Senior Health Officer

The International Rescue Committee responds to the world’s worst humanitarian crises and helps people to survive and rebuild their lives. Founded in 1933 at the request of Albert Einstein, IRC offers life-saving care and life-changing assistance to refugees forced to flee from war or disaster. At work today in more than 40 countries and in 22 U.S. cities, IRC restores safety, dignity and hope to millions who are uprooted by conflict or disaster. IRC leads the way from harm to home.

CONTEXTUAL BACKGROUND

The Syria crisis is often described as the worst humanitarian catastrophe since the end of the Cold War. Inside Syria, 7.6 million people are internally displaced and 12.2 million are in need of humanitarian assistance, with 4.8 million in hard-to-reach areas. There are 4 million Syrian refugees in neighboring countries. This is no short-term humanitarian episode. The devastating human consequences to huge numbers of people will endure for decades. The destruction of relationships, communities, livelihoods, homes and infrastructure will take years to repair.

IRC is offering a robust humanitarian response to the Syria crisis. With an annual budget in excess of $140 million and a rapidly expanding portfolio, supported by more than 1,250 staff in the region, IRC is undertaking programs in Syria and the neighboring countries of Turkey, Iraq, Lebanon and Jordan in the fields of health, child protection, education, women’s protection and empowerment, NFI and food distribution, cash assistance, water and sanitation, and livelihood programming. Our work in these challenging settings gives rise to some of the most pressing issues facing contemporary humanitarian action, including questions of access, security, funding and coordination.

Job Overview/Summary:

The Senior Health Officer is responsible for the supervision of the IRC partner implementation in North West Syria. The Senior Health Officer will provide support to program daily activities, training, and follow up processes with the IRC implementing partners. S/he will oversee all aspects of supervision, monitoring and capacity building for partner led activities in Idleb and Aleppo Governorates. This post will report directly to the Senior Health Manager.

Major Responsibilities:

Technical Program Management

•Support the overall coordination, monitoring and reporting of partners and health facilities activities.

•Communicate with partners and program stakeholders to provide support and detailed information for the program about facility updates daily. Regular use of traditional communication methods (phone, email, file sharing and paper based exchanges).

•Collect, update, manage facilities information and present them to the program, play a major role in collecting information from HSWG to ensure the support for all INGO is not duplicated.

•Liaise with key staff to ensure effective planning and implementation of the program’s activity. Identify, strengthen and promote partnerships, dialogue and exchanges;

•Provide supervision to the IRC health programming and provide oversight, including design health implementation strategies and approaches in health program implementation in collaboration with the Senior Health Manager; adapt strategies in response to changing contexts, emergency response efforts, and project or funding needs.

•Oversee IRC’s partner-led program implementation ensuring sub-award deliverables are completed and necessary support is given to enable health activities; building stronger relationships with partner organizations to facilitate strong collaboration and provide capacity building.

•Oversee the implementation of the program implementation and ensure that stated objectives are met, that projects are appropriately monitored, and that reports are written and submitted in a timely mannerin collaboration with the Senior Health Manager, the Community Health Manager, and the Pharma Manager.

•Work in close collaboration with field management teams and other sector departments to ensure proper coordination and implementation of integrated approaches; attend regular site-specific field coordination meetings; provide regular reports to Field Coordinators/Managers as it relates to health activities and needed operational support.

•Train partner staff on the correct and accurate submission of health facility reports and follow up with them on security and safety issues that affect programming.

•Coordinate with Health Technical Advisors on the health guidance and improvement for the health activities.

•Act as Focal point for the health program with the RH Technical Advisor to work on the corrective actions for health program implementation related to the reproductive health component.

General Project & Grant Management

•Develop and follow detailed work, procurement and spending plans in relation to project timelines and deliverables; manage course correction plans as informed by progress

•Ensure proper and timely implementation of current projects and grants; track and monitor progress and performance against indicators

•Manage the budgets for the implementation of the programming in multiple sites and across various grants following spending plans

•Write and submit quality monthly/quarterly reports with inputs from the field-based health teams and partners

•Work closely with the Partnership Unit on the management of sub-awards to implementing health partners.

•Oversee operational partner activities inside Syria and review partners’ progress, narrative, and financial report.

•Engage and follow up with Supply Chain, Field Management, and Finance team to ensure effective planning and implementation for smooth program implementation.

•On a daily/weekly/monthly basis, provide the Senior Health Manager with tracking/monitoring information, partnership communication summaries and records requiring attention. Provide Senior Health Manager with donor, partner and program summaries.

•Maintain and ensure that program information is accurate and up to date, and saved on the O-drive.

Program Quality Assurance

•Oversee quality of care provided in health clinics while developing and implementing quality assurance and routine monitoring activities

•Based on analysis of information received from partner activities through the HIS team; identify clinic trends and develop mitigation measures to address programmatic gaps and improve overall quality of care

Key Working Relationships

Position Reports to: Senior Health Manager

Position directly Supervises: None

Key Internal Contacts:

§Country Program:Health Coordinator, HIS Senior Officer, Phamra Specialist, Community Health Manager, Mental Health Manager, Partnership Unit, Field Management, Protection Coordinator, Humanitarian Access Managers, Health Field staff, Clinical Advisor

Key External Contacts:IRC’s local partner organizations and health clinics, other NGOs