INFORMATION MANAGEMENT (IM) SPECIALIST

Position: Information Management Specialist

Duration: 3 months with possibility of renewal

Starting from: ASAP

Duty Station: North-East Syria

Closing date of the vacancy: 10th October 2022 (applications on a rolling basis)

Context Presentation: Un Ponte Per (UPP) is an Italian NGO established in 1991. It started its activities as “Un ponte per Baghdad”, in the aftermath of the first Gulf war, with the aim of organizing solidarity initiatives in support of the Iraqi civilian population. In subsequent years, UPP missions expanded to include Serbia and other Middle Eastern and Mediterranean countries. The NGO aims at preventing armed conflicts, protecting human rights and supporting local civil society, especially in the Middle East, by promoting the nexus between its humanitarian, peacebuilding and development programs.

Since 2015, UPP has been one of the leading INGOs in the North East Syria (NES) response. Providing humanitarian aid and capacity building of local actors in Health and Protection as well as environmental health, including waste management. In partnership with local partners, UPP has been able to develop a comprehensive system of health services delivered in 26 facilities, including mobile units, hospitals, primary health care centres, and an ambulance network. For further information please refer to our website: www.unponteper.it/en/

CONTEXTUAL BACKGROUND: After 11 years of conflict, the protracted crisis in Syria continues to generate needs unparalleled in scale, severity and complexity. Across the country, 13.4 million persons are considered in need of humanitarian assistance, with an estimated 12.4 million in need of health care services (HNO, 2022). The conflict has caused a severe disruption in the provision of health services, leading to a collapse of the health system in the most conflict-affected areas. In North East Syria (NES), 1.9 million persons are considered in need of health care services, out of a total population of 3 million. The health system has been facing enormous challenges relating a chronic shortage of financial resources, lack of health governance at institutional level, disruption of the medical supply chain, health workforce drain, and violence against healthcare. Starting from 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic and the worsening economic situation in the country has further stretched and disrupted the already weak and fragile health system, thus affecting the availability and quality of health services, as well as the physical and mental wellbeing of the population, while no standard package of Primary Health Care nor Health Information System has been implemented in NES so far. This led to a significant fragmentation of health care provision, challenging the free and equal access to health care for the war-affected population, the quality of care provided, the capacity of the health system to detect and respond in due time to health emergencies and outbreaks, and raising significant concerns on the sustainability of such a system. The fragmentation of the health governance and the lack of a harmonised health information system are also reported as crucial gaps that undermine the capacity of the NES health system to adequately anticipate, monitor and respond to public health emergencies and outbreaks.

PURPOSE OF THE ASSIGNMENT: The role of the IM Specialist will be two-fold: he/she will lead an assessment of the NES Health Management Information System (HMIS) used at different levels by various health actors i.e. Department of health (DoH), the Health Working Group (HWG), HWG health partner organizations, UN agencies, local authorities and health facilities across NES. He/she will also review the various data collection tools and data collected by the different actors in NES as part of health interventions. Based on the assessment, the IM Specialist will develop a proposal for a unified HMIS for use across NES. The IM Specialist will also work with UPPs MEAL Manager and IM Officers to support the development of an HMIS System for use by UPP and their implementing partners across their health facilities in NES.

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

The Information Management Specialist will be responsible for:

• Leading the development of the health assessment protocol, methodology and tools for the Health Management Information System (HMIS) assessment in close collaboration with the Governance Medical Coordinator and MEAL Manager.
• Leading the implementation and quality assurance of the assessment in the various NES governorates including reviewing the HMIS systems, data collected through the system including data quality, data flow and reporting mechanisms and how data is used to inform decision making.
• Conducting a mapping of the different health actors in NES, their HMIS tools and different types of data collected through the systems.
• Ensuring coordination and information sharing with the relevant coordination mechanism in NES and promoting bilateral coordination with other actors engaged in the same sector of intervention.
• Based on the assessment, scope out appropriate HMIS systems and conduct feasibility studies for their implementation and roll out. Eventually develop a dashboard tool to maintain the information updated.
• Developing a detailed proposal for the most appropriate HMIS system for NES that could be adopted by the DoH and health actors across NES.
• Presenting findings from the assessment at the HWG meeting to various partners and revising the proposal accordingly based on feedback from the partners.
• Develop a proposal for an HMIS for UPP across its supported health facilities in close collaboration with UPP and partner organizations’ MEAL Managers, IM Officers and Medical Coordinators.
• Provide technical guidance in the development and configuration of the HMIS system and provide training to UPPs and partner organization’s IM teams accordingly.
• Performing any other tasks as requested by the Line Managers and relevant to his position for the achievement of project’s and UPP objectives.

ESSENTIAL REQUIREMENTS:

• Degree in a related field such as computer science, public health, health informatics or equivalent experience.
• At least five years of experience in research and technical guidance for public health programs on information systems, monitoring and evaluation
• Knowledge of various HMIS, data dashboards development and general HIS, including DHIS2 design and configuration principles
• Field-based implementation experience and M&E experience in health programs strongly preferred
• Experience managing complex projects in humanitarian settings
• Excellent writing, communication, and organizational skills
• Fluency in English is essential; working proficiency in Arabic a plus
• Experience with international donor community is a plus
• Experience in planning, organizing, and prioritizing work, working under pressure, and meeting deadlines.
• Ability to work under pressure in stressful environments

UPP requires criminal background check certificate (released max 3 months before the date of job offer) to confirm a job offer. We are aware that in some countries the release of criminal background certificate by the competent authorities might require several weeks. However, UPP runs selections to deploy staff in emergency programs and time-lapse between job offer and field deployment is often very short. Thus, we kindly ask all candidates to get prepared on time and be able to submit their certificate promptly in case of success in the selection.

DESIRABLE REQUIREMENTS:

• Knowledge of the Middle East or similar humanitarian context
• Specific knowledge about Syria’s economic context and health system is a strong asset;
• Knowledge of Arabic and/or Kurdish.

OTHER REQUIREMENTS:

Un Ponte Per is an International NGO committed to diversity and inclusion within its teams, in line with the principle of non-discrimination. UPP encourages all candidates irrespective of gender, religion and ethnicity including persons with disabilities to apply and become part of the organization.

Ethical Conduct

UPP upholds all the minimum standards in terms of Ethical Conduct and strives to increase its standards over the minimum. Zero tolerance is reserved to Sexual Abuse and Exploitation and to Child Abuse, Violence, Harm, Injury and Negligence. By applying, any candidate assures that s/he has never breached any standard in terms of SEA and Child Safeguarding and that s/he will not in the future. For the protection of beneficiaries, communities and partners, UPP will conduct extensive reference check and vetting on shortlisted candidates, also over the contacts indicated by the candidate. Candidates are alerted that the required background check might compromise their privacy. Shortlisted candidates shall promptly provide an up-to-date criminal background check.