Technical Program Advisor

**Job Information**:
Date Opened
- 12/02/2024Number of Positions
- 1Project/Activity
- USAID/South Africa TSSIndustry
- USAIDJob Type
- Short Term Technical (consultant)City
- BloemfonteinState/Province
- Free StateCountry
- South AfricaZip/Postal Code
- 9300HIghest Level of Education
- Degree in public administration, education or social sciences is preferredWork Experience
- 10-15 years**Background on Technical Support Services (TSS) Activity**

The Technical Support Services (TSS) Activity helps USAID/Southern Africa’s Regional Health Office (RHO) address technical priorities, develop creative, innovative solutions to strategically allocate resources, strengthen connections with partners, and replicate best practices and effective program models. Through the TSS contract, Panagora Group augments capacity by providing technical, operational, and administrative support to USAID’s health portfolio. TSS deploys advisors in response to USAID requests for priority work with government stakeholders, implementing partners, and/or other entities. TSS supports Health Office staff and teams in integrating creative solutions into routine work. TSS also provides international and local expertise for surge support, as needed, for USAID Program Cycle requirements, planning, development, outreach, communications, and Health Office human resource functions.

**General Summary or Background**

South Africa has the largest HIV epidemic in the world with an estimated 7.8 million people living with HIV (PLHIV), of which 310,000 are children aged 0-14 years and 5.2 million are on treatment. The current HIV prevalence is 13.2%; adult HIV prevalence is 18.5%. Approximately 230,000 new HIV infections occur each year of which 50,000 are among children and adolescents 0-19 years. New HIV infections are disproportionately higher among adolescent girls and young women. Given the rate of new infection, South Africa has yet to achieve “95-95-95” targets and the goal of HIV epidemic control.

Annually, nearly one-third of all new HIV infections in South Africa occur in youth ages 15-24 years, with adolescent girls being up to eight times more likely to be infected with HIV than their male counterparts. Although HIV prevention interventions ranging from structural to biomedical (e.g., Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis) have been scaled nationally through initiatives such as the Determined, Resilient, Empowered, Aids-free, Mentored and Safe (DREAMS) Initiative and She Conquers, HIV incidence among this priority population remains high due to a myriad of factors - early sexual debut, age-disparate relationships to mitigate the impact of high youth unemployment, high rates of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and sexual and gender-based violence (GBV). While HIV prevention interventions have been concentrated in districts and provinces with the highest burden of disease and unmet needs, to achieve epidemic control, South Africa will need to scale up and intensify targeted HIV prevention interventions nationally.

**Principal Duties and Responsibilities**

The TSS activity is looking for a consultant to serve as a Technical Program Advisor to support the Free State Provincial Department of Basic Education (FSDBE) to institutionalize and harmonize the work of the USAID/Department of Basic Education (DBE) G2G into all program areas in the FSDBE working with relevant structures at the national, provincial and district levels. The Technical Program Advisor will be critical to help the DBE achieve the milestones set in the year 6 work plan of the agreement for FSDBE. The Technical Program Advisor will support the provincial multi-stakeholder project team in ensuring alignment and integration of the G2G work with the FSDBE functions in HR, finance, curriculum, HIV life skills program management, including monitoring, reporting and evaluations.

**The Technical Program Advisor will**:

- Support the FSDBE to institutionalize and harmonize the work of the G2G into all program areas in the Department working with the national DBE, provincial and education districts, and target schools’ structures.
- Help facilitate all training activities, ensure availability of training resources, and availability of all related materials at the focus schools. The Advisor will oversee the roll out activities by engaging substantially in the training, implementation, data collection and reporting.
- The Technical Program Advisor supports the FSDBE and serves as a key staff member responsible for collaborating and engaging with the DBE national office and provincial offices and other technical assistance providers to integrate their expertise, services, and available support.
- Lead the technical development and implementation including Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) teacher training, integration of monitoring and evaluation activities.
- Facilitate regular technical meetings with national, provincial and districts education structures review program i