Infectious Diseases & Antimicrobial Resistance Advisor At Médecins Sans Frontières

Organization

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is an independent, neutral, impartial humanitarian organisation that provides medical assistance to people affected by conflict, epidemics, disasters, or exclusion from healthcare. MSF assistance to people is based solely on their needs, irrespective of race, religion, gender, or political affiliation.

Context

The Medical Department, at MSF’s Operational Centre of Geneva (OCG), is in charge of developing technical and/or strategic solutions to complex medical challenges encountered in the field or to opted medical ambitions. The Medical Department also plays a critical role in knowledge transmission to field medical staff through adapted trainings and quick access to key reference documents, tools, as well as recruitment strategies.

The Middle East Support Office (MESO) is the HQ office of OCG in Amman, Jordan. Its purpose is to support MSF programs in the face of the growing contextual complexity for humanitarian intervention and new challenges faced in the Middle East and beyond. Since 2023, the OCG Middle East Support Office consolidated medical support to OCG operations through a Medical Unit based in Amman that is attached to the OCG Medical Department in Geneva.

The Amman based Medical Unit comprises of various positions such as IPC and Laboratory Advisors with a global scope, and several flying and implementing positions (Mental Health, Mini-lab, Sexual and Reproductive Health, and Project Medical Referent) to boost implementation capacity in OCG missions.

Objectives

Through delegation from the Amman Unit Medical Leader of the MESO, the Infectious Disease & Antimicrobial Resistance (ID/AMR) Advisor develops medico-operational solutions requiring specific medical skills and/or in-depth investment, answering to recognized needs set in the medical ambitions.
In that perspective, he/she is proactively monitoring emerging scientific and medical infectious disease and AMR issues that might shape OCG medical practices and ambitions.

MAIN RESPONSIBILITIES AND TASKS
The ID/AMR Advisor contributes to the achievements of the objectives for its domain of expertise and, to this aim:
• Supports the Medical Responsible of the Program (RMPs) for each Cell with regards to complex technical issues link to ID/AMR with strategic and programmatic advice.
• Responds to complex and technical issues requiring expertise or/and development.
• Strengthens the skills and competencies of MSF staff through capacity-building in ID/AMR.
• Develops expertise in ID/AMR and integrate external knowledge into MSF practices.
• Supports the implementation of innovation and operational research projects.
• Participates in the tele-medicine ID/AMR clinical support.

Requirements

Education:
– Medical degree is mandatory
– Specialization in Infectious Diseases, AMR or related field is mandatory
– Master in Tropical Medicine, Public/Global or International Health is an asset

Experience:
– Field and/or HQ experience with MSF or similar medical organization is mandatory
– Experience with implementation/monitoring/evaluation of a hospital antibiotic stewardship program is an asset
– Significant experience in programs and tools of Antibiotic stewardship and IPC is an asset
– Experience in development and facilitation of trainings and workshops is an asset
– Experience with field research in resource poor settings is an asset
– Difficult, complex or remote field experience response is an asset