Project manager – Patients Safeguarding M/F

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is an international humanitarian aid organisation that provides assistance to populations in distress, to victims of natural or manmade disasters and to victims of armed conflicts, without discrimination and irrespective of race, religion, creed or political affiliation. The French section of MSF implements programs in thirty-three countries. **

MSF is currently looking for a Project Manager- Patient Safeguarding.

Background for the role:**

MSF-OCP wants to prevent and treat more proactively the abuse of its patients and their caretakers. Up to now, some awareness workshops have taken place in some hospitals, and there is a process/methodology for management of abuse by the EAMA cell. But as reflected by the small number of incidents reported, it is obvious that these abuses are under-reported.

Project objectives and deliverable expected

The final objective of the project is to implement prevention, identification and management of abuse on patients and caretakers in MSF health structures.

The project will start with a literature review and implementation in 2 pilot sites. At the end of the first year, the objective is to have a written synthesis of the key strategies for prevention, identification and management of abuse, and the lessons learnt from pilot implementation.

The second year, the objective will be to start the scale-up of prevention, identification and management of abuses on patients in MSF health structures with a defined methodology and identification of the means.

Purpose of the mission :

Prevention, identification and management of abuse of patients and caretakers within MSF-OCP projects.

The project manager reports to the Director of Operations.

S/he will work in close relations with:

· The EAMA Cell (head of EAMA cell and the person dedicated to this topic at EAMA Cell level).

· The MIO in charge of patient centered care

· Legal department

· The HR department

· The relevant medical department referents, e.g. Mental health

· The Hospital Management Unit

· The Security Focal Point

· The Logistic Manager

Stages of the project:

1. The objective of the first year is to define a model for prevention, detection and management of abuse of patients in MSF health structures, through literature review and the implementation of 2 pilots.

Literature review:

Meet with MSF staff and external stakeholders in order to review different methods to prevent, identify and manage abuse of MSF patients (note that the main issue is the identification and notification of abuse).

Review the work done by previous persons who worked on this topic, based on written documents and interviews (e.g., MIO for patient centred care, 2020, head of EAMA Cell).

Pilot phase:

Identification of 2 MSF structures (possibly in 2 different contexts) where the project can start and implementation of the proposed strategy.

Synthesis:

Written synthesis of the key strategies for prevention, identification and management of abuse, and the lessons learnt from pilot implementation. Presentation and discussion with Medical Directors, Operations Directors, Deputy General Directors, MIO in charge of patient centered care and the EAMA cell in order to discuss and to further define a model in order to scale-up the implementation within MSF OCP.

1. Second year- 6 months.

The objective is to start the scale-up of prevention, identification and management of abuse in MSF health structures with a defined methodology and identification of the means (different options are possible: integration in the cell or second MIO to support the scale-up etc…).

Some elements that will be integrated into the work:

Prevention of abuse

· Set-up meetings with staff to discuss questions regarding abuse or misbehaviour toward beneficiaries (that is, to identify the best way to address staff reluctance on this topic, understanding that this topic may be perceived by staff as questioning the quality of their work). To mitigate this, integrate in these meetings a part to discuss the inverse, that is “abuse of staff by patients/beneficiaries”.

· Identify the places/times at high risk for abuse of patients.

· Identify mechanisms to inform patients of their rights. Discuss the interest in developing a patient charter, and whether it should it be generalized to all structures…

Identification of abuse / Mechanisms for lodging complaints / alerts

· Establish a risk assessment tool allowing each field to assess the risk of abuse for beneficiaries according to the target population & the context (examples: discrimination linked to ethnics groups, young patients, female patients, and mental health patients etc…).

· Work on different systems to be sure that patients have access to relevant persons in MSF if there are victims of abuses.

· Systematize consultations at admission and discharge, which would aim to: inform the patient about his/her illness, the care to be continued after discharge, give a hospitalization report and set up an empathic setting in which the patient could communicate about abuse.

Managing abuse

· Clarify the support role of EAMA Cell to the field teams.

· Propose a specific management process for abuse of patients: via EAMA unit or an alternative (within Operations ? Medical Dept ? Mixed ?).

· Proposal for systematic reporting (to EAMA Cell or alternative process).

· Propose a systematic risk assessment for the security of the complainant (mitigate risk of retaliation in case of complaint).

· Clarify sanctions for national and international staff.

· Clarify the management and support (including legal, psychological/medical care etc.) of victims.

Requirements

Qualifications in a relevant field (psychology, social sciences, health, legal).

Experience in managing abuse of power in humanitarian settings.

Experience in an NGO/MSF of minimum 2 years.

Experience in Operational managerial/coordination in an NGO/ MSF is a must ( est un plus).

Ability to listen and empathise, and to communicate clearly .

Languages : English and French fluency required.

Status :

Fixed term contract – 18 months.

50% of the time in the field, 4 to 6 weeks per year in Paris. Rest of the time : location at the person’s choice.

Indicative salary for a person based in Paris : 3757 euros gros/month, level 9 (equivalent to medical referent).

The precise level of remuneration will depend of the location of the persons (salary scale of the MSF section in the country or IRFFG salary scale if no section).

Starting date : Asap

Kindly send your application (cover letter & resume) on :

https://www.msf.fr/en/get-involved/work-with-us/all-employment-opportunities/project-manager-patients-safeguarding-mf