Strategic Lead, Health and Wellbeing

“This is a national staff position open to nationals and others who are legally eligible to work in countries where IFRC has legal presence: Buenos Aires (Argentina), San José (Costa Rica), Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic), Guatemala City (Guatemala), Tegucigalpa (Honduras), Kingston (Jamaica), Managua (Nicaragua), Panama City (Panama), Lima (Peru), or Port of Spain (Trinidad and Tobago).

Candidates must be able to provide proof of their eligibility to work in those countries during application phase”

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (“the Federation”) is the world’s largest volunteerbased humanitarian network with 191 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.

In the Americas, the Secretariat of the Federation is organized through a group of support service and technical functions, and geographical configurations of Country Cluster Delegations and Country Offices.

The general object of the IFRC is to inspire, encourage, facilitate, and promote at all times all forms of humanitarian activities by National (Red Cross) Societies with a view to preventing and alleviating human suffering and thereby contributing to the maintenance and promotion of human dignity and peace in the world.

Our work is guided by our seven fundamental principles (humanity, impartiality, neutrality, independence, voluntary service, unity and universality), our humanitarian values (integrity, partnerships, diversity, leadership, innovation), and Strategy 2030 (S2030), which is our collective plan of action to tackle the major humanitarian and development challenges of this decade.

S2030 defines our vision, approach, and strategy.

IFRC VISION: “our global Red Cross and Red Crescent network brings people together for the good of humanity, driving the changes that will create a better future for all”.

IFRC APPROACH: “we are firmly rooted in the right, agency and action of people to drive change for themselves, for their communities, and for the world. We take a systems approach, recognising the inter-connectedness of all aspects of work, and devoting particular attention to people who are vulnerable, excluded, or marginalised”.

IFRC STRATEGY: “Provides inspiration and direction for the whole of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies – allowing each National Society and the IFRC secretariat to collectively achieve greater impact”.

The Americas Regional Office located in Panama provides support and guidance to 5 Country Cluster Delegations and 2 Country Offices and through them to 35 National Societies.

Job Purpose

IFRC and our National Societies work across a wide spectrum of health and care service provision, ranging from promotion, prevention, diagnosis, treatment, rehabilitation, and palliative care. This spectrum includes a broad range of activities, from Community Health to Public Health, Emergency care, WASH, Mental Health, Ageing, Malaria, Climate and Migration Health, reflecting the varying contexts within which we operate, spanning both humanitarian and development settings. The IFRC’s Health and Care Framework sets out our contribution to healthier, more resilient communities and individuals. The Health and Care Department supports National Societies in these efforts, providing technical support, advice, expertise, creating and maintaining partnerships with national and international actors.

Under the direct supervision of the Regional Head of Health, Disasters, Climate and Crises Unit – Americas region and the technical management of Health and Care Team in Geneva, the Regional Health and Care strategic lead is responsible for supporting the Americas Region National Societies on the strategic and operational side of strategic priority of Health and Care of Strategy 2030. More specifically, the position holder will work closely with the other thematic leads to ensure Health and Care programmes are informed by and contributing to other thematic areas ensuring an overall integrated approach to programme design and delivery. S/he will ensure overall guidance and implementation of all aspects of the IFRC’s health and water and sanitation strategy, providing consistent advice to National Societies and supporting their program implementation. S/he is expected to work closely, as part of a global team, with all units in the HDCC and ARO as well as with other regions and colleagues in Geneva to ensure a consistent approach tailored to the specific needs of individual countries to promote the global health and WASH strategy in both developmental and disaster/conflict situations.

This role ensures the relevance, coherence, and timeliness of IFRCs regional thematic leadership in the critical area of health and care and position regionally IFRC at the forefront of development of humanitarian competencies of health and care including WASH, health in emergencies, community health including First Aid, immunization and Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS). The incumbent will facilitate the design and execution of all related deliverables and coordinate delivery in this important area of work in relation to health and care policy dialogue and capacity building activities.

The Health & Wellbeing Strategic Lead will develop or participate in active networks and coordination groups with external organizations and actors to ensure that portfolio approaches and activities are integrated within wither humanitarian initiatives. Additionally, the position will also be responsible to ensure close support and coordination with Red Cross Red Cresent partner national societies, reference centers to ensure adequate integration, scalability and sustainability of the Health and Wellbeing practices across programs and operations.

