Medical Strategic Advisor for Southern Africa Job At Médecins Sans Frontières

Medical Strategic Advisor for Southern Africa

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MSF OCB/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) Southern Africa/Southern Africa Medical Unit (SAMU)

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is an international, independent, medical humanitarian organisation that delivers emergency aid to people affected by armed conflict, epidemics, natural disasters and exclusion from healthcare. We work in over 60 countries, offering assistance to people based on need, irrespective of origin, religion, creed or political affiliation.

MSF Operational Centre Brussels is looking for a:

Medical Strategic Advisor for Southern Africa

The Medical Strategic Advisor, together with the Operational and Leverage Advisors are responsible for the operational portfolio in Southern African through the principle of subsidiarity. He/she will be a core member of the Regional Support Team (RST) together with the Ops and the Leverage responsibles that will animate the network in the region ensuring autonomy and support for the Projects. The core RST will also have a collective strategic role on new operations and overall scope within the region, framed by the OCB Operational Prospects and resource allocation. They will also have a primary role in responding to medical humanitarian emergencies in the region as a key member of the OCB network. He/She will be coached/ “mirrored” by a member of the SAMU (South-African Medical Unit) as part of the MSF Medical Department and benefit from the experience, expertise and functioning of the SAMU. Her/his mandate will require a lot of mobility in the Sub-Region and based in Johannesburg together with the Ops and Leverage counterparts.

Autonomy matrix of Core Regional Support Team

Operational Context

Mid-2019 OCB launched a reform in support of the projects aiming at providing more autonomy to the projects. Southern Africa (SnA) missions (Mozambique, Zimbabwe and South-Africa) have been chosen as first pilot. An innovative and transformational approach will be implemented in 2020 in the region. The model incorporates:

• A ‘Regional Support Team’ (RST) will be established to be the first line contact for the projects for strategic matters. While being based in different offices in the region (for the log and the finance roles), the RST will report directly to the OCB Director of Operations.
• ‘Country support teams’ (CST): a transformation of what is currently known as the Coordination Team (often based in the capital of the country) into a mixed team of junior and senior profiles that provide country-specific support within the different technical domains (HR, fin, supply, log, med..) and keep a role of representation at country level.
• ‘Project teams’: based on unicity of every project reality, lifecycle, setup etc…. During 2020, a reinforcement and/or re-organization of punctual, temporary or more permanent positions/ functions will accompany the transition towards a more final setup. Speed of transition is project-specific.

To capitalize on existing capacities and to animate the Regional Network, support in the region will be ‘distributed’ in nature. It will be possible for various OCB locations in the region (project, national, section etc) to hold various types of roles in support of the Projects.

All members of the support network will be mobilised to create and to animate a network that is able to make decisions as collective as possible and to allow maximum cross-fertilization between the projects and the Support Teams. This unique horizontally managed set up will:

• promote more autonomy for the projects by increasing responsibility and competences at the project level, by reducing the responsibility of the today’s coordination teams at country level who will transition towards ad-hoc Country Support Teams.
• aim to develop as many synergies as possible (also with the section office), primarily on Communication, Human Resources and advocacy common interests.
• promote a holarchic managerial approach by including project staff in strategic decisions and by encouraging a distributed setup within the regional team.

Main objectives

As a member of the RTS, the Regional Medical Responsible will be the 1st line consultation for the project Medical on strategic medical issues & coach in order to guarantee the projects to be as autonomous as possible through assistance in creating, leading and animating a regional team, support the projects and safeguard coherence of the OCB operations and advocacy in the region. The core RST will also have a decisional role on new operations within the region, framed by the OCB Operational Prospects and resource allocation. They will also have a primary role in responding to medical humanitarian emergencies in the region as a key member of the OCB network.

Main purpose of the post:

• Provide strategic medical support to the Project Medical responsible through mirror and coaching posture
• Guarantee the alignments/coherence of medical mandate, strategic choices and objectives of the projects (within the region of Zim ,SA, Moz) with the global medical strategy of OCB
• Monitor health & humanitarian conditions & context in connection with the project ops & med and the national teams. Ensures the medical frame & long-term overview of the projects with the project Med
• Proposes & participates in exploratory missions, situation assessments through consultation with regional OPS & national representative
• Contribute to emergency responses in the region, as part of OCB regional network
• Ensure projects having a pertinent Operational Research, M&E and/or med advocacy component within the medical mandate of OCB; creating synergies between projects and facilitate the relations between the project and referents from med department (SAMU included).

Requirements

Education

• Medical or paramedical profile
• A medical education is a strong asset
• University degree, particularly in medicine and/or public health, or paramedical is a plus

Experience

• At least 5 years of operational experience
• Extensive MSF experience in similar positions, preferably field experience, is a strong asset
• Relevant and solid experience in coaching
• Working experience in the region is an asset
• Experience in HIV and TB programs is an asset
• Basics in Public Health or Operational Research is an asset.

Competencies

• Strategic Vision
• Leadership
• People Management and Development
• Service Orientation
• Teamwork and Cooperation

Languages

• English proficiency is mandatory; Portuguese is an asset

Conditions

• Expected starting date: ASAP/ Q3 2020
• 2years extendable contract under local legislation,
• Duty Station: The MSF Southern Africa Section. Primarily located in the Section’s office in Johannesburg, the role also requires routine visits to other sites, e.g. Cape Town, where SAMU are primarily located
• Proximity with the projects in the region (SA, Zimbabwe, Mozambique)
• Adhere to the MSF principles and to MSF managerial values: Respect, Transparency, Integrity, Accountability, Trust and Empowerment
• Adhere to the MSF Behavioral Commitments
• To agree with the philosophy and principles behind the Field Recentralisation programme of OCB