Health Cluster Co-Lead Responsible To: Line management – Merlin Country Director; accountable to Health Cluster partners. Responsible For: Jointly responsible with WHO Health Cluster Coordinator for Health Cluster. Works With: WHO Health Cluster Coordinator; Health Cluster Coordination team; Health Cluster partners Location: Yangon with travel to Rakhine State Contract Duration: 6 months with possible extension Starting Date: ASAP
Salary: £41,390 - £42,140 per annum (dependant on relevant experience),
Benefits: Insurance cover, accommodation, annual leave entitlement of 24 days per annum rising to 30 days at the completion of 12 months of continuous employment with Merlin.
Salary: £41,390 - £42,140 per annum (dependant on relevant experience),
Benefits: Insurance cover, accommodation, annual leave entitlement of 24 days per annum rising to 30 days at the completion of 12 months of continuous employment with Merlin.
Due to the urgency of this position, applications will be short listed on a regular basis and we may offer this post before the closing date. Only short-listed applicants will be contacted.
Please note that this is an unaccompanied position.
Merlin Our mission is to end the needless loss of life in the poorest countries caused by a lack of effective health care. We help communities set up medical services for the long term including hospitals, clinics, surgeries and training for nurses and other health workers.
Context and Background Merlin has worked in Myanmar since 2004. Merlin’s programmes in Myanmar focus on delivering essential health care and water/sanitation programmes across several regions of the country in response to both acute as well as chronic health situations. To date Merlin has responded to several natural disasters affecting coastal areas of Myanmar including the Boxing Day Tsunami, Cyclone Nargis and Cyclone Giri. Currently the programme covers 7 townships in 4 States and Divisions: Shan, Ayeyarwaddy, Chin and Sagaing. The programmes currently support a network of over 1,400 Volunteer Health Workers who provide essential community-based health care to over 750,000 people across more than 1100 villages.
Merlin has in-country expertise of responding to emergency situations in both health and WASH sectors. Merlin is a lead agency for community health care in Myanmar and will be a Consortium Lead under the new 3MDG Health Fund.
Between May 2008 and June 2009, Merlin was Health Cluster Co-Lead overseeing jointly with WHO the national health response in the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis. The Cluster approach was first introduced at a global level as a part of “humanitarian reform” and aims at improving the effectiveness of humanitarian response by ensuring greater predictability and accountability, while at the same time strengthening partnerships between NGOs, international organizations, the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement and UN agencies. The other, complementary elements of the reform are: strengthening the humanitarian coordinator (HC) system; and improving humanitarian financing. The aim of a country-level Health Cluster is to ensure a more coherent and effective humanitarian response by all international, national and local actors operating in the health sector in areas affected by crisis
The escalating humanitarian crisis in Rakhine state has led to a request from the Humanitarian Coordinator, WHO and UNOCHA for Merlin to resume the role of Health Cluster Co-Lead to oversee the overall health response to the crisis and conflict which has developed in Rakhine State. The conflict in Rakhine is characterized as a complex emergency with complicating factors including ongoing inter-communal violence, limited capacity amongst health partners to intervene and challenging access constraints.
Main purpose of the role The Health Cluster Co-Lead will ensure the good performance of the country Heath Cluster, promoting and upholding the Humanitarian Principles and the Principles of Partnership. The country Health Cluster performance, in turn, will be monitored and evaluated according to the extent by which the activities and programmes of the cluster partners meet the health needs of the crisis-affected populations. Overall Objectives (scope) The Health Cluster Co-Lead will, working in close coordination with the WHO appointed Cluster Co-Lead, ensure the effective delivery of the Health Cluster mandate and specifically: • Work to strengthen the Rakhine Health Cluster, linkages to the national Cluster system and to UNOCHA system. • Liaise between all health stakeholders in Rakhine state - NGOs, UN agencies, WHO and MoH. • Providing technical assistance to MoH and national actors as required • Assist in developing strategies/policies/work-plans related to emergency and long term health services in Rakhine State.
