Project Officer

The Laboratory Officer - AMR will provide technical leadership and implementation support for laboratory and AMR surveillance activities. The role will support sentinel laboratories to strengthen bacteriology and antimicrobial susceptibility testing, quality assurance, external quality assessment, corrective action, and GLASS data quality and reporting.

DUTIES AND KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

1. Laboratory Readiness and Quality Improvement

• Support rapid laboratory readiness assessments and capacity verification of the nine Fleming Fund-supported Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) sentinel laboratories to ensure preparedness for high-quality AMR surveillance and diagnostic services.
• Provide structured technical mentorship, supportive supervision, and on-site coaching to laboratory personnel on bacteriology, antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST), quality management systems, internal quality control, biosafety and biosecurity, specimen collection and management, laboratory information management, and data quality practices.
• Support laboratories to enroll in, maintain, and effectively participate in External Quality Assessment (EQA) and proficiency testing programmes, ensuring timely implementation and monitoring of corrective and preventive actions (CAPAs) arising from supervision visits, audits, and proficiency testing results.
• Promote compliance with national laboratory policies, standard operating procedures, and internationally recognized quality standards, including ISO 15189, Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI), and European Committee on Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing (EUCAST) guidance, as applicable.
• Support implementation of continuous quality improvement initiatives that strengthen laboratory performance, diagnostic accuracy, and the reliability of AMR surveillance data.

2. AMR Surveillance and Data Use

• Support timely, complete, accurate, and high-quality reporting of AMR surveillance data to national surveillance platforms and the WHO Global Antimicrobial Resistance and Use Surveillance System (GLASS) in accordance with national reporting requirements.
• Collaborate with laboratory personnel, clinicians, pharmacists, and surveillance teams to analyse, interpret, and disseminate AMR surveillance findings, antimicrobial susceptibility profiles, and facility antibiograms to inform antimicrobial stewardship, infection prevention and control, and evidence-based clinical decision-making.
• Contribute to the analysis, interpretation, validation, and synthesis of laboratory and surveillance data for national AMR surveillance reports, the National Action Plan on Antimicrobial Resistance (NAP-AMR) midline review, policy briefs, scientific publications, and other project knowledge products.
• Support data quality assurance activities, including routine data verification, validation, completeness checks, and consistency assessments to strengthen the quality and reliability of surveillance information.

3. Monitoring, Documentation and Coordination

• Document laboratory capacity gaps, mentorship outcomes, supervision findings, corrective and preventive actions (CAPAs), and follow-up recommendations, while systematically tracking progress toward their implementation and closure.
• Work closely with the Ministry of Health (MoH), National Public Health Laboratory (NPHL), sentinel surveillance sites, implementing partners, and other key stakeholders to ensure coordinated implementation of laboratory strengthening activities and timely, accurate technical reporting.
• Prepare high-quality technical reports, presentations, assessment tools, guidance documents, and recommendations that support programme implementation, donor reporting, and evidence-based decision-making.
• Contribute to sustainability planning, institutional capacity strengthening, and transition strategies to ensure continued functionality and long-term resilience of laboratory systems and AMR surveillance activities beyond project implementation.