Program Assistant

Job Description

INTERNAL/EXTERNAL

VACANCY ANNOUNCEMENT

Jhpiego is an international, non-profit health organization affiliated with Johns Hopkins University. For 40 years and in over 155 countries, Jhpiego Corporation has been providing technical support to the Ministries of Health in partner countries across the globe for the past 40 years in a variety of technical areas including cervical cancer treatment and prevention, community health, HIV and AIDS, maternal and newborn health, health workforce capacity development (both Pre-service and in-service), family planning, malaria, and IPC/WASH. We are currently looking for suitable candidates to fill the following position:

Title:               Program Assistant 

Job Summary

The MOMENTUM Country and Global Leadership (MCGL) project, funded by the U.S. Government, aims to save lives and improve access to quality, integrated health and nutrition services for women, newborns, and children. The project supports safe childbirth, management of childhood illnesses, prevention and management of life-threatening health conditions and malnutrition by strengthening health systems and service delivery across 3 districts in Sierra Leone.

The Program Assistant provides day-to-day support for project and central office operations to ensure financial, contractual, and administrative functions of the project. S/he will provide administrative support to project activities and operations, including coordinating the ordering and shipping of materials for project activities, arranging lodging, transport and tracking related travel expenses, and working with the Technical Officers to prepare activity budgets and procurement requisitions.

RESPONSIBILITIES

Project Activity Planning: 

• Coordinate closely with the project and finance team in the planning for MCGL Project activities. 
• Participate in periodic work planning meetings and activity planning. 
• Track with project teams the project work plans and status of activity implementation, 
• Work with the program and finance team in developing activity budgets and project activity advance requests, 
• Identify and book venues for activities, 
• Prepare and dispatch participant and trainers’ invitation letters, 
• Confirm participant and trainers’ attendance, 
• Arrange transport, sources training materials and supplies, request audio visual equipment etc.

Project Activity Implementation: 

• Coordinate closely with the project and finance teams in the implementation of MCGL Project activities. 
• Ensure appropriate setting up of the training hall and audio-visual equipment, 
• Oversee provision of conference services by the training centers
• Ensure availability of refreshments, manage disbursement of funds for participants costs with finance team oversight, while maintaining good collaboration with government officials
• Coordinate with the finance team payments to vendors, reconcile and liquidate activity advances, provide secretarial support to project events and carry out all other logistical tasks to ensure that activities are well organized.

Meeting Coordination: 

• Coordinate project meetings, prepare the meeting venue, develop meeting agendas, invite and remind attendees, 
• Take and distribute minutes, track agreement points and action plan items and send out 

reminders on due items.

Travel Planning: 

• Manage travel arrangements for the project team members. 
• Prepare TAR’s, make airline reservations and purchase tickets, arrange for adequate travel insurance, manage requests for project vehicle if road transport is to be used, arrange hotel reservations, 
• airport transfers, air ticket re-confirmations, reconcile travel advances by completing necessary forms, 
• Coordinate traveler return of unutilized travel amounts, submission of trip reports and other deliverables. 

Report Management:

• Compile and maintain an up-to-date inventory of all project reports and documents including monthly, quarterly and annual narrative reports, activity reports, trip reports etc. 
• Track all due reports and deliverables and send out reminders to staff. 
• Ensure adequate review, feedback, distribution and filing of the deliverables. 
• Disseminate reports in a timely manner and according to project dissemination plans.

Central Filing System: 

• Establish and maintain a central electronic filing system for the project, ensuring integration of individual’s-maintained files and the central files.

Qualifications 

• At least 3 years of relevant working experience in administrative and secretarial support
• Bachelor’s degree in management/business studies/social sciences or relevant discipline.
• Sound knowledge about procurement process, office administration, vendor management, event planning and management
• Solid experience in preparing basic budget and payment settlement with finance
• Excellent skills for organizing training /workshop/meeting/seminars
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills
• Good coordinating, filing and archiving skills            
• Good English communication skills, both oral and written
• Excellent computer (MS word, Excel & PowerPoint) operating skills 

How to Apply: 

• Qualified persons are required to send their Curriculum Vitae (CV) and application letters to this email Bettina.Sesay@jhpiego.org State in the subject area the position you are applying for in the subject area; if it is not clearly stated, your application will not be considered.  

• The deadline for the submission of applications is March 27th, 2026.  

• Please note that due to the sheer volume of applications often received, only shortlisted candidates will receive responses and applications are screened on a rolling basis.  

                                    Jhpiego is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer