Senior Health Manager (Emergency Flood Response 2022)

Background/IRC Summary:  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.

IRC has been working in Pakistan since 1980, and manages and delivers large, complex programs to meet the needs in health, education, protection, environmental health and livelihoods for displaced, poor and disaster affected communities. IRC works in partnership with local government and non-governmental organizations and currently works in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Sindh provinces.

Job Overview/Summary: 

The position holders will be based in Hyderabad and Quetta IRC office, report to the Sr. Response Manager / Sindh & Baluchistan and is expected to contribute extensively to successful execution of project health sector activities and achievement of flood emergency project objectives; ensures that program technical goals, objectives, process and procedures are successfully implemented, and monitoring support provided to Partner; the prioritized technical sectors/areas are included into the overall programming and if needed developed appropriately. The Sr. Health Manager oversees the technical or sector aspects of the health programme/response, ensuring that technical aspects of programs are adequately addressed and integrated. He/she will conduct field visits to health facilities to monitor and support field level teams; and coordinate with project team to ensure quality in health services in line with predetermined quality standards; any other tasks assigned by the supervisor.

Key Responsibilities:

Actively participate in overall management and implementation of health component of an overall integrated protection, health, nutrition and education project designed to holistically respond and address diverse needs of flood affected communities in Sindh and Baluchistan provinces. Will ensure achievement of project objectives and quality in health service delivery with a strong focus on timely and quality results, teamwork, participation, empowerment, accountability, and client satisfaction. The incumbent will work with numerous counterparts’ teams, implementing partners, and technical experts. Major duties are described below.

• Act as a technical support representative for health-related program activities as required to ensure performance according to the project desired objectives and outputs
• Provide technical support to partner to make rotation plans and ensure provision of Primary Health Care services to communities who are living in remote areas through Mobile Health Teams (MHTs) in nearby areas of villages’ cluster. Ensure that the MHTs are equipped with necessary basic equipment, medical supplies, consumables and pharmaceuticals and human resource.
• Support in establishment of referral pathways between MHT and nearest public health facilities for referral of critical cases
• Create harmony and improve team dynamics in all team members including implementing partners
• Ensure timely progress towards planned outputs and results; keep implementing partner and other staff appraised of progress and issues; make recommendations to solve problems and take the lead in implementing agreed upon actions.
• Will provide institutional and technical capacity-building support to partner through training and on the job mentoring where needed. With support of IRC’s technical coordinators and program team, will work alongside partner, sharing knowledge and expertise through hands-on capacity building.
• Regularly organize partner’s project review meetings to track progress and spending as per agreed plans. Conduct compliance monitoring visits to partners in line with agreed monitoring and support plan
• Participate in activity conceptualization and design; write and edit activity approval documents, program descriptions and statements of work; prepare activity memos and justifications; lead or participate on technical evaluation committees as and when needed.
• Assist in the development and refinement of benchmarks and indicators to assess the primary health care program progress and impact.
• Lead in preparing written analysis, trip reports, briefing materials, activity descriptions, press releases, speeches, success stories, and other documents as required.
• Coordinate with relevant departments to ensure effective support to the field level activities, and to provide accurate information to the field regarding regulations to foster project implementation
• Ensure synergy and linkages between health activities and other program elements including protection and education; ensure synergies and linkages with other IRC programs
• Ensure adherence and compliance to IRC and donor policies and procedures.
• Other duties, as assigned.

Key Working Relationships:

Position Reports to:  Sr. Response Manager

Position directly supervises: None

Indirect Reporting: Other Internal and/or external contacts:

Internal: Project Manager, Project Team Lead,  Health Coordinator

External:  DoH, Government Service Providers and implementing partner teams

 Job Requirements:    

Education: Minimum required qualification includes master’s level qualification in Social Sciences, International Development, Public Health or related subject, demonstrates sound knowledge of public health programming in local context. Having MBBS/BDS degree will be preferred.

· Experience: 5-7 years of experience of working in Health sector projects, (at a similar post) preferably with a focus on health system strengthening/ primary health care/ nutrition, as a part of international NGO team member with similar responsibilities, in Sindh and Balochistan; 5 years of experience of working in diverse team.

Demonstrated Skills and Competencies:

• Strong communication, interpersonal, coordination and monitoring skills
• Must be a team player and has experience of supporting field team/s
• Multi-tasking and ability to manage competing priorities 
• Ability to acquire and maintain clear and concise records
• Result based demonstrable capacity
• Monitoring and evaluation skills
• Working in challenging atmosphere
• Critical analytical skills

Language Skills: Fluent in English and Urdu speaking and writing; preferably fluent in Pashto and Dari OR Sindhi

Certificates or Licenses:  None

Working Environment: Works well in teams and promotes teamwork; be flexible and able to handle pressure well

The IRC Core Values and Commitments; 

The IRC and IRC workers must adhere to the values and principles outlined in IRC Way - Standards for Professional Conduct. These are Integrity, Service, and Accountability. In accordance with these values, the IRC operates and enforces policies on Beneficiary Protection from Exploitation and Abuse, Child Safeguarding, Anti Workplace Harassment, Fiscal Integrity Anti-Retaliation and Combating Trafficking in Persons.

IRC is committed to ensuring that IRC staff is suitable to work with children and have the knowledge s/he needs to uphold and abide by the IRC’s Child Safeguarding Policy.

o   Level of interaction with children: Frequent direct contact with children

IRC ensures that its staff must actively practice the roles and responsibilities related to client responsiveness, accountability to people in affected communities and must have competencies to solicits and listens to feedback and other’s perspectives, responds to feedback with maturity and sensitivity and takes appropriate decisions and makes changes to behavior or actions in response to feedback.

IRC recognizes that gender equality is fundamental to the achievement of our organizational mission. As such, IRC is committed to the promotion of gender equality in all aspects of our operations and programs. Our organizational policies, procedures and actions demonstrate this commitment.

Women candidates and differently abled persons are highly encouraged to apply.