Health and Care Adviser

Location: Based in Ukraine with travel

Department: Ukraine Country Team (technical matrix relationship with the Global Health Agining Team; 10% time allocation to global inicatives)

Fixed term contract: 12 months (extendable)

HelpAge and Strategy 2030 – delivering real impact for older people

HelpAge International works with partners and a diverse global network of more than 150 organisations across 85 countries, supporting millions of older people to live safe, dignified and healthy lives. Through our partnership and collaborations, we work to ensure the inclusion of older people across society and strive to deliver a just and fair world for everyone, whatever their age. Our work is driven by our desire to deliver real impact for older people, to be inclusive, to work in partnership and to learn from our shared experience.

Our 2030 strategy Ageing in a Just World sets out how we will work together to shape the future we all share. By working together, we aim to help inspire a movement for change and through ensuring all our work promotes older people’s wellbeing, dignity and voice, we can transform the lives of older people now and in the future.

As part of our 2030 strategy, we have a continued commitment to inclusive humanitarian action, supporting older people and their families at a time of crisis.

Ukraine Crisis

HelpAge has been present in Ukraine since 2014 and is one of the few INGOs based in country, with a total workforce of +600 people including staff and volunteers/contractors. As one of the few INGOs with an operational presence in Ukraine, we are already responding with initial life-saving activities in the Donetsk and Luhansk Regions, with the intention to scale-up assistance in the Central and Western Regions of Ukraine. In addition, we have also launched a programme to support arriving Refugees in Moldova, where we also already have a presence and are currently investigating the option of a further response in Poland. Our response plan includes cash assistance, food distributions, NFI distribution/ health and dignity kits, support to access health services, care and support, WASH, Protection and Mental Health and Psychosocial First Aid.

We are now seeking passionate professional and experienced candidates for a number of roles to support our response to the Ukraine crisis. We are looking for talent which thrives in collaborating with others (inside HelpAge International and beyond) and who can work in agile ways and across boundaries.

Key areas for impact/influence and responsibilities:

• The Health and care adviser will provide technical advice and support to all health and care activities in Ukraine, in addition to engaging with regional and global level colleagues to promote the sharing of learning and good practice across the network and to influence health actors and humanitarian systems.
• Develop a health and care response strategy, integrated within HelpAge’s community-based protection and inclusion approach, and deliver it through technical guidance to field staff and teams working on health and care related activity at all stages of the program cycle (assessments, grant and proposal writing, implementation, monitoring, evaluation and learning).
• Advise on technical design for health and care programming, including supporting on: hygiene, nutrition, health promotion and disease prevention (for both communicable and non-communicable diseases), control and management of NCDs, and activity to promote older people’s intrinsic capacity, functional ability, independence and wellbeing in different contexts.
• Work collaboratively in a team of technical specialists and advisors across sectors and cross-cutting issues; support the development of technical guidance for health and care interventions as part of an integrated humanitarian response in Ukraine.
• Provide technical capacity building to HelpAge staff and partner organisations through coaching, mentoring, and on-the-job training during field’s visits and remotely on global standards and approaches for health and care in emergencies.
• Represent HelpAge International at relevant national, regional and global meetings with government donor agencies, various UN Agencies, the Health Cluster and sub-groups, as well as conferences and meetings of health and WASH organizations.
• Assist the MEAL team and provide any technical support required during MEAL activities related to health and care activities.
• Participate in and contribute to the sharing of knowledge, learning and good practice on health and care for older people in humanitarian settings across the HelpAge network
• Work with collegues at global level to design and implement activity focused on influencing health actors and the humanitarian system to ensure older people’s rights are upheld and their diverse needs met in humanitarian settings.

Lets talk about you:

You will be someone with:

• 7+ year of relevant and progressive professional experience.
• Health qualification (medical or nursing)
• Master’s degree in Public health and/or Global Health and/or Gerontology
• Previous field experience in Health and care programming, preferably in complex humanitarian settings including in rapid emergency responses.
• Previous experience of primary and community based health and care delivery and referral pathways.
• The ability to effectively analyse complex problems and find solutions that would have a positive impact on the lives of older people and their families
• Good written and spoken English
• Strong interpersonal and representation skills and previous experience of networking with other organisations involved in health programming and the health cluster
• Proven experience in capacity building
• Ability to work in a fast paced and stressful environment

Desirable

• Fluent spoken and written Ukrainan or Russian
• Previous experience of working in Eastern Europe and/or Ukraine
• Previous experience of working with older people
• Previous experience of cash programming

At HelpAge International, we believe in the importance of empowering our people to be change makers and leaders at all levels. We expect our people to embrace and live our values, challenging themselves every day to identify issues that are most important to older persons and their communities, and to make an impact that matters.

In addition, as a HelpAge employee you are expected to:

• Work collaboratively, building mutual trust and respect, with external organisations and partners to achieve our strategic aims and objectives; being accountable for the work you do together
• Adapt to new directions or opportunities arising within the organisation and in your work area; being flexible in your role, constantly using the feedback to learn more and evolve further.
• Lead behavioral and cultural change through embracing a supportive, collaborative and highly inclusive environment where everybody feels supported, respected and engaged
• Extend HelpAge’s reach and impact, by creating and identifying new business development opportunities and building relationships with new partners.
• Lead and promote a culture of including the voices of older people across our support, convening and thought leadership roles, in a way that is transformative, empowering and highly inclusive of those marginalised by age, gender, economic status, disability and other factors of discrimination.

Safeguarding

HelpAge International is committed to safeguarding the communities with which we work, our partners, staff and any others who we come into contact with.

Therefore you will also be responsible for:

• Preventing harm and abuse from our people, operations and programmes to anyone that encounters our work;
• Reporting all safeguarding incidents you see, hear, hear about or suspect, using our internal reporting mechanism;
• Complying with all safeguarding framework policies and practices
• Completing mandatory training courses relating to our safeguarding policy framework and complying with HR vetting procedures.