The post holder will be also serving as an outreach technical surge capacity (up to 4 weeks per mission) to be deployed on short technical missions to country/cluster delegations to deliver specific Health and Wellbeing ToRs. This position requires flexibility and willingness to travel approximately 30-40% of the time annually. The successful candidate will be comfortable managing their responsibilities both while on the road and remotely, ensuring consistent communication and productivity across various locations.

Job Duties and Responsibilities

Thematic Leadership:

• Guided by Strategy 2030, coordinate the formulation of the regional approach to health and care and follow-up its implementation across all IFRC Secretariat programmes and operations in the Americas region.
• Provide though leadership and oversight in the region to tackle effectively public health threats and health in emergencies e.g. needs of ageing populations, non- communicable diseases, vector borne diseases (such as dengue), health needs of migrants, maternal new-born and child health, WASH, health in emergencies, community health including First Aid, immunization, HIV, TB, malaria, public health and immunization, MHPSS, in coordination with the global Health and Care Team.
• Provide technical direction for regional roll out of the global flagships on Epidemic and Pandemic Preparedness.
• Provide guidance to the Region’s National Societies, technical and thematic leaders of WASH, health in emergencies, community health including First Aid, immunization, HIV, TB, malaria, public health and immunization, MHPSS, for delivery against key regional results in high quality and accountable manner.
• Coordinate and facilitate capacity building activities at the operational level, aiming to consolidate a Regional pool of trainers, and directly providing training when necessary.
• Strengthen the regional health and care networks/groups that promote cross-country cooperation and identify opportunities that enable the Membership to form action-oriented partnerships that improve the health of people in vulnerable situations.
• Oversee the development and implementation of regional WASH programmes, both in developmental and emergency contexts led by regional and global WASH teams.
• Promote and coordinate the development and integration of health components in all sectors in the region and technical support to the National Societies’ emergency health functions.
• Support capacity building of respective human resources in the region, in collaboration with relevant technical and thematic teams.
• Maintain an up-to-date overview of the regional public health risk profile, in coordination with the IM teams.
• Actively participate in and support IFRC’s knowledge and peer-to-peer networks, promote the engagement and utilization of Red Cross Red Crescent reference centres and contribute to “shared leadership” initiatives for better utilization and optimization of technical capacities and resources.
• Support the roll-out and adaptation of the ‘IFRC’s global health and care tools and strategic frameworks, develop best practice information and capacity in training to contribute to effective management of the health and care portfolio.
• Contribute to the global IFRC Health team effort in addressing public health emergency and development needs.
• In conjunction with the Operations, Evolving Crisis and Disasters Unit (in HDCC) and the regional emergency health coordinator, provide strategic and operational leadership in any health-related emergency.

Management:

• Responsible for the day-to day management and coordination of the Americas regional Health and Care programmatic functional area activities including project management, risk management and quality assurance aspects as required.
• Accountable to the Regional Head of HDCC on achievement of results of the Unit’s Operational Plan as a proactive manager and dynamic member of the HDCC Americas Management team.
• Select, mentor and manage team members under the programmatic functional area, including ensuring that they have well-defined results-based priority plans and capacity to provide technical support to response operations at any time.
• Promote a culture of continuous learning, individual and team accountability in the programmatic functional area by setting individual and team objectives, monitoring team performance and conducting timely performance reviews.
• Develop annual plans for the health and care programmatic functional area in coordination with the relevant team members to mobilize, manage and monitor the use of available financial resources and facilities by the team to ensure that delivery of agreed activities is in line with approved ceilings and finance procedures.
• Oversee regionally implemented WASH, health in emergencies, community health including First Aid, vector borne diseases (such as dengue), immunization, HIV, TB, malaria, public health and immunization, MHPSS, and the timely and quality delivery of all project outputs.
• Support the Regional Head of HDCC in ensuring strategic coherence and alignment as well as programmatic and operational coordination between HDCC and other technical units. This may include being acting head of unit in the absence of the incumbent.
• Support and contribute to fundraising efforts to support The Americas National Societies and IFRC health and care initiatives in collaboration with the strategic engagement and partnership unit.

