Health Coordinator 146 views0 applications

Requisition ID: req2553

Job Title: Health Coordinator

Sector: Health

Employment Category: Fixed Term

Employment Type: Full-Time

Location: DRC-Goma

Job Description

Background:

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) is among the world’s leading humanitarian relief and development organizations. For 80 years, the IRC has been at the forefront of every major humanitarian initiative to assist people uprooted by war, persecution, or civil conflict. The IRC provides lifesaving support to help people survive and re-build their lives, assisting people from harm to home. The IRCs Emergency Unit (EU) leads the IRC’s Global emergency preparedness and response activities. The mission of the EU is to help meet the immediate survival needs and reduce suffering in conflict or disaster affected populations during the acute phase of an emergency.

Context:

The Ministry of Health (MoH) of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) declared an outbreak of Ebola (Ebola Virus Disease – EVD) in North Kivu Province, eastern DRC on August 1st, 2018. As of August 6th, there have been 43 cases (16 confirmed, 27 probable) resulting in 36 deaths (9 confirmed, 27 probable) as well as 46 suspect cases currently under investigation. The IRC is supporting the containment of the EVD outbreak in the North Kivu region of DRC. The IRC’s primary focus will be to provide support to existing primary health care (PHC) facilities to ensure the safe continuity of services. The IRC’s support will include the strengthening of infection prevention and control (IPC) practices and the establishment of EVD screening and isolation points at the facilities; the IRC will also work with its teams in North Kivu province to help raise community awareness of behaviors that will help to limit further spread of the outbreak.

Scope of work

• Reporting to the Team Leader, the Health Coordinator will be the health lead for the IRC’s Ebola Response.

Roles and Responsibilities

• Lead on the development of the IRC Ebola response strategy.
• Initiate IRC’s EVD response activities, ensuring high quality in accordance with technical best practice and IRC approaches.
• Represent IRC at key coordination forums.
• Assist in business development by providing technical input for proposals.
• Update and develop program protocols based on the best available guidance and evidence.
• Ensure clinical management and infection prevention and control procedures are being applied strictly by clinical staff according to the protocol.
• Lead on the hiring, training and mentoring of staff.
• Support the collection and timely reporting of data and statistics for health programs in line with IRC guidelines and according to internal and donor requirements.
• In-conjunction with supply chain, and medical logistician, overall supervision of medical supply forecasting, procurement and distribution for the EVD response
• Maintain open and professional relations with team members, promoting a strong team spirit and providing oversight and guidance to enable staff to successfully perform in their duties.
• Consistently and proactively monitor/assess the safety and security of field teams, promptly reporting concerns or incidents to IRC management and liaising with other external parties as required to maintain/enhance the security environment.
• Other duties as assigned by the supervisor to enable and develop IRC programs.
• Provide a strong and thorough handover at the end of deployment.

· NOTE: This position may enter the red zone/high risk area of an isolation unit.

Requirements

• Medical Doctor with current registration with the recognised professional body of your country of residence eg) General Medical Council UK.
• At least 5 years’ experience working as a Medical Doctor including previous experience working with Ebola Virus Disease and working in resource limited environments.
• Previous experience working as a clinical lead, with demonstrated experience in personnel management and the development of standardized protocols.
• Previous experience working with IRC desirable.
• Minimum of 3-5 years’ experience in coordinating, implementing and managing health programs in emergency contexts.
• Ability and flexibility to understand the cultural and political environment and to work well with the local health representatives.
• Demonstrated leadership, communication, and facilitation skills.
• Demonstrated experience in supervising a team in the strict adherence to infection control.
• Previous training or teaching experience.
• Strong leadership, management, planning, analytical, interpersonal, and communication skills.
• Ability to live in challenging conditions and ability to work under difficult, high pressure situations.
• Must be a team player with excellent interpersonal skills and ability to work under pressure in a stressful environment, displaying patience, compassion and diplomacy.
• Fluency in English and French or Swahili.