Technical Officer – Community-Based Health Services

The AFGHS-Jhpiego project is funded by the U.S. Department of State (DoS) to support the delivery of lifesaving, comprehensive maternal, newborn and child health (MNCH) and malaria services across Mainland Tanzania and Zanzibar. It aims to improve service and data quality, strengthen health-system integration and resilience, facilitate effective transition, and promote local ownership and accountability for sustained health outcomes.

Jhpiego works closely with the Ministries of Health in Mainland Tanzania and Zanzibar, the Reproductive and Child Health Section (RCHS), the National Malaria Control Programme (NMCP), the Zanzibar Malaria Elimination Programme (ZAMEP), and Regional Administration and Local Government (RALG) structures to align implementation with national priorities and strengthen locally led implementation and oversight.

The Technical Officer – Community-Based Health Services (TO-CBHS) provides field-level technical and implementation support for an integrated and coordinated community health programme aligned with national policies, guidelines, and minimum intervention packages for community health workers (CHWs) in Mainland Tanzania and Zanzibar. The role supports the integration of existing community-owned resource persons (CORPs) and CHWs within the health system and strengthens their readiness to deliver quality community-based health services in MNCH and malaria, including community-based insecticide-treated net (ITN) distribution as a major component of project’s malaria programming.

Supervised by the Field Team Leader with technical support from the MCS and MNCH technical teams, the TO-CBHS serves as the field-based counterpart to Regional and District Health Promotion Coordinators and works within relevant local government structures. The role supports workforce preparation and deployment, supportive supervision, system readiness, community data use, and other mechanisms required for effective community-based service delivery. The TO-CBHS strengthens systems for CORP and CHW oversight, coordination, performance management, and compensation, contributing to expanded service coverage, continuity of care, and strengthened government capacity and ownership to progressively institutionalize and sustain community-based health services within routine health-system structures.

• Support implementation of integrated community-based health services through existing government structures and systems, in accordance with national policies, technical guidelines, approved minimum intervention packages, and project work plans in Mainland Tanzania and Zanzibar, with an emphasis on strengthening government ownership and sustainable delivery.
• Support participatory mapping and micro-planning to identify community structures, population movement, underserved groups, service-access barriers, malaria hotspots, and priority locations for community-based services.
• Support CORPs and CHWs to deliver quality community-based malaria and other priority testing, prevention, referral, follow-up, health promotion, and surveillance services within their approved scopes of practice.
• Monitor implementation progress, identify operational bottlenecks, and coordinate timely corrective action with government and project teams.

• Support government teams to conduct household or population registration, quantification, micro-planning, distribution-point selection, community mobilisation, and scheduling to achieve equitable coverage, including for remote and underserved populations.
• Coordinate with regional and council teams, health facilities, community leaders, CORPs, CHWs, and logistics colleagues to ensure timely last-mile delivery and readiness of ITNs, distribution tools, personnel, and community delivery points.
• Support orientation, deployment, supervision, and performance follow-up of community cadres and other personnel engaged in ITN registration, mobilisation, distribution, and reporting.
• Monitor distribution progress and stock accountability; reconcile registration, issuance, balance, and return data; identify coverage and operational gaps; and support timely corrective action through existing government monitoring and accountability mechanisms.

• Support government-led processes for the identification, selection, orientation, training, deployment, and continuing development of CORPs, CHWs, and their supervisors in line with national requirements.
• Assess and follow up workforce readiness, including availability of trained providers, approved tools, job aids, commodities, reporting materials, and functional referral arrangements.
• Strengthen the integration of CORPs and CHWs within decentralized government and health-system structures, including their linkage to health facilities and ward, shehia, village, and community health committees.
• Support local authorities to strengthen transparent arrangements for CHW oversight, coordination, workload management, motivation, remuneration or compensation, retention, and replacement, consistent with government policy and approved project mechanisms.
• Support integration of project-supported community health functions into routine government planning, budgeting, supervision, workforce management, commodity, data, and accountability systems to strengthen long-term sustainability.

