Back Delegate, Medical Services

Background

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) is the world's largest humanitarian organization, with 192 member National Societies. As part of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, our work is guided by seven fundamental principles; humanity, impartiality, neutrality, independence, voluntary service, unity and universality.

Organizational Context

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) is the world’s largest humanitarian organization, with a network of 192-member National Societies. The overall aim of the IFRC is “to inspire, encourage, facilitate, and promote at all times all forms of humanitarian activities by National Societies with a view to preventing and alleviating human suffering and thereby contributing to the maintenance and promotion of human dignity and peace in the world.” The IFRC works to meet the needs and improve the lives of vulnerable people before, during and after disasters, health emergencies and other crises. The IFRC is part of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement (Movement), together with its member National Societies and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). The work of the IFRC is guided by the following fundamental principles: humanity, impartiality, neutrality, independence, voluntary service, unity, and universality. The IFRC is led by its Secretary General, and has its Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. The Headquarters are organized into three main Divisions: (i) National Society Development and Operations Coordination; (ii) Global Relations, Humanitarian Diplomacy and Digitalization; and (iii) Management Policy, Strategy and Corporate Services. The IFRC has five regional offices in Africa, Asia Pacific, Middle East and North Africa, Europe, and the Americas. The IFRC also has country cluster delegation and country delegations throughout the world. Together, the Geneva Headquarters and the field structure (regional, cluster and country) comprise the IFRC Secretariat. The global impact of COVID-19 has already been significant, and it represents the most serious global health threat resulting from a respiratory virus, since the 1918 influenza pandemic. IFRC has been actively responding to the outbreak by focusing on both preparedness and response. The IFRC has launched a global appeal that focuses on preparedness and response across all regions. Regular medical services were not immunized as well and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has significantly affected provision, access and quality of medical services at various levels and degrees in MENA region. The health delegate-medical services position will be part of the health and care unit working with other colleagues in the IFRC-MENA regional office to provide tailored and quality technical support to various aspects of the medical services that NSs, PNSs, and IFRC are engaged in.

Job Purpose

The health delegate - Medical Services will be responsible to support medical services of all national societies who own and operate medical services in the MENA region and assure quality of these services are guided by the international and national standardizations, the IFRC health global framework 2030, MENA Plan and Budget 2021. The medical services delegate will work closely with national societies and PNSs on strengthening the medical services provided at different levels including mobile clinics and teams, primary, secondary, and tertiary healthcare and other relevant services.

The Unit is working on the improvement of quality and effectiveness of the RC/RC health and care activities for the in the region by developing and setting up standardized medical and public health protocols, policies, minimum standards and guidelines adapted to the MENA and RC/RC context, with quality assurance mechanisms. Areas of concern include reproductive health, child health and integrated management of childhood illnesses, trauma care, nutrition, prevention and control of communicable disease, management of non-communicable diseases, infection prevention control (IPC), preventive and community health, mental health, and psychosocial support (MHPSS).

Job Duties and Responsibilities

Under the leadership of the MENA health and care team unit the health delegate, Medical Service will be leading the following:

1- Technical support to National Societies (40%):

• Identify, share, and contextualize all available technical guidelines, manuals, and protocols from international and regional resources with NSs to enhance quality of their medical services.
• Engage with NSs to develop medical services vision/strategy, operational plan, and SOPs to define the niche, sustainability elements, and to help guiding and channeling external support into their focus.
• Lead and coordinate development of concept notes or proposals to different potential donors focusing on enhancing medical services for NSs.
• Provide technical support to reviewing all medicines, medical supplies and equipment procurement processes for NSs including technical specifications, relevance/necessity, and cost-effectiveness aspects.
• Act as a technical support resource for MENA National Societies and CO/CCO Health Delegates, in the domain of medical services including immunization (EPI, COVAX facility), sexual, reproductive, maternal, new-born and child, adolescent health (SRMNCAH), ambulance services, non-communicable diseases (NCDs), communicable diseases, blood banks services, nutrition, migration health, and first aid.
• Contribute to efforts to achieve and sustain national immunization targets and promote fair and equitable access to new vaccines including COVID-19 vaccines and routine immunization programs as well.
• Take a capacity-building approach to work, providing training, technical support, mentoring, and dissemination as part of the medical emergency response and recovery activities
• Promote the continuum of health care approach via integration of medical services with community health, WASH, and cross-cutting thematic areas (gender, disability, migration, MHPSS, CEA, PGI, climate change, etc.)

2- Regional program monitoring, quality assurance, and delivery of results:(40%)

• Collaborate with other IFRC units, including disaster management, preparedness, cash, logistics, shelter, NSD, and volunteer management involved in emergency response to ensure the medical activities are integrated and supported in emergency operations based on risk analysis.
• Actively engage into drafting, reviewing and providing tailored technical input for Disaster Relief Emergency Fund (DREF) and Emergency Appeal (EA) proposals and emergency operational plans, as well as other funding applications and proposals that require medical services interventions.
• Ensure the appropriate documentation to capture the learning from the challenges and successes of the ongoing health operation.
• Contribute to technical support to health operations in the field, through deployment where necessary
• Engage in the development of quality assurance and risk mitigation tools that support public health and patient safety in emergency medical interventions

• Ensure NSs emergency health programming aligns with and considers the needs, capacities, strengths, and limitations of the host National Society while meeting humanitarian needs.

