Regional Emergency Health Director

CR349

Our client is a leading international NGO focusing on primary healthcare programmes

Our Client has formed a consortium with another INGO to prepare for and respond to humanitarian emergencies in West Africa through the West African Humanitarian Relief Fund (WAHRF)
mechanism. Responses will be multi-sectoral, with our Client focusing on health and nutrition.

Main purpose of the role
The Regional Emergency Health Director will help plan, initiate and implement health and nutrition response in emergencies. This will involve horizon scanning for humanitarian
emergencies monitoring trends and needs across the West Africa region.
Activities may include emergency preparedness; contingency planning; conducting rapid health
and/or nutritional needs assessments; participating in relevant clusters; developing project
concept notes and proposals; coordinating with other health and/or nutrition actors at local, national and regional levels; start up emergency activities and facilitating the eventual handover
to more permanent incoming project staff.
The Regional Emergency Health Director will also assist in providing capacity-building and
training to existing programmes throughout West Africa. This will include programme
strengthening, such as training on disaster risk reduction and emergency preparedness to
increase organisational capacity to respond effectively to emergencies.

Responsibilities
Leadership
 Develop, implement and maintain coherent health and nutrition emergency response
strategies for countries covered by the WAHRF project
 Work with the partners to ensure immediate life saving responses to crises and emergencies, whilst considering
transitional needs.
Operational Management
 Monitor the evolving humanitarian situation in the region, including through a process of risk mapping and vulnerability assessments, and consider strategic, immediate and appropriate
responses to prioritised crises and emergencies in conjunction with DfID and other WAHRF partners
 Take part in the organisational intervention decision-making process, in any given West
African emergency
 Overall responsibility for ensuring the effective and efficient management of the health
and/or nutrition emergency responses
 Provide training and support development of emergency preparedness planning and
disaster risk reduction (DRR) in existing and new West Africa country programmes at various levels.
 Ensure reporting is undertaken to meet deadlines and is in line with the relevant donor
contracts and compliance requirements.
Emergency response
 Respond to humanitarian emergencies
 Lead emergency responses in West Africa; or lead or act as deputy in joint emergency responses; or work as a team-member within MRT or Country-led responses, as appropriate depending on the circumstances.
 In each case, to provide leadership in developing an appropriate and timely intervention , to include: analysis of health / nutrition humanitarian contexts; concept note,
proposal and budget writing; programme development and management.
 Coordination with the relevant clusters, donors, other sector actors and national/local authorities as necessary
Assessment
 Assist or lead in regional and country watch and surveillance as part of activities
 Prioritize countries for a pre-response assessment, and undertake those pre-response country needs assessments as necessary
 Rapid needs assessment of regions where disasters have occurred
Strengthening skills and programmes
 Provide training and capacity-building for regional staff, on
emergency planning and response
 Assist organisational West African country programmes with the development of disaster risk
reduction strategies in embedded into programmes and budgets as well as emergency preparedness/response plans in place and provide capacity building as necessary
 Where appropriate, use information provision, participatory methods and feedback mechanisms to include beneficiaries in the assessments, project design and implementation stages of their emergency responses.
Logistics/Finance/Administration
 Support Head Office Logistics Department in negotiations with key regional suppliers for supply chain agreements to ensure adequate medical supplies during responses as appropriate
 Ensure familiarity with donor compliance issues, ensuring all projects are compliant as applicable.
Representation
 Negotiations with potential regional donors in advance of emergencies, with the aim of securing co-funding streams
 Relationship-building with health authorities and other relevant government departments in advance of emergencies

£37,150 - £39,400 per annum

Dakar, Senegal, with travel throughout West Africa

Proven experience of emergency response in insecure environments
 Demonstrated experience of managing health or nutrition projects in emergency settings
 Practical experience and/or qualification in one or more of the following settings: disaster
health management, reproductive health, immunisation/cold chain, child health,
management of tropical diseases.
 Experience of conducting needs assessments
 Significant experience of representation to a broad range of people and organisations
 Successful experience of writing donor proposals and reports
 Budgetary and administrative experience
 Excellent communication skills, with good written and spoken English and French
 Ability to travel at short notice to remote and insecure locations at short notice for periods of up to three months at a time
Confident and proficient in the use of MS Office
 Strong leadership skills and a supportive management style
 Experience of establishing strong working relationships with colleagues from different functions and cultures, including at a distance
 Experience of a flexible approach to managing and prioritising a high workload and
multiple tasks in a fast paced environment with tight deadlines
 Substantial problem solving skills and experience of proactively identifying and addressing issues in day to day and crisis situations
Desirable
Qualifications, experience and competences
 Medical doctor, or nurse, or a graduate in public health
 Strong knowledge and experience of the nutrition and community based management of
acute malnutrition (CMAM)
 Experience in logistics and/or finance.
 Understanding of the UN system

Closing date for this role is 27th April 2010 and the role is start asap until the end of March 2011.

To apply please send in an updated CV with a covering letter to applications@skillsforcauses.com

Applications will be reviewed on an ongoing basis