Years of professional and academic experience
Blessings H Likoswe, PhD
Blantyre
Summary
Dedicated consultant offering a wealth of professional and academic experience in Public Health and Nutrition. Over 10 years of experience in public health interventions (long term and emergency) and research. A proactive critical thinker who can work in multi-disciplinary and multi-cultural teams across multiple themes related to public health and nutrition. A competent in leader who also excels in teamwork and can also work autonomously when needed.
Has a keen interest in public health humanitarian work (including public health emergencies), and research as evidenced by the peer-reviewed publications listed on this link https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4583-7683
Overview
10
10
Work History
Technical Consultant - Progressing Prevention
Emergency Nutrition Network
01.2024 - Current
- Collaborating with relevant stakeholders at government and partner level, for identification of all stakeholder in Malawi, to obtain insights on the trends and determinants of Wasting and Stunting.
- Establishing trusting relationships with community partners, facilitating the successful collection of insights through key informant interviews.
- Collaborating with the project team to provide valuable insights, on sub-region sampling, and stakeholder list development for the qualitative analysis.
- Streamlining data analysis process for qualitative data collection through development of interview guide, and analysis of the collected data.
- Conducting thorough literature review of policies and guiding documents to map the policy and program scene for stunting and wasting interventions in Malawi.
- Facilitating data sharing agreements for quantitative data from relevant databases.
- Supporting the project team with synthesis of quantitative and qualitative findings.
- Supporting the project team with case study drafting
Technical Consultant - Polio Outbreak Response Support to the Ministry of Health
United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)
3 2022 - 10.2024
- Coordinating UNICEF immunisation and community health activities in multiple districts of one zone, from district level up to community level
- Review of technical capacities of the DHO and assistance in the preparation of detailed operational micro-plans
- Working with all relevant stakeholders to organize trainings of district and health facility staff on polio supplementary immunisation activities (SIA) and covid-19 immunisation activities
- Supporting implementation,roll-out and evaluation of real-time data collection health information system (Rapid-Pro)
- Conducting supportive supervision, monitoring and mentoring visits to all health facilities on polio SIA, covid-19 vaccination and routine immunisation activities with community health workers
- Providing technical support with Routine Immunisation (RI) activities, through constructive feedback of quarterly routine immunisation performance, logistical support and supportive supervision of static and outreach activities community level and at the district level
- Providing logistical support with transportation, and distribution of campaign and RI vaccines in districts of responsibility
- Providing technical assistance with cold chain, stock management and supply logistics, communication, and supervision of bOPV, Covid-19, HPV and OCV vaccination campaigns
- Facilitating trainings of supervisors and vaccinators on Polio SIA supervision, vaccine administration protocol, vaccine accountability, and reporting of numbers of vaccinated children
- Facilitating trainings of supervisors and social mobilisers on polio SIA delivery and supervision of social mobilisation activities
- Monitoring of polio SIA and covid-19 pre, intra and post campaign at district, facility, and community levels
- Collaborating with the district health promotion officers to deliver social and behavioral change interventions to communities to target emergency vaccine preventable disease such as Polio, Measles, but also other outbreaks such as Cholera.
- Preparation and submission of various weekly, trip and monthly reports from the activities
- Providing technical support with SIA powerbi data analysis for monitoring, preparation and supervision data which is collected, before, during and after Polio SIAs
- Providing technical support with the Cholera outbreak response to community health workers, health facility staff and district level personnel.
- Facilitating trainings of nurses in Cholera case management before deployment to CTCs and CTUs
- Supervision of UNICEF-Supported covid-19 extra vaccinators (nurses and clinicians)
- Developing strong rapport with district, health facility and community level personnel, from the preventative health sector
- Facilitating bottleneck analyses for health services at district and health facility levels.
- Managing UNICEF supported projects at district levels, including finance.
- All other duties as assigned by the supervisor.
Part-time Lecture
KUHeS (previously College of Medicine) - School of Public Health and Family Medicine
10.2019 - Current
- Assisting in delivery of classes for modules related to Public Health and Human Nutrition
- Development of teaching and learning materials
- Facilitation of experiential classes in clinical and community settings
- Preparation of and grading of assignments and exams
- Supervision and grading of student seminar classes and mentorship of undergraduate and graduate students.
Technical consultant - Clinical trial set-up and launch
Malaria Alert Centre - Kamuzu University of Health Sciences
09.2022 - 01.2023
- Developments of trials SOPs
- Development of trial CRFs (paper-based) and working with the data core team to ensure that all CRFs are duly programmed into eCRFs, with appropriate logical flow
- Training of recruited study staff in SOPs and CRF completion
- Providing technical expertise on the vaccine administration situation in Malawi in the context of school-based administration and community involvement
- Other trial setup activities as assigned by the project PI.
