MEDICAL ADVISOR IN COMMUNICABLE DISEASE AND IPC (re-add)

Un Ponte per

Position Title: Medical Advisor in Communicable Disease and IPC

Location: North East Syria (NES) / Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI)

Period: 6 months with possibility of extension

Closing date: 08th July 2022 (applications on a rolling basis)

Starting Date: ASAP

Context presentation

Un Ponte Per (UPP) is an international humanitarian organization, based in Italy. Originally named Un Ponte Per Baghdad (A Bridge to Baghdad), the association became simply Un Ponte Per after the extension of its work to the Balkans, as well as other Middle East and Mediterranean countries.

UPP is currently active in Iraq, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Serbia and Kosovo alongside civil society organizations. In Italy and in Europe, UPP works to promote peace and disarmament, human rights, and refugees and migrants’ inclusion. UPP strongly rejects war as a solution to international and national conflicts, it exerts restless efforts with the ultimate objective of developing more equal and peaceful coexistence up to social cohesion.

For further information please refer to our website: http://www.unponteper.it/en/

BACKGROUND

Entering year 11 of the Syria crisis, conflict continues to expose civilians to acute humanitarian needs in protection and health, while protracted conflict worsens socio-economic resources and coping mechanisms. In North East Syria (NES) widespread displacement, destruction of basic services and increased exposure to protection risks is on-going, with women and children continuing to be some of the most affected by violence, abuse and exploitation. In response, UPP implements health and protection programmes through funding of several donors, including BHA, ECHO, AICS and other EU member states.

UPP and local partners aim is to improve the physical and psychosocial wellbeing of the conflict-affected population with a view of building the capacity of local actors and the resilience of communities in NES.

SCOPE OF WORK

The Medical Advisor (MA) will work under the supervision of the Medical Coordinator, in collaboration with the HoM and Health desks in the Health Department of UPP NES Mission to design, develop and monitor the activities related to the Communicable disease, and infection prevention and control. The MA role is also to advise the Programme Department in the decision-making process and deliver project-related documents according to donor requirements.

The MA role is also to advise the Programme Department in the decision-making process and deliver project-related documents according to donor requirement, with the programmatic direction and guidance of the Programme Manager.

Key Duties and Responsibilities:

The medical advisor will be responsible for:

Technical Guidance:

  • Supporting, advising, and leading Communicable disease and infection prevention related matters in the mission program
  • Reviewing and monitoring the implementation of routine IPC procedures and COVID preventive procedures in the supported facilities
  • Developing and organizing all aspects of aseptic procedures in the supported operation theaters, neonatal ICUs, and other relevant units.
  • Develop, or review sector-specific guidelines and policy papers with the necessity to offer updates as required
  • Monitoring implementation of guidelines, protocols, and tools in health facilities in collaboration with partners, in line with HWG and sector standards
  • Ensure that tools and procedures to improve quality of care are available to teams and assist in continuous quality improvement in communicable diseases and the IPC program
  • Lead early detection and investigation of outbreaks in the supported facilities.
  • Prepare outbreak response plans based on the existing capacity and follow the implementation of the activities.
  • Define, develop and collaborate on the requirements of medical supplies and equipment for infection prevention and control activities
  • Regularly monitor and review EWARN data and communicable disease-related data and registers providing follow-up and feedback on reports with analysis related to project data and sharing results with project coordination teams and medical managers.
  • Identify and implement appropriate facility- and community-based strategies to address priority outbreak-prone public health problems in coordination with the Community Health program.
  • Follow up health facilities and quality of health service delivery in the assigned area

Human Resources and Capacity Management:

  • Supporting, advising, and organizing a quarterly training curriculum for doctors, nurses, paramedics, and CHWs in line with HWG and policymakers in the region
  • Mentoring the management of the training aspects related to clinical management with implementing partners
  • Engagement and support by offering regular updates and corrective measures in line with sector strategy for the medical department and the evolution of health issues in the operational spaces regularly
  • Ensure all health staff is adequately trained and create possibilities for continuous capacity building, mentoring, and coaching.
  • Work closely with local partner (KRC) counterparts regarding designing, implementing, and reporting aspects of communicable disease and IPC program.

Program Coordination:

  • Participation and technical feedback in discussions on planning, construction, implementation, and review of projects in line with the organizational and departmental strategy
  • Remain updated and elaborate on sector-specific needs and gaps
  • Supervise, monitor, and update the health activity progress in participatory decision making against the work plan, project plan, budget/medical logistics in coordination with the departmental focal points and project manager with contribution from implementing partners
  • Continuously analyze complications and challenges during the implementation, reporting deviations as they appear and proactively providing the necessary solutions advising and collaborating with the Project Manager
  • Elaborating M&E data for reporting purposes – Supporting the project managers in the reporting activities

Reporting:

  • Supervise and monitor the development of reporting systems for health data collection, analysis and follow-up and feedback to relevant staff, donors, partners, and other agencies
  • Contributes to the monthly situation report and write the health-related part, submitting to the Medical Coordinator monthly
  • Works closely with UPP personnel and local partners to prepare donor reports, adding a technical component to narratives including the evaluation and impact analysis of current projects within donor proposals and reports
  • Work with health care providers, local authorities, community members, and project team members to identify clinical and community health system issues that impede access to quality care, regularly offer reports and feedback

Representation/networking with other NGOs/INGOs, and relevant health authorities in areas of operation:

  • Develops active visibility and represents UPP in front of local medical authorities and keeps regular contact with other counterparts in the mission (NGOs, INGOs, Health Cluster, partners UN agencies, donors, authorities) to broaden the medical-humanitarian situation analysis, ensure good cooperation and partnerships.
  • strengthening the impact of the medical intervention and supporting advocacy actions to raise humanitarian awareness
  • Participates in any relevant meeting (programmatic and health-related meetings organized at local and national levels (i.e. health working groups etc.) by playing a key role and being pro-active in coordination mechanisms and the technical working groups
  • Builds collaboration and partnership with other relevant stakeholders working in the health sector especially on IPC and WASH in all areas of operations for the health sector, avoiding duplication while discovering synergies with other agencies.
  • Accompany donors on field trips, and ensure program details are transmitted in a timely and professional manner
  • Attend relevant health-related webinars and conferences when required and requested

Essential requirements

  • Medical or nursing degree. Public health specialty is an asset
  • Minimum of three years of professional experience in the medical sector.
  • Experience as a teacher of medicine or nursing, in accredited institutions. Management of training center is an asset. On-site clinical training is an asset.
  • Innovative health care management experience
  • Experience in clinical training.
  • Experience in advising or managing communicable disease and IPC in low-income countries and/or health-related conflictive areas
  • Good understanding of the project life cycle management
  • Excellent capacity to work in a team.
  • Proven capacities to plan activities successfully targeting results and objectives.
  • Ability to supervise and/or mentor the medical staff.
  • Previous work experience in the humanitarian field.

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 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.

How to apply

Interested candidates are invited to submit a detailed CV (PDF format) with the authorization to use and process data on the base of the EU Regulation 2016/679 – GDPR and a brief cover letter (PDF format) that includes the contact information for three Professional References (relevant and recent) to: [email protected]

Please reference MA-Communicable Disease – Name Surname in the subject line of your email application and name the files attached to your application as surname_name_CV, surname_name_CL, etc. Be informed that UPP screens prospective colleagues through anti-terrorism/anti-money-laundering/anti-corruption/anti-fraud sanctions lists before job offer. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.


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