ICAP Population HIV Impact Assessment Post-Doctoral Fellowship

Deadline for applications : February 1, 2016

In collaboration with the Demography and Population Studies Programme, University of Witswatersrand, ICAP is announcing the availability of two PHIA Post-Doctoral Fellowships.  These fellows will be based at the University of Witswatersrand, under the joint oversight and direction of Professor Clifford Odimegwu, Academic Program Director, Demography and Population Studies Programme  and Professor Sally Findley, ICAP, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University.   These fellowships are a collaborative project to support the capacity building elements of the ICAP Population HIV Impact Assessment surveys, for which the Regional Hub is the ICAP-South Africa office located in Pretoria, under the direction of Blanche Pitt.   

 

Background to the PHIA surveys: The ICAP Population HIV Impact Assessment Surveys  are currently underway or planned in 13 Sub-Saharan African countries, including several in Eastern and Southern  Africa.   The aim of the PHIA surveys is to assess the impact of the PEPFAR funding on reducing HIV incidence and prevalence, as well as to assess the uptake and impact of HIV prevention, care, and treatment programs.   Modelled after the AIDS Indicator Surveys, the PHIA surveys will include a sample of approximately 15,000 households per country and include both interviews and biomarker tests in the household for eligible adults, adolescents, and children, with an anticipated number of individual interviews and biomarker tests anticipated to exceed 30,000-45,000.  The surveys are being conducted in every country by a consortium of the national statistics office, a leading research/university collaborator, the ministry of health and the national AIDS program.  ICAP is the lead technical partner providing assistance in developing the survey.  The first three countries where fieldwork is already underway are Malawi, Zimbabwe, and Zambia, and the next set of countries where surveys will be launched are Uganda, Tanzania, Swaziland, Lesotho, Namibia and Cameroun.

 

PHIA Capacity Building Program:  The ICAP PHIA team is committed to building the capacity of in-country PHIA stakeholders to be able to fully participate in all phases of the survey, from design through dissemination. The long-term objective of capacity building is for the country stakeholders to be ready to undertake a second round of PHIA at a later date with limited technical assistance from outside agencies.  The ICAP-PHIA team is interpreting this commitment to capacity building to include: 

 

  • Development and implementation of an overarching plan for strengthening government capacity in all areas of impact assessment design, operationalization, and utilization.
  • Making each capacity building plan country-specific, informed by detailed assessments with key stakeholders regarding their needs and preferred forms of capacity strengthening activities
  • Integration of capacity building into survey-related activities, with capacity building incorporated into each phase of survey preparation, conduct, analysis, and report-writing.  
  • Monitoring and obtaining feedback on the progress of capacity building, among individuals and at an agency/organizational level. 

The ICAP PHIA program uses a menu approach, with each country specifying which topics and which levels of competence they want to cover in the capacity building effort.  Not every domain will be requested by a country, and within a domain there may be different methodologies requested. Based on the discussions with the Technical Working Groups in each of the first three collaborating countries, the topics where the teams want capacity building support encompass the following domains:

 

  • Design and Implementation Stages: Protocol development, Complex, multi-stage sampling, Electronic data capture methodologies; 
  • Analysis and Dissemination Stages: Data analysis (planning, basic, and advanced), Applications of PHIA results to program planning  at subnational levels, Development of Detailed Analyses for Scientific Manuscripts.   

 

The method for integrating these elements into the overall PHIA design and implementation efforts will vary by domain.  For the domains during the design and implementation stages, the capacity building efforts will be integrated into the TA visits by ICAP technical staff and their contractors (Westat and ICF), using self-study materials and guided shadowing/mentoring procedures.  For the data analysis and dissemination stages, the capacity building will be workshop based, supplemented by mentoring before and after the workshops.  The capacity building activities are spread out over a period of 12-18 months per country. 