Technical consultant - Systematic review
World Health Organisation (WHO)
07.2021 - 12.2021
- Development of the search strategy
- Primary reviewer responsible for screening of studies, data extraction, risk of bias assessment
- Assisting in data analysis
- Drafting the report and presenting the findings to WHO and the guidelines development committee.
- First-author publication of the study findings, in a peer-reviewed journal
Guest lecture
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM)
10.2021 - 10.2021
- Delivery of lecture on various vitamin A components related to biochemical assessment, programmes and policies, and Malawi case studies.
Technical consultant - Supporting the Ministry of Health to complete COVID-19 vaccination microplan
United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)
8 2021 - 10.2021
- Collaborated with the MOH EPI program team, WHO and other key partners to review the COVID vaccination tools and adapt as a necessity to ensure sufficient alignment with the National Vaccination and Deployment Plan (NDVP) and country context
- Provided technical assistance to organize and conduct Covid-19 vaccination microplanning workshops at varying administrative levels
- Supported the MOH EPI program team in coordinating with district and zonal level personnel to ensure that adapted COVID-19 vaccination tools are sufficiently populated with the necessary information in advance of the microplanning workshops
- Other duties as assigned by the supervisor.
Project coordinator
KUHeS (previously College of Medicine) - School of Public Health and Family Medicine (Child Development Study)
11.2020 - 10.2021
- Lead work in protocol development, study planning and preparatory activities
- Facilitation of trial set-up and establishment activities
- Household listing activities, and delivery of training on the use of various data collection gadgets for various child development components.
Trainer of Trainers - IPC, Covid-19
KUHeS (previously College of Medicine) - School of Global and Public Health
12.2020 - 05.2021
- Collaborating with the Ministry of Health to deliver trainings and workshops to EPI staff
- To educate health surveillance assistants (HSA's) and other EPI staff on Interpersonal communication, to enhance sustainability of immunisation programs during covid-19, positive uptake of covid-19 vaccination, and overall immunisation and VAS programs
- Planning and budgeting of training activities.
Coordinator of infection prevention and control (IPC) activities
KUHeS (previously College of Medicine) - School of Public Health and Family Medicine and the Ministry of Health (Health Education Services)
11.2020 - 03.2021
- Coordination of the review and improvement of COVID-19 IPC activities
- Planning of the IPC engagement activities with media houses
- Covid-19 wave preparedness and emerging issues.
Technical consultant
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine - MAPS project
01.2020 - 03.2020
- Critical assessment of vitamin A data from the 2015-2016 Malawi micronutrient survey, including data access and curating, report evaluation to support data findings, data review to identify relevant alternative approaches, and development of report on analytical findings
- Generating a report on the current vitamin A status of the Malawi population.
Research Assistant - AHHA Trial
KUHeS (previously College of Medicine) - School of Public Health and Family Medicine - Geo-Nutrition
06.2019 - 10.2019
- Conducted project planning, preparatory and implementation activities of the biomarker component of the AHHA trial
- Collaborated with other researchers to develop successful research strategies.
- Supported the development of SOPs for field biological sample collection
- Conducted field supervision of trial clinic centres for sample collection
- Managed Trial samples after collection to ensure maintenance of the cold chain
- Other duties and tasks as assigned by the principal investigator.
Public Health Researcher
KUHeS (previously College of Medicine) - School of Global and Public Health
12.2018 - 09.2019
- Coordinating main trial set-up activities for the Malaria Vaccine trial
- Development of the project work plan
- Conducting site and infrastructure needs assessment
- Development of job descriptions for project staff
- Supporting the recruitment of necessary project clinical staff for the project
- Facilitation of orientation for new project staff
- Other duties and tasks as assigned by the internship supervisor.
Research and development of superfood profiles (intern)
Expleris Aps (Formerly known as Q-Kaffe and cacao)
04.2016 - 05.2016
- Lead researcher on the nutrition composition of superfoods and functional foods, which are mostly grown in South American countries
- Filtering scientific information related to the nutritional value of superfoods, to extract only the necessary content, based on the target consumer
- Development of food nutrition profiles of superfoods per the Danish regulation of marketing information concerning health claims
- Integration of the EFSA (European Food Safety Authority) health claim requirements in the superfood profile
- Scientifically linking health functions of superfoods with diseases that can be avoided or have some symptoms alleviated
- Development of superfood nutrition profiles in relation to disease prevention and general human health
- Multi-themed work with Multimedia and Graphics designers on the presentation of superfood profiles on food packages.
