Sites

HIV, tuberculosis and viral hepatitis prevention and treatment in criminal justice and community health settings

Centre of Excellence on Research in AIDS (CERiA), University of Malaya

The Centre of Excellence on Research in AIDS (CERiA) and University of Malaya have ongoing relationships with a number of departments and schools within the university as well as the Malaysian government, including the Prisons Department, Ministry of Health and the Anti-Drug Agency. The site also has an ongoing relationship with the Malaysian AIDS Council, the country’s largest AIDS Service NGO that oversees the provision of HIV prevention and treatment. Dr. Altice and Dr. Kamarulzaman, the University of Malaya’s Dean of the Medical School, have collaborated continuously since 2005 on projects related to HIV/AIDS, substance abuse, and antiretroviral therapy (ART) among prisoners and sex workers.

Drs. Altice and Kamarulzaman were involved in rolling out the first methadone maintenance treatment in the country as HIV prevention. They were also the first to do criminal justice research and have been doing prison research and examining alternatives to health and rehabilitation by comparing community models of care to compulsory drug detention centers. They have conducted trials of both behavioral interventions and medication-assisted therapies for criminal justice populations transitioning from prison to the community as well as studies of tuberculosis (TB) in community and criminal justice settings. With an National Institute of Health (NIH) R01 grant, they studied the interface of HIV and TB and addiction to optimize TB testing in prisons and conducted a randomized control trial of short-term TB preventive therapy and a preference study of opioid dependent patients with TB who are transitioning to the community. Newer studies are examining risk among female sex workers and transgender women and include mathematical modeling and cost-effectiveness analysis.

Drs. Altice and Kamarulzaman have trained many pre- and post-doctoral fellows in medicine and public health. Trainees have been from Malaysia, the United States and elsewhere, and they come to learn about issues related to urban health, HIV, tuberculosis, health services research and addiction medicine. This site provides opportunities to work with drug use, HIV risk, tuberculosis, primary and secondary HIV prevention and intervention research within the criminal justice system and in collaboration with NGOs that provide health care services to transgender women and female sex workers.

Chronic diseases and perinatal epidemiology

The Yale University/Samoa Ministry of Health Collaborative Research Center provides training opportunities in perinatal epidemiology and non-communicable diseases, in a population that has some of the highest rates of obesity and diabetes in the world. Training opportunities are offered by Dr. Satupaitea Viali of the National University of Samoa (NUS) and Dr. Nicola Hawley, Associate Professor at Yale University as well as other expert Ministry of Health and NUS faculty. Drs. Viali and Hawley have been colleagues since 2009, establishing their collaboration with a study of the genetic origins of adult non-communicable diseases. Since that initial work, they have extended their research program across the lifespan studying non-communicable and infectious disease in adulthood, adolescence, and childhood and exploring how obesity, diabetes, and hypertension impact maternal pregnancy health and later offspring health outcomes. The site is currently supported by three R01 grants from the National Institutes of Health that focus on the genetics of energy balance, cognitive resilience among older Samoans, and the ethical engagement of Pacific Islanders in genetic research. Together the mentors have provided training to more than 20 undergraduate, MPH and PhD students in the past 10 years, in both short- and long-term placements at the research center. Dr. Hawley herself began her postdoctoral career at this site under the mentorship of Professor Stephen McGarvey (Brown University) and Dr. Viali. She is now a productive faculty member at the Yale School of Public health with an international reputation for her work on non-communicable disease. An additional advantage of this site is the strong ethical review and oversight of research, provided by the Ministry of Health Research Committee.

Emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases

Dr. Elijah Paintsil, Associate Professor at Yale, Dr. Michael Wilson, Professor of Parasitology at Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research and Dr. Margaret Yaa Lartey, Associate Professor of Medicine, Dean of the University of Ghana Medical School, have been collaborating for more than 10 years as part of the Ghana-Yale Partnership for Global Health (GYPGH). The long-term goal of GYPGH is to build intrinsic research capacity and reverse “brain-drain” by strengthening academic infrastructures and creating viable career opportunities for young scientists. The objectives of the partnership include: 1) supporting collaborative research between faculty at the University of Ghana and Yale; and 2) training young scientists at both institutions for a productive career in globally important infectious diseases research. There are two training sites in Ghana: (1) Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital (KBTH) for clinical research training; and (2) Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research (NMIMR) for basic science, translational and field-based research training. KBTH is the premier health care facility in the country. It is the only tertiary hospital in the southern part of Ghana and it is the teaching hospital affiliated with University of Ghana Medical School, the country’s first medical school. KBTH was built in 1923 and how has 2000 hospital beds with 17 clinical and diagnostic departments and centers of excellence. NMIMR was established in 1979 as a semi-autonomous biomedical institute of the University of Ghana. The mandate of NMIMR is to: (1) conduct research into health problems of public health importance; (2) provide training opportunities for postgraduate students in medical research; and (3) provide specialized laboratory diagnostic and monitoring services in support of public health programs.

