Assistant Public Health Officer - NOA - Temporary Appointment

This position is advertised to internal and external applicants. Assistant Public Health Officer

ORGANIZATIONAL CONTEXT

Seven years into the Syria crisis, Lebanon remains the country hosting the largest number of refugees per capita, with over one million Syrian refugees, and around 20,000 refugees of Iraqi, Sudanese, Ethiopian and other origins, in addition to the Palestine refugees under UNRWA¿s mandate.  There are no formal camps for Syrian refugees in the country, and refugees are living in hundreds of communities and locations across the country.

The refugee response is led by the Government and local actors, supported by the international community. As the designated lead agency in the refugee response, UNHCR has established a sector-based structure in Beirut and in the field. The structure brings together over 100 UN agencies, national and international NGO partners in identifying and agreeing on the strategic priorities to address the needs of Syrian refugees and other affected populations. The Lebanon national response falls under the Regional Refugee and Resilience Plan (3RP), whereby UNHCR guides the refugee response and UNDP facilitates the resilience and stabilization component.

The UNHCR operational response in Lebanon is one of the largest for the organization. Media attention and the frequency of influential high-profile visitors is high. Aside from the country office in the capital city of Beirut, UNHCR has offices in Mt Lebanon, Qobayat, Tripoli, Tyre and Zahle.

There are currently over one million Syrian refugees registered with UNHCR in Lebanon, which makes Lebanon the highest refugee-hosting country per capita in the world. There are no approved camps in the country, and refugees are spread over 2,125 communities and locations across the country. The refugee response is led by the Government and local actors, supported by the international community.

As the designated lead agency in the refugee response, UNHCR has established a sector-based structure in Beirut and in the field. The structure brings together over 100 UN agencies, national and international NGO partners in identifying and agreeing on the strategic priorities to address the needs of Syrian refugees and other affected populations. The Lebanon national response falls under the Regional Refugee and Resilience Plan (3RP), whereby UNHCR guides the refugee response and UNDP facilitates the resilience and stabilization component.

The UNHCR operational response in Lebanon is the largest for the organization. Media attention and the frequency of influential high-profile visitors is high. The Office has grown substantially in the past years and now has around 640 staff. Aside from the Branch Office in the capital city of Beirut, UNHCR has two sub-offices in Zahle and Tripoli and two field offices in Mt Lebanon, Tyre, and one field unit in Qobayat under the Tripoli Sub-Office.

UNHCR subsidizes referral care for Syrian refugees in primary and secondary health facilitates in Lebanon. UNHCR has supported more than 212,000 primary health care consultations between January and December 2017, approximately seven percent of which were for antenatal care, six percent for non-communicable disease care and 11 per cent for mental health care, as well as 82, 000 hospital admissions for life saving and obstetric care. Due to a shortage of funds, UNHCR has to adopt a restrictive set of eligibility criteria according to which, coverage in secondary health care is limited to life saving and obstetric care. In general, refugees cover 25% of the cost of care. UNHCR contracted a Third Party Administrator (TPA) to manage the provision of secondary health care across the country. The TPA¿s specific role is to manage Syrian refugees¿ access to hospital care in line with the referral care guidelines or Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs). In terms of primary health care, UNHCR supports a limited number of Primary Health Care Centres (PHCcs) through partners on field levels. On capacity building, UNHCR continues to partner with Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) to strengthen the health system and reinforce response capacity.

The incumbent reports to the Associate Protection Officer (Community Based) at UNHCR¿s Field Office in Tyre, South Lebanon, with technical support from the Public Health Unit (PHU) at UNHCR¿s Country Office in Beirut. He/she supports the PHU with the implementation and monitoring of the public health programme, especially the referral health care system. The incumbent works closely with the other UNHCR colleagues from Protection, Field, Programme and Resettlement to support identification and solutions for persons of concern facing problems accessing the health care system or being discharged from hospital. The incumbent is responsible for coordination of health partners on field level to ensure effective and adequate health programmes to meet the needs of persons of concern. As part of the FO Tyre Community-Based Protection Unit, the incumbent is required to work closely with the refugee communities in identifying public health issues and designing suitable programmes in an AGD approach. Excellent communication skills, ability to work with different stakeholders, adaptability and teamwork are essential for the incumbent of this position.