Coordination and networking:

• Contribute to the design and execution of policy dialogue engagements to promote WASH, health in emergencies, community health including First Aid, vector borne diseases (such as dengue), immunization, HIV, TB, malaria, public health and immunization and MHPSS activities.
• Ensure that the thematic staff members work closely across all strategic priorities and crosscutting thematic approaches functional areas of HDCC and coordinates other units within Americas Regional office, Country Delegations, Country Cluster Delegations and Geneva as well as with ICRC, Partner National Societies, relevant IFRC Reference centres and key external stakeholders throughout the programming cycle.
• Support coordination and partnerships related WASH, health in emergencies, community health including First Aid, vector borne diseases (such as dengue), immunization, HIV, TB, malaria, public health and immunization and MHPSS with relevant regional stakeholders with and outside the RCRC Movement.
• Build and nurture solid relationships with key regional partners such as WHO/PAHO – including academia and the private sector – to promote health and care collaboration and act as a knowledge broker for the Membership with a strengthened emphasis on WASH, health in emergencies, community health including First Aid, vector borne diseases (such as dengue), immunization, HIV, TB, malaria, public health and immunization and MHPSS.
• Ensure technical-level engagement with relevant entities of sub-regional bodies as essential stakeholders in attainment of global agenda targets including those of the Paris Agreement, Sendai Framework and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
• Ensures high quality preparation and participation of IFRC network in inter-agency and inter-governmental processes
• In collaboration with Geneva counterparts, pursue opportunities and explore partnerships for research as a base for evidence aimed at supporting advocacy on expanding investment in WASH, health in emergencies, community health including First Aid, immunization, HIV, TB, malaria, public health and immunization, MHPSS programming.

Representation:

• When requested and as required, represent IFRC – in regional inter-agency events as a key actor, influencing regional policies, advocacy and agenda.
• Responsible and accountable for ensuring that IFRC is represented in relevant inter- agency initiatives and events focusing on WASH, health in emergencies, community health including First Aid, vector borne diseases (such as dengue), immunization, HIV, TB, malaria, public health and immunization, MHPSS.

Education

• University degree in relevant discipline (professional qualification as a health practitioner)
• Post-graduate degree in public health (MSc, MPH), , nursing or paramedical sciences from an internationally recognized university or other major post-graduate qualification with a significant educational component.
• Relevant professional training courses(Red Cross/Red Crescent related, humanitarian and developmentsector, management, etc.)
• Basic Delegates Training Course/IMPACT, preferred
• Further qualification in Tropical health or SOS/HELP course, CAP/FACT training course is preferred

Experience

• At least 8 to 10 years of experience in health program management with a strong
  community-based focus, of which three years are in a senior position in the IFRC, NS, government department, national/state level NGO or international bi-lateral or multilateral organisation
• Work experience with the Red Cross/Red Crescent Movement, including time in the field and with a National Society or a similar organization.
• Experience working in a change managementsituation, preferably as an active participant in that change with remote management experience.
• Proven experience in management of a team (including distance management) with a minimum of 3 staff members for at least 3-5 years.
• Work experience with other international organisations, large NGOs and/or governmental.

Knowledge, Skills and Languages

• Ability to lead and manage in a diverse cultural context
• Strong knowledge of information sharing tools, and the ability to implement them
• Budget and finance management
• Demonstrated skills in analytical and strategic thinking
• Comfortable working with current donors and communicating with potential partners – in particular, with National Societies
• Strong communications and diplomacy skills
• Ability to work to tight deadlines and handle multiple tasks
• Knowledge of and first-hand experience with the Agenda for Renewal and its operational model, preferred.
• Valid international driving license, preferred.

LANGUAGES

• Fluent in written and spoken English
• Fluent in written and spoken Spanish
• Good command of another IFRC official language (Arabic or/and Frensh), preferred

Competencies, Values and Comments

COMPETENCIES

VALUES: Respect for diversity; Integrity; Professionalism; Accountability

CORE COMPETENCIES: Communication; Collaboration and Teamwork; Judgement and Decision Making; National Societies and Customer Relations; Creativity and Innovation; Building Trust.

MANAGERIAL COMPETENCIES: Managing Staff Performance; Managing Staff Development.

FUNCTIONAL COMPETENCIES: Strategic Orientation; Building Alliances; Leadership; Empowering Others