The USAID Project Management Specialist (Child Survival/Nutrition/Orphans and Vulnerable Children) and Public Health Advisor provides technical leadership, management, and coordination of an integrated package of services specifically designed to support coordination of the USG’s child survival, nutrition, and infectious disease activities and initiatives.

The Public Health Advisor conceptualizes and designs operational strategies and program interventions for improving access to and use of quality child survival and nutrition services, and infectious disease prevention and mitigation efforts focused on orphans and vulnerable children and other at-risk populations.


The work includes responsibility for program/project/activity management (COR/AOR), which requires the Specialist to play a key role in providing technical assistance to the Government of Haiti (GoH) Ministry of Health (MoH) in policy development and strategic design of host-country-appropriate programs/projects/activities that reflect best practices in improving child survival and nutrition outcomes. It also requires working with the GoH and with other donors to ensure a well-coordinated approach to the broad range of opportunities and impediments to improving health outcomes in Haiti, which includes complementary support to other donor inputs and ensuring information sharing on best practices to inform decision making by USAID, other USG entities, and other donors.


The Specialist works in a complex and rapidly evolving host-country context that requires regular contact and collaboration at technical and policy levels with counterparts and senior members in the GoH, private companies, other donor and international organizations, and other USG entities, particularly the Department of State and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).


The USAID Project Management Specialist (Child Survival/Nutrition/Orphans and Vulnerable Children) assumes the technical lead for USAID programs/projects/activities in the broad areas of child survival, nutrition, infectious disease prevention and mitigation, and orphans and vulnerable children. The Job Holder is delegated all authorities and responsibilities commensurate with an Agreement/Contract Officer Representative (AOR/COR) for programs/projects/activities aimed at interventions in these key areas and with a focus on key target populations. The Job Holder provides leadership in design, management, implementation, evaluation, and monitoring of those aspects of the health portfolio that target children and most vulnerable populations. The Specialist manages programming and activity design for activities in the sector and serves as the primary liaison with PEPFAR Haiti Team stakeholders and Implementing Partners (IPs) implementing sectoral activities. The Specialist advises the Division Chief and Team members, the Office Chief, the Mission Director and Deputy Mission Director, the Haiti PEPFAR Coordinator, CDC, and others on local matters of importance to PEPFAR and the broad range of sectoral programs, and on monitoring activities and providing management oversight of IPs. The Specialist provides critical input to the achievement of overall results and Mission and USG Goals and objectives, requiring the Specialist to remain current on the economic, political, and social trends of the GoH and Haiti, to analyze trends in relation to their impact on the overall program, and to collaborate with other donors to assure synergy and complementarity.


The Specialist coordinates with other USAID technical offices and USG agencies to ensure the delivery of systematic and consistent technical assistance to the GoH and to other donors, IPs, and other partners in child survival, OVC, nutrition and related areas. Second, the Specialist provides strategic input to other programs with related and/or complementary components; serves as a key liaison for overall strategic Health issues; identifies short, mid, and long-range achievable and sustainable strategies for improving outcomes within the host-country health sector; and represents USAID, the USG, and the broader Health program at high-level meetings and at seminars and conferences. Third, the Specialist keeps informed of and collaborates with other donors on the broad range of sectoral activities; works with the GoH to develop policies that result in improved outcomes; works to harmonize assigned activities with other USAID, USG, and donor activities to ensure consistency with GoH policy; ensures that programs/projects/activities are consistent with internationally accepted best practices; and that they are relevant in the Haitian context. Fourth, the Specialist monitors and reports on developments in the sector and monitors, analyzes, and reports on relevant aspects of GoH policy, regulation, and programming, and on other health and development issues, based on an in-depth understanding of USAID policy and program objectives and priorities.

Education: The work requires a Medical Degree (MD), Masters in Public Health (MPH), or an equivalent MSC, with emphasis on one or more of the following: child health, infectious disease, nutrition, epidemiology, medical anthropology, or a closely related field.

Experience: Seven years of mid-to-senior level relevant public health experience in behavioral change communications, MCH training and/or counseling, and/or survey or attitudinal research within a public and/or private sector setting are required. The work should include practical experience in activity implementation and evaluation, e.g., communications and/or health-related activities, which target the focus populations.

Job Knowledge: The Specialist must have in-depth professional-level knowledge of development principles, concepts, and practices, especially as they relate to managing child survival, nutrition, and OVC activities in Haiti, and the problems and policies in Haiti from the business, political, civil society, and social perspectives. The Specialist must have knowledge and understanding of the economic, political, social, and cultural characteristics of Haiti; development problems in the health sector in Haiti; an understanding of the resources, resource constraints, and overall development prospects and priorities of Haiti; and knowledge of, or the potential to quickly acquire knowledge of, USG legislation, policy, and practice relating to assistance, of USAID programming policies, regulations, procedures, and documentation, and of the objectives, methodology, and status of assigned activities. The Specialist must have knowledge and understanding of the organization and respective roles of the different levels of the GoH, to enhance effective communication, and to develop consensus on program/project/activity strategy and implementation.

Skills: The Specialist must have a good knowledge and demonstrated experience in the programming of programs/projects/activities; and the role of USAID/USG health programs with other health areas such as health systems strengthening, malaria, and HIV/AIDS. The Specialist should be able to facilitate and link culturally appropriate assessments, counseling, treatment deficits, and related issues and facilitation of linkages to food security programs, including water, sanitation, and hygiene promotion, and be able to use this data for decision making. The Specialist must be able to provide technical leadership in planning for child survival, nutrition, and care and attention to orphans and vulnerable children; and apply this knowledge to programming in Haiti.

Language: Level IV (fluent) English and French language proficiency, spoken and written, as well as spoken Haitian Creole, is required.

1- Current Curriculum Vitae (CV) or Resume.

2- A Cover Letter or summary Statement Addressing the evaluation factors.

3- Copies of Educational Certificates.

4- List of a minimum of three (3) professional references with accurate telephone and e-mail information.

Read the Solicitation carefully.

Eligible applicants are required to complete this on-line application process and submit any applicable required documents by 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time (ET)] on the closing date of this announcement.

If applying on-line poses an extreme hardship, you must contact the human resources office no later than 2-3 business days prior to the closing date of this vacancy announcement. An alternative application method will be provided upon approval of the hardship notification. After this time, requests to apply via alternative methods will not be granted.

Please note that all required documents must be received by the closing date, via online or alternative methods, and that we will determine your eligibility and qualifications based solely on the material received by the closing date.