FUNCTIONAL STATEMENT

Accountability
- UNHCR¿s health programmes in the country operation meet minimum UNHCR and international standards.
- UNHCR implements a functional and effective referral care system in the country operation.
- The participation of persons of concern is assured through continuous assessment and evaluation using participatory, rights and community-based approaches, which inform health programming and ensure that UNHCR meets its commitments to accountability to persons of concern.

Responsibility
- Maintain regular contact with TPA senior management as well as relevant departments such as client and customer desks, data analysis, admissions or claims department.
- Work closely with TPA¿s medical team (doctors and delegates).
- Review and rationalize hospital network together with TPA.
- Monitor achievements of TPA against set Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).
- Provide accurate data and analysis on secondary and tertiary health care including detailed analysis of maternal and neonatal mortality.
- Highlight breaches of quality of care and access issues.
- Conduct frequent monitoring and evaluation visits to TPA service desks and hospitals.
- Conduct regular monitoring and evaluation visits to partner-supported PHC.
- Ensure UNHCR referral care SOPs are up to date and modified when needed, dissemination and training to various partners.
- Improve the referral pathway between primary and secondary health care level.
- Contribute to capacity building of the humanitarian partner, PHC network and hospitals. 
- Ensure refugees are well aware of referral system by mass information.
- Monitor access to SHC by refugees.
- Review cases if needed including timely response, ECC referral, follow up, filing and data entry.
- Ensure coordination between the IPs and the ECC members for submission of cases and provision of feedback
- Work closely with UNHCR Programme, Field and Protection staff to identify priority health issues and key data requirements for programme planning and monitoring to ensure that minimum UNHCR and international standards are being met.
- Work closely with UNHCR Programme, Field and Protection staff on the management of individual cases to ensure Health aspects are mainstreamed and addressed in a timely and appropriate manner.
- Work in a multi-sectoral and coordinated approach in cooperation with governments, UN agencies, non-government organizations (NGOs) and other humanitarian partners.
- Promote basic health education for populations of concern and train Health Outreach Volunteers.
- Ensure strong linkages among health, nutrition, food security and HIV with protection and human rights.
- Improve coordination among partners and participate in capacity building efforts.
- Use community-based approaches, including clear involvement of persons of concern in the public health and nutritional programmes.
- Perform other related duties as required.

Authority
- Liaise closely with TPA in field locations.
- Undertake frequent monitoring visits to TPA offices, field desks and hospitals.
- Liaise with UN, humanitarian partners both implementing and operational and GoL (MoPH) on referral care.
- Organize training/workshops as needed to increase knowledge on and compliance with UNHCR¿s referral SOP.
- Prepare reports, share information and convene meetings on referral care.

ESSENTIAL MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS AND PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE REQUIRED
- Undergraduate degree (equivalent of a BA/BS) in Public Health or a clinical background (nurse or MD) with postgraduate training in Public Health.
- Minimum one year previous work experience relevant to the function.
- Strong IT skills and familiarity with Microsoft Office applications.
- Experience with Health Information Systems and statistical software.
- Knowledge of local institutions.
- Excellent working knowledge of English and local language.



DESIRABLE QUALIFICATIONS & COMPETENCIES
- Knowledge of French.
- Experience in working directly with refugees, especially urban setting.
- Experience working with international organizations, including non-government organizations and UN agencies, in field of health and nutrition. 
- Additional formal training in reproductive health, nutrition, infectious diseases, refugee health and/or community health. Excellent working knowledge of English and local language. Temporary Appointment is advertise to cover Maternity Leave of a staff member for 6 months. Interested qualified internal and external candidates meeting the requirements of the Job Descriptions posted online can apply no later than 30 May 2019 Midnight Geneva Time.