Building Resilience in Ethiopia (BRE):

The Building Resilience in Ethiopia (BRE) programme is co-funded by UK Government’s Department for International Development (DFID) and USAID over three years (2019-2022) and is intended to assist Ethiopia to ‘become more resilient to climate and humanitarian shocks.’ Under the BRE programme, OPM is the Managing Agent for the delivery of technical assistance (TA) across three work streams: health, disaster risk management (DRM) and finance.

With regard to the National Disaster Risk Management Commission (NDRMC) BRE‘s focus is supporting effective leadership and coordination of an effective and accountable humanitarian response. While the overall objective is as stated above, the current COVID-19 pandemic has created an acute health emergency crisis such that the potential social, economic, political and security impact will require an urgent need to improve the multi-agency preparedness and coordination under the leadership of the National Disaster Risk Management Commission in line with National Disaster Risk Management Policy and Strategy.

As the BRE is designed to be flexible to responding to emerging needs as they arise, OPM is looking to recruit Public Health Expert (4) that can support identify a group within the defined areas of expertise who have demonstrated a proactive approach to identifying problems and developing appropriate solutions which are in accordance with the overarching strategy of the BRE.

Rationale:

The COVID-19 outbreak has the potential disrupt the routine work of the NDRMC as they engage in the short term response to this complex emergency which in turn will have a knock on effect of interrupting the technical assistance that BRE has been providing in developing shock resistant preparedness and response systems.  The BRE program will recruit short term emergency and preparedness and response technical specialists to assist with the preparedness and response which will provide a real time opportunity to assess and identify gaps in the systems to support shock responsive systems which support an emergency response. The BRE team will ensure that this role fills a gap that is specifically identified as a short term need by the NDRMC. The BRE Deputy Team Lead in the Addis Ababa office will monitor the work of the expert on a weekly basis to ensure that the emergency preparedness and response specialists are fulfilling the needs identified by the NDRMC and if this is not taking place effectively BRE will terminate the short term technical assistance. The BRE Team is actively communicating with the NDRMC, EPHI, the PHEM Partners Working Group and OCHA to communicate the gaps that are being identified by the BRE Government partners and communicating possible areas where technical assistance is being provided to reduce the risk of overlap.

The Role of the Public Health Expert:

BRE is seeking to recruit experienced professionals with expertise in demonstrated knowledge of disaster response operations during emergencies, an in-depth knowledge of  epidemiology, emergency relief policies and practices within national settings. Must also have a sound knowledge and experience about disaster response and incident management system.

Purpose:

The purpose of the support will focus on strengthening multi-sectoral preparedness and responses capacity of the Federal Ministry of Health with attention to primary and secondary impacts of the COVID 19 as they arise, and ensuring clear responsibilities and functions between the various coordination structures including,

·         compiling/consolidating and disseminating information, assist in preparing reports,

·         liaising with line ministries in support of the Ministry of Health in strengthening the COVID-19 response,

·         liaising between the NDRMC and the regional DRM Coordination offices in the different regions,

·         advise on long term resilience issues  with particular reference to the overall objective of BRE progamme

Responsibilities:

The responsibility of the Public Health Expert

o   Provide technical support and contribute to develop a strategic plan for management of surge capacity by the FMOH/EPHI led Task Force

o   Advise the EPHI/EOC incident manager, the A/director on resilience and surge capacity on strategic actions based on lessons from other related major outbreaks and pandemics

o   Improve the coordination between the federal ministries and regional bureaus

o   Support coordination with development partners and their programmes to ensure effective delivery and prevent overlap

o   Assist with the improvement of information systems which will strengthen the development of sitreps

o   Assess and improve disease surveillance systems in regions that have weak health systems or high levels of IDPs

o   Support the Emergency Operations Centre to track suspected and confirmed cases, to trace their contacts and compile disease outcome

The Public Health Expert work closely with and support the Health workstream manager in the areas indicated above and will be working closely with other BRE team members based in Addis Ababa and in the regions. They will perform tasks and undertake responsibilities as follows:

1.       Provide technical support to assess the dynamics of the pandemic and identify adapted response measures that minimize the risk of further spread

2.      Support to coordinate and manage effective implementation of Covid-19 response interventions with relevant regional authorities and partners.

3.      Monitor and evaluate Covid-19 response activities based on different intervention pillars of the Regional Task Force established to provide strategic guidance

4.      Identify critical response needs and support the local health authorities in addressing the gaps

5.      Support activities that strengthen inter-regional/cross-border response activities, including contact tracing, enforcing quarantine measures and testing of suspected cases

6.      Participate in building surge capacity for management of suspected and confirmed cases

7.      Collate, analyse and report on ongoing response activities at national and regional levels

8.      Develop checklists/tools and support field supervision of responders

9.      Monitor functionality of Task Force coordination and technical working group activities

10.  Perform other Covid-response related duties as assigned by Coordinator/Incident Manager

 Qualifications:

Education

Essential: An advanced university degree (Master’s level or above), in public health, medicine or allied health sciences or related field, from an accredited/recognized institute.

Desirable: Post graduate studies or specialized training in incident/emergency management, epidemiology, monitoring and evaluation, humanitarian principles, health system, and health cluster coordination.

Experience

Experience in responding to major disasters such as displacements, disease outbreaks, preferably in a coordination, or strategic and managerial capacity.

Required skill

·         Excellent analytical and interpersonal skills; knowledgeable of donor community, government development priorities and policies, ability to strategize project implementation, comfortable working with multi-disciplinary team

·         Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English.  Proactive leader and team player.

·         Desired skills –motivation and determination to work hard and succeed. Proactive leader and team player. Willingness to be flexible and juggle priorities to get the job done. Strategic thinker, able to prioritize and focus on tasks and projects with the highest potential for success.

·         Prior USAID/DFID project management experience

Other Competencies:

·         Effective in written and verbal communication in English

·         Fluency in Local Language is required as the position needs direct communication and interaction with local community

• Experience of working with government office and knowledge of government capacity gap areas.