People Centred Approach Manager at Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF)

GENERAL CONTEXT

Médecins Sans Frontières is an international independent medical-humanitarian organization, which offers assistance to populations in distress, to victims of natural or man-made disasters and to victims of armed conflict, without discrimination and irrespective of race, religion, creed or political affiliation.

MSF is a civil society initiative that brings together individuals committed to the assistance of other human beings in crisis. As such MSF is by choice an association. Each individual working with MSF does it out of conviction and is ready to uphold the values and principles of MSF.

The MSF movement is built around five operational directorates supported by MSF’s 21 sections, 24 associations and other offices together worldwide. MSF OCBA is one of those directorates. The operations are implemented by field teams and the mission coordination teams; together with the organizational units based in Barcelona, Athens and decentralised in Nairobi, Dakar and Amman. The field operations are guided and supported by 5 Operational Cells, the Emergency Unit and other departments supporting operations.

MAIN RESPONSIBILITIES AND TASKS

Advance OCBA’s transversal ambitions for People Centred Approach (PCA)

1. Generate a multidisciplinary dynamic that ensures that OCBAs operational response is focused on and responds to the evolving needs of the population affected by the crises where it intervenes.
2. Coordinate and co-lead the PCA working group that includes the following areas of expertise: protection, community engagement, social work, sexual violence, mental health and DIE (diversity, inclusion & equity, this postion is the focal point of DEI in ops). Working groups co-lead with the Director of Operations
3. Promote effective field support, by ensuring transversal exchange within the different areas and timely, clear, practical and service oriented support to field teams. 
4. Spar with the Director of Operations, Cells and ARHP team
5. Directly supervise the following advisors: Community engagement (2), Social Work and RESTORE TIC.
6. Improve basic data collection aiming for overview, cross referencing and automated analysis to visibilise trends and concerns affecting the population so as to inform operational adaptiveness.

Ensure roll out of Protection Framework

1. Provide specific guidance on how to embed protection in the operational mind-sets of HQ and Field as well as setting up the advice and support
2. Document past and emerging protection issues, good practices and incorporate them into active and proactive knowledge strategies in collaboration with Ops knowledge management and its relevant hubs and dissemination strategies.
3. Frame and launch (content review, rules of engagement) the Protection Community of Practice in Tembo.
4. Leverage learnings from partnerships in Protection to the wider audience in Ops and house regarding protection.
5. Access external expertise and best practices by developing a network with external specialists

Develop HR and contribute to knowledge management in collaboration with Ops knowledge management and learning teams.

1. Develop a mechanism to identify, articulate and disseminate key practices and lessons learnt on PCA, also incorporating a repository of external resources.
2. Participate in mentoring initiatives directed at building capacity in population focus (HoMs, Medcos and FieldCos)
3. Develop PCA and protection learning outputs for relevant in-house transference of key knowledge in collaboration with Ops learning and knowledge vision

Contribute to wider dynamics within the operations department

1. Participate in ROP meetings
2. Contribute to discussions and reflections on operationally important topics
3. Engage with relative operational initiatives – ongoing and foreseen e.g. Knowledge management Ops project, Roles & Responsibilities Ops/HR project and Support Model initiative, Tembo etc. to ensure operational and organisational coherence and synergies

SELECTION CRITERIA

Education, skills and experience

Essential

• Social Sciences profile, with an international component and/or expertise, including: (International) Political Science, International Law, Development’ Studies, Anthropology or similar
• More than 7 years’ experience in the humanitarian sector
• Previous field operational experience in humanitarian crises, whether in MSF or externally, with exposure to protection dilemmas, access constraints and community engagement strategies
• Knowledge of protection issues in armed conflict, including those relating to International Humanitarian Law and the human rights of internally displaced persons
• Experience in Mentoring and Coaching.
• Experience working with senior management in OCBA and navigating house (cells, Homs, FCs, Medcos, tesacos, referents, platforms, etc)
• Ability to generate bridges across disciplines and departments, mobilise expertise and funnel effective support to field teams
• Ability to analyse complex operational environments and synthesise the core elements into conclusions and recommendations for MSF operations and advocacy
• Ability to understand medical data and epidemiological analysis
• Strong analytical, writing and facilitation skills
• Excellent verbal communication skills
• Excellent written English, and proficient in French

Desirable

• Experience with other organisations in the sector (UN, other NGOs, think tanks) or donors
• Training on protection, community engagement, SGBV or humanitarian affairs
• Spanish and Arabic language skills

Competences

• Commitment to MSF’s principles
• Results and quality orientation
• Service orientation
• Strategic vision
• Teamwork and cooperation
• Initiative and innovation
• Behavioural flexibility
• Planning and organising
• Security awareness and management
• Writing, presentation and facilitation
• Cross-cultural awareness

Others

•  Availability to travel, including to insecure environments

CONDITIONS

• Position based in any based in any MSF-OCBA hub: Barcelona, MSF–Spain office delegations, Buenos Aires, Amman, Dakar or Nairobi
• Fulltime job
• Temporary position – 2 years
• Annually gross salary: HQ-5 (divided in 12 monthly payments) + secondary benefits, based on MSF OCBA Reward Policy