MSF Access Policy Advisor - Economic Policies

Médecins Sans Frontières works tirelessly to improve the accessibility, availability, affordability, appropriateness and quality of products for health care for the populations it assists and their communities. While this is a collective effort across the organisation, the MSF Access team plays a central role as it identifies and implements a priority selection of access projects, offers expert support for access activities elsewhere in MSF, and brings together information and analysis relevant to MSF’s access work. The MSF Access team, overseen by an Executive Board, is based in the following five regional hubs:

•  Dakar, Senegal: covering West and Central Africa

•  Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: covering the Americas

•  Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: covering Asia and Oceania

•  Nairobi, Kenya: covering Eastern and Southern Africa

•  Brussels, Belgium: covering Europe, the Middle East, and Northern Africa

The work of MSF Access is rooted in MSF’s medical humanitarian work and aims to improve access to medicines and healthcare products for people in the greatest need by bringing down barriers that keep people from getting the treatment they need to stay alive and healthy.  

To do this, we advocate for the most effective medicines and health products to be available, affordable, and equitably accessible for the people we care for, and beyond.  

The MSF Access team has the following responsibilities:

• Gather input for MSF’s Common Priorities on access to products of healthcare (Access).

• Design and implement Access Analysis & Advocacy activities to respond to the agreed Common Priorities.

• Provide, facilitate, support on Access files outside the Common Priorities to MSF entities that request it.

• Maintain an overview of Access initiatives across MSF and report on them annually.

• Research, and stay informed of, the Access landscape globally and regionally to inform the MSF Movement of opportunities and threats.

  The seven Common Priorities currently agreed upon by the MSF Movement include:

i.    Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR)

ii.   Vaccinations

iii.  Tuberculosis

iv.  Diabetes

v.   Diagnostic Tools

vi.  Sexual Reproductive Health and

vii. Cancer

They are based on the Medical-Operational priorities witnessed by the Movement and are subject to possible changes on medium-term.

The market-driven approach to biomedical R&D underscores the structural challenges in ensuring equitable access to medical products and technologies based on people’s health needs. These challenges are multifaceted in their impact on pricing, prioritization, R&D financing and governance, as well as the arrangement for technology ownership, intellectual property, manufacturing and supplying of medical products. MSF’s work on access issues is anchored from its direct medical actions and experiences, and challenged by the entrenched mainstream economic logic in biomedical R&D. To advance the renewed ambition of MSF’s work on access, we are looking for a policy advisor to bring expertise in critical analysis on economic issues in relation to R&D and access.

The Policy Advisor works in the Analysis Department of MSF’s Access Team, reporting to the Head of Analysis. S/he works in a multidisciplinary team of the Analysis Department consisting of experts on medical, pharmaceutical, economic, legal and policy issues related to access to health products and technologies. The Policy Advisor maintains a close working relationship with the regional hubs and the Advocacy/Communication department of the Access team.

• Research and analyse critically on cross-cutting global policy developments and subjects with a focus on R&D financing, pricing, cost of production, market shaping, incentive initiatives and other economic aspects of access to health technologies, such as those related to local /regional manufacturing, technology transfer and generic competition

• Provide advice on incorporating a relevant economic lens in thematic and regional analysis, indicating strategic opportunities and recommendations.

• Support and provide economic analysis into the development and implementation of relevant advocacy strategies.

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• Reviewing, collating and critically analysing global policy literature in relation to R&D financing, pricing, cost of production, market shaping and incentive initiatives and other economic aspects that affect the Access team’s works.

• Conduct landscape economic analysis on issues affecting access, including financing on local and regional manufacturing and regulatory frameworks.

• Provide technical and strategic advice on the concerned economic policy issues in thematic and regional portfolios.

• Maintain an overview, documentation and regular update of analysis and technical support, in line with the Knowledge and Information Management Guidelines.

• Support and provide advice to other analysis team advisors, regional hubs and advocacy and communication advisors in position development, talking points and advocacy strategy on relevant economic policy issues affecting innovation and equitable access

• Sensitize and increase the MSF Access team’s understanding and critical appraisal of economic narratives, policies and development on the changing global health frame affecting access to medical technologies, driven by the securization and competitiveness.

• Maintain an external and internal network of relevant stakeholders, sharing MSF analysis and representing the Access team at external fora.

• Graduate degree in the fields of microeconomics, health economics, political economy, global health, political science, public policy, law, international relations, or other relevant domains.

• Strong and demonstrated knowledge and expertise of methodologies and schools of economic analysis and studies; through publications or demonstrated applied research experience, including research and publication on costing methods, modelling, cost-effectiveness and budget impact analysis, econometrics, statistics, and/or other quantitative methods relevant to health economics and market analysis.

• Knowledge of coding, knowledge of R, Python, Stata.

• Strong knowledge of global health, access to medicines, research and development, and political economy in access to knowledge and health technologies. 

• Minimum 5 years of experience directly relevant to the responsibilities of the position. 

• Strong skills in research and analysis, critical thinking, writing technical and policy analysis documents and/or peer-reviewed publications.

• Core competencies: project management, teamwork, problem solving, team management, strategic planning and priority setting.

• Demonstrable technical leadership in a diverse and highly changing environment of actors.

• Excellent communication and team working skills; and willingness to speak at public events.

• Capacity to develop and maintain good working relationships in a complex international, cross-cultural environment.

• Genuine interest in and commitment to the humanitarian principles of MSF. 

• Experience working in resource-limited settings and other CSOs is an asset.

• Appreciation of cultural and gender diversity, and strong commitment to equity and inclusion.

• Proficiency in oral and written English, other languages an asset.