Medical Coordinator at Alliance for International Medical Action (ALIMA)

Contract term: contract under French law, 12 months renewable subject to budget funding
Direct Line Manager: Head of Mission
Technical Referent: Desk Medical Manager
Line Manager for: assistant Comed
Technical Referent: Medref

ALIMA in Nigeria

• The humanitarian crisis in Nigeria’s northeast and the Lake Chad region is one of the most severe ongoing crises in the world, now entering its ninth year and showing no sign of abating.
• In 2021, at least 8.7 million people are in need of urgent humanitarian assistance in the worst-affected states of Borno, Adamawa, and Yobe. Up to 5.1 million people risk being critically food insecure during the next lean season (June - August 2021), a level similar to 2016-2017 when famine was looming over Borno State
• Nigeria is now facing a second wave of COVID-19 infections. Borno, Adamawa, and Yobe states have recorded new cases. Aid actors are intensifying actions and prevention measures
• Despite challenges including humanitarian space reduction, aid workers had already provided around 5 million people with life-saving assistance in Borno, Adamawa, and Yobe states in 2020.
• Conflict, explosive remnants of war, and insecurity have cut people off from their main means of livelihoods-farming and fishing. This causes major food insecurity in northeast Nigeria, which COVID-19’s effects on incomes have exacerbated: despite good crop yields, food insecurity is rising.
• Findings of the October 2020 Cadre Harmonisé (CH) analysis projected that about 5.1 million people in the three states will be food-insecure in the lean season between June and August 2021 – a 19% and 34% increase in 2020 (after COVID-19 June CH Update) and 2019 figures respectively.
• According to the Nutrition and Food Security Surveillance Round 9, conducted in October 2020, the level of acute malnutrition increased in all three states compared to 2019. Global acute malnutrition (GAM) rates of 10.7% were recorded in Borno, 7.5% in Adamawa, and 13.6% in Yobe. According to the survey, several LGAs had high pockets of global acute malnutrition above the 15% threshold (emergency phase), including Gubio, Magumeri, Mobbar, and Bayo in Borno State and all LGAs in northern Yobe.
• Movement restrictions and insecurity continue to hamper the ability of IDPs, returnees, and the host communities to access basic services, livelihoods, and land for farming and grazing. This means that more people will rely on humanitarian aid to survive in 2021.
• In 2017, ALIMA continued to implement projects in Muna Garage in Jere LGA, where ALIMA performs general consultations for children under 5 and provides Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) to pregnant and lactating women (antenatal and postnatal consultations).
• An Outpatient Therapeutic Feeding Program (OTP) is also available for children under 5 suffering from severe acute malnutrition (SAM) in the clinic, where women and caretakers are trained to screen their children for malnutrition using the MUAC tape.
• In Maiduguri MC, where ALIMA is working in partnership with the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital (UMTH), the Inpatient Therapeutic Feeding Center (ITFC) manages children under 5 suffering from SAM with medical complications in a 50-bed capacity building.
• In December 2020, ALIMA conducted a needs assessment survey in the north of Yobe where a high level of acute malnutrition was recorded by the nutrition sector. The results of this survey prompted ALIMA to open a nutrition and health project covering the Kasasuwa LGA, one of the most affected LGAs, and where there was a gap. This project started in May 2021 and fund by ECHO aims to support Karasuwa health facilities and improve access to nutrition and health services including pediatric healthcare and reproductive health.
• ALIMA also supports COVID-19 vaccination in Borno and Yobe with a focus on the most vulnerable.
• In parallel, ALIMA is opening an emergency nutrition project in Katsina state and is present in Owo state since 2018 for Lassa fever response and research.

Protection of Beneficiaries and Community Members

• Level 3: As part of his/her duties, the job holder will visit programs and come into contact with children and/or vulnerable adults.
• Therefore, a criminal record check or a certificate of good conduct will be required. In situations where the impossibility of providing a criminal record or a certificate of good conduct is found, a declaration of honor will be requested.

Mission and Main Activities:

• The Medical Coordinator plans, designs, leads, coaches and coordinates the implementation of the overall medical content, strategies, activities, and resources in Borno’s mission in order to facilitate the delivery of quality medical care for patients and their communities as well as to improve population health condition, its humanitarian living conditions, and disease prevention.
• This will be done in close collaboration with the Head of Mission, other departments, and other local authorities and following the corporate ALIMA ethos and values, health policies, protocols, and operational plan; and monitoring the medical and humanitarian situation in the country.

Major Responsibilities

• S/he is responsible to define, monitor, and update the medical content of the ALIMA country policy, annual plan, and budget, by scanning health needs through exploratory missions and implementation of health information system, elaborating, monitoring, and reviewing project proposals, determining, necessary resources in order to cover medical and humanitarian needs of the population at risk.
• S/he advises the HoM about the medical and health aspects of the program
• S/he is the medical representative of ALIMA towards the local medical authorities and the medical stakeholders
• S/he participates in the program definition and implements the methods and means to achieve the objectives
• S/he defines and updates the medical objectives according to the indicators, the health context, and ethical principles
• S/he participates in the HR management of the medical team (training, individual reviews, path careers identification, support) in close coordination with the HR manager
• S/he facilitates the understanding of the medical stakes linked to the program and conveys these to the association
• S/he follows the prevention and curative aspects of national and international team health
• This will be done by ensuring linkage with the community, its proximity by safeguarding medical ethics and the quality of medical programming (ie. Relevance, effectiveness, safety, accessibility, and appropriateness of ALIMA’s medical interventions, as well as “best practices” clinical management of patients.).

Experience and Skills

• Essential, a Degree in Medicine or other Paramedical Studies. Specialization in tropical Medicine or a degree in Public Health would be an asset
• Essential, working experience of at least two years in relevant jobs and previous humanitarian experience in ALIMA or other NGOs in developing countries.
• Essential working experience of one year as a Medical Coordinator
• Fluent English is mandatory; local working languages like Hausa/Kanuri would be an asset.
• Essential computer literacy (word, excel, and internet)
• Strategic Vision
• Leadership
• Networking
• Cultural
• Strong interpersonal skills, and teamwork.
• Strong communication skills
• Negotiation skills.

Remuneration and Benefits

• Salary: Depending on experience + per diem
• ALIMA pays for:
  • Medical cover from the first day of the contract to a month after the date of departure from the mission country for the employee
  • Travel costs between the expatriate’s country of origin and the mission location
  • Accommodation costs
  •  Evacuation of the employee