Position:  Area Health Officer
Working hours: Full time
NGO name: UPP
Language required: Fluency in English and Arabic. Kurdish is a merit. 
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.

DEFINITION OF THE POST                                                                                                                     The Area Health Officer in Raqqa Governorate will help the Health Governance Coordinator (HGC) and the Health Governance Specialist (HGS) to develop actions to increase health system governance in NES and to increase the capacity of local health professionals in managing the health care services, assisting to the HGC and the HGS in any matters to achieve these general goals.                                                                                                                  ROLE AND RESPONSIBILITIES                             The Area Health Officer will collaborate with the the Health Governance Coordinator (HGC) and the Health Governance Specialist (HGS) in achieving the following results and outputs:

• Support the Establishment of an “Area-based Stewardship Unit” (ASU) in the canton, through the upgrading the status and role of the Area Health Technical Committees piloted under the ISHRAF intervention.
• Support to the development and roll out, through the ASU, of a Health Master Plan at cantonal level. 
• Support to a review of quality of care delivered in the territory, embedded within the ASU, possibly informing discussions on quality improvement initiatives and monitoring.
• Support to the review of health financing, sustainability, revenue raising, cost efficiency considerations and expectations.
• Mapping of emergency and referral services in NES, establishment and support to a referral network including a hotline in coordination with existing networks and resources.
• Support to the development of one or two possible private sector engagement pilots, based on a review of the current practice in terms of public-private partnership/collaboration, 
• Support to continuous update of the ISHRAF project dashboard, and capacity building to strengthen data analysis, synthesis, communication, and related decision-making.
• Support to conduct the complementary assessment of the Health Care Delivery System in NES, to expand the preliminary assessment conducted under the ISHRAF project.
• Support for analysis of Health Care Demand in NES,. 

ESSENTIAL REQUIREMENTS
o    Medical profession accreditation fully completed (doctor or nurse)
o    Two-year medical practice 
o    One year working in planning, designing, or implementing health programs or health governance programs in INGO settings. 
o    Knowledge and proven community participation in the area
o    Fluently in English and Arabic
o    Kurdish is a merit.
o    Disponible and committed for the project contract time.
o    Disponibility to reside and full-time work in Raqqa

Candidates not able to accredit these minimum requirements will not be shortlisted.                                                                   MERIT ACCREDITATION                                  Other aspects that will merit are: 
• Management of coordination experience of health care facilities, programs and projects
• Training experience to health professionals
• Proven leadership capacity 
• Working experience with NGOs in the NES 
• Accredited experience as trainer in health services
• Experience in planning and implementation of health governance programs.
• Experience in coordination of humanitarian aid projects.
• Good understanding of the project life cycle management. 
• Excellent capacity to work in team. 
• Proven capacities to plan activities successfully targeting results and objectives. 
• Ability to supervise and/or mentor health workers. 
• Experience of planning, organizing and prioritizing work, working under pressure and meeting deadlines. 
• Ability to work under pressure in stressful environments.