Initially, NMIMR’s infrastructure development and research support was provided by four 5-year Grant Aids from the Government of Japan through its development agency, JICA. From 2000, the institute broadened its research capacities to attract funds from other sources, including NIH, USAID, Wellcome Trust, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the Danish International Development Agency, among others. Now, the site provides training opportunities in emerging and reemerging infectious diseases (viral, bacterial, and parasitic), including neglected tropical diseases.

Dr. Paintsil received his medical training in Ghana before proceeding to the US for postdoc training. After his training he joined the Pediatric Infectious Diseases faculty at Yale in 2005. In 2006, Dr. Paintsil formed the GYPGH with his colleagues at Yale and in Ghana. Dr. Paintsil has extended his research to Ghana through this initiative. In collaboration with Drs. Renner and Lartey, the team has mentored 8 Doris Duke International Research Fellows in Ghana. In keeping with its mission to build sustainable human capacity, the GYPGH has sponsored 25 students, faculty and staff from Ghana to spend up to two months at Yale, where they participate in the annual Summer Research Institute and receive intensive mentorship at various Yale labs. Dr. Wilson is the co-director of the GYPGH and he has trained and mentored several trainees (undergrad and MD, MPH, PhD candidates) from Yale who have spent time at NMIMR in Ghana.

Philanjalo and KwaZuluNatal Department of Health, University of KwazuluNatal

Tugela Ferry is located in the Umzinyathi District of KwaZulu Natal province, a traditional Zulu area and the third poorest district in South Africa. Philanjalo is a local South African NGO founded by Dr. Anthony Moll in 1998 to address the rapidly growing epidemic of HIV/AIDS. Yale joined Philanjalo and the KwaZuluNatal Department of Health (KZN DOH) at the University of KwaZuluNatal in 2002 to strengthen and integrate HIV and tuberculosis (TB) care and treatment. In 2005, the partners uncovered the third epidemic of extensively drug resistant (XDR) TB. These HIV and TB convergent epidemics have been characterized by rapid and high mortality rates, overwhelmed health care systems, ongoing health care and community transmission and epidemic propagation, which are all associated with extreme poverty, weak infrastructures, inadequate prevention strategies, late presentation to care, and limited TB diagnostics and treatment options.

In response, the team worked collaboratively to characterize the convergent epidemics and develop and implement a comprehensive strategy of innovative integrated HIV and TB health care and community-based strategies combined with operational research to strengthen clinical and public health programs, reduce the associated high rates of morbidity and mortality and decrease incidence and transmission of HIV and drug susceptible and drug resistant TB. They have rapidly demonstrated acceptance, feasibility and utility and have successfully advocated for widespread scale-up and dissemination of these strategies, including the first national community-based MDR TB treatment program and first integrated HIV and TB intensive case finding program in rural South Africa. Current priorities include scaling up isoniazid preventive therapy, implementing point of care technologies, integrating community-based screening for HIV and TB with noncommunicable diseases, screening high risk populations, and incorporating new HIV prevention tools.

This site has been very successful in attracting funds from a variety of sources. Expansion of community-based integrated HIV and TB intensive case finding was supported by funding from CDC/PEPFAR, NIH, KwaZuluNatal Department of Health, Gilead, Irene Diamond and Doris Duke Foundations. Development, implementation, and evaluation of isoniazid prophylactic therapy for out of treatment HIV positive community members was supported by a CDC Implementation Science award. Study of community-based implementation of rapid point of care CD4 cell count technology was supported by a National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease R21 grant.

