Médecins Sans Frontières (also known as Doctors without Borders or MSF) is a private, non-profit, international humanitarian medical organization that intervenes in emergencies and crisis situations to relieve human suffering resulting from unmet medical needs. MSF observes strict neutrality with respect to politics and provides its assistance without discriminating on the basis of race, religion, ideology, or political affiliation. MSF’s members are required to respect humanitarian principles and principles of medical ethics at all times.

 MSF Holland is looking for: EPIDEMIOLOGIST

• No. of positions: 01

• Place of work: Kule, Gambela Regional State,  Ethiopia

• Position holder report to(direct supervisor): Medical Team Leader

• Reports to (Functional): Epidemiologist Activity Manager, MTL, (Dep) MedCo and Epidemiology Advisor

• Length of contract: Until December 31, 2024, with possibility of extension

• Remuneration and Benefits: 

• Starting basic salary: 63,000 ETB

• Medical cover: as per the organization's policy

• Hardship allowance: 30% of the basic salary

• Date:13- September 2024 closing date 26-September-2024

1. Main Purpose/Job Summary:-

Assessing, implementing and maintaining the epidemiological surveillance systems/monitoring (if needed) according to MSF protocols, standards and procedures in order to contribute to appropriate evidence-based decision making using well managed health data in outbreak and emergency MSF programmes

1. General Accountabilities: 

• Carrying out key epidemiological activities in outbreak investigation (description including time, place, people with emphasis on mapping when it is needed) and advising on the operational response 

• Implementing and maintaining a surveillance system to monitor epidemiological trends of relevant outbreak-prone diseases. Guiding activities of medical staff for surveillance and/or active case finding, including ensuring understanding of the need for consistent case definitions and data recording (briefing of all new staff)

• Monitoring and Implementing initial Assessment (for emergency situation), rapid health assessments and (baseline or follow-up) surveys. Where standard protocols are not available or appropriate, developing a protocol seeking extensive feedback and pilot testing of tools to ensure the objectives will be met robustly with support of HQ epidemiologist

• Preparing and adapting routine documentation (survey forms, training materials, letters of request/notification, locally appropriate consent forms etc.) with support of HQ epidemiologist. Preparing an appropriate sampling frame and sample selection guidelines with support of HQ epidemiologist

• Planning and supervising the associated HR processes of the staff under his/her responsibility (recruitment, training/induction, evaluation, potential detection, development and communication) and ensuring that staff exhibits required skills after training and pilot test

• Managing data systems and ensuring accurate, high quality databases; analyzing results and preparing regular written reports on progress and findings for medical coordinator/HQ and when appropriate to external collaborators/networks (MoH, other NGOs, etc.)

• Providing training sessions to medical teams on relevant aspects of epidemiology to enhance team response capacity

Specific Accountabilities:

The epidemiologist is responsible for conducting public health surveillance and epidemiological activities to ensure the timely detection and response to emergencies or outbreaks, and to support data-driven decision-making for medical activities.

General Outline:

• Main responsibility is to conduct epidemiological activities in particular public health surveillance, including conducting data collection and analysis of possible epidemic outbreak, emergency, and responses scenarios.

• Design, implement, maintain, and evaluate the surveillance system for Kule camp and Gambella region in order to monitor epidemiological trends and detect potential emergency or disease outbreaks.

• Support medical teams and Supervisor Medical Data entry to produce tables from analyzed data on a routine basis (i.e., monthly, quarterly, as needed) to enable medical staff write narrative reports.

• Conduct or participate in operational research and surveys in accordance with MSF principles and standard guidelines

• Conduct in-depth program activity analyses and generate recommendations for improved implementation and planning.

1 Public Health Surveillance / Information Collection

• Public health surveillance of potential emergency /outbreak diseases in the project; refer to the Mission EPREP scenarios and priority areas identified by the project.

• Design, implement, and maintain public health surveillance system (i.e., processes, databases, data collection tools) and contribute to the formulation of surveillance guidelines, SOPs and training materials in Kule project and Gambela region

• Monitor, evaluate, improve the performance of surveillance processes and platforms

• Advise and provide timely reports to the medical team in Kule project about potential or active epidemic trends and disease patterns, their characteristics, developments, possible causation, and control procedures

• Lobby and advocate for regular data collection on potential outbreak diseases / emergency events within MSF, and from partners at the regional level, and also UN/INGO (Together with MTL)

• Carry out additional assessment (with medical team) and analysis

2  Analysis, Interpretation, and Recommendation 

• Ensure appropriate and timely data analysis on potential emergency /outbreak diseases in the project and in Gambela region on demand from different partners (depending on the availability of data collected via partner/project). 

• Together with MTL / medical team : 

• Liaise with the partners and UNHCR, RRS, WHO, UNICEF, INGO community and/or Regional Health Bureau (RHB) towards epidemiological finding and trend analysis of potential emergency/outbreak.

• Reports regularly to the PC and MTL on the emergency trends in the project

• Conduct in-depth / deep-dive analyses of routine program data to inform planning and implementation of medical activities

3 Emergency Intervention / Implementation

• Ensure emergency /outbreak investigation before any emergency intervention together with medical team when necessary 

• Ensure weekly data follow up and analysis during outbreak and outbreak intervention

• Involve in the preparation and follow up of epidemiological report for any outbreak intervened/supported and any capitalization if needed with the support of MTL.

4 Operational Assessments / Research

• Design, implementation, analysis, and dissemination of operational research/assessment projects related to surveillance and intervention effectiveness in collaboration with coordination and HQ epidemiologists

• Conduct surveys (nutrition, mortality, morbidity, KAP, LQAS etc), as requested by the mission or assist the project teams in doing so

• Together with the MTL, coordinate with research partners as necessary (i.e., university ERBs, etc.)

5 Lobby, Advocacy and Networking :

Regular participation in the meetings organized by RRS, UNHCR or RHB at camp and Regional Level when necessary.

 Job Requirements

1. Requirements:-  

1. Education

Medical doctor (preferable), nurse or biomedical background with a degree in 

Epidemiology and valid professional practicing license 

1. Experience

• Minimum 2 years of tropical medicine experience 

• Experience in field epidemiology

1. Languages                                   

• Mission and local language essential (high level command oral and written

1. Location

• Candidates, (If they get the position), should locate themselves near to the Kule Project (Terfam, Itang, and surroundings)

1. Knowledge

• Use of epidemiology related analytical software (excel, R/R Studio, Epi-info, STATA or SPSS)

1. Competences

• Results and Quality Orientation L2

•  Teamwork and Cooperation L2

•  Behavioral Flexibility L2

•  Commitment to MSF Principles L2

•  Stress Management L3

How To Apply

Interested applicants shall submit their non-returnable CV and application letter including photocopies of all supporting documents until application deadline to THIS LINK

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Please Note that we only contact short-listed candidates and only short-listed candidates with the required documents are allowed to attend further assessment. 

Sincerity of Declarations and Documents Submitted to MSF

Use of false documents to gain employment with MSF will lead to automatic cancellation from the recruitment process and if found after employment it will lead to termination.

We strive to promote, create, and maintain a safe organizational culture for all people who work for and with MSF OCA, including our partners. Moreover, we ensure that the workplace, wherever staff are located, is built on respect, tolerance, diversity, and inclusion that delivers a safe and respectful environment.

At Médecins Sans Frontières we are committed to ensuring diversity, equity, and inclusion within our organization and encourage qualified applicants from diverse backgrounds to apply.