Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is an international humanitarian aid organization that provides assistance in more than 60 countries to populations in distress, to victims of natural or manmade disasters and to victims of armed conflicts, without discrimination and irrespective of origin, religion, creed or political affiliation.
MSF Operational Centre Brussels is looking for an
Advocacy Manager in Sierra Leone (m/f/x)
Following a harrowing history of civil war between 1991 and 2002, Sierra Leone – located on the Western Coast of Africa – is now relatively peaceful. That said, Sierra Leone remains one of the poorest countries in the world (exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic) and maintains among the highest global maternal and child mortality rates. There are also significant infectious disease risks, including Ebola, Lassa Fever and malaria. Access to quality healthcare is limited, with lack of skilled healthcare workers a key concern. As such, MSF OCB’s priorities in Sierra Leone are providing access to free and high-quality mother and child health care at primary and secondary levels, strengthening human resources for health, and responding to emergencies. Advocacy is a vital component of MSF OCB’s operational strategy.
The Advocacy Manager is responsible for all advocacy activities in the Mission in line with MSF policies and values, following the Operational line and linked with the OCB Analysis Department. The Advocacy Manager is a member of the mission Country Management Team (CMT) and acts as a sparring-partner for all operational and medical teams.
The overall aims of the mission include:
In order to meet these aims, there are a number of priority areas for the Advocacy Manager in Sierra Leone, including identifying key barriers to and advocating for:
CORE TASKS
• Defining, implementing and coordinating all MSF advocacy activities, including responsibility for drafting advocacy strategies addressing medical-humanitarian priorities in relation to mission needs – ensure that advocacy components are included in project and mission operational strategies as member of the Country Management Team (CMT)
• Supervise the quality of field-level data collection (under MSF ethical guidelines) for operational and advocacy purpose.
• Monitor and compile regular updates on humanitarian aid system dynamics (NGO/Donor planning, Red Cross movement activities and positioning) to increase the leverage capacity and the national impact of MSF lobbying in line with operational plans, regular activities and medical-humanitarian advocacy objectives.
• Draft ad hoc lobbying points and internal/external reports in relation to main medical- humanitarian concerns while strengthening the integration of humanitarian affairs (analysis, critical reflection, contextual understanding) and operational communications.
• Advises CMT on perception related to positioning and operational strategy with a particular view on increasing local/national visibility and ensuring good acceptance for MSF projects/presence.
• Drafts regular situation reports for mission/Analysis Department as well as reports for external use in line with mission advocacy strategy.
• Plans and supervise, in close coordination with the Coordinator/HR department, the associated processes (recruitment, training, performance management, development and internal communication), of the staff to ensure both the sizing and amount of necessary knowledge
DATA COLLECTION – ANALYSIS
• Design and support the implementation of data collection systems with regards to the mission context (focus on national level with potential regional/global repercussions, and local developments in project locations), and medical-humanitarian issues, in order to provide reliable information for operational and strategic decision-making.
• Provide data and discourse analysis in support of the Head of Operations/Deputy to inform MSF positioning in-country (project-level and at national level), particularly in terms of political / operational environment (regulation frameworks, donor/aid agreements, trade and economic developments).
• Propose improvements in the methodologies and tools used, and provide trainings to field teams as required.
• Undertake actor mapping and stakeholders’ analysis on behalf of projects and mission, while providing guidance/support to Head of Operations/Deputy for the management of relations with local authorities, and strategic advice for national-level organizational positioning.
REPRESENTATION – COMMUNICATION
• Support networking needs by leading or participating representation duties in non-project locations (on delegation from the Head of Operations/Deputy), including with domestic civil society, professional groups (doctors’/nurses’ associations), and local academics/universities.
• Define, draft and review advocacy messages and targeting (including communications and dissemination strategies) to raise awareness of medical-humanitarian issues across MSF projects and at national level (transversal thematic).
• Link with other MSF sections in-country to develop common advocacy and/or communications initiatives.
• On request/project basis, interact with the international MSF advocacy network to provide updated contextualized medical-humanitarian content (country-level information)
• Lead discussions, trainings, briefings, etc. on the country’s medical-humanitarian context, MSF principles, international humanitarian law, medical ethics, and advocacy activities/strategies to raise awareness of MSF locally recruited and international mobile staff on these topics.
• Provide recommendations and be a propositional voice for opportunistic communications
(unplanned) from operations/medical activities’ analysis.
• Undertake field assessments (in relation to data gathering/context analysis or exploratory missions) and other work-related traveling as required.
Education:
studies, protection)
Online applications to submitted by 1 April 2022 latest via the following link. When clicking on this link, you will be directed to our online application tool.
MSF values diversity and is committed to create an inclusive working environment. We welcome applications from all qualified candidates regardless of disability, gender identity, marital or civil partnership status, race, color or ethnic and national origins, religion or belief, or sexual orientation.
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Tagged as: Médecins Sans Frontières, Sierra Leone
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