We are looking for a self-motivated, early- to mid-career professional to join Taimaka’s Program Improvement Team and lead projects designed to advance malnutrition treatment implementation, improve program outcomes, reduce costs, and save more lives. This is a hybrid role, involving implementation and research, where you will design and implement ideas to improve the cost-effectiveness of our programming and then evaluate the impact of these ideas. You will not be involved in large-scale trials or mass surveys: the focus here is on pre/post evaluations and quick-turnaround projects. Expect a wide range of projects and tasks, from biometric verification in one quarter to hybrid therapeutic food dosing protocols in another.
While a background in public health or global development is helpful, what we are really looking for here is someone who wants to join our programs, dive into the details, and discover how to implement better than we currently do. If you can act quickly, think hard, implement quickly, and want to become an expert in acute malnutrition and how to treat it, you are the ideal candidate. Taimaka plans to treat 75,000 children suffering from severe acute malnutrition over the next three years. You will help shape the protocols we use to achieve this. If you do well, you could help save more lives than we otherwise would.
Part of Taimaka’s work involves identifying ways to improve the implementation of acute malnutrition treatment in our program. Over the years, these innovation efforts have led to several key advances, such as the creation of a digital case management app for our field staff to guide them through the treatment process, implementing a reduced protocol dose of RUTF for the first time in Nigeria, and integrating supplementary feeding for the treatment of moderate acute malnutrition into a facility-based program. These advances are a major reason why our cost per child treated is less than half the average for NGOs in Northern Nigeria, and we aim to improve our cost efficiency through further improvements. As a contributor to our Program Improvement team, you will be responsible for key innovation projects designed to improve our programming. While there is an element of research and evaluation to these projects, our goal is to avoid large-scale research processes and focus on faster turnaround initiatives that meet program needs. Think less about abstract/academic research and more about iterative design. Here are some examples of projects we are considering for 2025:
- Integrate the distribution of ORS/Zinc co-packs into our mass acute malnutrition screenings to save more lives, and also collect post-distribution monitoring data to verify that families actually received the packs and understand when and how they are using them. .
- Create a biometric identification solution to track patient enrollment and improve patient identification over time and across facilities. This included identifying a developer who could implement this solution, managing the project implementation within our existing technology group, and working with the software team to implement the solution. 3. Launch a sprint to redesign our care protocols for infants under six months of age, based on the latest research and guidelines published by WHO. Interview experts from other organizations to integrate lessons learned. Partner with the Programs team to implement these new protocols and conduct a before/after analysis to understand their impact.
- Our goal in recruiting for this position is to find someone who can integrate closely with our program team and spend significant time each week in our facilities, understanding pain points and issues. We are looking for someone who will be obsessed with optimizing implementation and can add skills to our existing program improvement team to form the missing link between identifying a good idea and developing it in a timely manner. You will report to our Director of Program Research and Improvement, who will help you set priorities and identify the projects you will work on. However, once you are assigned to a project, you will be expected to work independently, recruiting additional staff as needed, planning implementation and execution, with guidance and mentoring from your supervisor. In this role, you will likely supervise 1-2 middle managers, as well as a varying number of field staff to collect data or perform similar tasks. We evaluate the benefit of our programs according to the GiveWell/Effective Altruistic style,
- which means we judge the success or failure of our program improvement projects based on their
- reduction in estimated cost per life saved. You need to learn how to model profitability in this way and incorporate it into your decision-making. For more information and to apply, go to: https://airtable.com/appSrq61ivOQ6yXrE/pagGgerxffMNDIRuU/form
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