Current Situation

Bangladesh is going through a demographic transition with a marked decrease in child mortality and thus increasing the incidence of chronic disease in a growing population. ICDDR,B needs to strategically orient itself in line with this demographic change to engage in chronic disease research. The appointee needs to lead this effort and also needs to understand the state of this science globally, figure out where Bangladesh fits in and then frame the right questions and propositions. ICDDR,B is now working in partnership with a number of organisations and have received a combined total of $3.6 million USD in donations from United Health and the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLB/NIH) to develop a number of projects in the area of Chronic Disease and get them operational as soon as possible.

The Centre for Control of Chronic Diseases in Bangladesh is now executing different activities to implement its five goals.

These goals are:

GOAL 1: Assessment of current burden of chronic disease in Bangladesh

Milestone: In order to begin to assess the current burden of chronic disease and the risk factors for chronic diseases, surveillance on these areas will be introduced in three rural and one urban field sites (Matlab, Abhoynagar, Mirsarai and Kamalapur). This will serve as a first step toward determining and monitoring risk factors for chronic diseases as well as changes in those which will result from future interventions. In Year 1 this surveillance will serve as an initial capacity building activity for field workers on approaching chronic disease and risk factor surveillance. This initial round of surveillance and analysis will be followed up with more extensive research in both NIH and Ovations work.

Activities:

1) Develop new surveillance instrument: design risk factor and chronic disease surveillance items to be added to routine surveillance materials

2) Train surveyors on the use of the new tool

3) Collect the data from the four field sites

4) Analyze the data

GOAL 2: Synthesis of existing knowledge of gaps in chronic disease in South Asia

Milestone: The chronic disease situation in Bangladesh has a number of knowledge gaps. These gaps include information on existing programmes, limited information on burden of disease and risk factors, and little data on cost effectiveness of programmes. The first year work sets the stage to finish an assessment of chronic disease programmes in Bangladesh. This work will provide recommendations on future direction with chronic disease programmes in Year 2 of the Ovations work, as well as for further analytic work that can uncover risks in chronic diseases and relationships to poverty, which will be a feature of the NIH proposal.

Activities:

1) Initial assessment of current CD programs in Bangladesh, according to systematic framework of programs

2) Identification of potential model primary and secondary prevention programs

3) Review of methods and literature on linking chronic diseases and poverty

GOAL 3: Bangladesh policy and capacity: Pre-intervention support

Milestone: In order to gain a clear understanding of the situation in Bangladesh, a first step is to review the national policies that deal with the prevention and treatment of chronic diseases as well as uncover some of the pre-existing health care user and provider preferences that fall outside of the formal sector. This objective will also seek to use the strong links that exist with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and non-state actors to inform and disseminate findings.

Activities:

1) Review existing policies on chronic diseases in Bangladesh

2) Initiate small studies on chronic disease treatment and risk factors in Bangladesh to include informal providers in the rural areas, community management of diabetes and the role of informal “park” providers and their patients in the urban areas, and barriers to exercise among urban Bangladeshi women.

GOAL 4: Intervention and chronic disease scaling up: Translating knowledge into action

Milestone: Scaling up will occur after the basic and community research is completed as highlighted by the work in Goals 1-3. Thus, the activity in the first year will be to emphasize issues and efforts in the other goals. As all of the other Goals support the ultimate goal of broad knowledge translation it is important to not omit this Goal even if it has no distinct deliverables during Year 1. Supporting items to this goal include the identification of existing chronic disease programmes through the systematic framework in Goal 2 and the extensive dissemination and sensitization activities of Goals 3 and 5.

GOAL 5: Technical support and communications:

Milestone: A communication strategy will be developed at the beginning of the project to ensure that communications are built into the Centre’s research and interventions all the way through. The role of communication initiatives of the collaborating organizations will be crucial in this regard. Drawing upon the expertise of the ICDDR,B and BRAC communications departments and the IDS’s information services, work in these first stages will include the identification of main target audiences and the modalities for reaching them. There will be a website with current activity and information and links to collaborating organizations. Dissemination of the lessons learned among beneficiaries, policy makers, service providers, and program managers will also take place through seminars, conferences, exchange visits, workshops and other similar fora.

