Medical coordinator - Equitable access to health care services and system strengthening, Liben, Ethiopia

DURATION12 months

I. CONTEXT

At the End of July, the United Nations declared a famine in two regions of Southern Somalia owing to the worst drought in decades, and appealed for urgent resources to assist millions of people in desperate need of help. By early August six regions were declared under famine by the UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia. It is the first time since 1991-92 that the UN has declared famine in a part of Somalia. Acute malnutrition rates among children exceed 30 per cent, more than two people out of 10,000 die per day, and people are not able to access food and other basic needs.

Although the food security situation is gradually improving in most parts of Ethiopia, particularly in the highland areas and recent rains have been generally favourable for planting and crop development and improved availability of pasture and water; the rainy season may also bring an increased risk of mosquito-borne illnesses, such as malaria and dengue, waterborne illnesses such as cholera, and other severe diarrhoea diseases in the region. In addition, heavy rains are washing out roads, making it more difficult for health workers to reach their posts, and for medical supplies to be delivered.

Dollo Ado is situated in the Liben region, which is part of the Ethiopian Somali Region, on the Ethiopian side of the Ethiopia and Somali border. The number of Somalia refugees arriving in Dollo Ado per month has increased from a total of 5,060 in September to 8,543 in October. During the first week of December, the average number of daily of arrivals was 500 per day, however the numbers are decreasing do to the lowest demand for IDPs. The neighbouring district is Filtu where the hospital of reference for the refugee population of the camps are located.

II. OBJECTIVE OF THE MISSION

Médecins du Monde's (MdM) objective is to support health services by strengthening the Filtu Hospital as the referral health facility for the Bokolmanyo and Malkidida Refugee Camps and Filtu host population.

MdM Spain will implement a Maternal and Child Health care project in two woredas (administrative division of Ethiopia):

Dollo Addo woreda, near the Somalia border where five Somali refugee camps are functioning,Filtu Woreda were Filtu´s hospital facilities and Primary Health Community care will be strengthened.

At the moment, the Italian NGO Comitato Collaborazione Medica (CCM) is supporting health care activities at the Filtu hospital, especially in surgery, antenatal, newborn and obstetric care. However due to the massive influx of refugees, needs have increased and the Somali Region Health Bureau (SRHB) is facing constrains to support the affected populations.

The specific objectives are as follows:

OS1: To strengthen the referral system (from refugee camps to Filtu Hospital) of patients through capacity building of Health Workers.

OS2: To strengthen health care services at hospital level trough maternal, newborn and child health care programs and infrastructure.

OS3: To support the implementation of Maternal, Neonatal and Child Survival Health Care programs at Community level.

OS4: To monitor and evaluate the project results based on the established performance indicators in the log-frame.

III. OBJECTIVE OF THE POSITION

The project medical coordinator will be in charge of organizing and coordinating the mission's administrative and logistical components (finance, accounting, national human resources, and logistics) of the MdM Project in Ethiopia.

Medical Component:

Implement, monitoring and evaluation of the medical activities of the project at facility and community level OS1 – OS2 – OS3 – OS4.Manage, coordinate and supervise national medical teams at refugee camp (training), hospital (maternity waiting home and MNCH program), community level (facility and outreach)Report medical activities through monthly, quarterly reports including the final report and evaluation.Together with the Project coordinator, responsible of implementation, follow up of the medical budget (planned budget, requisition, obligation, expenditure).Coordinate and cooperate with authorities and local partners.Monitor LOUs with ARRA and SRHB (medical project components)Ensure information flow of medical technical information with HQ.

Description of activities:

Project Implementation * Coordinate medical activities implementation, monitoring and evaluation at facility and community level.

Monitoring and Evaluation * Coordinate the implementation of the continuum of care concept (mother child – community facility) * Data surveillance: data collection, analysis and reporting * Support the evaluation of the medical results of the project.

Management

Manage the medical national teams in the field.Defines the organisation of work and positions for medical activities in the field.

Supervision

Supervise, organise and follow up of medical activities;Supervision and follow-up on the supply of medical materials and drugs, in collaboration with Project Coordinator, Project Logistician and Project Administrator.

Relations with donors

Draft the narrative medical part of intermediary or final reports and shares them with Project Coordinator;Represents MDM in meetings with donors on the mission's medical component as required.

Budgetary follow-up

Follow-up the medical budget, analyses and justifies consumption levels per line;Anticipate budget constraints to the project coordinator and project administrator

Relations with medical authorities

Analyse medical context (coverage, local rules, national medical protocols, connections and stakes and MDM- positioning) and proposes intervention methods in collaboration with the Project Coordinator;Adapt the project to the constraints and opportunities linked with local/regional health authorities;

Partnership

Ensure coordination with CCM for the implementation of the medical activitiesAnalyse medical context (identification, analysis of constraints and opportunities in the partners' choice and analysis of their implication in MDM's intervention logic and chooses partners (if necessary) with Project Coordinator;Together with the Project coordinator represents MDM in meetings with partner (SRHB in Jijiga) on the mission's medical (mother and child health) component.

Relations with the Head office

Draft reports on medical activities with respect to defined scheduling and shares them with Project CoordinatorDraft articles on field medical activities for MDM's internal publications

Human rights and protection of vulnerable population

Supervise and organise together with Project Coordinator the collection and analysis of information regarding human rights as required by the head office;Respect and ensure that the association's positioning is respected in the framework of activities and external relations.

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