Vaccine Delivery Advisor, Kenya

Focus of the Role

To date, Covid-19 has cost more than 4 million lives. High income countries are showing the incredible power that vaccinations have to save lives and allow economies to recover. But while countries such as the UK, Italy and the US have fully vaccinated around two thirds of adults, less than one per cent of people on the African continent have received one vaccine. 

This is everyone’s concern. Until the whole world has been vaccinated no one is truly safe—we have seen repeatedly that Covid-19 does not respect borders. 

Africa is losing the race to vaccinate: when vaccinations become available, logistical challenges, insufficient resources and vaccine hesitancy pose risks to their deployment in time or to populations that need it the most.

Turning this situation around is a priority for the Tony Blair Institute. We are supporting a number of African governments to:

• improve national and local government coordination
• find, triage and ensure delivery of donor support
• operate a complete, secure and widely shared vaccine data collection and analysis system
• develop and implement a strategic communications plan to overcome fears and misinformation about the vaccines
• help coordinate and deliver supplies of vaccines to where they are most needed.

This work could not be more important or urgent. Case numbers are rising rapidly on the African continent due to the highly transmissible Delta variant, but vaccine supply will begin to rise rapidly towards the end of the year.

We are seeking talented and dedicated individuals to join our new Africa Vaccine Programme (AVP) who want to play a direct role in ensuring as many lives as possible are protected from Covid-19. The Programme will operate in over five of our existing countries from September 2021 onwards, and our team will be made up of senior Vaccine Delivery Advisors and those with targeted public health expertise. We will also be working closely with the Africa Centre for Disease Control (Africa CDC) in the delivery of the Programme.

Our Vaccine Delivery Advisors will provide flexible and responsive support to government’s changing needs. This will include delivery advice using TBI’s delivery toolkit and framework and may span donor and, government coordination, data analysis, management and presentation, resource mobilisation, strategic communications, stakeholder management, problem solving and spotting opportunities to keep up the momentum to get jabs in arms.

Postholders must be able to quickly build trusted relationships with their government counterparts and the wider vaccination community and must possess a solid understand what government needs to implement a successful vaccination campaign. 

The Vaccine Delivery Advisor, Kenya will report to the Country Head Kenya with a “dotted reporting line” to the AVP Programme Manager. The Advisors will work closely with other staff recruited under this programme and in other programmes.

This is an initial 12 month fixed term role.

Key Responsibilities

Delivery and capacity building 

• Build strong and trusted relationships with government counterparts and support them to develop and implement their vaccination strategy
• Be proactive, responsive, and flexible to requests for help especially identifying bottlenecks to delivery and providing government with options to overcome them
• Maintain excellent working relationships with the host agency, other parts of the government and the stakeholders critical to the successful roll-out of the vaccine rollout strategy
• Provide capacity building support through coaching, on-the-job mentoring, identifying specific skills gaps and helping government to fill them
• Support the host agency to understand and strengthen its culture of delivery
• Support the development of assessment frameworks such as evaluation and results indicators and Key Performance Indicators /KPIs to track the progress of the vaccination campaign

Contribution to TBI 

• Quickly become a valued and supportive team member of the Ghana country team
• Contribute to wider TBI initiatives and other activities as required by the Country Head or AVP Programme Manager. 

Person Specification

This is a role in a fast-paced team, working within complex policy areas that are highly scrutinised.  We are looking for enthusiastic and resilient individuals with a “can-do” outlook and the ability to consistently achieve results in a fast-paced environment.

Successful candidates will demonstrate the following: 

• At least 5 years’ experience in either government, government advisory, management consulting or similar organisational leadership roles (preferably in Africa)
• Strong management skills and experience delivering international development programmes
• Savvy relationship management, going the extra mile, collaboration and organisational development
• A strategic mindset and experience in adaptive management, for example Problem Driven Iterative Adaptation
• An ability to deliver results in complex and challenging environments
• An ability to operate and succeed in political environments
• Excellent interpersonal, negotiation, networking and communication skills, with an ability to develop and foster relationships with a wide range of senior stakeholders
• An ability to work independently, think strategically and translate strategies to concrete and implementable plans with an attention to detail and excellent organisational skills
• Relevant experience in public health is preferred
• Excellent communication skills in English 

Candidates must have the right to work in Kenya

About The Institute

The Tony Blair Institute (TBI) is a mission-driven not for profit organisation. We exist to equip political leaders and governments to build open, inclusive and prosperous societies. We work hard, every day, to make a difference. When governments work well they are able to create economic and social change in a way that promotes fairness, social justice and opportunity. We work relentlessly to support leader and governments with the challenges they face. Giving them practical solutions and actionable insights, that once implemented, can be transformative for their people  

We do this within two connected divisions: 

 Government Advisory 

Our Advisory Practice works directly with political leaders and governments around the world to implement reforms that improve the lives of their citizens. It has both non-profit partners and a client base and its outputs cover a range of disciplines and projects across countries in Africa, the Middle East, Eastern Europe and South Asia. We are currently in a rapid expansion phase from c. 18 countries at present, to 30 by December 2022.

 Policy Futures 

Our Policy Futures work encompasses three broad areas: 

• Renewing the Centre: developing a bold and innovative domestic policy programme to help renew the centre ground of British politics; 
• Tech and Public Policy: exploring the policy challenges and opportunities presented by the technological revolution; and 
• Extremism Policy Unit: creating solutions designed to tackle the threat of extremist ideologies in the UK and around the world. 

As an organisation, the core beliefs we all embrace are: 

• Open and Progressive: you’ll believe in the value of teamwork 
• Bold and Pragmatic: you’ll approach everything you do with integrity and authenticity 
• Optimistic Changemaker: you’ll be focused on results 

TBI believes embracing diversity and inclusion make us a better place to work.  It’s our goal to reflect everyone in society and we actively welcome applications from individuals and groups who are under-represented in the workplace. We celebrate difference be it ethnicity, religion, age, gender or gender identity, sexual orientation or disability. We will only ever assess you on your abilities and fit for a role. We’re happy to discuss any adjustments you need to ensure a level playing field during recruitment and, if you\'re successful, discuss any adjustments you might need to thrive in your role.