Community Engagement Officer

Job Description

Over 80 years ago, Albert Einstein helped create the International Rescue Committee (IRC). Today, we are a leading humanitarian and development organization working in more than 40 countries and 26 U.S. cities to help people whose lives and livelihoods are shattered by conflict and disaster to survive, recover, and gain control of their future. The IRC has been present in Liberia since 1996 serving as a lead partner in the health sector. The country program supports the Ministry of Health (MOH) in strengthening the health care systems and service delivery at all levels in accordance with the MOH national standards.

In recent years, IRC Liberia has deepened its commitment to supporting the Government of Liberia to strengthen its health recovery efforts - first from the devastating civil war, from the Ebola crisis and now the COVID-19 outbreak. The Scaling Up Community Health Activities Project presents an opportunity to improve health services in hard-to-reach communities and the rebuilding of health systems in Liberia.

Scope of Work

The IRC has entered into a four-year cooperative agreement with USAID to implement the Scaling Up Community Health Services project in Liberia. This project will strengthen the Liberian community health system to provide health care services in hard-to-reach areas while supporting sustainable country ownership of community-based health services, through technical assistance and capacity building of Ministry of Health (MOH)/County Health Teams (CHTs). This project will increase the coverage of service providers in underserved districts and improve their capacity to deliver quality health services while strengthening CHTs and communities’ capacity to plan, manage and monitor health services. In addition, the project will work directly with County and District Health Teams and community level, providing them with technical and operational capacity to play a key role in service delivery.

This new award is designed to build on the gains achieved under the previous USAID community health grant; “Partnership for Advancing Community-based Services (PACS)”, implemented by the IRC and partners. PACS supported the government to strengthen health systems, improve reproductive maternal and child health, as well as restore public confidence in health facilities and health staff. PACS also provided support to build the government of Liberia’s capacity to control infectious diseases and efforts to rebuild the health system.

USAID Community Health Activity Implementation Overview

USAID Community Health Activity will work in Lofa, Bong, River Gee and Grand Kru to assist in the decentralization process and ensure that county and community-level systems are equipped to deliver high quality community-based services in line with key MOH strategies. The project Support Officer will work alongside MOH staff in relevant units at the district level in strengthening their capacity to effectively supervise and coordinate community-based health activities. The activities will also be technical trainings and a comprehensive capacity strengthening activities that will see community skills and knowledge being strengthen over the course of the 3-year period.

IRC is seeking a Liberian National to serve in the role of Community Engagement Officer for a 3-year USAID program. The primary purpose of the Program is providing health care service in hard-to-reach areas while transferring ownership to the government by increasing coverage of CHAs in underserved districts, improving their capacity to deliver quality health services as well as strengthening CHTs and communities’ capacity to plan, manage and monitor health services. The Community Engagement Officer will work under the supervision of the Community Health Coordinator at the project office in River Gee and indirectly/administratively to the Senior Community Health Coordinator for Engagement at the Monrovia office. The Community Engagement Officer will serve as a liaison between the County and the program implementation at the district and community level, monitoring functions of project activities in the district and community. He/she will serve as the focal person for coordinating Community Engagement functions supported by the Community Health coordinator The He/she will provide guidance for the CHSSs, and CHAs in the assigned district to ensure the validity of data being collected and reported with specific emphasis on consistency, accuracy, reliability, and timeliness. The He/she is expected to collate and analyze iCCM data collected by the CHAs and CHSSs and accordingly update the project database, COMET, and PIDS in consultation with the M&E Officer in a timely manner to ensure accurate and on-time reporting and program decision making.

