Work Location: Cape Town, South Africa
Duration: 1 year
Level: 14
Start date: ASAP
Reports to: Regional Medical Responsible
Background/introduction
Mid-2019 OCB launched a reform in support of the projects aiming at providing more autonomy to the projects. Southern Africa (SnA) missions (Mozambique, Zimbabwe and South-Africa) have been chosen as first pilot. An innovative and transformational approach will be implemented in 2020 in the region.
The model incorporates:
A ‘Regional Support Team’ (RST) will be established to be the first line contact for the projects for strategic matters. While being based in different offices in the region, the RST will report directly to the OCB Director of Operations.
‘Country support team’ (CST): a transformation of what is currently known as the Coordination Team (often based in the capital of the country) into a mixed team of junior and senior profiles that provide country-specific support within the different technical domains (HR, fin, supply, log, med..) and keep a role of representation at country level.
‘Project teams’: based on unicity of every project reality, lifecycle, setup etc…. During 2020, a reinforcement and/or re-organization of punctual, temporary or more permanent positions/ functions will accompany the transition towards a more final setup. Speed of transition is project-specific.
The Country Support Team will aim to invest in pro-active and tailor-made support solutions for the operations based in South Africa.
Country-based support to the projects in South Africa will be defined by the specific needs presented by operations that add a specific value of being centralized at a country-level. The support will require an agile nature, able to interpret and adapt according to evolutions in the operations and context. The projects will therefore play a primary role in shaping the function of the Country Support Team.
Part of this agility will be achieved through a “horizontal” or “holarchy” management approach that will replace a traditional management hierarchy. Individuals and teams will be organized using circle methodology, with the purpose and scope of these circles changing according to the operational needs.
SUMMARY OF POSITION:
The Medical Representative of the Country Support Team is part of the national leverage and representation unit (1xmedical, 1xnon-medical). Mission advocacy dossiers are split with the Medical Representative as the main interface between the national stakeholders representing the project’s medical ambitions (focus on HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis (including MDR-TB), Choice-Termination of Pregnancy (C-TOP), Sexual and Gender base violence (SGBV) and Covid-19). In addition to this, this role will play a key role in surveying the context for medical humanitarian gaps triggering new assessments and explos, and possible emergency interventions. Additional roles of the project will ultimately aim at supporting the projects with specific medical technical support.
CONTEXTUAL ACCOUNTABILITY
Transversal accountability for elaborating Field Recentralization in their environment:
Promotes the autonomy of the South African Projects
Encourages the autonomy and self-management of the Country Support team members and Circles
Supports the transformation of the former “coordination roles” towards agile Country Support Team set-up
Participation in circles within specific domains and as needed.
Advocacy/ Leverage
Representation of HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis (including MDR-TB), Choice-Termination of Pregnancy (C-TOP) and Sexual and Gender base violence (SGBV) and Covid-19 medical topics towards stakeholders at national level with reporting/info-sharing with project Ops
Representation towards medical stakeholders at national level with reporting of relevant updates towards project Med
Interpret/ understand project leverage needs & aggregates into implementation plan
Implements national-leverage activities according to project needs
Flags inconsistencies in national leverage approaches
Balances projects’ perceived medical needs and acts as arbitrator of most relevant national needs
Support to medical advocacy/leverage activities e.g. public dissemination of operational research outputs aimed at engineering policy change;
Working with civil society actors to help leverage medical evidence to catalyze change;
National Context Surveillance & Emergency Preparedness
Active Context & Emergency medical surveillance
Mirror for context surveillance with project team > Counterpart of regional & project ops in new area assessments/exploratory mandate: negotiation for access at country level – in binome with non-medical
Active links with OSU E-pool positions in Joburg (not active yet)
Medical Technical Support
Monitoring and evaluation & coherence of medical data base/collection and participation in Operational research [if applicable]
Support to pharmacy processes [as required by projects]
MSF Section/Context Specific Accountabilities
Transversal accountability for elaborating Field Recentralization in their environment:
Advocacy/ Leverage
Compiles the project leverage priorities from operations into a country advocacy strategy
Produces or supports the production of specific advocacy related initiatives such as reports, briefing docs and operational research outputs (toolkit, operational reports, abstracts, posters, manuscripts)
Remains aware of the SA environment for potential opportunistic moments for MSF’s advocacy agenda
Guides the advocacy activities by liaising with MSF Internal actors (CAME, FTP, regional advocacy AAU, SAMU, MSF SA) and External actors (national level DoH, UNAIDS, PEPFAR, GF, TAC & activist groups, NGOs, academics and others)
Conducts regular field visits to South Africa and Lesotho projects to give supports and report on these visits
Provides active support to the Medical Project coordinators and the coordination team in the ARO/budget process (annual and quarterly review) particularly around the advocacy activities.
