Background: Over the past 81 years, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) has developed unparalleled expertise in helping people whose lives and livelihoods are shattered by conflict and disaster to survive, recover, and gain control of their future. Health programs represent the largest single sector within which IRC currently operates, constituting approximately 45% of the international budget and with activities in 25 countries.
IRC health programs worldwide are implemented in partnership with Ministry of Health and/or non-governmental organizations. IRC is also engaged in direct provision of health care, safe drinking water and sanitation support to beneficiaries where needed. Currently, IRC supports or manages 75 hospitals, 1,256 health centers and 788 health posts through a network of over eight hundred public health and clinical staff employed by IRC country programs. The facility based care is complemented by community level primary health care work implemented by about 10,000 community health workers.
Country-based health staffs are supported by a 50-member health technical unit that contributes to the effectiveness and comprehensiveness of IRC primary health care programs through technical support, staff development, and institutional learning. The Technical Advisor for Implementation Research will be a key member of the health unit, supervised by the Senior Technical Advisor for Child Health.
Job Overview/Summary: The Technical Advisor, Implementation Research provides technical support for IRC country programs on applied, evaluative, and implementation research. Implementation research may consider any aspect of implementation, including the factors affecting implementation, the processes of implementation, or the results of implementation. This may include how to introduce evidence-based interventions into a health system or how to promote scale up and sustainability. Research conducted will help to improve effectiveness and efficiency of IRC programs.
Major Responsibilities:
Provide timely and adequate technical support to designated health programs, including: literature reviews; partnership with academic institutions; guidance on formative research, process evaluations, participatory action research, service quality monitoring and improvement, comparison of effectiveness of different interventions, or other types of implementation research. This may involve: calls and e-mails with country programs to develop and review research protocols and reports; field visits to support research activities including training of staff and supervision of data collection; liaison with colleagues in the health unit, in country programs (primarily country director and deputy director of programs), in the regional offices (primarily deputy regional director for programs and program officers), and other technical units regarding research.
Liaise with health unit information management team and Research, Evaluation, and Learning unit.
Support designated programs in the recruitment of senior health team members (particularly for expatriate positions), and any technical staff needed for implementation, and contribute to the development of field staff through training, mentoring, and other guidance.
Assist country programs in disseminating results of implementation research including in country to partners, and through peer-reviewed publications and conferences.
Attend relevant technical meetings and workshops and keep health unit colleagues up to date on latest developments in implementation research.
Provide general technical support on program development, monitoring, and evaluation to selected country programs if needed.
Initiate and lead special initiatives in the health unit, and participate in joint initiatives with other IRC technical units as agreed upon by the supervisor and senior health director.
Represent the health unit and the IRC in academic fora, donor meetings, inter-agency working groups, and various global/regional fora as assigned by the supervisor and senior health director.
Perform any other duties as assigned by the supervisor.
Job Requirements:
- Education: PhD in public health, or MPH and PhD in related field required.
- Work Experience: At least 5 years experience in public health, with at least two in implementation research, and at least two years in developing countries.
- Field Experience: At least one year field experience in humanitarian or post-conflict setting.
- Technical Expertise: Demonstrated technical expertise in conducting implementation research including both qualitative and quantitative research methods with experience in more than one of the following areas: child survival, drug management, primary health care, reproductive health care, nutrition, health systems strengthening, and environmental health. Experience training and supervising field teams, and history of publication of results.
- Team work: Able to work with remote, multi-cultural and multi-disciplinary teams.
- Communication Skills: Excellence in writing and presentation.
- Training Skills: Able to transfer technical knowledge and skills.
- Language Skills: English and French proficiency is a must.
- Travel Requirement: 30% of the time
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