• Assist in problem solving of issues and identifying gaps as they arise in the health sector and facilitate donor/other actors' involvement in finding solutions; and provide key NGO perspectives, challenges and lessons learnt.
• Assist in problem solving of issues and identifying gaps as they arise in the health sector and facilitate donor/other actors' involvement in finding solutions; and provide key NGO perspectives, challenges and lessons learnt.
Responsibilities The position holder will be line managed by the Merlin Country Director, work directly with the WHO Health Cluster Co-Lead and be accountable to Health Cluster partners. The postholder’s time will be 100% dedicated to ensure the effective functioning of the Health Cluster. The postholder will work closely with the MoH appointed Cluster focal point and the WHO appointed Cluster Co-Lead to ensure effective delivery of Cluster outputs in Rakhine State and any other areas of Myanmar, as mandated by the Humanitarian Coordinator and as agreed to by Merlin.
Summary of duties Working jointly with the WHO Cluster Co-Lead, the Merlin Cluster Co-Lead will:
• Identify and make contact with health sector stakeholders and existing coordination mechanism, including national health authorities, national and international organizations and civil society. • Hold regular coordination meetings with country health cluster partners, building when possible on existing health sector coordination fora. • Collect information from all partners on Who’s Where, since and until When, doing What, and regularly feed the database managed by OCHA (4W). Provide consolidated feedback to all partners and the other clusters.
• Assess and monitor the availability of health services in the crisis areas provided by all health actors using GHC tool: Health Resources Availability Mapping System (HeRAMS).
• Ensure that humanitarian health needs are identified by planning and coordinating joint, inter-cluster, initial rapid assessments adapting to the local context the IRA tool, as well as follow-on more in-depth health sub-sector assessments, as needed. • Mobilize Health Cluster Partners to contribute to establishing and maintaining an appropriate Early Warning and Response System, and regularly report on health services delivered to the affected population and the situation in the areas where they work. • Lead and contribute to the joint health cluster analysis of health-sector information and data (see points 3, 4, 5 and 6) leading to joint identification of gaps in the health sector response and agreement on priorities to inform the development (or adaptation) of a health crisis response strategy. • Inform the Cluster Lead Agency Representative (CLA) – WR of WHO - as well as Merlin Country Director of priority gaps that cannot be covered by any health cluster partner and require CLA action as provider of last resort. • Ensure partners’ active contribution to and involvement in joint monitoring of individual and common plans of action for health interventions; collate and disseminate this and other information related to the health sector in Cluster sit-reps and/or regular Health Bulletins. • Represent the Health Cluster in inter-cluster coordination mechanisms at country/field level, contribute to jointly identifying critical issues that require multisectoral responses, and plan the relevant synergistic interventions with the other clusters concerned. • Lead joint Health Cluster contingency planning for potential new events or set-backs, when required.
• Provide leadership and strategic direction to Health Cluster Members in the development of the health sector components of FLASH Appeal, CHAP, CAP and CERF proposals and other interagency planning and funding documents. • Promote adherence of standards and best practices by all health cluster partners taking into account the need for local adaptation. Promote use of the Health Cluster Guide to ensure the application of common approaches, tools and standards.
• Identify urgent training needs in relation to technical standards and protocols for the delivery of key health services to ensure their adoption and uniform application by all Health Cluster partners. Coordinate the dissemination of key technical materials and the organization of essential workshops or in-service training.
• In a protracted crisis or health sector recovery context, ensure appropriate links among humanitarian actions and longer-term health sector plans, incorporating the concept of ‘building back better’ and specific risk reduction measures.
• Assess and monitor the availability of health services in the crisis areas provided by all health actors using GHC tool: Health Resources Availability Mapping System (HeRAMS).
