while strengthening the capabilities of governments and the private sector in those countries to create and sustain high-quality health systems that can succeed without our assistance. For more information, please visit http://www.clintonhealthaccess.org.

The Government of Rwanda strives to achieve Universal Health Coverage (UHC) by enabling equitable access to quality health services for their population as outlined in the Fourth Health Sector Strategic Plan (HSSP IV). This commitment is made against a backdrop of rising health care costs and uncertainty around the future availability of donor funding. Rwanda is often cited as an example for UHC in Sub-Saharan Africa, in part due to high rates of enrollment in the Mutuelle de santé or CBHI scheme and continuously seeks to reach sustainability and build on its past gains and existing successful strategies. Acknowledging this, the Government aims to employ effective, equitable, efficient, and sustainable health care financing approaches and inform reforms of existing financing mechanisms including the national insurance scheme.

CHAI Rwanda’s Sustainable Health Financing (SHF) program works on a day-to-day basis with Government leadership in the Ministry of Health (MoH) and the Rwanda Social Security Board (RSSB). The goal of our program is to support the Government to sustainably finance and improve the Mutuelle de santé or Community Based Health Insurance (CBHI) scheme, which covers the majority of the population for essential health services, and address key challenges in the health sector, towards the goal of UHC.

Position overview

CHAI currently seeks one Health Economist to work with the Rwanda Social Security Board (RSSB) to think through and implement strategic reforms in the design, implementation, and management decisions of the Community Based Health Insurance (CBHI) Scheme to improve the sustainability of the scheme. The Health Economist will be seconded to RSSB to work on a day to day basis with the Director of the Insurance schemes and will report technically to the Deputy Director-General Benefits. He or she will build capacity within the RSSB to generate evidence through data analysis that informs key decisions and revisions to policy decisions. This position offers a unique opportunity to work closely with government leadership on the government’s priority agenda of Universal Health Coverage.

Job description:

The Health Economist will be responsible for providing direct support to the Deputy Director-General Benefits at RSSB on his priorities including;

• supporting the implementation of health technology assessments
• building capacity in RSSB and of relevant stakeholders to use evidence to inform key decisions and management through research, assessment, and analyses.

An economist is sought with backgrounds in public health or economics respectively to strengthen the diversity required for unbiased, and comprehensive evidence generation.

Key responsibilities

• Provide direct technical assistance to the Ministry of Health and partners to work on HTA, evidence synthesis, health benefits packages, and clinical guidelines and ensure value for money and quality in service delivery.
• Provide guidance to the RSSB/CBHI on research methodologies and assessment protocols to maximize linkages to ongoing work and contribute to the writing, editing, and publishing of reports and peer-reviewed articles as relevant; prepare presentations and policy briefs
• Conduct and build capacity for innovative qualitative and quantitative analyses that link complex datasets such as patient records and CBHI claims data
• Participate in meetings, technical working groups and maintain effective and collaborative working relationships with various partners and stakeholders
• Work with other departments to promote the adoption of analytical principles within RSSB
• Coordinate efforts among multiple internal and external stakeholders to ensure timely delivery of answers to the policy questions
• Other responsibilities as needed

 Preferred qualifications:

• Ph.D. degree in a relevant discipline (health economics, health services research, international health systems, public health, or a related field) Or Master’s degree (in the above-mentioned fields) with at least 2 years of experience in health financing, HTA, comparative health systems, or global health
• Solid analytical foundation and knowledge of a variety of economic evaluation methods (e.g. regressions, modeling, cost-effectiveness analysis, etc.)
• Experience manipulating data sets and building economic models
• Strong proficiency in data visualization
• Ability to focus on vaguely defined problems requiring the application of a creative approach
• Strong team-working skills
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills for coordinating across teams
• Demonstrated experience working with high-level government stakeholders and/or other senior stakeholders in consensus-building processes on major health systems reforms;

• Experience informing the development of government strategy, policy, and operational plans, preferably in health or health systems is a plus
• Excellent problem solving, analytical, and quantitative skills, including attention to detail and experience in modeling using Microsoft Excel;
• Strong communication skills, including the delivery of compelling presentations and documents in Microsoft PowerPoint and Word;
• Exceptional diplomacy and interpersonal skills demonstrated the ability to build strong professional relationships with a range of stakeholders in a challenging, multi-cultural environment;
• Ability to work independently, set priorities, and handle multiple tasks simultaneously;
• Ability to learn on the job quickly and absorb and synthesize a broad range of information;
• Ability to work with humility and achieve results;
• Ability to mentor and lead teams in a fast-paced and changing environment;
• Familiarity with a broad range of key global health issues, including health systems or health financing challenges in developing countries