Msf-Ocba Is Looking For An Intersectional Humanitarian Affairs Coordinator (Position Based In Sana’A/ 1 Year Contract) At Médecins Sans Frontières

Do your skills and experience not precisely match the requirements? MSF-OCBA is an organization committed to promoting diversity and equity by providing equal access to professional opportunities. We understand that women, people of color, indigenous individuals, members of the LGTBIQ+ community, and other underrepresented groups often hesitate to apply for employment if they don’t meet all the requirements. At MSF-OCBA, we strive to create a diverse, inclusive, and genuine workplace. Therefore, if you’re interested in this position but your experience doesn’t align perfectly with the selection criteria, we encourage you to apply anyway. You might be the ideal candidate for this or other positions.

GENERAL CONTEXT

Médecins Sans Frontières is an international independent medical-humanitarian organization, which offers assistance to populations in distress, to victims of natural or man-made disasters and to victims of armed conflict, without discrimination and irrespective of race, religion, creed or political affiliation.

MSF is a civil society initiative that brings together individuals committed to the assistance of other human beings in crisis. As such MSF is by choice an association. Each individual working with MSF does it out of conviction and is ready to uphold the values and principles of MSF.

The MSF movement is built around five operational directorates supported by MSF’s 21 sections, 24 associations and other offices together worldwide. MSF OCBA is one of those directorates. The operations are implemented by field teams and the mission coordination teams; together with the organizational units based in Barcelona, Athens and decentralised in Nairobi, Dakar and Amman. The field operations are guided and supported by 5 Operational Cells, the Emergency Unit and other departments supporting operations.

MAIN PURPOSE

The Intersectional Humanitarian Affairs Coordinator (IHAC) is responsible for coordinating intersectional advocacy initiatives in the country in line with MSF principles and operational priorities and participates in the regular HoMs meeting as well as relevant external platforms to ensure engagement, representation and positioning on topics relevant to humanitarian affairs and advocacy needs in Yemen.

Context & humanitarian needs: More than eight years since the conflict broke out in Yemen, the country is reeling from the fallout of war and poor governance, including lack of access to basic services for much of the population. Outbreaks of preventable diseases such as measles, diphtheria, and polio are recurrent. Cholera cases are spreading in both north and south Yemen leading to emergency interventions. A chronic malnutrition situation is affecting the most vulnerable in different parts of the country, with admissions of complex malnutrition cases to MSF-supported facilities increasing year on year. Thousands of people displaced by the conflict continue to live in substandard conditions, and unpredictable flare-ups of conflict and violence still occur. Escalations of regional tensions linked to the conflict in Gaza are also becoming an increasing concern and are impacting commercial and humanitarian supply routes and security in the Red Sea. In retaliation, Yemen itself is now directly impacted by air US and UK air strikes targeting Ansar Allah in the north of the country. The healthcare system, already very fragile before the start of the war, is now barely functional due to the destruction of healthcare facilities which has taken place over the past years, and the overall lack of investment in the healthcare system. This is further aggravated by the absence of payment of healthcare staff salaries, lack of supervision and monitoring, a significant reduction in humanitarian funding which has resulted in a large cut in incentives for healthcare staff (60% cut since January 2023), minimal availability of qualified healthcare personnel in Yemen, and a lack of sufficient medical supplies.

Humanitarian space: In parallel, the operational environment for humanitarian actors is becoming increasingly challenging/compromised and progressively limited which is leading to donor fatigue and reduced funding. Especially in the north of Yemen, anti-vaccination and anti-international organization/INGO misinformation campaigns are quickly propagated. Humanitarian space is limited by bureaucratic and administrative impediments as well as movement and access constraints. This brings into focus the need for MSF to reinforce a principled and independent response, whilst still balancing its responsibilities in ensuring operational continuity and lifesaving care to populations in need.

MSF in Yemen: The five MSF sections currently work across 14 governorates, relying on nearly 2,600 staff and more than 1,000 MoH staff under incentives. The activities carried out are diverse: maternal and child health, nutrition, response to outbreaks and emergencies, trauma care and surgeries, etc.

