Emergency Health Technical Advisor at International Rescue Committee (IRC)

Emergency Health is a program area at the IRC that sits within the Emergency Unit (EmU), and concurrently feeds into IRC’s Health Technical Unit. With few predictable and effective health service providers in emergencies, there are major gaps in scale and scope to provide effective and timely health interventions in emergencies to crisis-affected populations. IRC intends to fill a niche in this field, branding itself as a fast, predictable, and effective provider of critical health and WASH (Water, Sanitation, Hygiene) services in emergencies, aligned with IRC’s 2024 Emergency Health Strategy, as well as the EMU Strategy Action Plan, IRC’s Health Strategy, and IRC’s Strategy 100.

The Emergency Health Technical Advisor will work under the supervision and close mentorship of the Emergency Health Senior Technical Advisor to provide robust and efficient support for emergency health activities and interventions at the IRC across the emergency response continuum. They will spend a significant proportion of their time providing emergency health capacity strengthening, preparedness, readiness, and response support and delivering technical and strategic guidance during country-led emergency responses, as well as coordinating additional support across the Health Unit and other technical units and sectors.

The Emergency Health Technical Advisor will also serve as a resource for the Emergency Unit’s deployed Emergency Health Emergency Response Team (ERT) Coordinators and Emergency Surge Team (EST) members, providing support on epidemiology and public health situational analysis and Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (MEAL). This role will lead epidemiology and public health analysis for the Emergency Health Team. Finally, the incumbent will coordinate global initiatives in the emergency health sphere, including tools and strategic guidance development and refinement, advocacy, research, partnerships, business development, frameworks, and anticipatory guidance.

Locations:

Kenya - Open to host international staff

MAJOR RESPONSIBILITIES:

Data Management, System, Tools, and Learning (40%)

·   Provide epidemiologic context to emergency health crises by surveilling classified public health emergencies including outbreaks and communicating epidemiologic concerns across teams. Lead epidemiology support across the organization to advise on decision-making. Epidemiologic competencies for this position include being able to analyze, interpret, and discuss epidemiological measures of disease outbreaks and explain to non-technical collaborators in decision-making context.

· Support standardization of emergency health M&E systems/practices, epidemiological data sourcing and monitoring, systematization of data sharing, and centralized data analysis and knowledge management, including the use of epidemiologic databases and surveillance modalities (EWARN, GOARN (Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network), etc.) Advise on methodology that is complementary to M&E, specifically in emergency responses.

· Coordinate and maintain Health emergency response resources including but not limited to STEP, emergency rapid needs assessment tools, technical tools and libraries/dashboards with ERT support.  

·  Complete a biannual report of Health in Emergencies Learnings from both primary and available secondary data.

·  Support health analysis across emergencies, including trend analyses across health programs in delivery, and as requested for regional and country programs engaged with emergency response and preparedness activities.

Partnerships (20%)

·   Ensure program quality, accountability and consistency in emergency and outbreak response programming led by IRC’s local and national partners by providing remote and occasionally in person technical assistance, training and socializing systems and tools.

· Review partner technical tools, reports, and data; recommend adaptations or process improvements as required.

·      Support adaptation of IRC direct implementation emergency tools and systems for partner use in line with identified needs and requests.

· Support deployed Emergency Health Coordinators to effectively backstop and provide technical guidance to partners.

·  Ensure that partnership considerations are incorporated in program design and proposal development and that health partners are proactively engaged in program development efforts. Ensure appropriate budget resourcing for health partner projects.

·    Contribute to building a strong understanding of Partnership Excellence for Equality and Results System (PEERS) throughout the Emergency Health team.

Country Support (20%)

· As required, deploy to support emergency health programming or outbreak response start-up in complex or large-scale emergencies (20% of time and maximum 6 weeks for single deployment). This is inclusive of, but not limited to, responsibilities such as:

o   Rapid needs assessments, evaluation/learning efforts, or other accountability support functions;

o   Emergency Health Technical positions within a complex response;

o   Following an emergency response, work with Country Programs to evaluate health response, collect lessons learned, and support subsequent preparedness actions to address identified gaps.

· Advise and train IRC and/or IRC partners on emergency health tools and resources for emergency preparedness, early action and response, as needed.

Business Development and Grant Management (20%)

·  Lead the development, review and submission of strategic proposals and concept notes around IRC’s innovative programming related to health in emergencies, aligned with the Emergencies SAP, Emergency Health technical framework and other identified strategic priorities.

·  Provide support to emergency health response and preparedness awards, inclusive of awards focused on subawards to partners (maximum 1 per year).

Team Culture

· Build and maintain strong working relationships within the EmU, TechEx and Regional colleagues and continually promote a culture of partnership and collaboration

·  Cultivate and maintain a positive, collaborative, safe and protective work environment, while additionally setting an example of ‘One IRC’-way of working within the team, EmU and the wider organization.

·      Contribute to efforts across EmU to promote gender equality, diversity and more inclusive practice across our programming and our ways of working

KEY WORKING RELATIONSHIPS:

Position Reports to: Senior Technical Advisor of Emergency Health

Position directly supervises:  Could potentially supervise occasional interns

Indirect reporting: N/A

Other contacts:  Close working relationships with all sectors in the EmU Quality in Emergencies (QiE) team, across EmU and the Health Unit, notably ERT/GST Health Coordinators and regionally aligned Health Unit Technical Advisors, as well as the Preparedness, Response Management, and Deployment teams, and regional leadership and Country Program focal points. 

JOB REQUIREMENTS:

Education:  Bachelor’s degree in clinical or public health; Master of Public Health, or equivalent.

Work Experience: At least 5 years of experience in health-related program development and implementation in humanitarian, post-conflict, or low-resource settings including at least 2 years in humanitarian settings). Experience in epidemiology, monitoring, evaluation, and learning management, technical tools development and data analysis is required.

Demonstrated Skills and Competencies:

·        Demonstrated expertise in health programming planning and implementation.

·        Very strong expertise in data analysis and competence in epidemiology.

·        Solid understanding of Infection Prevention and Control in emergency health contexts.

·        Genuine interest in and commitment to collaborating with local and national NGOs and government partners in emergency health programs.

·        Effectiveness in bridging conceptual frameworks and practical guidance, ability to turn concepts and strategy into measurable and relevant action.

·        Strong interpersonal skills and ability to facilitate effective collaboration within the organization externally with local partners.

·        Ability to work with multi-cultural and multi-disciplinary teams and proven ability to develop positive relationships with global, local and remote team members, while providing and coordinating context-appropriate technical assistance.

·        Excellence in organized oral and written communication and excellence in information technology

·        Proven ability to deliver results under pressure and in a timely manner.

·        Strong track record as a capable trainer able to effectively transfer technical knowledge and skills Demonstrated success in working with donors, partners, project design, and business proposal development.

Language Skills: Fluency in English required; French skills a plus.