Position:  Medical Officer
Working hours: Full time
NGO name: UPP
Gender: Female and Male
Salary range:  from 1000 USD to 1.300 USD  (additional 80 USD as benefits)  

General Context:
Un Ponte Per (UPP) is an Italian NGO established in 1991. It started its activities as “Un ponte per Baghdad”, in the aftermath of the first Gulf war, with the aim of organizing solidarity initiatives in support of the Iraqi civilian population. In subsequent years, UPP missions expanded to include Serbia and other Middle Eastern and Mediterranean countries. The NGO aims at preventing armed conflicts, protecting human rights and supporting local civil society, especially in the Middle East, by promoting the nexus between its humanitarian, peacebuilding and development programs.

Since 2015, UPP has been one of the leading INGOs in the North East Syria (NES) response. Thanks to its close partnership with the Kurdish Red Crescent (KRC), UPP has been able to develop a comprehensive system of health services delivered in 26 facilities, including mobile units, hospitals, primary health care centers, and rural health posts. These function as the backbone of the basic healthcare system in the region, including an ambulances network managed by a centralized operational desk for emergency management and COVID-19 response.

Since 2017 UPP is also active in the Protection sector in NES, providing capacity building for local actors on Gender Based Violence (GBV) prevention and response, Child Protection (CP), Psycho-social Support (PSS) and protection mainstreaming in health programs. UPP developed a strong partnership with the Houses of Women, identified as key community stakeholders in GBV response, with the local youth organization DOZ and the Women Protection Department of the Arab National Association, setting up a wider outreach network with a particular focus on awareness and campaigning against early and forced marriage. UPP also co-chairs the NES PSEA Network.

Since 2019 the UPP NES Mission built an Early-Recovery sector component focusing on capacity-building for Local Authorities and civil society, supporting municipalities in NES to establish links with corresponding public bodies in Europe. The intervention pivots on peer-to-peer trainings on waste management (with a strong focus on medical waste disposal), water infrastructure, urban planning and civil defense. 2021 UPP has launched the WaSH and Livelihood sectors under the largest consortium in Syria. 
The team is mostly based in North East Syria (NES) with frequent visits to the project locations and is supported by an office based in Dohuk (Kurdistan Region of Iraq – KRI). 
For further information please refer to ou r website: www.unponteper.it/en/

All offers of employment will be subject to satisfactory references and appropriate screening checks, which can include criminal records and terrorism finance checks. Un Ponte Per also participates in the Inter Agency Misconduct Disclosure Scheme. In line with this Scheme, we will request information from job a’plicants' previous employers about any findings of sexual exploitation, sexual abuse and/or sexual harassment during employment. By submitting an application, the job applicant confirms his/her understanding of these recruitment procedures.

SCOPE OF THE WORK: 

The Health Officer of primary health care will work under the supervision of the Medical Coordinator in the Health Department. The primary role is to strengthen the capacities and coach the local healthcare professionals in the provision of quality and safe healthcare and to oversee the design, implementation, continued quality monitoring, and evaluation of primary healthcare services assisting and acting as full junior medical advisors according to personal development.                                                 ROLE AND RESPONSIBILITIES                         The Health Officer will collaborate with the medical coordinator and or other Health Specialists in: 
o Advising the functional design and operation of the services in the clinical medical and nursing services, in emergency and program development.  
o Improving the quality of medical and nursing care.
o Collaborating in the training and monitoring of doctors and nurses according to the plan indicated by the medical coordinator.
o Advising and organizing the general clinical services (medical and community services, mental health, psychosocial support, public health, lab organization etc.)
o Advising the organization of patient-based programs of emergency services, communicable diseases Maternal, and Child Health programs
o Planning and organizing a community-based Nutrition program, mainly directed to children under five.
o Ensuring Infection prevention and control measures (IPC) are implemented in the entire health facilities.
o Planning and organizing the activities of community medicine, involving, doctors, nurses and Community Health Workers (CHWs)
o Ensuring  accurate and insightful patient registration and monthly reporting from health facilities, feeding into programming to timely address morbidities and other health parameters 
o Coordinating clinical activity with community activities and organizations, namely women’s organizations and the GBV program.

The Health officer will help the medical coordinator and Health Specialists in the organization of programs of training and monitoring, such as:

o Training General Health Workers f in:
 Organization of services, roles and responsibilities 
 Overall staff management, particularly advising in the clinical aspect of the service setting
o Training of the clinical staff (doctors, nurses, paramedics, midwives) in:
 General primary care consultation – Basic principles and hygiene procedures
 Clinical protocols for the programs already defined, 
 Emergency primary care (Basic Life Support and Advance Life support – BLS and ALS)
 Nutrition Services – Community-Based Management of Acute Malnutrition (CBMAM) 
o Intensive training program, previous to accreditation, of Community Health Workers (CHWs) in:
 General Health Concepts
 Emergency and Referrals
 Epidemic diseases and WASH principles
 Primary care programs, including GBV and Nutrition
 Health Education
 Environmental sanitation
 Record keeping
 Community participation practices

o Monitoring the overall activity of centres and units, meeting the challenges, addressing the gaps and providing solutions to correct them
o Advising and collaborating with the Project Managers in any demand related to healthcare issues
o Elaborating M&E data for reporting purposes - Supporting the project managers in the reporting activities   

ESSENTIAL REQUIREMENTS
o University Degree in Medicine. 
o Minimum of two years of professional experience in primary health care services.
o Excellent oral and written English.
o Fluency in Arabic

Candidates not able to accredit these minimum requirements will not be shortlisted

MERIT ACCREDITATION

Other aspects that will merit are: 
o Accredited experience as a trainer or facilitator of primary healthcare services or community-based care models.
o Experience working in primary healthcare services in low-income countries and or in conflict settings and far-to-reach areas
o A master’s degree in public health, primary health care management or community medicine is an asset. 
o Experience in planning and implementation of health programs.
o Excellent planning and organizational skills and ability to prioritize assigned tasks
o Experience in the coordination of humanitarian aid projects.
o Good understanding of the project life cycle management. 
o Excellent capacity to work in a team. 
o Proven capacities to plan activities successfully targeting results and objectives. 
o Ability to supervise and/or mentor medical staff. 
o Previous work experience in the humanitarian field. 
o Working experience with local counterparts (CSOs, local NGOs, local institutions).
o Ability to work under pressure in stressful environments and meet deadlines
o Excellent report-writing skills