CORE RESPONSABILITIES

• Plan, develop and implement humanitarian affairs and advocacy strategies to address key humanitarian concerns affecting communities and MSF operations. These strategies must seek to promote an independent, impartial and needs-driven response that aims to enhance the health, respect and dignity of Yemeni people’s lives and increases access to humanitarian aid, as well as access of MSF to the population.
• Work with the missions including field teams to ensure regular collection of medical-humanitarian data for analysis, with the objective to produce relevant analyses and advocacy positioning on the humanitarian situation, gaps/needs and quality of the response in Yemen.
• Support and encourage intersectional networking andengagement with humanitarian organisations in Yemen to deepen undersanding of other actors’ presence and influence in the aid response (actor mapping), and to increase MSF’s capacity to affect positive change.
• Ensures monitoring of the humanitarian landscape including funding and response (quality, evolution, challenges) to help inform operational and/or advocacy efforts/positioning.
• Indentifies, monitors and flags any concerning trends in humanitarian-protection-medical needs of vulnerable populations to help inform operational and/or advocacy efforts/positioning.
• Draft updates, key messages and Briefing Notes to bring understanding, attention and change to medical-humanitarian concerns, in line with intersectional advocacy priorities.
• On request, interact with the international MSF advocacy network (reflection centres, HRT, negotiations unit) to provide updates on key humanitarian concerns and evolutions to the context in Yemen.
• Lead discussions, trainings, briefings, etc. on the country’s medical-humanitarian context, MSF principles and advocacy activities/strategies for MSF teams to raise understanding on these topics.
• Where relevant, technically manages and develops staff under his/ her direct responsibility (OCBA-OCA HAO)

Data collection & analysis

• Conducts regular field visits to ensure that MSF advocacy actions carried out at country, regional and global levels always match with the challenges and priorities identified at field level.
• Supports field teams in identifying and carrying out advocacy actions at coordination and project level (reporting on the needs observed; targeting the relevant actors etc).
• In collaboration with field teams, coordinates the collection of testimonies allowing MSF to carry the voice of our patients, target populations and staff.
• Proposes reporting mechanisms/tools and follows up on their implementation to ensure that MSF’s field observations are recorded and can subsequently be analysed over time to inform advocacy actions and messaging.
• In collaboration with key departments (ops, medical, comms), contributes to the anaylsis of information and medical-humanitarian data to deepen understanding of the medical humanitarian situation in Yemen and to formulate relevant advocacy strategies and advocacy calls to action.

Collaboration Communications & Advocacy

• Liaises closely with the Intersectional Field Communications Facilitator and other Communciations colleagues to feed data, analyses and advocacy messages to support public messaging, ensuring the alignment and complementatirity of comms and advocacy efforts.
• Link with advocacy colleagues from other MSF sections in-country to foster inter-OC advocacy initiatives, and strive to ensure mutually beneficial and coordinated approaches.

Network engagement

• In coordination with HoMs and PCs, encourages the regular presence of MSF at coordination platforms and ensures MSF is actively networking with other actors where beneficial. Supports institutional memory in the maintenance of the intersectional Meeting Logbook, Contact List.

Feeds key information including evidence-based talking points to the Regional HAA and HRT to support intersectional representation at regional level, including donor engagement (with a willingness to visit and engage regional actors in Amman, with the support of the HAA and Deputy MENA HRT).

SELECTION CRITERIA

EDUCATION, KNOWELDGE AND EXPERIENCE

• Academic background to Masters’ level (anthropology/social/political sciences, law, gender studies, protection) with first-rate writing skills and excellent research / analytical skills.
• Campaigning organizational experience an asset.
• Field humanitarian experience in similar contexts (conflict, disasters, resource-poor environments) – MSF advocacy experience required.
• Good understanding of current humanitarian debates and of the dilemma/compromise nature of modern humanitarian interventions.
• English mandatory. Arabic strongly desirable (but not essential).

CONDITIONS

• Position based in Sana’a (Yemen).
• 1 year contract.
• Full time job
• Annual Gross salary: L12 IRP2 + secondary benefits based on MSF OCBA Reward Policy.
• Starting date: Immediately

MSF OCBA is a people-focused humanitarian organization that offers a diverse, collaborative, and inclusive work environment. We believe this approach enhances our work and we are committed to equity in employment. We embrace diverse backgrounds of people working together to exhibit their passion in action for the social mission of MSF.

Médecins Sans Frontieres, as a responsible employer, under article 38 of “Ley de Integración Social del Minusválido de 1982 (LISMI)” invite those persons with a recognized disability and with an interest in the humanitarian area to apply for the above-mentioned position.