Program Officer 186 views0 applications

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) was founded in 1919 in Paris in the aftermath of World War I. The war had shown a need for close cooperation between Red Cross Societies, which, through their humanitarian activities on behalf of prisoners of war and combatants, had attracted millions of volunteers and built a large body of expertise. A devastated Europe could not afford to lose such a resource.

It was Henry Davison, president of the American Red Cross War Committee, who proposed forming a federation of these National Societies. An international medical conference initiated by Davison resulted in the birth of the League of Red Cross Societies, which was renamed in October 1983 to the League of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, and then in November 1991 to become the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

Program Officer

Duration: 10 months
Category of Staff: National Staff
Grade: To be determined
Vacancy No: IFRC02460

Organizational Context
The Secretariat of the IFRC is organized into four Business groups in Geneva and five Business Groups in the field, namely the Regional Offices for Africa, Americas, Asia and the Pacific, Europe, and Middle East and North Africa (MENA). The Africa Regional Business Group is organized through cluster offices covering the National Societies in Eastern Africa, Southern
Africa, West Coast, Sahel and Central Africa as well as country offices in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Republic of South Sudan, Chad, Niger, Nigeria, Somalia. The IFRC, in its commitment to build strong National Societies and to support scaling up of National Societies’ services to the most vulnerable populations, has established a Cluster Office in Nigeria to cover seven countries, namely Ghana, Togo, Nigeria, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Côte d’Ivoire and Benin. Disaster management and emergency health are two key pillars of the work the National Societies undertake in the Cluster. The Cluster Office of IFRC intends to strengthen the capacity support to the countries in the cluster on disaster management and health emergency.

This JD summarizes the tasks related to the position of Programs Officer.

Job Purpose
Under the supervision of the IFRC West Coast Health Delegate the Programs Officer will provide support in Health and Care and Disaster Management preparedness, response, mitigation and resilience activities of National Societies. He/She will work in building national, regional and institutional (including secretariat) capacities to enable them to initiate, manage, and evaluate all Health and Care, Disaster risk Management programmes adhering to Federation policies, strategy 2020, technical guidelines and sphere standards.

These programmes should feature measurable elements and target the most vulnerable.
He/She assures ongoing collaboration with all relevant partners in the region in the field of Health and Care and Disaster Risk Management and will also work on the further development of these relationships. He/She contributes to the quality improvement of Health and Care and Disaster Risk Management programs of NS throughout the region. When necessary: He/She could be deployed to provide surge capacity and to respond to emergencies in the region.

Job Duties and Responsibilities

• Support National Societies in providing technical advice on all health and disaster risk management
• Assure effective coordination of all health and disaster risk management activities on regional representation level in relation to the action plan defined by the West Coast Cluster office.
• Work in close cooperation with the health and disaster risk management teams in the Africa
• Region to reach the Federation’s objectives for the countries/regions.
• Increase co-ordination mechanisms, sharing knowledge and best practices with co-operating
• Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies acting bilaterally in the region.
• Liaise with international humanitarian agencies and organisations when appropriate and participate in Inter Agency coordination and other NGO meetings, task forces on Health and
• Care and Disaster Risk Management where appropriate and beyond the formal coordination meetings.
• Develop and maintain coordination with the different agencies involved in health and disaster risk management on regional level and assist the NS to assure the same cooperation on country level.
• Provide, when necessary and requested, additional surge capacity to aid in the international response of the Federation.
• Assist NS and regional representation to develop and implement health and disaster risk management oriented These programmes include basic community care, water/sanitation,
• health components of Disaster preparedness (DP) and DM, first aid (FA) including community based first aid (CBFA), control of communicable diseases and epidemics and psychological
• support programmes (PSP), Urban DRR and reflect regional and national realities which target the major health problems amongst the most vulnerable in the community.
• Ensure all aspects of community resilience programming are managed and implemented in accordance with Federation’s strategic programme framework, signatory codes of conduct
• and agreed standards including Red Cross Red Crescent Code of Conduct, Sphere Standards and Humanitarian Accountability Partnership.
• Assist the NS to develop high quality projects by identifying potential funding sources taking in account NS priorities and writing proposals for such.
• Stimulate and create the right level of working relationship between the NS and its government, especially in Health and Disaster Risk Management related ministries; ensuring
• NS knowledge about Global fund for AIDS, TB and Malaria (GFATM), its country coordination mechanism (CCM), inter agency coordination committee (ICC) and that the NS is well
• represented where ever possible as a national partner.
• Give timely and effective technical support on Regional and Country level and assist the NS’s in the implementation and follow up of health and disaster risk management
• Analyse training needs for NS and assure support for the NS through trainings in health and disaster risk management related areas.
• Develop partnerships and assure that potential donors are approached for support to health and care and disaster risk management programs.

Education

• University Degree in Health or Disaster Risk Management or Programs management or equivalent
• Masters degree in community Health/public Health (Msc, MPH, etc) is essential.

Experience

• Experience of working for the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement
• 5 years of experience in Health and Care/ Disaster Risk Management, including experience in the field
• At least 2 years of working for a humanitarian aid organisation/emergency health
• Experience of setting up, managing and coordinating Health and Disaster Risk
• Management response and long-term community resilience programming
• Experience in conducting trainings
• Experience of report writing, planning and finance and budgeting

Knowledge, skills and languages

• Strong and highly developed technical skills in health/DRM international practices
• Self-supporting in computers (word processing, spreadsheets, internet and web based searching etc.)
• Solid and tested analytical and decision-making skills
• Operational management and reporting skills
• Excellent communication, interpersonal and networking skills
• Fluently spoken and written English
• Fluently spoken and written French (Preferred)

Competencies and values

• Accountability
• National Society Relations
• Teamwork-interpersonal skills
• Integrity and personal conduct
• Professionalism
• Communication Managerial effectiveness
• Initiative and direction
• Flexibility, Patience and adaptability-sensitivity to diversity

Comments
The Federation is an equal opportunity employer.