Kamuzu University of Health Sciences
Kuzama pa Kalondo Project
Vacancy
Research Associate
Background
Malawi has made tremendous progress in combating the HIV epidemic. The country is on track to surpass the UNAIDS 95-95-95 antiretroviral treatment (ART) and viral suppression targets, dramatically reducing new HIV infections and AIDS-related deaths. Now, the Malawi HIV programme’s efforts are focused on how to effectively maintain requisite HIV services for decades to come to protect livelihoods of people living with HIV and sustain progress.
Transitioning from rapidly scaling-up HIV programmes to monitoring sustained epidemic control requires new approaches to monitoring the HIV epidemic and response. To date, monitoring the HIV infection trends and associated risk factors has relied on facility- and population-based surveillance methods, which were effective in detecting large changes in HIV infections and programme coverage. Quantifying sustained high coverage, small gaps, and low numbers of new infections poses new challenges.
The Kuzama pa Kalondo — ‘Getting Smart’ on HIV Surveillance Project aims to use novel data analytic methods to track the progress Malawi is making in the fight against HIV/AIDS. This project is being implemented by the Kamuzu University of Health Sciences (KUHeS), Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health (HSPH), Nyanja Health Research Institute, African Institute for Development Policy (AFIDEP), and University of Cape Town (UCT), in partnership with the Directorate of HIV, STIs, and Viral Hepatitis (DHA), the Public Health Institute of Malawi (PHIM), the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC), and others.
Roles
An individual is required to take up a part-time position of Research Associate at KUHeS, committing at least 20 hours per week (i.e. 50% Full-time equivalent), and participate in the following roles in the project:
- Under the supervision of project co-investigators, participate in writing study protocols and submit to ethics bodies in Malawi
- Implement HIV-surveillance projects including those aimed at improving the quality and representativeness of routine health system data
- Participate in data collection, extraction and management
- Perform data analyses
- Prepare project reports, policy briefs and manuscripts
- Disseminate project findings.
Contract Duration
The Research Associate will be recruited on a fixed-term of 12 months
Qualifications
The candidate must have a Bachelor of Science degree majoring in Mathematics or Statistics. Those with experienced in mixed-methods approaches or qualitative research experience will have an added advantage.
Training opportunity
The project offers opportunities for building research capacity of Masters students already enrolled at KUHeS or talented applicants wishing to pursue Public Health-related Masters degree programmes at KUHeS by providing tuition and research funds. However, enrollment in the Masters programme is not a requirement for this position.
Application process
Applicants must include;
- A motivation letter (2 page maximum),
- A detailed CV
- Certified copies of academic transcripts
- Authenticated copies of academic certificates (by a lawyer, magistrate, or registrar of the awarding institution)
- Names and emails of three referees.
Method Of Application
Applications must be submitted via email to: [email protected]
Applications should be received no later than 31st March 2024