Establishes close link with Regional Support Team, especially the Regional Leverage Focal Point and Medical Regional Focal point.
Communications:
Ensures that the mission and MSF SA collaborate smoothly with regards to communications and public image according to the agreed upon principle of communication
Liases with the Non-Medical representative, who supervises Communications within SA and Lesotho.
National Context Surveillance & Emergency Preparedness
Compliment the ongoing MSF SA context monitoring by reviewing medical journals, media & social media for relevant medical topics (relevant event and actors that might have an influence on MSF operations) and disseminate accordingly.
Provide analysis of political events and context that may impact access to health in South Africa, especially in locations where MSF is working and brief staff in case of major events/news.
Emergency surveillance in close collaboration with context surveillance & regional med analysing medical related trends within SA context:
Surveillance of notifiable medical conditions (NMCs) of public health importance to allow timeously detection and response to public health threats in close collaboration with NICD and Department of Health
Monitor place, person and time trends in priority diseases of public health importance (focusing on HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, TOP, SGBV and Covid-19 but not exclusively.
Participates in and/or supervises exploratory missions within South Africa.
Medical Technical Support
Monitoring and Evaluation
Provides active support to the Medical Project coordinators and field teams on defining indicators aligned with advocacy activities.
Ensures collection and coherence of medical data is done by the Project teams following the mission advocacy aims and that operational objectives are being reviewed in a quarterly/yearly basis in close collaboration with Medical Regional Focal Point and Leverage Regional focal point
Monitors progress of the mission advocacy related outputs on a quarterly and yearly basis and supports the teams on how best to reach those objectives.
Pharmacy support
Supports Country flying pharmacist with the approval of medical orders done by Project Medical Coordinators based on established Project Standard lists and established chronograms.
Covid-19).
Supports Project Medical coordinators and Country flying pharmacist with the implementation of proper PPE usage and follow up of PPE per project to ensure continuation of Covid-19 related activities.
Staff Health
To support Medical project coordinator on the management of staff health through the overview and approval of all Exceptional Claim Forms submitted by Medical Project Coordinators in close collaboration with national staff Health team.
To support the linkage between Project Medical coordinator and dedicated contracted broker when there is any complicated medical case, in close collaboration with national staff health team.
Covid-19 related staff health:
Staff health specific support to Medical Project coordinators or identified project responsible, adapting standard operational procedures and ensuring their implementation.
Maintenance of MSF staff Covid-19 cases data base and regular reporting to Staff Health Unit and Regional Medical referent on the impact of Covid-19 within MSF teams.
Ensuring Mental Health support is accessible by all projects and regularly assessing its use and effectiveness.
Human Resources
Brief & debrief key mission staff (including international staff) on advocacy and communication elements of the mission for the specified thematic areas.
Support and mentor of Project Advocacy officer/Deputy Project coordinators on advocacy related issues.
Associative
Participate actively in the association activities if you are an associative member
Other
Assist, within ones capacity, with any additional urgent matters as they may arise including punctual gap filling within the SA projects.
REQUIREMENTS
Education
Medical diploma required
Masters in Public Health an advantage
Experience
Essential working experience of at least two years in relevant similar jobs in other NGO’s, or previous field experience with MSF in different contexts.
Essential working experience in Southern Africa.
Essential experience working with HIV/TB, SRH/CTOP and GBV
Languages
Essential: English, Advantage: Zulu/Xhosa
Knowledge
Excellent computer literacy (word, excel, PowerPoint and internet)
Competencies
Flexibility and adaptability
Diplomacy and negotiation skills
Clear communication and public speaking skills
Report writing and organizing skills
Coaching or mentoring skills and advantage
Job advantages and Career opportunities
Experience in a well-known and professionally recognized international medical humanitarian organisation
Salary package comparable to other non-profit organisations
100% medical aid, 13th cheque and 10% contribution to pension
TO APPLY: please email a one page application letter, your comprehensive CV with details of 3 contactable referees to:
[email protected] MSF reserves the right not to make an appointment if a suitable candidate cannot be found. While MSF thanks all interested applicants, only short-listed applicants will be contacted.
Please note that MSF does not request a fee at any stage of the recruitment process
Closing date: 17th August 2020