Community Health Specialist

Job posted by: International Rescue Committee (IRC)-USA - Wed, 23 Apr 2014

Job Details:

Organisation: International Rescue Committee (IRC)-USA

Deadline Sun, 22 Jun 2014

Job type: Permanent

Location: South Sudan

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The International Rescue Committee (IRC) 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, the IRC offers lifesaving care and life-changing assistance to refugees forced to flee from war or disaster. At work today in over 40 countries and 22 U.S. cities, we restore safety, dignity and hope to millions who are uprooted and struggling to endure. The IRC leads the way from harm to home.

With the expertise that has been developed over 20 years of delivering emergency relief and post-conflict assistance in South Sudan, the IRC is uniquely well placed to efficiently and effectively support and build the capacity of County Health Departments (CHD) to deliver quality primary healthcare (PHC) at 44 health facilities through the health sector transition programme funded by the Health Pooled Fund (HPF), whose key objectives are: to improve access, use, and quality of Primary Healthcare (PHC) services and Emergency Obstetric and Newborn Care (EmONC) services; to support strengthening key stewardship functions of the MOH including planning, management, coordination, supervision and monitoring at all levels, in accordance with MOH guidelines and tools; and to increase accountability and effectiveness by working with community mechanisms for improving health and health education.  Under this programme, the IRC will promote the transition from an NGO-led to a CHD -led service delivery model.

Scope
The Community Health Specialist will work directly with communities, CHD, and the IRC county health teams including community health officers and county coordinators to review and make recommendations on current implementation of community participation, accountability, demand and utilization of primary healthcare services. Consultations with State Ministries of Health (SMoH) and county authorities will also be applied. This will be a roving position to cover four counties of Aweil East, Aweil South, Aweil Centre in Northern Bahr El Ghazal State and Payinjar in Unity State. He/ She will report directly to HPF Coordinator.

Objectives
* To review and make recommendations on the use of functional community participation systems including through VHCs, TBAs, community leaders, outreaches and campaigns  
* To review and make recommendations on community mobilization approaches and tools that will lead to increased demand and utilization of healthcare services
* To review and make recommendations on community dialogue and accountability approaches and tools that will ensure better use of resources for healthcare delivery
* To review and make recommendations on community feedback mechanisms and tools that will ensure increased responsiveness of health system

Responsibilities
* Conduct an audit of staff involved in engaging communities to participate in PHC
* Assess feasibility and achievability of current HPF objective 3 activities  
* Participate in some community activities and assess their quality
* Make some comparisons between the needs of the communities versus current interventions
* Assess effectiveness of methodologies and tools currently being used to achieve HPF objective 3
* Assess current collaboration and involvement of county authorities, other county departments and other partners in achieving HPF objective 3

Methodology
* Observation of current CHD-IRC PHC programme
* Key informant interviews
* Focus group discussions
* Review of programme documents on HPF objective 3
* Secondary literature review

Outputs expected
* Direct feedback to CHDs and the IRC county health teams, with key actionable recommendations  
* Report of the review
* (The report shall be 18 pages excluding annexes, A4, calibri 11 font, 1.0 line spacing, 1”x1” page margins, 6 pt spacing after paragraphs, key findings and action points clearly displayed in information boxes, and four high resolution captioned action photographs).
 - Cover page
 - Copyright page
 - Table of Contents – one page
 - Acknowledgements – half page
 - Foreword – one page, by SMoH
 - Acronyms – one page
 - Executive Summary – one page
 - Introduction – one page
 - Background
 - Objectives
 - Methodology – one page
 - Findings of the review/ analysis – five pages
 - Limitations of the review – one page
 - Actionable recommendations to CHDs and the IRC – two pages
 - References – half page
 - Appendices

Requirements
* Advanced professional qualification in public health, or community health, or social science.
* 5 years experience in community health in developing countries, including South Sudan.
* 5 years experience in community participation and engagement in developing countries.
* Demonstrable health promotion skills.
* Experience working for INGO.
* Experience in programme evaluation and report writing.
* Computer literacy with good working knowledge of MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Internet.
* Fluent in written and spoken English.
* Familiar with South Sudan government/ MoH standards and guidelines.
* Strong communication skills.
* A team player and willing to work in remote areas.

Work Environment
* Security level yellow – standard precautions apply. Concerns include common criminality, presence of armed troops, and tribal violence.

Housing
* Lodging in Juba is in a private bedroom, with en suite bathroom, in a shared IRC guesthouse. In field sites sleeping accommodations range from tent to traditional hut to permanent structures. Field compounds have latrines and showers. All IRC sites have electricity and internet at least several hours per day. Food is the individual’s responsibility.

Please follow this link to apply:
http://www.aplitrak.com/?adid=a2ltbC42ODE5MS40ODEwQGlyYy5hcGxpdHJhay5jb20



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