• Ensure that humanitarian health needs are identified by planning and coordinating joint, inter-cluster, initial rapid assessments adapting to the local context the IRA tool, as well as follow-on more in-depth health sub-sector assessments, as needed. • Mobilize Health Cluster Partners to contribute to establishing and maintaining an appropriate Early Warning and Response System, and regularly report on health services delivered to the affected population and the situation in the areas where they work. • Lead and contribute to the joint health cluster analysis of health-sector information and data (see points 3, 4, 5 and 6) leading to joint identification of gaps in the health sector response and agreement on priorities to inform the development (or adaptation) of a health crisis response strategy. • Inform the Cluster Lead Agency Representative (CLA) – WR of WHO - as well as Merlin Country Director of priority gaps that cannot be covered by any health cluster partner and require CLA action as provider of last resort. • Ensure partners’ active contribution to and involvement in joint monitoring of individual and common plans of action for health interventions; collate and disseminate this and other information related to the health sector in Cluster sit-reps and/or regular Health Bulletins. • Represent the Health Cluster in inter-cluster coordination mechanisms at country/field level, contribute to jointly identifying critical issues that require multisectoral responses, and plan the relevant synergistic interventions with the other clusters concerned. • Lead joint Health Cluster contingency planning for potential new events or set-backs, when required.
• Provide leadership and strategic direction to Health Cluster Members in the development of the health sector components of FLASH Appeal, CHAP, CAP and CERF proposals and other interagency planning and funding documents. • Promote adherence of standards and best practices by all health cluster partners taking into account the need for local adaptation. Promote use of the Health Cluster Guide to ensure the application of common approaches, tools and standards.
• Identify urgent training needs in relation to technical standards and protocols for the delivery of key health services to ensure their adoption and uniform application by all Health Cluster partners. Coordinate the dissemination of key technical materials and the organization of essential workshops or in-service training.
• In a protracted crisis or health sector recovery context, ensure appropriate links among humanitarian actions and longer-term health sector plans, incorporating the concept of ‘building back better’ and specific risk reduction measures.
Person Specification Essential Qualifications, experience and competences • Qualified medical doctor or nurse with Master in Public Health or equivalent degree • Considerable international field experience, of which strong experience in managing and coordinating health programs in chronic and acute, sudden-onset emergencies • Significant experience of Health Cluster Coordination either as a coordinator or key contributing partner at national and sub-national level. • Strong understanding of the humanitarian reform system. • Experience in dealing with emergency institutional donors such as ECHO, OFDA, etc; and emergency funding mechanisms such as CERF, FLASH, CAP. • Extensive experience in liaising with government/local authorities and coordinating NGOs, with excellent interpersonal, motivational and managerial skills • Experience of representation at national and local levels. • Experience in forming and leading technical working groups and workshops • Excellent analytical, writing and presentation skills • Strong communication skills, with excellent written and spoken English • Confident and proficient in the use of MS Office • Experience of establishing strong working relationships with colleagues from different functions and cultures • Experience of a flexible approach to managing and prioritising a high workload and multiple tasks in a fast paced environment with tight deadlines • Experience of proactively identifying and addressing issues • An understanding of and commitment to Merlin’s mission and values • An understanding of and commitment to Cluster approaches, principles and values
Desirable Qualifications, experience and competences • Ability to travel regularly, both within country and internationally, sometimes for weeks at a time • Relevant experience in Myanmar
How to apply:
To apply for this position To apply for this job, please go to www.merlin.org.uk/jobs and apply using our online recruitment system. In order to apply for a job with Merlin online you will need to complete a short registration process and create an account – the online recruitment system explains how to do this. Once your account has been created, you will be able to save the information that you have entered in your application and re-visit it at any time before you submit it.
If you are unable to apply online for any technical reason, please contact applications@merlin.org.uk. Please note that we do not accept CVs. Unfortunately due to the number of applications we receive, only shortlisted applicants will be contacted.
Data Protection Please note that in accordance with the 1998 Data Protection Act, Merlin will hold and use personal information that you have given for the purpose of recruitment and employment. This information can be stored in manual and/or electronic form. This information may also be disclosed to third parties in accordance with the Data Protection Act. In cases where a job offer is conditional on ensuring that potential employees’ names do not appear on counter terrorism lists generated by the United Nations, European Union or the United States due to donor funding requirements, Merlin will use the information that you have given for checking that your name does not appear on these lists.
