About Maisha Meds Maisha Meds is an organization dedicated to improving health care in Africa. We began incorporated in 2017 and over the past two years has grown to support nearly 150,000 patients monthly across Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda with our suite of software products. We have built a network of pharmacies and clinics that use our restocking system to order medicines from high quality suppliers, and we’re testing a variety of payment systems and incentive structures to improve patient uptake of high-impact health products like malaria diagnostics and treatment, antenatal care commodities, and contraceptives. We measure our success by our ability to improve the quality and affordability of healthcare commodities for low-income patients across Africa.
The organization is at an exciting inflection point – in 2020, we will test our digital reimbursement model for improving malaria diagnosis and treatment alongside research partners from UC Berkeley that include Maria Dieci, Paul Gertler and Jon Kolstad.We will expand our efforts in Tanzania and Uganda and commence a small trial in northern Nigeria as well. We will move towards supporting digital reimbursement for the 16 core areas that make up Universal Health Coverage (UHC)as defined by the World Health Organization.And we will partner with global health funders, insurance companies, and pharmaceutical manufacturers to ensure that the diagnostics and therapies required to support UHC are always available at the last mile, no matter how far that last mile might be.
About the Role
We believe that strategic engagement with policy leaders is critical to fulfilling our mission to improve access to affordable, high-quality, and appropriate medicines at scale. We recently secured Stage 2 funding from USAID’s Development Innovation Ventures alongside funding from the Gates Foundation and Grand Challenges Canada to test a more transparent and accountable model of delivery of global health funds. This model enables point of care reimbursement for essential health products enabled by mobile money and has the potential to transform how healthcare financing is is delivered. We are looking for an individual with extensive experience working with key global health funders to help us engage and iterate with them on our value proposition. The ideal candidate will:
- Deeply understand the perspectives, incentives, objectives, constraints, and synergies among the actors in the policy landscape in which we operate
- Align and communicate the value we bring through our ongoing work and projects with the objectives of in-country and regional policy leaders, multilateral agencies, and global private sector entities
- Position Maisha Meds as a thought leader and trusted expert in improving access to affordable, high-quality, and appropriate medicines
- Inform policies that draw from our lessons learned that will help make Maisha Meds model ubiquitous across sub-Saharan Africa
We are looking for a strategic and focused leader with experience engaging in-country bodies like the Country Coordinating Mechanism and global decision-makers in Geneva, Washington, DC, and Seattle. In this role, the VP Market Access / Chief Program Officer will lead Maisha Meds policy efforts in Kenya and across the region.Reporting to the Chief Executive Officer, you will:
Lead policy strategy and execution for Maisha Meds:With support from our CEO and experts across the organization, you will establish policy targets and objectives aligned with our scale pathway, and oversee all activities relating to achieving those policy targets. Our VP Market Access / Chief Program Officer will:
- Work closely with leaders across the organization to develop our policy strategy and refine it over time
- Set policy targets, define annual policy objectives and key results, and ensure these are aligned with our long-term vision for scale and sustainability
- Manage all activities relating to achieving policy objectives and targets
- Motivate senior leadership across the organization to align their work streams in support of policy targets and objectives
Drive funding commitments for point-of-care subsidies from national, regional, and global decision-makers:You will identify and cultivate relationships with key strategic stakeholders and serve as the primary relationship manager for these partners. You will:
- Identify and make contact with in-country, regional, and global policy leaders to understand their needs
- Synthesize lessons learned and research outcomes from Maisha Meds work, and align and communicate those outcomes with the objectives of in-country, regional, and global policy leaders
- Translate relationships into funded arrangements to pilot (with the aim to scale) point-of-care subsidy models with in-country and global funders and decision-makers
- Develop systems for ongoing management of these relationships, and direct senior leadership how to most effectively engage as needed
Lead engagement with our policy advisory board and other working groups:You will manage regular engagement with our recently assembled group of world class policy experts and other leading experts associated with Maisha Meds. You will:
- Facilitate regular policy meetings with policy advisory board and establish strategic objectives for the group
- Engage individually with policy advisors and other relevant organizational working group members to address tactical questions to advance Maisha Meds policy objectives
- Identify new policy experts and key opinion leaders to join our policy advisory board or support Maisha Meds in other technical capacities
Qualifications
We are seeking exceptional health policy experts with 6+ years of policy experience working within African health systems – specifically within major disease verticals or key functional areas like health sector supply chains. Candidates who fit the following criteria are strongly encouraged to apply:
- Strategic leader with a track record of successfully building relationships to find common ground, build consensus, and strengthen collaboration among diverse stakeholder groups and achieve high-level policy objectives
- Experience working with in-country coordinating mechanisms and global health funders in Geneva, Seattle, and Washington, DC
- Experience engaging and sensitively managing relationships with senior government officials, leaders of development agencies, and private sector representatives
- Humility and personal stability. We are looking for passionate professionals that combine strong leadership skills with good humor, patience, and a humble approach to service
- Collaborative team player who can engage leaders across the organization to meet strategic objectives
- Ability to identify opportunities or resources and motivate relevant team members to pursue them
- Conversant in the language of both business and government policy
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills
- Experience working in a multicultural workplace
- Strong problem-solving and analytical skills
- Swahili language skills, with a strong preference for East African candidates
This position requires the individual be based in Nairobi, Kenya.
Why You Should Join Us
Maisha Meds aims to leverage technology to solve problems that affect millions of people across sub-Saharan Africa. Though we can’t offer you catered meals and conference bikes like in Silicon Valley, we can promise you an opportunity to drive real, quantifiable change that literally saves lives. We are dedicated to our work and care deeply about our product’s impact. You’ll join our small and friendly team to grow Maisha Meds into a company serving tens of millions of people.
Start date is February 2020,and compensation is commensurate with experience.
