Dashboard Associate, Africa CDC

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 Delivery Advisors and those with targeted public health expertise

As part of our Africa Vaccine Programme, we are working with the Africa Centre for Disease Control (Africa CDC). The Africa CDC is establishing a Vaccine Equity Dashboard to track the procurement and distribution of vaccines to people in Africa and, crucially, to identify roadblocks to successful and equitable vaccine redistribution. The Dashboard will record and present all offers of support, vaccine doses, funding and technical expertise, as well as in-country rollout roadblocks and gaps. It also aims to help identify key roadblocks so ACDC, country governments and partners can address them.

The Vaccine Equity Dashboard will:  

• track the movement and redistribution of vaccine doses to through COVAX and bilateral and multilateral deals with vaccine manufacturers
• provide a database where stakeholders can access a list of roadblocks as they appear
• provide the basis for recommendations to avoid future roadblocks to equitable vaccine redistribution

By providing an accessible repository of blockages the Vaccine Equity Dashboard will allows stakeholders to see which roadblocks appear where, and identify patterns across time and geography. This allows for better and more focussed vaccine redistribution planning and prevents mistakes from recurring.

The Dashboard Associate will support the Africa CDC to coordinate vaccines and vaccine support between global partners and donors and African recipient countries by helping it create and maintain a Vaccine Equity Dashboard for vaccine rollout coordination, using TBI’s in-house digital delivery dashboard software as a template. This TBI delivery dashboard is operating in various governments across Africa and is designed specifically with the challenges of delivery across the African continent in mind. The post holder will also be pro-active in supporting Africa CDC to strengthen this and other digital tools to strengthen its capacity to coordinate vaccine rollout, and in supporting vaccine delivery if asked. 

TBI is seeking an exceptional individual who is IT savvy and strong on communication and delivery to manage and adapt the Vaccine Equity Dashboard for the Africa CDC, while assisting the Africa CDC to apply and maximise use of the tool to ensure it helps to coordinate vaccine support and resolve rollout roadblocks. He or she will be supported remotely by TBI’s Delivery Technology Advisor, who manages TBI’s digital delivery dashboard service for all countries, based in Kenya. Bugs, problems and adaptations will be done by this Delivery Technology Advisor, but this post holder will need to direct and support this process. 

This post holder will work closely with a TBI Vaccines Delivery Advisor who will also be embedded at Africa CDC, to support the organisation to address rollout coordination issues and bottlenecks, in particular as flagged by the Vaccine Equity Dashboard.

This is a 12-month, fixed-term role based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, embedded in the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC).

Key Responsibilities

• ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­Manage, adapt and strengthen the Vaccine Equity Dashboard, with support from TBI’s Delivery Technology Advisor 
• Immediately flag bugs slow speed and other technical problems for resolution to the TBI Delivery Technology Advisor for resolution, and support this process as needed
• Create and manage system for data input and integrity into the dashboard, including coordinating with African countries to report in-country vaccine rollout bottlenecks and needs; and with the international community and donors providing vaccines and vaccine support via Africa CDC mechanisms
• Ensure accuracy and timeliness of data flow through the dashboard 
• Ensure clear presentation of the data using modern data visualisation techniques 
• Where useful, analyse the data and make recommendations to improve coordination and problem solving 
• Be proactive where possible and requested to support ACDC to problem solve around the bottlenecks recorded via the dashboard 
• Be proactive in recommending and exploring digital based solutions for Africa CDC’s vaccine rollout needs
• Provide regular reports to the Africa CDC leadership working on vaccines on the state of vaccine rollouts 

Person Specification

We are seeking someone with the following skills, knowledge and experience:  

• 2-4 years’ of experience in applying technology for public sector transformation as a front-end or back-end developer
• Familiarity with delivery and good organisational management 
• Excellent IT analytical skills. Experience in software engineering and tech-based toolkit development and popularization is an advantage
• Familiarity working with IT bug reporting tools
• Timeliness and excellent attention to detail
• Willingness to engage in software-coding if needed, with support from the TBI Delivery Technology Advisor, if required for the smooth running of the Vaccine Equity Dashboard
• Significant experience with data analysis
• Excellent written and spoken communication skills
• Excellent interpersonal, networking and negotiation skills  
• Experience in management consulting or centre of government/delivery work in Africa is an advantage

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.