As part of the Advancing Health Professionals (AHP) program, a Peace Corps Response Volunteer (PCRV) with degrees in Health Economics, Economics, Social Science, Health Informatics, or Health Systems is needed to serve as Senior Health Policy Analyst at the College of Medicine in the University of Malawi, without the provision of direct medical care to patients or clinical supervision of students. The Health Economics and Policy Unit (HEPU) was established within the College of Medicine with funding from the Research Council of the United Kingdom. With several players in policy engagement in Malawi, there is high risk of (a) uncoordinated efforts in health policy; (b) research activities not reflecting research priorities of national decision makers; (c) project implementation not being aligned to national activities; (d) data collection efforts being duplicated; and (e) collected data and research outputs not being shared with national decision makers. Through the Thinktank mechanism, HEPU uses a “let us think together” approach to identify and execute policy research priorities for addressing challenges faced by Malawi’s Health Sector. The Policy Lab is a forum through which HEPU staff and Government Policy specialists jointly process the requests from the Thintank into proposals, taking them back to the Thinktank for validation before embarking on actual research implementation.

The Senior Health Policy Analyst will contribute to the conceptualization of research/policy analysis, and participate in Thinktank, Policy Lab, as well as relevant meetings. The PCRV in conjunction with junior staff will write reports on proceedings of Thinktank and Policy Lab meetings and support development of analytical reports and policy briefs. This position will not include involvement in or provision of any direct patient assessment, management, or care, the provision of any counseling services, or any supervision or conducting of clinical research. The goal of this assignment is for the PCRV to support capacity development for junior analysts working in the Health Policy Lab.

Peace Corps Response established its “Advancing Health Professionals” program in 2019. Response Volunteers serving with the AHP program seek to improve health outcomes on a societal level through the provision of high-level, specialized service in the health sector. AHP projects include programming such as nursing education, health systems strengthening, service delivery improvement, and other non-clinical interventions which enhance the quality of healthcare.

Please note that departure dates and other details of this project could change because of the uncertainties as Peace Corps and local partners resume volunteer operations. Candidates selected for this position will be arriving in Malawi together as a group, so while the departure dates for the whole group could change, dates cannot be changed for individual candidates.

Health Economics and Policy Unit (HEPU) – College of Medicine, University of Malawi

• Master’s Degree in any of the following: Health Economics, Economics, Social Science, Health Informatics, and Health Systems
• Strong experience with research methods, writing and policy analysis
• Ability to convey analysis and information orally through briefings, consultations and other presentations