Essential Functions

Specific responsibilities include, but are not limited to:

Project Support Officer

- Collaborate with DHT to conduct community engagement processes as outlined in the NCHAP Policy and Strategy - Coordinate Community Engagement functions along with the District Health Teams at the community level - Ensure contextual application of the engagement processes to obtain involvement of the larger community for the need of female participation - Work with CHT M&E, CHSSs and CHAs to facilitate annual household registration and mapping, including population estimation in the catchment areas and for the entire districts and county. - Provide strategic and technical leadership and direction to the DHT and support in defining and implementing activities to achieve the greatest impact toward project goals and objectives. - Strengthened coordination and relationship with Clinics and District Health teams - Build on existing relationships and gains to establish linkages between health facilities and communities - Establish, reactivate, and orient Health Facilities Development Committee (HFDCs) and Community Health Committee (CHCs) on their roles and responsibilities - Provide technical support to CHC on the development of CHRRP and gap identification and selection of CHAs - Introduce, rollout and track community scorecards - Make quarterly allocations for the DHTs operations and ensure that the information is provided and clearly understood by all parties - Collaborate with Quality Assurance/Sr. M&E Officer to facilitate capacity building for CHAs and CHSSs on the use of the CBIS forms; the data collection/verification procedures and reporting. - Ensure that iCCM and other relevant project indicators are track and updates share with Quality Assurance/Sr. M&E Officer to be incorporated and regularly updated in the project database and COMET. - In liaison with the Community Health Coordinator and the County Pharmacists, support the tracking and reporting of commodity stock out levels by CHAs in the communities. - Work closely with the Community Health Coordinator and Quality Assurance/Sr. M&E Officer to develop the plans and procedures for data collection and verification in District - The job description is not exhaustive of the needed responsibilities as required

Area of consideration: This is a local position.

Key Working Relationships

Position Reports to: Community Health Coordinator

Position directly supervises: N/A

Indirect Reporting: Deputy Project Director and Senior Community Health Coordinator for Engagement

Other Internal and/or external contacts

Internal: Program Team

External: DHT, County M&E, CHSSs, CHAs & CHVs Partner organization

Qualifications

- Bachelor’s degree in Public Health, Nursing, Sociology, Health and Nutrition or a related field; equivalent experience may be substituted for graduate degree - At least five years’ professional experience in community engagement and outreach; - Works well with others and promotes teamwork, comfortable in a multi-cultural environment, flexible and able to handle pressure well, possesses excellent coordination and problem-solving skills. - Commitment to accuracy and meeting deadlines. - Demonstrated knowledge in community Health and monitoring project indicators and capture best practices and lessons learned to incorporate into project activities - Experience in training/mentoring/coaching of community health workers - Significant experience working with DHTs, IP partners, CHTs at the District level - Knowledge and familiarity with clients with low literacy - Strong negotiation skills and ability to develop relations with local counterparts, donors, and other stakeholders - Demonstrated innovation and success in gender-sensitive programming and implementation. - Strong communication, both written and oral, including ability to review and provide feedback on sub-grantees reports. - Problem-solving, multi-tasking, independent judgment, and time management, particularly in a multi-cultural environment. - Able to respond rapidly to changing environments, yet remain productive, focused. - Willingness to travel frequently to remote program locations, often for an extended period and overnight - Excellent written and oral English skills. - Strong computer literacy skills and experience working with Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, and PowerPoint.

The IRC and IRC workers must adhere to the values and principles outlined in IRC Way - Standards for Professional Conduct. These are Integrity, Service, Accountability and Equality. In accordance with these values, the IRC operates and enforces policies on Beneficiary Protection from Exploitation and Abuse, Child Safeguarding, Anti Workplace Harassment, Fiscal Integrity, and Anti-Retaliation.

IRC et les employés de IRC doivent adhérer aux valeurs et principes contenus dans le IRC WAY (normes de conduite professionnelle). Ce sont l’Intégrité, le Service, et la Responsabilité. En conformité avec ces valeurs, IRC opère et fait respecter les politiques sur la protection des bénéficiaires contre l’exploitation et les abus, la protection de l’enfant, le harcèlement sur les lieux de travail, l’intégrité financière, et les représailles.