Anthropology Activity Manager

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is an independent medical humanitarian organisation that provides assistance to people worldwide, regardless of their background, religion or political convictions. Above all, we aim to save lives and to offer medical care to victims of disasters, wars and epidemics. Working together with local staff, we give direct support to the population. MSF also appeals to those in power, including governments and international organisations, and speaks out about the abuses we encounter in the course of our work.

At MSF, we are committed to an inclusive culture that encourages and supports the diverse voices of our employees. We encourage applications from individuals of all genders, ages, sexual orientations, nationalities, races, religions, beliefs, disability status, and all other diversity characteristics.

MSF Operational Centre Amsterdam (OCA) currently operates medical humanitarian interventions in 25 countries. On a yearly basis MSF-OCA deploys over 1000 international staff and employs approximately 8000 national staff. At headquarters in Amsterdam, approximately 170 employees offer their support to the projects.

The Emergency Support Department (ESD) is part of the Operations department and plays a fundamental role in responding to humanitarian emergencies: The ESD conducts exploratory and assessment missions; initiates and manages large scale emergency interventions; supports emergency interventions managed by regular desks; provides support to the organisation and existing missions in promoting and guarding emergency response capacity; and supports the management of operations in highly insecure environments. The ESD consists of a headquarter-based Emergency Desk (5 permanent staff) and an Emergency Team for deployment in the field (20 positions).

Emergency Team Members spend about 90% of their workdays (excluding holidays) inside field locations travelling with short notice to any required area and approximately 10% at the headquarters for briefing/debriefing/trainings/specific tasks.

Place within the organisation

• Overall: reports to the Head of Emergency Support Department in Amsterdam.
• During field assignments reports to relevant Management Team (MT) member at the field or capital level, with a functional line to the Medical Emergency Manager or Emergency Manager in HQ ESD
• Liaises with Social Science Team and other relevant specialist advisors for technical guidance.

Main objectives of the role

• You contribute to the provision of emergency response capacity for the field. This most often consists of providing support within existing missions/projects, to either support in a key specialist position or respond to emergencies within those missions. You may also support the preparation, planning and start-up of new interventions. Interventions may be under the management of the Management Team (MT) in the country, or under the direct management of the Emergency Desk.
• You support to define, coordinate implement and monitor all the anthropology/ social science activities in the project/mission, ensuring quality, ethical, participative and reflexive anthropological approaches to analyse and advise on social dynamics related to access, health and health seeking, both to influence more effective MSF programming and critique intervention from the population perspective.
• You will contribute to strategies that better align MSF programs with the social realities and medico-humanitarian needs of the local population.
• You can be asked to contribute to emergency support activities including emergency preparation, guideline maintenance, MSF trainings or other non-field based specific tasks. You must be willing to jump in where necessary to achieve set goals, eager to learn and grow in positions and have a positive, can-do attitude.
• You contribute to evaluations/reviews of emergency or other intervention projects.

Description of the role

More specifically, as an Emergency-team Anthropology Manager profile, you will:

