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Médecins Sans Frontières-Holland

Internal/External vacancy announcement

Médecins Sans Frontières (also known as Doctors without Borders or MSF) is a private, non-profit, international humanitarian medical organization that intervenes in emergencies and crisis situations to relieve human suffering resulting from unmet medical needs. MSF observes strict neutrality with respect to politics and provides its assistance without discriminating on the basis of race, religion, ideology, or political affiliation. MSF’s members are required to respect humanitarian principles and principles of medical ethics at all times.

MSF-Holland in Ethiopia currently operates in five projects (North Gonder, Abdurafi project, in Tigray-Hitatse project, in Somali region- Wardher project, in Gambella region; Kule and Nguenyyiel project with diversified workforce.

MSF Holland is looking for:  EPIDEMIOLOGIST

Number of Position: one

Place of work:   Wardher, Somali Region

Terms of employment: 1 year with a possibility of extension

Remuneration and Benefits:

Starting gross salary/month: 31,540 ETB

Medical cover: as per the organization policy

Hardship allowance: 25% = 5,500 ETB

Date of application: November 16^th 2021 to  November 26^th 2021

Main Purposes

• Carry out investigation, implement assessment and epidemiological surveillance systems / monitoring (if needed) according to MSF protocols in order to contribute to appropriate evi-dence-based decision making using well managed health data in outbreak and emergency MSF program.

Accountabilities

• Carry out key epidemiological activities in outbreak investigation (description including time, place, people with emphasis on mapping when it is needed) and advise on the operational response
• Maintain a surveillance system to monitor epidemiological trends of relevant outbreak-prone diseases
• Guide activities of medical staff for surveillance and/or active case finding, including ensuring understanding of the need for consistent case definitions and data recording (briefing of all new staff)
• Manage data systems and ensure accurate, high quality databases
• Prepare regular written reports on progress and findings for medical coordinator/HQ and when appropriate to external collaborators/networks (MoH, other NGOs)
• Implement initial Assessment (for emergency situation), rapid health assessment and (baseline or follow-up) surveys:
• Where standard protocols are not available or appropriate, develop a protocol seeking extensive feedback and pilot testing of tools to ensure the objectives will be met robustly with support of HQ epidemiologist
• Prepare / adapt routine documentation (survey forms, training materials, letters of request/notification, locally appropriate consent forms etc.) with support of HQ epidemiologist
• Prepare an appropriate sampling frame and sample selection guidelines with support of HQ epidemiologist
• Hire, train and supervise survey staff, including ensuring staff exhibit required skills after training and pilot test
• Manage data systems and ensure accurate, high quality databases
• Analyze results and report on findings
• Implement/maintain relevant epidemiological surveillance systems/monitoring
• Provide training sessions to medical teams on relevant aspects of epidemiology to enhance team response capacity

MSF Section/Context Specific Accountabilities

• Strengthen and maintain the new tea-team surveillance system, training and supporting the Health Educator Supervisors (HES) and Community Health Workers (CHW) to engage with target communities and timely gather relevant information. Then undertake public health context analysis to inform project activities.
• Coordinate and lead the Tea-team to investigate and analyze potential cases and clusters of diseases, population movement and changes in population needs.
• Together, with the project team, design and implement appropriate control or response interventions.
• Map population movements to adapt the health services according to the location of pastoralist communities through the Tea Team
• Engage with local public health actors and stakeholders working on emergency response to understand better their capacity and activities.
• During emergencies or assessments ensures delivery of health promotion related messages through the T-team and CHWs according to the targeted communities’ priorities and identified health needs.
• Together with the Health Promotion and Community Engagement focal person, train and coach the T- team and CHW in surveillance and emergency related health promotion.
• •Contribute to emergency preparedness and support the ongoing development of the Rapid Response Team (RRT)
• Analyze the Tea-team surveillance data and communicate findings to the MTL on a weekly and monthly basis, using mapping/GIS technologies as appropriate.
• Support MTL in frequent and systematic analysis of surveillance data from mobile clinics
• Participate in exploratory assessments to identify new Mobile clinic sites and share findings with the MTL.
• Routine visits to other locations such as Yucub, Danod, Galadi and Bokh among others.
• Maintain the data collection system and support the project data encoder with on job training.
• Responsible for monthly Surveillance bulletin and contributes with inputs for the project Monthly Medical Report (MMR).
• Support the HR associated processes (strategy, recruitment, training, evaluation, development and internal communication) of the T-team including CHWs in various locations.
• If needed develop vaccination coverage surveys following vaccination catch-ups and campaigns.
• Participate and contribute to strategic discussions to develop the MSF project plan.

Job Requirements

Education

• Nurse, Clinical officer, Medical Doctor or public health officer with a major focus or degree in epidemiology

Experience

• At least 1year experience in field epidemiology related activities and disease surveillance.

Languages

• English essential and Somali is desirable

Knowledge

• Use of epidemiology related analytical software (excel, Epi-info, Health Information System)

Competences

• Flexibility.
• Results oriented
• Teamwork and people management

How to Apply

Interested applicants should submit their non-returnable CV and application including photocopies of all supporting documents to the address given below: On-line by CLICKING HERE or deliver hardcopy at MSF Holland Office at Wardher.

Please Note that we only contact short-listed candidates.