Senior Childhood TB Advisor, DOS LEAP Global - Zimbabwe

About the Position

Childhood and adolescent tuberculosis remain under-diagnosed in Zimbabwe, with additional vulnerabilities among key and vulnerable populations (KVPs) including people living with HIV (PLHIV), the malnourished, migrants, urban poor populations, and those in congregate or hard-to-reach settings. Zimbabwe is implementing WHO-recommended approaches for childhood and adolescent TB, including contact investigation, TB preventive treatment (TPT), child-friendly formulations, stool for diagnosis’ and integration with HIV, nutrition, and MNCAH services.

The Department of State will second a Senior Childhood TB Advisor to provide specialized technical assistance to the NTP to strengthen prevention, detection, treatment, and care of TB among children, adolescents, and KVPs, while supporting grant implementation, partner coordination, and data-driven program improvement. The Advisor will support the NTP in carrying out life-saving humanitarian assistance (LHA) service delivery in full alignment with the new Presidential Executive Order (EO) directives.

The Senior Childhood TB Advisor will provide strategic and operational technical leadership to strengthen standardized, high-quality, and equitable TB services for children, adolescents, and key and vulnerable populations. The Advisor will support capacity building, community and partner engagement, operationalization of WHO and national guidance, and effective monitoring and reporting to improve childhood TB case detection, prevention coverage, and treatment outcomes.

Childhood and Adolescent TB Prevention, Diagnosis, and Care

• Support implementation of national and WHO guidance on childhood and adolescent TB prevention, screening, diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up.
• Strengthen standardized management of childhood and adolescent TB, including use of child-friendly formulations and age-appropriate dosing.
• Support scale-up of TB Preventive Treatment (TPT) among eligible child and adolescent contacts and children living with HIV.
• Promote integration of childhood TB services within HIV, nutrition, MNCAH, and adolescent health platforms.
• Support identification of service delivery gaps and development of innovative solutions to improve childhood TB outcomes.
• Support the scale up of use of stool for children below 10 years of age.

Key and Vulnerable Populations (KVPs)

• Provide technical assistance to strengthen TB prevention, screening, case detection, and care among key and vulnerable populations, including:
• PLHIV
• Prisoners
• Healthcare workers
• Migrants and mobile populations
• Urban poor and informal settlements
• Congregate and hard-to-reach populations
• Miners and ex miners
• Support development and implementation of targeted, differentiated, and risk-based TB interventions for KVPs.
• Strengthen linkages between facility-based TB services and community-based platforms serving KVPs.

Capacity Building, Mentorship, and Supportive Supervision

• Support capacity building among health care workers on pediatric and adolescent TB prevention, screening, case detection, and case management.
• Support targeted facility-based capacity building and mentorship to improve quality of care.
• Support updating, dissemination, and adherence to SOPs related to childhood TB and TB among KVPs.

Planning, Coordination, and Community Engagement

• Develop a childhood TB implementation plan.
• Forge and maintain effective relationships with community leaders, community health workers, civil society organizations, and partners working in childhood TB, HIV, nutrition, and KVP programming.
• Support coordination of childhood TB (TWG) and KVP activities at national and sub-national levels.

Monitoring, Evaluation, and Use of Data

• Monitor progress of childhood TB and KVP interventions against set targets and make programmatic adjustments based on M&E data.
• Support inclusion of childhood TB and KVP indicators in routine program reviews, supportive supervision, and performance monitoring.

Reporting, Documentation, and Learning

• Spearhead documentation and dissemination of lessons learned, best practices, and innovations through technical reports, conference abstracts, presentations, and manuscripts.
• Support TB program reviews, surveys, and evaluations related to childhood TB and KVPs.

Quality Assurance, Emergency Response, and Cross-Cutting Support

• Promote stigma-free, rights-based, and gender-responsive TB services for children, adolescents, and vulnerable populations.

Expected Deliverables

• Improved childhood and adolescent TB screening and case detection.
• Increased coverage of TB preventive treatment among eligible children and adolescents.
• Standardized management of childhood and adolescent TB nationwide.
• Improved treatment outcomes among children and adolescents.
• High-quality quarterly and annual technical reports.
• Documented best practices and lessons learned in childhood TB and KVP programming.

Performance Management

Performance will be assessed based on achievement of agreed deliverables, quality and timeliness of outputs,…