• Support government counterparts to progressively strengthen ownership and management of project-supported community health activities, including CHW/CORP deployment, supervision, commodities, data, referrals, and performance monitoring.
• Identify sustainability and transition gaps at field level and support practical actions to strengthen government capacity, reduce reliance on project-supported systems, and maintain continuity and quality of essential MNCH and malaria services.
• Support integration of project-supported activities, tools, and approaches into regional and council plans, budgets, systems, and routine implementation mechanisms.
• Support government-led transition planning, including identification of responsibilities, milestones, capacity needs, and follow-up actions required to progressively transition project-supported functions.
• Document locally led solutions, implementation experience, and lessons to inform transition planning, scale-up, and sustained delivery of community-based health services.

• Support regional, council, facility, and community-level teams to establish and implement regular, government-led supportive supervision and mentorship for CORPs and CHWs.
• Use supervision and service delivery findings to identify performance gaps, agree improvement actions, assign accountability, and follow through to resolution.
• Strengthen community-to-facility referral, counter referral, follow up, and feedback processes, with clear roles and coordination among CORPs, CHWs, supervisors, and receiving health facilities.

• Engage local leaders, influencers, community committees, civil society groups, and other community structures to strengthen ownership of community-based health services and reach underserved populations.
• Support community dialogues, feedback mechanisms, and other participatory approaches to identify and address misconceptions, social norms, gender-related barriers, and structural constraints affecting timely care seeking and service uptake.
• Ensure community perspectives and local intelligence inform micro-planning, adaptation of delivery approaches, and follow up of service access gaps.

• Support CORPs, CHWs, supervisors, and facilities to record, compile, validate, submit, and use complete and timely community-level service delivery and surveillance data through approved systems.
• Work with government monitoring, surveillance, and health management information system focal persons and MERL colleagues to reconcile community and facility data and address data-quality gaps.
• Facilitate routine review of community-level data to assess coverage, referrals, service completion, provider functionality, and performance, and to guide targeted follow-up and corrective action.
• Support community event-based surveillance, notification, and escalation of priority health events in accordance with national protocols.

• Bachelor’s degree in Community Development, Public Health, Health Promotion, Social Sciences, Communications, or a related field required.
• At least 5-6 years of relevant experience implementing community-based health programs or supporting service delivery led by community cadres including Community-Owned Resource Persons and Community Health Workers in the context of large public health interventions. Practical experience supporting community-based ITN distribution or comparable large-scale community commodity distribution, including micro-planning, mobilisation, last-mile coordination, field monitoring, and commodity accountability, is strongly preferred.
• Demonstrated experience applying social or participatory mapping approaches to identify community structures, social networks, mobility patterns, underserved groups, hotspots and barriers to service access and utilization.
• Practical experience using community feedback, qualitative methods, and local intelligence (e.g., community dialogues, key informant discussions, participatory exercises) to inform micro-planning to support effective delivery of community-based health services.
• Experience engaging local leaders, influencers, and community-based structures to address social norms, misconceptions, and structural barriers affecting health service uptake.
• Experience working with community health structures at district and sub-district levels including Ward Development Committees and Village Health Committees.
• Ability to document activities, synthesize social mapping findings, and contribute to routine monitoring and surveillance strategies involving local communities.

• Proactive, self-motivated, and able to work with minimal supervision.
• Experience in training facilitation, supervision, and quality improvement.
• Proficiency in MS Office applications.
• Strong teamwork and interpersonal skills.
• Excellent communication skills in English and fluency in Kiswahili required.
• Willingness to live in any location in the project supported regions
• Ability to undertake regular travel within the assigned region and provide periodic support to other project-supported regions, as required.

Jhpiego offers competitive salaries and a comprehensive employee benefits package.

Please apply at www.jhpiego.org/careers

Applicants must submit a single document for upload to include cover letters, resume, and references.

For further information about Jhpiego, visit our website at www.jhpiego.org

Note: The successful candidate selected for this position will be subject to a pre-employment background investigation.

Jhpiego is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer

Jhpiego, a Johns Hopkins University affiliate, is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of gender, marital status, pregnancy, race, color, ethnicity, national origin, age, disability, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, veteran status, other legally protected characteristics or any other occupationally irrelevant criteria. Jhpiego promotes Affirmative Action for minorities, women, individuals who are disabled, and veterans.

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