Medical Desk Manager at the Alliance for International Medical Action (ALIMA)

The Alliance for International Medical Action (ALIMA) is an independent medical aid organization based in Dakar, Senegal. ALIMA has three principal areas of expertise: providing medical care in humanitarian crises, supporting the development of national medical organizations, and conducting operational research to bring medical innovation to the field.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: Medical Desk Manager

Location: Abuja
Starting Date: June 2018
Contract : Open Ended Contract, 3 months probationary period renewable once - maximum 6 months of probationary period.

Main Purpose
The Medical Desk Manager has a dual function:

• He is responsible for defining and monitoring the medical objectives of the projects.
• It provides field support for the implementation of the medical project.

It is important to approach this position with great flexibility, the Medical Desk Manager will also have to be able to assume a Medco responsibility for certain projects and will be the medical responsible for the base. The important thing is therefore to remain attentive to respond to the needs of MEDCO’s, MedRef‘s ... which will be different, with a different level of delegation and sharing of tasks.

In addition, as with any organizational framework, and on the basis of the practical questions it encounters, it feeds into the reflection on Alima's role and operational orientations.

Functional and Hierarchical Links

• He is a member of the Operations team and is under the direct responsibility of the Desk Manager and reports technically to the Leader Medical Support. He designs and defends medical strategies, which he shares with the Desk Manager, and together they assume direct responsibility for the management of the programmes.
• He works across the board with all departments: medical and research, support (supply and logistics and funders, as well as with the HR and finance departments. He is the first point of contact for the medical and research department as well as for support.
• He advises, accompanies and trains medical coordinators, depends on the specific setting of each project in Nigeria.

Position Location:

• The Medical Desk Manager as well as the rest of the Nigeria Desk team will be based in Abuja with regular visits to the field and to our operational headquarter in Dakar, Senegal (25% to 30% of the time).

Accountabilities
Responsible to develop a medical vision for the country with the Medco’s:

• Defining/monitoring the medical needs
• Translating the identified health needs into a medical strategic vision and project objectives
• When a submitted project is validated, he is responsible for verifying the medical objectives, medical indicators and medical budgets of the proposals. He participates in the drafting of project documents for Alima but also for donors.
• He verifies in the interim and final reports that medical activities are correctly described.

Support the Medco/Medref in his responsibility to implement the projects - coaching /mentoring:

• Ensures that the objectives, expected results, means and indicators are known by the field teams
• He ensures that the field has the appropriate statistical, medical control and reporting tools at its disposal.
• He regularly carries out field missions, to accompany and coach field teams. They may be required to replace field staff or act as coordinators.

Ensures the medical pertinence and adequacy of the projects:

• He is responsible for evaluating medical projects, identifying their difficulties and proposing reorientation.
• Reads, analyzes and responds to medical reports

EPREP:

• Defines, with the assistance of the Medco and Medref of the country, all the risks that could lead to a medical emergency in the country, health risks (epidemics) or related to security (influx of injured people, population displacements,...).
• Describes for each one the probable location within the country, seasonality, degree of probability,...
• Defines, in collaboration with the Manager of the Desk and the team members, for each risk whether "Alima" will provide an answer or whether the answer will be in the form of advocacy with other actors; if an "Alima" response plan is envisaged, the response scenarios will be written by defining the needs of both HR and Supply, training,...
• Ensures awareness of these risks and follow-up on each project, and provides support for monitoring and drawing up local response plans.

Medical Quality:

• He ensures the quality and updating of medical protocols in the field.
• Supports the field deployment of the various policies/protocols to improve medical quality, including the implementation of adverse event reporting, maternal death audits,...
• He may need to support the coordination team in analysing medical errors committed in the field.

Medical Supply:

• Validates medical orders in line with medical activity assumptions and the budget decided upon
• Ensures the quality of the medical supplies, with the support of the pharmacist, validation of local purchase, ...

Evaluation/Follow up of senior medical staff:

• Provides support to Medco/medref for the identification of medical and paramedical station requirements. It ensures the consistency of the medical organization charts in the field and ensures that the job requirements are correctly transmitted to the HR project referent of the desk
• He/she participates and conducts job interviews or recruitment interviews in collaboration with the HR project referent and shares documented conclusions leading to the validation or non-validation of a candidate.
• He provides briefings and debriefings for all the international medical teams, and meets all expatriates going to the field for a medical briefing.
• He draws up the POPs (Performance Objectives Plan) and carries out the assessments of the medical coordinators (or medical referent, depends on the setting of the project) and ensures that they draw up those of their medical teams. It regularly reviews these objectives
• He supervises, trains and defines development plans for medical coordination teams and other staff holding technical positions. He knows and monitors ALIMA medical and paramedical staff and NGO partners, he is the driving force behind the knowledge of these teams and potential partners at the Dakar operational office.
• He identifies the potentials and transmits the relevant information to the technical referent of the different concerned pools
• He shares with the HR project referent or the human resources department the individual training needs or in the medical field of which he is aware or which seem to him strategic for the organization and the development of his managers for quality medical projects.