The Year 1 programme management activities of this multi-institutional partnership programme between NIH, United Health and the Centre for Control of Chronic Diseases is now focused on establishing a secretariat, hiring a Programme Head who will serve as primary investigator, and formalizing the relationships between partners to implement its goals.

Person Specification

The appointed individual will be a scientist with exposure and experience in the public health domain. He/she will provide leadership to the development of a chronic diseases programme within the Centre by enhancing the understanding of chronic diseases and by testing public-health interventions for both primary and secondary prevention. The Programme Head is responsible for the overall management of all research and associated activities. The incumbent will be expected to provide research leadership for ongoing projects, to develop new research initiatives based on the Centre’s strategic goals. The appointee must have experience with managing a large staff and budget, establishing research priorities and dealing with donors and government agencies.

This position will report to the Division Director with a dotted line to the Executive Director. Peers will include the other 8 Programme Heads. The appointed individual will have immediate responsibility for a Programme Manager, Administration Assistant, Public Affairs Organiser and 2-3 Scientists. The immediate priorities of the appointee will be to develop a programme and get it operational. There will be an early requirement to create a strategy to attract suitable talent to build the team and develop strong research capabilities.

The Chronic Disease programme is a new programme, which the incumbent will have the opportunity to develop. The programme and the incumbent will benefit from the Centre’s support and commitment to rapidly expand into this area. The mentoring of national scientists will be critical to the success of the programme as is the relationship with the Bangladesh government by way of establishing policy based on the programmes’ findings and recommendations.

The incumbent should have an established record of research in chronic diseases with an emphasis on CVD, diabetes and/or tobacco related lung diseases, experience in developing research protocols, implementation and completions of funded projects. He/She must have a proven record of grants and contract funding, administrative experience including setting research priorities, staff management and development. The successful candidate must have scientific experience beyond a laboratory environment.

The appointed individual should have at least 10 years post-doctoral with relevant post graduate training in chronic diseases (CVD, OPD, Diabetes etc) epidemiology, public health and health system or related area e.g. chronic disease epidemiologist could be suitable. He/She needs to have experience mentoring junior scientist and managing multidisciplinary teams collaborating across multiple country boundaries. Fluency in English is essential and work experience in South Asia would be an advantage.

ICDDR,B are seeking a candidate who has the capability, impetus and gravitas to take science to the community.

ICDDR,B offers an internationally competitive remuneration package paid in U.S. dollars (salary and package details provided by ICDDR,B). The initial contract appointment is for three years starting in January 2010. A precedence has been set for renewing contracts of appointed employees. Alternatively this position can be offered as a secondment to interested parties where the appointed individual is deputised to ICDDR,B for a period of 3 years for 100% of the time. ICDDR,B will cover the salary of the seconded candidate, to match the received salary of the institute that they have been seconded from, if required.

I am currently acting on behalf of the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR,B www.icddrb.org) that is headquartered in Dhaka, Bangladesh. I understand that you there are existing collaboration between Johns Hopkins and ICDDR,B. I am assisting the Centre with the recruitment of strategically important position and would like to request your assistance, if I may.

Would you be able to advise how I might make contact with such suitably qualified individuals or indeed perhaps you may forward my mail to your Associates or indeed if you have any specific recommendations to make I would be delighted to accept them.

I would be grateful for an advice that you may have to offer. I appreciate any help you may give and value you reading this email.

With kind regards,

Ursula Crossan

Director

The SRI Group

Dublin - London - Nice – Denver (Affiliate)

HQ: 40 Grand Canal St Upper, Dublin 4, Ireland

+353 1 6479206

+ ucrossan@srigrp.com

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