Nutrition Assistant (intern)
Aarhus University Hospital, food service department
02.2014 - 03.2014
- Research, development and implementation of food projects
- Scientific research to determine the food path (how food is handled) from nutritional guidelines to consumption by patients
- Identification of stages in the food path where the nutrition composition of the foods can be compromised and proposals for solving these challenges
- Menu planning for the hospital meals which are prepared for all the hospitals in the entire city
- Development of extra new menus for night food for specific departments in the hospitals upon request.
Public Health Field Officer (intern)
CADECOM (Catholic Development Commission)
07.2011 - 08.2011
- Participating in the implementation of rural development projects that are either nutrition-specific or nutrition-sensitive by design e.g., livestock distribution, and village banking
- Working with villages in the neighbouring districts to eliminate public health-related challenges
- Use of nutrition-sensitive interventions centred around income-generating activities as a way of combating poverty and consequently malnutrition.
Nutritionist at the Under-five-clinic (intern)
Chilomoni Dispensary Clinic
10.2010 - 8 2010
- Assisting in the conducting of an under-five clinic (EPI) at the dispensary health centre
- Monitoring of child health, growth, vaccination follow-ups and micronutrient supplement dose reception
- Counselling of women on the proper breastfeeding practices, and diet plans to ensure good growth of the child
- Participation in the outpatient therapeutic clinic as a part of the under-five clinic
- Participation in the Supplementary feeding programme, as a part of the under-five clinic.
Education
Ph.D. - Public Health
University of Malawi (College of Medicine)
Blantyre, Malawi10.2023
Master of Science - Nutrition And Rural Development: Human Nutrition
Ghent University
Ghent, Belgium06.2016
Bachelor of Science - Global Nutrition And Health
VIA University College
Aarhus, Denmark02.2016
Associate of Applied Science - Food Nutrition And Livelihood Security
LUANAR (Lilongwe University of Agriculture And Natural Resources)
Lilongwe, Malawi12.2011
Skills
- Public Health technical consulting
- Research (quantitative and qualitative), and statistical data analysis
- Emergency outbreak specialist
- Public health and Nutrition research, and Nutrition Policy
- Vaccines and vaccine preventable diseases (Microplanning, vaccination and Imminusation )
- Program planning, scheduling, and project management
- Workshop development, facilitation and coordination (Bottleneck analysis)
- Health promotion social and behavioral change
- Communication and presentation
Languages
English, Chichewa, Danish
Software
R
Excel
Timeline
Technical Consultant - Progressing Prevention
Emergency Nutrition Network
01.2024 - Current
Technical consultant - Clinical trial set-up and launch
Malaria Alert Centre - Kamuzu University of Health Sciences
09.2022 - 01.2023
Guest lecture
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM)
10.2021 - 10.2021
Technical consultant - Systematic review
World Health Organisation (WHO)
07.2021 - 12.2021
Trainer of Trainers - IPC, Covid-19
KUHeS (previously College of Medicine) - School of Global and Public Health
12.2020 - 05.2021
Project coordinator
KUHeS (previously College of Medicine) - School of Public Health and Family Medicine (Child Development Study)
11.2020 - 10.2021
Coordinator of infection prevention and control (IPC) activities
KUHeS (previously College of Medicine) - School of Public Health and Family Medicine and the Ministry of Health (Health Education Services)
11.2020 - 03.2021
Technical consultant
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine - MAPS project
01.2020 - 03.2020
Part-time Lecture
KUHeS (previously College of Medicine) - School of Public Health and Family Medicine
10.2019 - Current
Research Assistant - AHHA Trial
KUHeS (previously College of Medicine) - School of Public Health and Family Medicine - Geo-Nutrition
06.2019 - 10.2019
Public Health Researcher
KUHeS (previously College of Medicine) - School of Global and Public Health
12.2018 - 09.2019
Research and development of superfood profiles (intern)
Expleris Aps (Formerly known as Q-Kaffe and cacao)
04.2016 - 05.2016
Nutrition Assistant (intern)
Aarhus University Hospital, food service department
02.2014 - 03.2014
Public Health Field Officer (intern)
CADECOM (Catholic Development Commission)
07.2011 - 08.2011
Nutritionist at the Under-five-clinic (intern)
Chilomoni Dispensary Clinic
10.2010 - 8 2010
Technical Consultant - Polio Outbreak Response Support to the Ministry of Health
United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)
3 2022 - 10.2024
Technical consultant - Supporting the Ministry of Health to complete COVID-19 vaccination microplan
United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)
8 2021 - 10.2021
Ph.D. - Public Health
University of Malawi (College of Medicine)
Master of Science - Nutrition And Rural Development: Human Nutrition
Ghent University
Bachelor of Science - Global Nutrition And Health
VIA University College
Associate of Applied Science - Food Nutrition And Livelihood Security
LUANAR (Lilongwe University of Agriculture And Natural Resources)
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