• Coordinate health technical support and development of the potential medical intervention (including mobile health unit) adapted to the context of MENA to implement clinical response. This could include assessment, deployment, and installation support for health and medical mobile response mechanisms, supervision, training, and evaluation

• Ensure health interventions are complementary to and/or feed into the broader health system, including NSs COVID-19 public health intervention (e.g., referral pathways) in line with the NSs country plans and EA priorities and health pillars.

  📚 𝗗𝗶𝘀𝗰𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗼 𝗚𝗲𝘁 𝗮 𝗝𝗼𝗯 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗨𝗡 𝗶𝗻 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟯! 🌍🤝 𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗡𝗘𝗪 𝗥𝗲𝗰𝗿𝘂𝗶𝘁𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗚𝘂𝗶𝗱𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗨𝗡 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟯 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝘁𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝘀𝗮𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗨𝗡𝗛𝗖𝗥, 𝗪𝗙𝗣, 𝗨𝗡𝗜𝗖𝗘𝗙, 𝗨𝗡𝗗𝗦𝗦, 𝗨𝗡𝗙𝗣𝗔, 𝗜𝗢𝗠 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿𝘀! 🌐

  ⚠️ 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐋𝐢𝐟𝐞 𝐍𝐨𝐰: 𝐏𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐟𝐮𝐥 𝐓𝐞𝐜𝐡𝐧𝐢𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐬 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐨 𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐚 𝐣𝐨𝐛 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐔𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐍𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐍𝐎𝐖!

• Lead medical interventions, including clinical service provision, and disease prevention interventions addressing direct and secondary impact of COVID-19 pandemic in line with the COVID-19 EA priorities and health pillars.

• Work closely with Program Quality Unit to ensuring monitoring and evaluation of Federation-wide health activities, by directly engaging and/or by promoting and overseeing the monitoring activities of the National Societies in the operational field in close collaboration with the PMER staff and country and cluster representatives

• Work closely with Program Quality Unit to Support the development/piloting of Red Cross Red Crescent Health Information System (RCHIS) or equivalent health data in MENA NSs

• Work closely with NSs in MENA region to enhance their reporting system (Templates, frequency, lines of reporting) for all medical services and how to synthesize, utilize, translate this data into evidence-based proven informative decisions.

• Support NS to present their work and operations at national, regional, and international scientific platforms and encourage peer to peer learning between NSs in the region.

3- Coordination and health advocacy (20%)

• Under the leadership of Health and Care Unit, the health delegate will work to enhance and advocate to position National Societies as reliable and qualified actors in health and WASH sectors, in alignment with key agendas at global, regional and country levels.
• Actively engaged in the pre-existing coordination fora with relevant RCRC movement partners and international humanitarian organizations (UNICEF, WHO, IOM, UNRWA, UNFPA, NGOs), and civil society at the regional and national level.
• Coordinate and collaborate with all PNSs who provide support to medical services of NSs in MENA region to assure efficient utilization of available resources.
• Support NSs to actively engage and build partnerships with national and international academic institutions to work on enhancing quality of their medical services

Duties applicable to all staff

1. Actively work towards the achievement of the Federation Secretariat’s goals
2. Abide by and work in accordance with the Red Cross and Red Crescent principles
3. Perform any other work-related duties and responsibilities that may be assigned by the line manager

Education

• University degree in relevant discipline: professional qualification as a health practitioner medical doctor or Nurse - Required
• Relevant post graduate degree or master’s in public health - Required
• Relevant professional training courses (Red Cross/Red Crescent related, humanitarian and development sector, management, etc.) - Required
• Basic Delegates Training Course/IMPACT - Preferred
• Further qualification in Tropical health or SOS/HELP course, FACT training course is preferred - Preferred

Experience

• Minimum of 5 years work experience in an international sector, focused on humanitarian needs - Required
• Minimum of 5 years work experience with the Red Cross/Red Crescent Movement, including time in the field and with a National Society - Required
• Experience working in a change management situation, preferably as an active participant in that change - Required
• Management of a team - Preferred
• Work experience with other international organizations, large NGOs and/or governmental development agency is preferred - Preferred

Knowledge, skills and languages

• Ability to lead and manage in a diverse cultural context - Required
• Results-oriented and demand-driven individual, entrepreneurial, with an ability to function - Required
• Mastery of clinical concepts and experience in practically applying this knowledge in resource-constrained settings - Required
• Demonstrated skills in analytical and strategic thinking - Required
• Advanced networking, communication, and negotiation skills. An ability to be proactive and persuasive - Required
• Familiarity with essential health determinants and health care operations, preferably in the field of public health, including clinical work Familiarity with the RCRC approach and need assessment is an asset - Preferred

Languages:

• Fluently spoken and written English - Required

• Highly Desirable: working knowledge of French and/or Arabic - Preferred

Competencies and values

• Leadership
• Professionalism
• Communications
• Diversity
• Accountability
• Team work
• Judgement and Decision making
• Integrity
• Advocacy /Donor prelateship