International Medical Corps is looking for Program Director
Department: International Programs
Country : Chad
Essential Job Duties/Scope of Work:
International Medical Corps is a global, humanitarian, nonprofit organization dedicated to saving lives and relieving suffering through health care training and relief and development programs. Established in 1984 by volunteer doctors and nurses, International Medical Corps is a private, voluntary, nonpolitical, nonsectarian organization. Its mission is to improve the quality of life through health interventions and related activities that build local capacity in underserved communities worldwide. By offering training and health care to local populations and medical assistance to people at highest risk, and with the flexibility to respond rapidly to emergency situations, International Medical Corps rehabilitates devastated health care systems and helps bring them back to self-reliance.
PROGRAM BACKGROUND
International Medical Corps has been present in Chad since 2004, following the massive influx of refugees from Darfur in the eastern regions of the country. Program priority areas have been in line with International Medical Corps’ flagships: building health capacity, emergency preparedness and response, women’s and children’s health and nutritional wellbeing, and integrated mental health services. Activities have largely been focused on ensuring primary and secondary health care, and nutrition service provision, to populations affected by conflict and displacement, and/or food insecurity and acute malnutrition. Specifically, IMC currently reinforces the capacity of 38 primary health care centers across two regions (Lake Region – 24, Abdi District – 14) in the delivery of integrated health and nutrition services. In addition, it supports a district hospital and mobile clinics in the Lake Region, and a nutrition stabilization center in Abdi District.
JOB SUMMARY
The primary function of the Program Director is to support the Country Director in providing technical oversight to all projects and operational support to the country field sites. As part of the senior management team, the Program Director also plays an active role in planning, designing, implementation, supervision, expansion/development and administration of overall country programs in collaboration with the country senior management team, in addition to program development and reporting responsibilities. In addition to supporting the country mission in N’Djamena, the Program Director will conduct frequent visits to the various program sites to support the field coordinators.
ESSENTIAL RESPONSIBILITIES
1. Program Management
- Manage the programs in ensuring their objectives and achieving impact are met;
- In collaboration with the Reporting Officer and/or Field Coordinators, lead the development of concept notes, project proposals, budgets, and donor reports to expand the program portfolio of the mission;
- Maintain working relationship with the MoH, the UN agencies, health advisors, and relevant clusters and interface with them on a regular basis;
- Proactively oversees all projects in country through all components of the project management cycle, identifies needed areas for quality improvement and initiates communication between technical, Operations and finance s leads in country and with global International Medical Corps departments (e.g. technical units, finance, logistics and operations),
- Provides technical support and oversight to all project staff and site managers (Field Co and Medical Advisers);
- Work closely with Chad Medical Director, Country Director and other staff for program development;
- Ensure donor compliance in implementation of projects;
- Ensure strict compliance with donor contract requirements/ reporting deadlines;
- Ensure strict compliance with donor contract requirements/ reporting deadlines;
- Guide and support curriculum development and training program for staff and local NGO partners, if any;
Review all medical orders of the country mission and ensure adequate quantity and high quality of pharmaceuticals in relationship with Medical Director; - Liaise with relevant stakeholders on IMC programs;
- Monitor humanitarian crisis in Chad, performing field assessments when necessary, and advise CD of response options;
- Ensure health programs utilize standardized protocols, policies and guidelines according to Ministry of Health or in the absence of such national standards, ensure that programs utilize standards endorsed by the WHO;
- In collaboration with the M&E Coordinator, Technical Coordinators in country and at IMC global departments and the Field Coordinators, oversee the collection and timely reporting of medical data and statistics for all programs (including objectives, indicators and outcomes of health programs) according to internal and donor requirements
2. Representation
Attend coordination meetings relevant to country programs;
Attend epidemiological meetings, the health, nutrition, Food security and Wash clusters;
Represent the organization at task force meetings, UN coordination meetings, INGO coordination meetings, as appropriate;
Ensure maximum visibility of the organization amongst the NGO/UN community;
Contribute to the creation of a positive image and overall credibility of the organization, notably through the application of the organization’s Code of Conduct, medical ethics, and respect of medical protocols and medical code, values and stand-point with regard to internal and external actors;
Update all the medical protocol of the country, getting all updated national strategic plan (against malaria, malnutrition, HIV/AIDS, TB, SRH) and implementing them on the field through regular contact with all MoH specialize advisors.
3. Human Resources Management
- Assist in the selection, recruitment, and training of medical/paramedical staff;
- Supervise, orient, monitor, and evaluate all medical and paramedical expat staff of the mission;
- Maintain open lines of communication with all field staff and service departments.
- Ensure close supervision and guidance of project and/or officers;
- Work with field coordinators and project officers to address programmatic challenges;
- Supervise directly two expatriates and one national staff: one Reporting Officer, one M&E Coordinator (expatriates) and an M&E assistant.
4. Training/ Capacity Building
- Determine training needs for medical staff and facilitate the participation of relevant staff in necessary trainings;
- Train senior medical/paramedical national staff to build capacity and increase job responsibilities;
- Advocate and plan for professional development for expat and national staff;
5. Working Relationship
- Maintain punctual communication with Country Director, other Senior Management Team members and Field Coordinators to ensure program activities and objectives are achieved;
- Work with Country Director, Logistics Coordinator, Human Resources Manager and Finance Director to ensure the coordination of timely delivery of program supplies and expenses are within budgeted limits;
- Participate in routinely scheduled calls with International Medical Corps headquarter and associated department staff to advise on activities and project implementation of projects in Chad,
- Verify that all project reports and completed, submitted and the verification of submission shared with the regional desk, projects Kickoff meetings are planned, organized and held on the field under Field Coordinators and M&E and Nutrition Coordinator supervision and all aspects of project planning, implementation and completed are carried out;
- Coordinate with national government and relevant agencies as necessary;
- Maintain the contact with HQ Technical Units and plan and organize regular field visit with roving advisors.
6. Security
- Collaborate with Security Officer and CD in order to ensure staff and reputation of the organization are safe and secure at all time
- Ensures application and compliance of security protocols and policies.
Compliance & Ethics: Promotes and encourages a culture of compliance and ethics throughout International Medical Corps. As applicable to the position, maintains a clear understanding of International Medical Corps’ and donor compliance and ethics standards and adheres to those standards. Conducts work with the highest level of integrity. Communicates these values to staff and to partners and requires them to adhere to these values.
The duties and responsibilities listed are representative of the nature and level of work assigned and are not necessarily all inclusive.
QUALIFICATIONS
- Minimum 4 years’ experience in design, management and evaluation of health and nutrition projects.
- Previous experience in medical humanitarian context as a Program Director
- Must have an understanding of the emergency and development sectors and a demonstrated understanding of humanitarian principles.
- Experience in directly managing and supervising staff.
- Significant experience in proposal development, especially USG and UN donors, and excellent report writing and editing skills.
- Monitoring and evaluation experience is preferred.
- Familiarity with international humanitarian operations, coordination structures, and the mandates of donors, UN agencies, and NGOs.
- Ability to live and work under precarious environment.
- Complete familiarity with project management cycle.
- Knowledge and experiences of budget preparation, management and donor requirements, especially USAID/OFDA, PRM and UN requirements.
- Profound cross-cultural awareness and insight into health care issues.
- Ability to exercise sound judgment and make decisions independently following consultative processes.
- Extremely flexible, and have the ability to cope with stressful situations and frustrations.
- Ability to relate to and motivate local staff effectively.
- Creativity and ability to work with limited resources.
- Highly reliable, able to consistently meet tight deadlines.
- Team player with extremely strong communication skills, both oral and written.