Malaria, genetic diversity, immunity, host-pathogen dynamics

University of Cheikh Anta Diop/Hôpital Aristide Le Dantec (UCAD/Le Dantec)

The team at UCAD/Le Dantec has significant experience in designing and testing malaria diagnostics and conducting drug resistance studies. The laboratory serves as a Reference Laboratory on Parasite Disease Diagnostics particularly for malaria in Senegal, as part of a partnership between USAID/CDC PMI, UCAD and the Ministry of Health. The many strengths of the team include experience carrying out antimalarial drug resistance projects such as drug treatment efficacy studies, ex vivo assay development and validation, and design of new research techniques to characterize genetic diversity of parasites and both known and novel drug resistance markers. The group has contributed to designing new tools to enhance molecular malaria research in the field.

Additionally, the lab is a Regional Training Center for the International Center for Excellence in Malaria Research – West Africa (ICEMR-WAF), where scientists from Senegal, Mali, and The Gambia frequently train. Training is cornerstone of the team and multiple training initiatives have been funded through Fogarty, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the African Center of Excellence for Genomics on Infectious Diseases (ACEGID) in collaboration with Harvard, the CDC and the Broad Institute.

One of the particular areas of expertise of this site lies at the cross section of malaria, epidemiology and ecology. There is great infrastructure and expertise at Le Dantec Hospital in molecular diagnostic, genetic, genomic, and immunological techniques needed to understand the host-parasite interactions that determine immunity and transmission, and more specifically, how parasite diversity affects the parasite persistence in Senegal. As the National Reference Center for Genomics in Infectious Diseases, the lab helps to implement genomic research and surveillance systems for viruses, parasites, and other emerging pathogens. These programs are currently implemented in collaboration with the Senegal Ministry of Health (nationwide surveillance efforts focused on malaria), ACEGID , H3 Africa, USAID/PREDICT, and the CDC Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA). The team leader is the General Secretary of the African Center of Excellence for the Health of Women and Child, based at UCAD, and has a long history of training Masters, Pharmacy, and PhD students in Africa.

The research conducted at UCAD/Le Dantec advances the local public health needs in trying to ensure that all have access to effective malaria prevention, diagnosis, and treatment. The collaborative research of the team fills a critical need by communicating research findings to the Ministry of Health to enhance the impact of basic research on malaria policy. Potential areas for mentored research include malaria diagnostics, longitudinal studies of immunity, genetic diversity, virulence gene expression and ex vivo phenotypic assays for virulence, drug resistance, and immune neutralization.

More information coming soon...

More information coming soon...

HIV - continuum of care and implementation science

Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH)

The Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) was established in 1901 as a national teaching and referral hospital and a medical research site. It serves as the most senior referral hospital in the Kenya health system. The KNH campus hosts the oldest medical school in Kenya - the College of Health Sciences at the University of Nairobi - as well as several other training and medical research institutions, including the Kenya Medical Training College, the Kenya Medical Research Institute and the National Laboratory Service. Additionally, KNH offers Specialized Nursing Training in the in-house nursing school which was established in 1996. The nursing school now provides specialized training for nurses from East and Central Africa and graduates approximately 100 nurses each year. KNH will provide an inter-professional training opportunity related to the continuum of HIV care, among other conditions, within an implementation science framework. This site offers a wealth of experience, including but not limited to research related to HIV prevention, treatment and care, infectious diseases and non-communicable diseases.

KNH has a dedicated Research and Programs Department which is responsible for coordinating research within the hospital. The Research and Programs office provides research support for personnel within the hospital as well as students at the University of Nairobi College of Health Sciences who wish to conduct research within the hospital. Support provided includes technical assistance crafting research studies and biostatistical or epidemiological consultation. The department also organizes several training opportunities within the institution on conduct of clinical research studies and convenes symposia on other topics of interest such as radiation safety, diabetes, mental health, and alcoholism. Additionally, the Kenyatta National Hospital/University of Nairobi Ethics and Research Committee (KNH/UoN ERC) is responsible for implementing basic ethical principles and the regulations from the National Council of Science and Technology, Government of Kenya and University of Nairobi/KNH policies governing protection of research participants. The Office for Human Research Protection, a branch of the US Department of Health and Human Services, has granted KNH/UoN ERC the authority to perform these activities under KNH’s Federal Wide Assurance (FWA#00002173).

