Emergency Health Coordinator (Health and WASH) (National Position)

Background/IRC Summary:  The International Rescue Committee (IRC) responds to the world’s worst humanitarian crises, helping to restore health, safety, education, economic wellbeing, and power to people devastated by conflict and disaster. Founded in 1933 at the call of Albert Einstein, the IRC is at work in over 40 countries and 26 U.S. cities helping people to survive, reclaim control of their future and strengthen their communities. The IRC has been operating in Thailand since 1975 and currently provides assistance to displaced persons in Tak, Kanchanaburi, Ratchaburi and Mae Hong Son provinces.

The IRC is preparing to support the Royal Thai Government to provide humanitarian assistance should a large-scale influx of displaced persons arrive in Thailand seeking protection due to the turbulent situation in Myanmar following the 01 February 2021 military takeover. 

Job Overview/Summary: The Emergency Health Coordinator provides leadership and facilitates processes that will ensure a well-coordinated, strategic, and effective Health response to address essential health needs of influx population affected from volatile political crisis in Myanmar. To ensure Health related needs of the affected population are properly covered, emergency health coordinator will effectively support the collective preparing and response with National and Provincial coordination body. The emergency heath coordinator will base in Mae Sot IRC- Health office under supervision of Senior Health Coordinator. The Emergency Health Coordinator will be responsible to supervise all staff of the IRC Emergency Response Team (Health and WASH) with close technical coordination and support with Senior Health Coordinator.

Major Responsibilities:

Coordination:

-  Oversight implementation and timely emergency response of emergency health project
-  Serve as focal person to coordinate between Emergency Response Team and Health program in planning and implementing emergency health response according to agreed workplan and objectives
-  Ensure health preparation, response approaches and actions align with Royal Thai Government policies and procedures.
-  Organize and conduct joint support missions to field operations ensure supervision
-  Ensure appropriate coordination between all Health partners, through establishment/maintenance of appropriate Health sector coordination mechanisms, including working groups at the national levels
-  Ensure effective links with other coordinators/ senior managers and represent and lead coordination with the interests of the health sector in discussions with the internal / external stakeholders including UNHCR, NGOs, CBOs, INGOs  on prioritization, resource mobilization, emergency response, interventions and advocacy
-  Identify urgent technical gaps and training needs in relation to technical standards and protocols for the delivery of key health services.
-  Responsible to ensure that Emergency Health Response Plan is on track and align with context and needs of affected population, include timely inform to health sector leads the IRC’s senior management team for adjustment or any corrective actions
-  Ensure Inclusion of existing Health humanitarian partners in all Health -related preparation and response
-  Represent the IRC- Emergency Health Program in health sector coordination mechanisms at field level and plan the relevant interventions
-  Represent the Health Sector in inter-sector coordination mechanisms at country/field level, contribute to jointly identifying critical issues that require multi-sectorial responses, and plan the relevant interventions with the other sectors concerned.

Planning and strategy development:

-  In cooperation with the IRC Health team, Lead the development, contingency planning for potential new influx of refugees in Thailand and other interagency planning.
-  Serve as focal point for inquiries on the Emergency Health Program response plans and operations
-  Health assessment and analysis; development (adaptation of generic standards) of standard assessment formats.
-  Identify gaps in the field of WASH and Health conceptualize how inter-sectoral needs can be met through collective delivery
-  Developing/updating agreed Health and WASH response strategies and action plans and ensuring that these are adequately reflected in higher level preparedness and response plans
-  Drawing lessons learned from past health activities and revising strategies and action plans accordingly.
-  Developing an exit, or transition, strategy for the health interventions and key sector partners.

Grants Management and Reporting

-  Ensure the most efficient use of resources by preparing sound project budgets, monitoring project budgets against expenditure, and ensuring appropriate adjustments by providing support and oversight to program managers on programmatic spending, track Budget vs. Actual reports and ensuring on “No over or underspending”.
-  Work with IRC’s Program Unit in the development of strong and coordinated project monitoring and evaluation systems in the health sector, and the development and maintenance of systematic data collection, storage and dissemination tools; and support capacity building of IRC partners to improve monitoring capacity and data quality.

Partnership Management
-  Serve as a focal lead person to coordinate with sub-grantee under Health and WASH Emergency Response Project.
-  Convene and facilitate consultative and results-oriented meetings in line with the principles of partnership
-  Provide technical support to implementing partner and coordinate with Partnership Team in monitoring and evaluation related to implementing partner.
-  Coordinate with Partnership Team in managing, monitoring and technical support to implementing partner
-  Support Senior Health Coordinator in order to provide health response aligned with response objectives and work plan.

Assessment and Analysis and Standards:

-  Manage, coordinate and be the overall lead of IRC emergency program and ensure effective and coherent Health Needs participatory assessment and analysis involving all relevant partners and stakeholders at different levels
-  Ensure that Health partners are aware of relevant policy guidelines, technical standards and relevant Government standards and policies.
-  Ensure that Health responses are in line with existing policy guidance, technical standards, and relevant Government legal obligations
-  Planning, information, interventions, monitoring and quality assurance, and regularly report on health services delivered to the affected population.

Monitoring and reporting:

-  Ensure adequate monitoring mechanisms are in place to review impact of Health interventions and progress against implementation plans. This specifically needs to include an analytical interpretation of best available information in order to benchmark progress of the emergency response over time.
-  Ensure adequate Health impact reporting and effective information sharing to demonstrate the closing of gaps.
-  Coordinate the development, adaptation and implementation of an Indicators' Monitoring Framework to ensure adequate implementation of the Health Sector Plans.

Advocacy and resource mobilization:
-  Identify core Health advocacy concerns, including resource requirements, and contribute key messages to broader advocacy initiatives.
-  With the support of Senior Management leadership, he/ she takes leading roles in coordination with RTG, local and provincial level
-  Advocate for donors to fund Health actors to carry out priority emergency Health activities in the sector concerned, while at the same time encouraging Health actors to mobilize resources for their activities through their usual channels.

Key Working Relationships:

 Position Reports to: Senior Health Coordinator
Position directly supervises:  Emergency Health Team
Indirect Reporting: Deputy Director of Program,
Other Internal Contacts: Health Coordinator-Refugee Program, Environmental Health Manager, Senior Awards Management Coordinator, Monitoring and Evaluation Coordinator, Regional Emergency Coordinator
Other External Contacts:  Health representatives from implementing agencies and other actors, Health Sector Coordinator