• Provide anthropological technical support to emergency responses. The role will most often consist of providing Social Science support to key positions (both medical and operations components).
• Support operations with multi-layered context analysis and insights on (1) strategic networking (stakeholders mapping and analysis), (2) community engagement (capturing perception and narratives), (3) fostering access and acceptance, (4) supporting security analysis (threats/risks/vulnerabilities) and (5) ensuring culturally adapted programming using appropriate methodologies
• Define and update anthropological activities, in close collaboration with other multidisciplinary team members, linked to annual project planning/project proposals, and emergency interventions, as well as its associated budget – in line with existing concept note/protocol/terms of reference (if applicable), including objectives, methods, analysis, sharing and co-production of findings etc.
• Work in close collaboration with field epidemiologists, specifically in contexts such as outbreak response, community surveillance etc.
• Work in close collaboration with health promotion (HP) teams to support design of appropriate and contextually adapted HP and community engagement strategies and activities.
• Oversee a socio-anthropological analysis and understanding of community dynamics (including key people) and perceptions of health and illness in order to critique and influence operational decision making and to improve medical activities throughout the project cycle (assessment, design, implementation, monitoring and adjustment).
• Train anthropology /social science team to use methodologies to test assumptions on beliefs, perceptions, explanatory models and health seeking behavior-pathways and how they relate to MSF operational objectives.
• Supervise staff on the implementation of anthropological/social science research activity, in line with best practice standards and research protocols.
• Oversee implementation and dissemination of results with the project team and publicly using accessible and appropriate tools
• Liaise with other relevant actors (national and International NGO’s, authorities) also involved in related activities, analyzing interventions and building cooperative relationships and advocacy, in order to enhance the influence of anthropological/social science knowledge and related actions.
• Ensure secure and confidential data management and filing procedures in line with MSF policy, and ensure anthropological/social science software tools are properly used in order to ensure full data traceability and availability.
• Plan and supervise HR associated processes (recruitment, training, evaluation, development and internal communication) of the anthropology/social science / health promotion team, in close coordination with the HR department, the administration manager and project coordinator/medical coordinator and according to MSF vision, values and procedures.
• Participate in the monthly reports according to guidelines (SitReps, statistical reports, etc.) as well as ensuring written outputs/reflections during and after missions.
• Contribute to emergency support activities including scanning, emergency preparation, guideline maintenance, MSF training courses.
• The Anthropology manager is part of the Social Science team, who technically supports her/him before, during and after each fieldwork. When outside field assignments and where possible, she/he participates in the Social Science team’s weekly meetings to catalyse field experiences in supporting community approaches and lessons learnt into actionable operational strategies, critique, and reflection.
• Coordinate and implement rapid assessments in emergency settings, to assess the social structure/patchwork of the target population, to assess context-specific factors influencing health, wellbeing and care seeking (social, political, cultural, economic, power dynamics, gender, etc.).
• Assist with identifying vulnerable / marginalised groups and any contextual health risks in assessments and emergency missions and help prepare courses of action to reduce or to eliminate these risks.
• Identify local resources / existing mechanisms / networks and facilitate common understanding among MSF teams and between MSF and the communities using adapted community approaches and participatory assessments.
• Contribute to analysis, contextualisation and interpretation of the epidemiological data together with the medical team to support adjusting (emergency) interventions.
• Define, recommend and advise on implementation of community-based activities or approaches in emergency projects / missions by understanding the context from different perspectives (i.e., ethno-politics, health seeking behaviour pathways, people-centred approaches for health programming, end of life journey, environmental dynamics, community perceptions, explanatory models of symptoms and illness, etc).
• Liaise with MSF teams, key stakeholders and community members to incorporate engagement throughout project cycle. If feasible and as appropriate, to reflect community needs and priorities in the mission / project logframe as per medical-operational objectives.
• Able and willing to tackle other related roles, depending on the needs and priorities of the mission/project and candidate background/skills (e.g., health promotion)

Your Profile

Essential requirements

• Research degree in Medical Anthropology, Social Anthropology or a related social science discipline, or equivalent training and professional experience.
• 12 months field experience with one of the MSF sections in at least two different projects, of which at least one emergency project/ high security setting (according to the standards of MSF-OCA)
• Training in ethnography, applied social science and field research methods (data collection and analysis), with skills to carry out investigation of medico-social practices and needs of populations in situations of crisis.
• Working experience of at least two years in an applied anthropology/social or behavioural science related role
• Proven track-record of applying medico-social analysis to improve programming and practice, including drafting of reports and communicating social science findings
• Field experience working with Social Science and conducting qualitative assessments in the humanitarian sector, preferably with MSF.
• Fluent in English (minimum C-level)
• Digital literacy (word, excel and internet)
• Proven organizational skills, diplomatic skills and experience with the representation of MSF
• Demonstrable (people) management and coaching skills
• Positive, ’can do mentality’, capacity to motivate others and move a team into action; focuses on the achievements and does not get discouraged by the barriers to success
• A flexible and solution-oriented mentality, and the ability to be decisive in chaotic circumstances (good enough and fit for purpose)
• Good understanding of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion concepts
• Results and quality orientation
• Teamwork and cooperation
• Willingness to travel to any required area, frequently at short notice

Desirable assets

• Additional experience or background in health promotion, social work, epidemiology, project management, etc
• Experience with one or more of the following (emergency) responses/programs: outbreak response, mass vaccination, nutritional crisis, conflict/war wounded response, mass displacement, SGBV program, TB/HIV program, restricted contexts
• Proficiency in French, Spanish and/or Arabic
• Experience in highly insecure contexts

We offer

• A challenging position within a stimulating, professional working environment in a major international organization – plus great colleagues to work alongside!
• A fulltime appointment for 1 year with intention to renew (based on performance);
• Salary will be determined based on the professional profile and the level of experience/capacity of the successful candidate, and according to MSF standards (IRFFG level);
• Candidate’s domicile determines which MSF section will act as employer;
• 45 holidays per year;
• Completion bonus of 1.5 month of extra salary after completion of every 12 months commitment;
• Prioritization for trainings in MSF (external trainings considered);