Country: Switzerland
Closing date: 29 Nov 2016
Background
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) is the world's largest humanitarian organization, with 190 member National Societies. As part of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, our work is guided by seven fundamental principles; humanity, impartiality, neutrality, independence, voluntary service, unity and universality.
Organizational Context
The Federation is served by a Secretariat based in Geneva, with regional and country offices throughout the world. The Secretariat is led by the IFRC Secretary General and provides the central capacity of the International Federation to serve, connect, and represent National Societies.
The Secretariat's focus includes providing support to the IFRC governance mechanisms; setting norms and standards; providing guidance; ensuring consistency, coordination, and accountability for performance; knowledge sharing; promoting collaboration within and respect for the RCRC Movement; and expanding engagement with partners.
The Secretariat's headquarters is organized in three main business groups: (i) Partnerships, including Movement and Membership; (ii) Programmes and Operations; and (iii) Management Services.
The Programme Services Division is in turn organised in three Departments, each of them led by a Director. The Health and Care Department consists of three teams, of which Community and Emergency Health is one.
The Senior Officer for Emergency Medical Services serves as a member of the Community and Emergency Health team reporting to the Team Leader. At this position, you will support the IFRC's programmatic vision for health and its translation into programmatic interventions, in close collaboration with Regional Offices, by providing technical advice, coordination and support to the Federation's programmes in the areas of clinical care provision and prehospital care throughout the resilience continuum (in emergency, recovery and development contexts).
Job Purpose
At the Senior Officer for Emergency Medical Services' position, you will coordinate the Secretariat's expert support to the Regions and the Membership in the area of clinical emergency health services, including medical ERUs and other Emergency Medical Teams, as well as prehospital care, ensuring consistent collaboration and method development, contributing to high-quality service delivery and representation of the International Federation.
You will ensure
- National Society engagement in strengthening preparedness, service delivery and emergency response involving emergency medical capacity of the Membership.
- Delivery of all global activities covered by the Health programmes with a particular focus on medical response in emergencies and preparedness ensuring matrix management of resources between Geneva Secretariat, IFRC Regions and Country offices, and the National Societies,
- Continuous coordination within the Movement and external partners
- Development, innovation and promotion of tools, methods, approaches and partnerships to support the quality management of emergency medical services
- Provision of operational support when required in the field
- Brokering, managing and developing knowledge that contributes to the scientific evidence base of emergency medical services, comprehensive care quality management, and supports internal and external learning in best practices.
Job Duties and Responsibilities
Enable RCRC to be a global leading provider of emergency medical care and prehospital services
- Contribute to and support the work of RCRC at relevant international fora, in publications, conferences and meeting and ensure that relevant advocacy themes are well presented and to the positioning of RCRC as a global leader especially in the emergency context linked with a focus on clinical care delivery.
- Contribute to the development of global policies, strategies, guidelines and tools as well as the integration of these standards into the work of RCRC to ensure sound and sustainable health programmes and effective public health outcomes, especially in emergencies.
- Promote emergency medical services and prehospital care, both national and international, as a significant means of contributing towards achievement of the health related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and other relevant global health development targets.
- Work closely with other members of the Global Health Team and with the Communications and Partnerships Teams contributing to the Health Department's visibility in IFRC's external communications, resource mobilization, and public awareness of the health work of IFRC/RCRC.
- Perform knowledge extraction, analysis, documentation, validation, codification and dissemination of results and lessons learned in the specific thematic area and ensure knowledge sharing and content management with both internal and external stakeholders
- Support data collection, analysis and utilization of data in emergency medical services and prehospital care to ensure data-driven decision-making.
- Coordinate the development of tools, guidelines and projects focused on improving emergency medical services and prehospital care, and ensure they are evidence informed, adhere to applicable quality standards and contribute to a resilience based health approach.
Support the Membership in quality assurance of emergency medical services
- Coordinate knowledge development and sharing of best practice including operational research to support program quality, scalability and cost effectiveness.
- Support the development of quality assurance frameworks and risk management tools that support patient safety and staff health in emergency medical services and prehospital care.
- Lead the method development and innovation in the area of clinical care services and prehospital care.
- Act as technical reference point for the Secretariat, Regional/Cluster Offices, National Societies and health delegates especially in the area, but not limited to clinical service provision, clinical management of disease and injuries and prehospital care in emergency operations and their integration in public health.
- Contribute to providing expert technical support to National Societies' emergency medical services for functional incorporation within each stage of the emergency cycle and along the resilience continuum, including strengthening of health systems in preparedness, response and recovery phases.
Support coordination of Emergency Health Operations
- In collaboration with Senior Officer for Public Health in Emergencies act as a focal reference point in the Secretariat for Medical ERU/EMT, FACT and RDRT related issues and deployments including training;
- Lead the further development of medical Emergency Response Units and other RCRC Emergency Medical Teams to provide timely, accountable, predictable, dependable, scalable, interoperable, environmentally sustainable, effective and efficient health response in emergency situations.
- Represent IFRC in relevant global technical partnerships including clusters and international coordination groups.
- Ensure close collaboration with partners and stakeholders including ICRC to promote Movement-wide standards in emergency medical services and prehospital care.
- Work closely with IFRC units and departments including but not limited to disaster management, preparedness, cash, logistics, shelter, WASH and volunteer management involved in emergency response to ensure medical services are integrated and supported in emergency operations based on a competent risk analysis.
- Ensure that operational challenges are addressed by operational research in partnership with different research institutions and other partners.
Contribute to an effective, high quality IFRC team
- Be accountable to the Team Leader by providing progress reports on results against objectives and risk analysis.
- Be flexible in the work definition according to needs and targets and improve team efficiency and effectiveness within available resources.
- Be a pro-active team member fostering a customer service-oriented culture that values proactivity, continuous improvement, innovation, high performance and cost effectiveness.
- Foster a co-creative environment with colleagues in the Secretariat, Regions and the National Societies and open and co-operative view to the actors in the relevant external environment.
- Support the Team Leader in strengthening financial standards in the team by contributing to: ensure regular reports on use of funds within the Health Team are provided; and ensure budget needs are met and reported upon in a timely and efficient manner.
- Contribute to the other work streams in the Community and Emergency Health Team: Public Health Emergencies and Health Emergency coordination, as well as to WASH and Health in Complex Settings as required.
Education
Required
- Medical or other health and care degree
- Postgraduate education in emergency medicine or other relevant specialty
Meriting
- Diploma/Certificate/Masters in a related field, e.g. global health or public health- meriting
Experience
- 8 years' experience working with disaster-related health interventions.
- 5 years' management and supervisory experience in a multicultural environment
- At least 8 years working experience with international organisations.
- At least 3 years' field experience
- Previous experience with Red Cross Red Crescent emergency response and knowledge of IFRC crisis response tools (ERU, RDRT, FACT).
Knowledge, skills and languages
- Leadership and coordination skills
- Analytical thinking
- Good communication and presentation skills
- Training experience
- Computer literacy
- Knowledge of the RC/RC Movement
- Travel extensively to support field operations or training
- Fluently spoken and written English
- Working knowledge of another IFRC official language (French, Spanish or Arabic)
Competencies and values
Values: Respect for diversity; Integrity; Professionalism; Accountability
Core competencies: Communication; Collaboration and teamwork; Judgement and decision making; National society and customer relations; Creativity and innovation; Building trust
Comments
The Federation is an equal opportunity employer.
How to apply:
Please apply on the organisation's website: http://www.ifrc.org/en/who-we-are/working-with-us/current-vacancies/job-description/?id=3593