Duty Station: Bahir Dar, ICAP Amhara Regional Office

Line Manager: ICAP Regional Director

Number:  One

Job Summary

Under the guidance of the ICAP Regional Director, the recency laboratory advisor support and coordinates the design and implementation of recency at ICAP supported regions health facilities in the Amhara Region. The incumbent will build regional laboratories capacity for laboratory quality assurance to facilitate effective data use for decision making.

Major Duties and Responsibilities

As a recency laboratory Advisor, the incumbent will have the following responsibilities:

· Provide technical assistance at regional level to rollout recency testing

· Support the establishment/strengthening of HIV recency testing quality assurance activities in close collaboration with Regional Referral Laboratories (RRLs)

· Closely work with ICAP CBS officers, regional team and advisors to improve the quality of recency testing across PEPFAR supported health facilities

·  Support health facilities to increase access to recency testing, proper documentation and regular reporting system

·  Provide technical assistance to the Regional Referral Laboratory (RRLs) in developing/updating different guidelines, registers, working formats, monitoring and evaluation indicators

· Organize and provide/facilitate HIV recency testing TOT/ basic trainings for health facilities in collaboration with the RRLs  and EPHI

· Provide technical support to RRLs/EPHI in the preparation of panels for IQC/EQA, distribution and feedback provision

· Facilitate and support the revision, printing, distribution and proper utilization HIV recency testing SOPs, different formats and registers

· Support RHBs/RRL to integrate recency testing with the existing Regional External Quality Assessment Scheme (REQAS)

· Provides technical support for implementation of International/ National External Quality Assessment Scheme (IEQAS/NEQAS) and Regional External Quality Assessment Scheme (REQAS) in the regions

· Provide technical support and facilitate the implementation of Point of Care (POC) recency testing Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) and certification programs

·  Coordinate and provide technical assistance in planning, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of HIV recency testing at CU ICAP supported health facilities

· Participate in the regional/national TWG and performance review meetings

· Participate in health facility mentoring, joint supportive supervision with RHBs and RRLs

·  Prepare and evaluate annual work plan with targeted benchmark indicators and evaluate them on a regular basis

· Represent ICAP-Ethiopia in different forums when assigned by the supervisor

· Perform other duties assigned by the supervisor

Required qualifications and experience:

• MSc degree in laboratory science obtained from a recognized university

• Minimum of 5 years of work experience in-country, including laboratory support to HIV program

• Has TOT/ basic training on rapid HIV testing, rapid HIV recency testing, EID/VL testing, LQMS, SLMTA, and PT preparation and interpretation, etc.

• Experience in teaching, mentoring, organizing, and conducting related training.

• Experience in the development of national/ regional documents related to specimen referral, testing, and laboratory accreditation process

• Excellent interpersonal and coordination skills

•  Proficiency in written and spoken English

• Computer skills (MS Office, PowerPoint, Excel, and other commonly used statistical packages)

• Able to spend more than 75% of the time at RRLs and health facilities