Project Assistant – SDG-3 Acceleration Initiative

Amref Health Africa was founded in 1957 and has since grown to become the largest African-based international health development organisation; currently implementing more than 180 programs, reaching more than 40 million people across 35 African countries; and a staff complement of over 2,000. Headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya, Amref Health Africa has offices in ten countries in Africa – Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Guinea (Conakry), Kenya, Malawi, Senegal, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. An additional eleven advocacy and fundraising offices are located in Europe and North America.

Amref Health Africa is driven by its vision of ‘Lasting health change in Africa’ and its mission ‘To catalyze and drive community-led and people-centred health systems while addressing social determinants of health’. We believe that the power to transform Africa’s health lies within its communities, and therefore strive to ensure that health systems are not only functional but that communities are empowered to hold these systems accountable for the delivery of quality and affordable health care.

Background

The Sustainable Development Goal 3 (SDG-3) Acceleration Initiative is a flagship, multi-stakeholder effort to fast-track progress on health and well-being in Ethiopia. The program addresses systemic barriers, prioritizes strategic interventions, strengthens governance, and enhances delivery platform functionality. Activities span stakeholder engagement, clinical systems analysis, strategy development, costing, capacity building, and knowledge exchange.

Job Summary

Contingent upon the award of contract, the Project Assistant will provide cross-cutting support to the implementation of the SDG-3 Acceleration Initiative, with a focus on technically sound, clinically informed coordination and execution of project activities. The role involves supporting technical analysis and stakeholder collaboration.

Key Responsibilities

1. Strategic Planning and Technical Support

• Contribute to identifying, validating, and prioritizing key clinical and systemic constraints to achieving SDG-3 targets.
• Provide clinical and public health insight in structured problem-solving workshops with stakeholders.
• Support the development of practical, evidence-based strategies for high-burden health challenges (e.g., maternal health, infectious diseases, NCDs).
• Assist in compiling background materials and reports during technical workshops and strategic planning sessions

2. Stakeholder Engagement and Coordination

• Coordinate engagement with the Ministry of Health, Regional Health Bureaus, academic institutions, development partners, and civil society actors.
• Facilitate consensus-building processes, ensuring alignment around shared priorities and proposed solutions.
• Represent the project in technical working groups and advocacy platforms to ensure integration of project priorities into policy discussions.

3. Clinical Systems and Service Delivery Strengthening

• Support the Delivery Platform Functionality and Readiness Assessment, including clinical quality, referral systems, and care continuity.
• Contribute to root cause analysis of service delivery bottlenecks in maternal, child, and primary health care services.
• Compile and organize findings from clinical or service delivery reviews and provide feedback from a clinical and systems perspective.

4. Capacity Building and Knowledge Transfer

• Assist in organizing capacity-building workshops, including materials preparation and participant coordination for MOH, central and regional health teams.
• Lead or support technical sessions in leadership and health systems capacity-building workshops.
• Support pre- and post-training assessments to ensure clinical and operational knowledge retention.

5. Event Planning and Advocacy

• Support technical planning and content development for the SDG-3 Advocacy Summit, ensuring clinical priorities are well-represented.
• Coordinate regional and national workshops, ensuring clinical and operational insights shape dialogues and outputs.
• Participate in developing advocacy materials that communicate key clinical and public health messages to stakeholders and decision-makers.

6. Resource Mobilization and Costing Support

• Contribute to the prioritization and costing of strategic focus areas, especially those tied to essential service delivery and clinical workforce strengthening.
• Provide clinical perspective to ensure that costing exercises align with practical realities on the ground.
• Provide administrative and documentation support during costing workshops or budgeting sessions.

7. Documentation, Reporting, and Knowledge Management

• Maintain accurate and up-to-date records of all project activities and deliverables.
• Prepare briefing notes, clinical synthesis summaries, and workshop documentation.
• Lead or contribute to drafting technical sections of reports, including the Final Report on Key Constraints and Strategic Solutions for Accelerating SDG-3 Progress.

*Status: Contingent upon award of contract

Required Qualifications and Experience:

• Medical degree (MD or equivalent) with a strong background in public health, health policy, or health systems (MPH or MSc preferred).
• 1-2 years of experience in health system strengthening, clinical program implementation, or public health project coordination.
• Experience engaging with multi-level stakeholders in government and international development sectors.
• Experience working in international NGO settings
• Excellent communication skills in English, including writing policy and technical documents.
• Familiarity with Ethiopia’s health system, SDG-3 framework, and UHC strategies.
• Prior experience working with MOH, RHBs.
• Experience with data collection, cleaning, analysis and presentation
• Familiarity with the challenges of SDG-3 progress in Ethiopia and prior experience working on SDG-3 initiatives
• Experience supporting health-related workshops, trainings, or research projects.

Core Competencies

• Clinical and systems thinking: Ability to integrate clinical insight into strategic health planning.
• Project coordination and facilitation: Strong organizational and stakeholder management skills.
• Analytical and communication skills: Ability to distill complex health data and policy issues into actionable insights.
• Commitment to equity and public health: Strong values around access, impact, and accountability in healthcare.

Your application should include a cover letter detailing why you are the best fit for this position and your CV with relevant skills and experience. Closing date will be on Monday, 21 July 2025. 

Amref Health Africa does not require applicants to pay any money at whatever stage of the recruitment and selection process and has not retained any agent in connection with recruitment. Although Amref may use different job boards from time to time to further spread its reach for applicants, all open vacancies are published on our website under the Vacancies page and on our official social media pages. Kindly also note that official emails from Amref Health Africa will arrive from an @amref.org address.

Amref Health Africa is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults and expects all staff to share this commitment. Amref Health Africa is is dedicated to diversity and is an equal-opportunity employer with a non-smoking environment policy.