 

Professor Sally Findley is the Senior Technical Advisor for the Capacity Building program, and she has overall responsibility for the development and implementation of the capacity building program.  The basic components of the portfolio for each module will include:

  • Learning objectives and competencies to be gained in the module
  • Self-study materials to be reviewed prior to participating in the module activities
  • Guidelines for the module leaders re. key points to be covered  and how to link the “theoretical” to the practical elements of the country’s PHIA survey
  • Guidelines for mentoring
  • Monitoring and evaluation to assess the impact of participation in the capacity building program for the individual participants and the country team 

 

PHIA Post-Doctoral Fellowships: The purpose of the PHIA Post-Doctoral Fellowships is to recruit two post-doctoral fellows to support the capacity building program, but also to begin to develop a cadre of African researchers who know about and use the PHIA datasets that will be emerging into the public domain starting in 2017.  In addition to their work with the collaborating countries, the PHIA Post-Doctoral Fellows will be invited to join analysis and writing teams of the countries where they are focusing their support, and they will also be able to take the lead on analyses of  research questions of their own interest.   

 

Duties of the PHIA Post-Doctoral Fellow:

  • Assist in organizing and conducting capacity building activities in participating PHIA countries 
  • Assist in identifying and assembling self-study materials to be used for each of the capacity building domains
  • Assistance in preparing presentation and workshop materials for the 4 basic PHIA capacity building workshops
  • Conducting and reporting back on  the monitoring and evaluation assessments of the PHIA capacity building program
  • Collaborating with designated country teams in the support of the analysis of their country’s data with bivariate or multi-variate statistics, including possibly both GIS and small area estimation methods including complementary census data
  • Developing and implementing an individual research proposal for analysis of PHIA data, with the review and approval of the country PHIA TWG  
  • Assist  DPS, University of Wits in some academic  and research activities, especially in the mentoring of the graduate students in relevant fields and scientific processes.
  • Writing and publishing in credible journals.  

 

Position Requirements:

  • PhD in Demography, Population Studies, Epidemiology, or Public Health completed within the last 3 years or anticipated completion by Spring 2016.
  • Experience conducting HIV-related research, including research in any of the related domains, including contraceptive use, sexual networks and  gender relations, adolescent health determinants
  • Evidence of writing ability and publications in peer-reviewed publications
  • Strong multi-variate analytic skills, including experience analyzing large-scale household survey data, e.g. from IN-DEPTH sites, DHS, or national household or MICS surveys
  • Expertise in Stata, Excel, and, optionally, R
  • Experience teaching or mentoring students on statistical or analytic methods
  • Excellent communication, presentation and interaction skills. Fluency in English is required, in French is a plus.  
  • High degree of organization and ability to adhere to a workplan
  • Ability to work in a team
  • African nationality and willingness to be posted for work in South Africa, with residence in Johannesburg or Pretoria.

 

  • Remuneration and work expectations:  Remuneration will be according to the standards for Post-Doctoral Fellows at the University of Wits.  The post-doctoral fellows will be based at DPS, University of Wits, but they will be expected to participate in weekly ICAP PHIA team meetings either by skype or in person at the ICAP-SA office in Pretoria.  Frequent travel to collaborating countries should be expected, accounting for approximately 20% of the fellow’s time.  Per Diem and travel expenditures will be covered separately under the regional PHIA budget.  In addition to the duties outlined above, the PHIA fellows will participate in regular seminars on population health impact surveys, the ICAP journal club, and monthly reviews of their own research with the post-doctoral advisor.  They will have opportunities  through the university to participate in courses or seminars to improve analytic skills, as needed.   Professor Odimegwu will assure that the PHIA post-doc fellows are integrated into the academic life of the DPS and U of Wits, which will include seminars and other colloquia hosted by the DPS and its partners.  He will work closely with Professor6Findley in providing support and guidance to the fellows regarding their capacity building work, and Ms. Pitt at the PHIA regional office will assure their integration into the regional ICAP PHIA program of seminars while ICAP SA will serve as their employer and provide the required administrative support. 

 

  • Applications: Submit a cv and cover letter to Professor Sally Findley, sef5@columbia.edu.  Deadline for applications is February 1, 2016.  The cover letter should outline the experience or training of the applicant that enables him/her to contribute to the PHIA capacity building efforts as well as to give some suggestion about PHIA research topics that they may be interested in pursuing.  In addition to the CV, please attach a copy of a writing sample demonstrating expertise in survey data analysis, whether or not this pertains to HIV-related research, and the email and telephone numbers for at least two references from your PhD studies or current employment.

 

 

 

 

 

 

deadline for applications