Responsible for health staff:

• He is the focal point for all health problems affecting staff (national and expatriate)
• He is directly responsible of the base staff regarding health problems
• He accompanies the fields and validates with them and the rest of the desk, the staff's health policy on the field and ensures that there is a functional medical evacuation plan depending on the terrain.
• He monitors the health of staff, both expatriates and nationals, hospitalized in Abuja.

Research and Innovation Component:

• With the support of the Medical and Research Service, he is responsible for defining and writing pilot medical projects and must therefore follow the international medical context on the issues addressed by the projects, assisted in this task by the Medical and Research Service.
• May be required to participate in PIPOs (research project steering meetings) or other research-related meetings/discussion platforms.
• Participates in the definition of research priorities, for operational research projects in phase with the medical service.

Representation, networking:

• Represents Alima before federal medical authorities
• Keeps regular contact with other federal level counterparts in the country (NGOs, local organizations, donors, authorities) as delegated by the medical coordinator , in order to broaden the medical-humanitarian situation analysis, strengthening the impact of the medical intervention
• Communicates the essential elements to the Desk Manager as well as to the different Medcos in the field

Links with the HQ, OP’s Dpt, Medical support:

• Support the Desk Manager at the different meetings, like “Mise à plat”
• At the request of the Director of Programs, presents medical issues to the Operations Meeting, the Executive Committee, the Board of Directors.
• The desk's medical manager must feed the reflection on Alima's role, its construction, its objectives, etc. It participates in the various meetings organized on these subjects. It particularly animates reflection on medical issues
• He leads his coordination teams such as the desk (actively organizes the different weeks and workshops of technical communication; example of the medical week, etc.); he ensures the good circulation of information between the fields and the headquarters.
• This newly created position is part of a new team which needs to find its own way of working ensuring that the principles and values lying within our Charter are at the heart of how they work with others as much as with and for the patients.
• This job description is not exhaustive.

Training, Experiences and Competences
Training and Experience:

• Medical degree in Medicine or Nursing degree
• Basics un Public Health, a Master in Public Health is an asset
• Minimum 5 years of experience on the field with International NGO (with an Medical International NGO is an asset)
• Minimum 2 year as Medical Coordinator with a medical International NGO

Competences:

• Adherence to the Alima Charter and values
• Strategic vision
• Leadership (Able to set priorities, make choices, and assume decisions)
• Focused on research, innovation and medical quality
• Capacity to negotiate (Good communication skills)
• Planning and Organizing (Management skills)
• Good knowledge/experiences in management of malnutrition, SRH and responses to epidemics and others medical emergencies
• Bilingual, French/English, the knowledge of another language is an asset

Salary/Benefits

• This is an HQ position and as such is paid according to HQ compensation and benefits policies which are different from expatriate positions since the position and contract are long term
• Total cash package: equivalent to 3 400 Euros net, after tax
• Travel costs between the employee’s country of origin and Abuja, Nigeria, unless recruited locally
• Five weeks annual leave per year as well as a recovery system for days spent on work travels;
• One round trip per year between Abuja and the employee’s country of origin for the employee and her / his dependents + one individual round trip ;
• One-off relocation allowance at the beginning of the contract in Abuja;
• School annual enrollment fees for children from 2 to 18, according to the ALIMA HQ policy;
• Medical cover insurance including repatriation insurance for the employee and her/ his dependents, as per the definition of our insurer.

Application Closing Date
31st May, 2018.

How to Apply
Interested and qualified candidates should send their CV's and answers to the following below questions (which stands for a classical Cover Letter) to: [email protected] with the reference “Medical Desk Manager_NIGERIA” in the subject line.

Questions:

• Why are you applying in light of ALIMA’s operational approach and CHARTER? https://www.alima-ngo.org/en/our-charter
• What kind of manager are you ? According to your experience, give a concrete example of this management style
• What interests you in the position of Medical Desk Manager in Nigeria ? What are your objectives for this position ?
• When would you be available to start ?
• Reference check: please indicate the names of 2 previous managers as well as 1 HQ HR contact.

Note

• Applications are processed in the order of arrival and we reserve the right to close the offer before the term initially indicated if a good application is successful.
• Only full applications (CV + answer to questions) will be taken into account.