KNH has longstanding and robust relationships with the University of Washington, New York University and Yale University through various projects and programs. These collaborations have resulted in innumerable projects being implemented at KNH and in Kenya and many publications in the fields of HIV, STIs, and malaria. In 1988, the University of Nairobi (affiliated with KNH) and the University of Washington, through the Fogarty-funded International AIDS Research and Training Program (IARTP), initiated a collaboration for a reciprocal training program for Kenyan and US-based health professionals. The IARTP has facilitated the training of Kenyan-based researchers at the University of Washington, including Dr. James Kiarie, Dr. Nelly Mugo, Dr. Irene Inwani, and Dr. John Kinuthia. This program demonstrates the kind of innovative and timely collaboration that supports the capacity building of health professionals based at KNH and ultimately improves the quality of research conducted at the institution. Through IARTP, KNH and the University of Washington, 10 Kenyans and 21 US fellows have been trained. We believe that because of this collaborative history, KNH has the capacity and necessary infrastructure to successfully engage with Yale University to mentor future cohorts of global health professionals.

Malaria

Institut de Recherche en Sciences de la Santé, Direction Régionale de l’Ouest (IRSS-DRO)

Burkina Faso is one of the 20 poorest countries in the world and it has a very high morbidity rate from malaria. The collaboration between the Institut de Recherche en Sciences de la Santé, Direction Régionale de l’Ouest (IRSS-DRO) in Burkina Faso and Dr. Sunil Parikh started in 2004 through different projects on malaria conducted with the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). With this partnership, several young scientists have been trained in molecular biology and epidemiology.

In 2005, Dr. Parikh and Dr. Jean Bosco Ouedraogo began collaborating on a pharmacogenomic study in Burkina Faso. It was followed by pharmacokinetic and drug efficacy studies of antimalarials, the results of which influenced malaria treatment guidelines for the WHO in 2015. In 2012, Dr. Parikh moved to Yale, coincident with the receipt of a National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)-funded R21 proposal entitled “Innate immune responses in populations with differing susceptibility to malaria” conducted with Dr. Ouedraogo and IRSS-DRO in Burkina Faso. Through this new collaboration (IRSS-DRO-Yale University), investigators from IRSS-DRO spent several months at Yale for a laboratory training visit to learn techniques relating to immunologic assays relevant to the R21.

The IRSS-DRO-Yale University program has continued to grow. Drs. Parikh, Ouedrago,and Roch Dabire recently submitted an NIAID-R21 and NIAID-U01, which combines clinical studies with entomological experiments, as the IRSS has an internationally-renowned entomology research program and several insectaries. These new projects involve a growing collaboration with Dr. Brian Foy at Colorado State University, a vector biologist, who has been working with Dr. Dabire for years. Additionally, Dr. Parikh submitted an NIAID-R01 clinical trial with Dr. Ouedarogo, aimed at the rational use of antimalarials to reduce the risk of the emergence and spread of ACT resistance.

IRSS has a long history of training researchers from Europe and other African countries, and has also sent trainees to France, Germany, and the UK. This provides the unique opportunity to bilaterally train researchers in one of the highest malaria-endemic sites in the world.

Clinical research, epidemiology, prevention, health services and health policy aspects of non-communicable diseases. In particular, we welcome applicants with interest in the areas of musculoskeletal and rheumatologic disease, women’s health, HIV, and aging.

Facultad de Salud Pública y Administracíon (School of Public Health and Administration), Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, Lima, Peru

Peru is a country of enormous geographic, cultural and biologic diversity. Located in the capital city of Lima, the Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia (UPCH) is the leading biomedical teaching and research institution in Peru. Since its foundation, UPCH´s scientific contributions have significantly influenced national public health policies and promoted development and innovation in Peru. Its research is funded by national and international entities from both private and public sectors such as the NIH, Grand Challenges Canada, Wellcome Trust, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, WHO, and pharmaceutical companies.

With eight schools and three campuses that provide undergraduate and graduate education in medicine, dentistry, public health, nursing, sciences and philosophy, veterinary medicine and zoology, psychology, and education, the facilities in UPCH are built for academicians, researchers and students. UPCH boasts various laboratories, animal and clinical facilities, and classrooms, all equipped with high quality internet.

Dr. Garcia and the faculty at the School of Public Health and Administration have longstanding experience in training both Peruvian and foreign trainees in global health and research methods through the delivery of short courses/electives in Global Health, a formal master’s degree program, and the innovative Fogarty Kuskaya post-doctoral global health fellowship program. Dr. Garcia has served as Dean of FASPA, Director of the Instituto Nacional de Salud (Peruvian National Institute of Health), and most recently as the Minister of Health of Peru. Dr. Hsieh is an Assistant Professor at the Yale School of Medicine (Rheumatology) and School of Public Health (Chronic Disease Epidemiology). Her recent work focuses on prevention of osteoporosis and fracture in countries undergoing economic transition, and the intersection between HIV and non-communicable disease.

