COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT ADVISOR (BASED IN ANY MSF OCBA HUB) At Médecins Sans Frontières

POSITION BASED IN ANY MSF-OCBA HUB SUBJECTED TO FEASIBILITIES

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 six operational directorates. 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 and decentralized in Nairobi, Dakar and Amman. The field operations are guided and supported by 5 Operational Cells, the Emergency Unit and other departments supporting operations.

GENERAL OBJECTIVE AND JOB ENVIRONMENT

MSF OCBA focus on alleviating the suffering of the most vulnerable populations in situations of conflict, extreme violence and emergencies. Community engagement is an essential component of our operations in order to have a comprehensive understanding of patients and community needs and facilitate their involvement in the decisions that affect their safety, dignity, protection and wellbeing. The Community Engagement (CE) advisor will contribute in the design and implementation of strategies to enhance population-based approaches throughout the regional portfolio working with multidisciplinary teams.

The CE Advisor reports hierarchically to the People Centred Approach Manager in the Operations Department directorate. The CE Advisor actively fosters interdisciplinary collaboration with relevant advisors from the Operations, Medical, Logistics and HR departments and provides functional support to one People Centred Approach Mobile Support Technician. Definition of priorities comes from the projects by the Field Coordinator (FC) and Project Medical Referent (PMR) via HoM and Medco and Operational Cell. Visit planning will be defined accordingly (based on needs).

MAIN RESPONSABILITIES, FUNCTIONS AND TASKS

• Provides support of proximity to projects/missions on comprehensive understanding of patients and community’s needs and adapted people-centred approaches. The geographical scope will be adapted based on global needs and operational priorities.
• Contributes to the establishment of a CE strategy and communication channels with the local societies, communities, patients, stakeholders or neighbourhoods where MSF works, working together with the FC, PMR and HoM, MedCo.
• Support the field on a comprehensive analysis of needs of patients and communities, including specific vulnerable groups.
• Support on the design of population-based approaches in multidisciplinary teams at field and HQ level with community participation.
• Support the field on health promotion ensuring culturally adapted strategies and participatory delivery methods in collaboration with the Health Educator Advisor.
• Support the field and operational line management on monitoring its implementation, including patients and population feedback and potential adaptations.
• Support on qualitative data collection, its analysis and overall knowledge management.
• Support field teams to plan and implement assessments, and if relevant participate in the assessment (in supported missions or assessments lead by the emergency Unit).
• Contribution in the development of CE contextualized adapted materials (protocols, guidelines, SOPs) for field use as well as potential specific training tools.
• Conducts training sessions at all levels as required for MSF teams on CE strategies, planning and evaluation tools.
• Provides close support and /or a coaching program to Community Engagement and Health Promotion Managers and Supervisor as well as other staff based on requirements/demand.
• Contributes on the development and implementation of People Centred Approach and Quality of Care transversal dossiers.
• Capitalizing and sharing field experiences to improve CE practices whenever needed.
• Identify new cutting-edge topics which might need further research, development and innovation.
• Actively collaborate with multidisciplinary teams on building and learning from experiences on population-based approaches.
• Ensure constant update on MSF operational debates, medical seminars, working groups, international conferences.
• Collaborates with other technical advisors to ensure that guidelines (or revisions of guidelines) incorporate the PCA approach.
• Interact with different actors (academia, INGOs, social science) to expand networking, learning, and identifying potential opportunities on partnership.
• Visit planning and specific TOR for the visits will be done by the Field Teams of each Mission in collaboration with the cell Responsible and Health advisor/s; it could include several of the tasks below or others according to identified need. 40% time will be dedicated to field visits.
• Assist in identification of needs, gaps in existing programming (MoH, MSF, or other actors), formulation of proposal for intervention strategy of MSF-OCBA appropriate to specific context.
• Assist and support field teams in the practical implementation of program activities agreed by the field teams on regards to CE and People centred Approaches.
• Provide trainings in the field (medical and non-medical, national, international, and counterpart staff) concerning the implementation of the CE activities; with a strong focus on implementation procedures, tools, correct and timely data collection, supervision and data collection and analysis.
• When requested, the CE Regional advisor will mentor either a national or international staff that will be the focal person for this particular activity (including HoM, FC, PMR, Community Engagement / Health Promotion Manager, etc.) with the main objective of leaving a certain capacity to continue what has been implemented.
• Each Mission visit will be followed by an Implementation Report within the following 3 weeks maximum. Inside some expected outputs and indicators will be provided to facilitate the progress check-up of the status and quality of the integration of CE component.

SELECTION CRITERIA

• University degree in Humanities/Social Sciences or related studies.
• Fluent in French and English.
• Knowledge of other languages like Arabic, Spanish and Portuguese is an asset.
• Computer literacy (Microsoft Office and Internet).
• Knowledge of qualitative data analysis software is an asset (e.g. NVIVO, MAXQDA, ATLAS).
• Working experience of at least two years in related jobs: public health, development or humanitarian aid.
• Working experience with participatory methodologies.
• Demonstrated experience providing support, mentoring and training multidisciplinary teams.
• Desirable working experience with MSF or other NGOs.
• Desirable working experience in humanitarian contexts.
• Availability to travel frequently and on short notice.
• Flexibility with working hours.

CONDITIONS

• Position based in any MSF-OCBA Hub (Barcelona, MSF-Spain office delegations, Amman, Dakar or Nairobi) with travel to the field up to 40% of the time. Final location will be subject to the employability of the preselected candidate (residency, work permit, etc.).
• Temporary position due to leave of absence (until 31st October 2023).
• Salary and benefits according to MSF OCBA policies and subjected to local conditions for each location.
• Starting date: ASAP.