Dr. Hsieh and Dr. Garcia have collaborated on epidemiological, prevention and health services research projects related to women’s health topics including sexually transmitted infections, osteoporosis, and aging-related comorbidities among Peruvian women with HIV (osteoporosis, fractures, and sarcopenia). This site strives to expand knowledge in these key areas of health, which are understudied in Peru and across much of Latin America.

Vector-borne and emerging infections (leishmaniasis malaria, dengue), MDR/XDR TB, congenital and secondary syphilis, hospital-associated infections, drug resistance

Centro Internacional de Entrenamiento e Investigaciones Medicas (CIDEIM)

Centro Internacional de Entrenamiento e Investigaciones Médicas (CIDEIM) is a Colombian public-private non-profit organization dedicated to conducting biomedical research in infectious diseases, developing research capacity in the Latin America and Caribbean region; and providing technical and scientific services. In response to local and regional health priorities, research at CIDEIM includes multidisciplinary investigations of leishmaniasis; emerging infectious diseases, such as syphilis, dengue, and other arbovirus diseases transmitted by Aedes aegypti; drug-resistant malaria; MDR and XDR tuberculosis; and ecology and control of vectors for leishmaniasis, malaria, and dengue.

The training program is based at CIDEIM’s headquarters, in Cali, Colombia. In addition, there is a CIDEIM clinical research facility in Tumaco on the Pacific coast. Training and research activities may be conducted in collaboration with partner institutions in Cali, including Universidad Icesi, Universidad del Valle, Hospital Universitario del Valle, and Fundación Valle del Lili.

CIDEIM investigators and faculty of the Yale School of Public Health have jointly conducted NIH-supported research and training since 2003. The longstanding CIDEIM/Yale collaboration includes a Fogarty Global Infectious Disease Training Program (Project No. 5D43TW006589), now in its fourth 5-year cycle. CIDEIM has hosted numerous students, trainees, and visiting scholars with support from a variety of sources, including the Yale Downs Fellowship, Fulbright, and Howard Hughes.

Urban slum health, emerging infectious diseases

Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz), Brazilian Ministry of Health

The Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz), the research branch of the Brazilian Ministry of Health, and Yale University have a long-standing research and training program in the city of Salvador, which focuses on health problems that have emerged due rapid urbanization and the growth of urban slum settlements. The program focuses on infectious diseases such as leptospirosis (a rat-borne disease which is the cause of epidemics of pulmonary hemorrhage syndrome), bacterial meningitis, acute respiratory infections (e.g. COVID-19), vaccine preventable diseases and arboviruses. The site also provides research training opportunities in non-communicable diseases which affect slum populations such as hypertension, food insecurity and violence. Furthermore, Fiocruz and Yale coordinate a Global Infectious Disease Training Program and sponsored ten Fulbright fellows and ten Global Health Equity Scholars and Fogarty International Clinical Research Scholars in the past 20 years.

Ongoing projects include a National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)-supported project about naturally acquired and vaccine-mediated immunity to leptospirosis. This cohort study of 14,000 urban slum residents was initiated in 2003 and focuses on characterizing the natural history of leptospirosis and determining the effectiveness of improved sanitation and other community-based interventions in preventing this zoonotic disease. The objectives include determining prospectively whether naturally-acquired infection induces robust anti-Leptospira protein responses and whether these responses are correlates of immunity to reinfection and identifying the specific Leptospira proteins which elicit attenuated vaccine and naturally-acquired immunity and whether immunization with these antigens confers cross-protective immunity.

Additional ongoing studies include a Yale-supported project exploring COVID-19 transmission in urban communities. This cohort study of 2,500 urban slum residents was initiated in 2019 and seeks to characterize the introduction of COVID-19 into Brazil. The aim is determining prospectively the attack rate, risk factors for transmission and evaluate the effectiveness of preventive interventions as vaccines.

A NIH/NIAD-funded project is studying the natural history of Zika virus congenital infection. The goal of this project is to prospectively evaluate the role of an early immunologic response in protecting against congenital transmission of Zika virus and developing clinical disease in offspring.

The Wellcome Trust supports a project to deliver improved sanitation interventions to prevent urban leptospirosis transmission. This quasi-experimental cluster trial evaluates the efficacy of sanitation strategies with and without community engagement to reduce the incidence of Leptospira infection in Salvador, Brazil over five years. Additionally, this project will elucidate the mechanism by which closing sewer interventions reduce direct human contact with sewage and environmental pathogen load in urban slums.

With funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to do advanced pathogen detection in an urban ‘hot spot, metagenomic next generation sequencing is being incorporated into clinical settings that serve a large urban region to detect and identify pathogens that are otherwise easy to miss, which would offer the opportunity to respond to outbreaks in Salvador before they become a global threat.

Market shaping initiatives to improve access to lifesaving and essential health commodities for infectious diseases, SRMNH (sexual, reproductive, maternal and neonatal healthcare), vaccine immunization etc.

1. Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) Nigeria Country Office
2. Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) Uganda Country Office

Founded in 2002, 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. We work with partners to prevent and treat HIV, malaria, tuberculosis, hepatitis, and cancer, accelerate the rollout of lifesaving vaccines, reduce maternal, infant and child mortality, combat chronic malnutrition, and strengthen health systems. We operate in over 40 countries around the world and more than 125 countries have access to CHAI-negotiated deals on medications, diagnostics, vaccines, and other health tools. For more information, please visit the Clinton Health Access Initiative website.

CHAI operates at the nexus of business, government, and health to save lives and reduce disease. We believe the best way to create large and sustainable change is to improve government and private health delivery systems, allowing limited resources to reach more people. We do not provide health services ourselves. We negotiate global agreements that lower the prices of essential health products to make them more affordable and accessible in low- and middle-income countries. At the same time, we help governments and the private sector in these countries to better organize and manage the delivery of health services and products to accelerate the introduction and usage of the best drugs, diagnostics, vaccines, and other health commodities and make them available well into the future.

Nigeria Site: CHAI began operating in Nigeria in 2007. Today, with over 150 staff, we continue to work with national and state governments in various programmatic areas. Focus and flagship programs in Nigeria include accelerating the introduction of new vaccines and strengthen immunization delivery services across the country; protecting mothers by increasing awareness and access to essential family planning services to reduce unintended pregnancies; introducing life-saving pediatric and adult medicines to combat HIV, including the World Health Organization (WHO)-preferred first-line regimen, TLD; driving uptake of diagnostics and treatments for hepatitis C, malaria, syphilis and cervical cancer.

Uganda Site: CHAI began work in Uganda in 2007 to improve access to lifesaving treatment and diagnostics for children and adults living with HIV. CHAI’s work later expanded into malaria, vaccines, cancer, sexual reproductive and maternal health, medical oxygen and solar for health. CHAI has work closely with the government of Uganda in reducing the burden of disease including the covid pandemic through strengthening access to covid diagnostics, test kits, vaccines, and medical oxygen equipment. This has led to reduced covid morbidity and ensured minimal disruption to the health system.

The fellow at either the Nigeria or Uganda site will join 1-2 very specific ongoing project teams, and he/she will be a fully integrated member of the project team during the secondment. While it is not yet possible to determine which project he/she will work on, it would be related to demand side initiatives to increase market access for a specific lifesaving health commodity. It will follow the typical CHAI evidence-based and analytical approach. It will require significant local government stakeholder engagement and coordination at the country level. If Nigeria or Uganda have China related engagement, the fellow is expected to act as the bridge and lead in providing value-add.

The fellow is expected to assist his/her Program Manager to develop and implement the project activities as required by the partnership framework, work plan and budget; lead and/or support data collection, interviews, quantitative analysis, report drafting to generate evidence-based policy and formulate recommendations in strategic scenarios; assist government partner teams to develop methodologies including tools, processes, key performance/success indicators that are highly relevant and appropriate for analyses, project management and goal fulfillment; monitor project implementation, provide regularly update on project progress, and coordinate project team members to ensure project goal alignment; regular relationship management with government and external stakeholder.

Typically, the candidate is expected to meet the following qualifications:

• Fluent in English (speaking, reading, and writing in a professional setting)
• Strong communication skills in different cultural settings and high level of sensitivity for relationship-building with stakeholders from both private and public sectors
• Advanced user of Microsoft Word, Outlook, Excel and PowerPoint
• Strong analytical background (both mindset and skillset)
• Experience working with large, complicated data sets and/or data mining
• Ability to work independently without extensive structural or operational support
• Ability to handle multiple tasks simultaneously, either independently or with teams
• Ability to be effective in high-pressure situations and work in a fast-paced, multicultural environment
• Ability to achieve maximum efficiency and impact with limited human and financial resources