EPIDEMIOLOGY/OPERATIONAL RESEARCH ADVISOR

Médecins Sans Frontières

Description de l’offre d’emploi

Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders), an international medical humanitarian association founded in 1971, provides medical assistance to populations whose lives are threatened: mainly in cases of armed conflict, but also epidemics, pandemics, natural disasters, or exclusion from care.

MSF WACA (West and Central Africa) was created in 2019 and aims to bring about a change in the dynamics of the MSF movement. WACA is driven by a significant number of doctors and humanitarians of Doctors Without Borders from West and Central Africa who wish to be heard, to contribute and above all to proactively assume responsibility for the humanitarian mission of the organization. WACA reflects an identity of humanitarians, an aspiration for MSF, a truly inclusive movement of people who share the values of empathy for others. Its strength is based on other MSF associations and its associative fiber is amplified by concrete operational objectives.

Why join us?

You will find yourself a rich multicultural environment embellished with many relaxation areas to exchange or just create. The opportunity to test and learn. Every idea is welcome, your comments and opinions will be appreciated at all levels of the organization. The chance to be a key player in a growing and highly qualified team. And most importantly, great colleagues in a healthy work environment… (yes, yes…)

We are looking for: EPIDEMIOLOGY/OPERATIONAL RESEARCH ADVISOR

Department: Medical

Direct Manager: Head of Epidemiology

Functional Manager: Head of Epidemiology

Number of Team members to manage:

Indirect : 3

Working %: 100%

Position based in: Abidjan

Mobility: Yes

Type of contract: CDD

Duration: Fixed Term Renewable

Position to be filled on: As soon as possible

General Objective

As a frontline medical humanitarian organization providing direct patient care in response to epidemics, natural disasters and health crises, MSF-WaCA often has a unique opportunity to pilot and document new intervention and control strategies. Therefore, it is MSF-WaCA’s duty to rigorously document research so that it can be shared with others and influence changes in policy and practice in humanitarian medicine.

  • In terms of structure, operational research is under the responsibility of the Deputy Medical Director and is technically supervised by the MSF-WaCA Head of Epidemiology. It is conducted in accordance with MSF-WaCA’s strategic plan, its medical strategy and in collaboration with the innovation unit and the digital transformation department.

The position of Epidemiology and Operational Research Advisor aims to support research activities in the field, the capitalization of interventions and their dissemination internally and externally. The support to be given includes methodological support, field implementation, documentation (report writing) and dissemination of results (scientific publication).

Main responsibilities

Operational Research

  • Support the Operations Department in defining and prioritizing operational research projects.
  • Write study and operational research protocols and provide support in their implementation.
  • Comply with the requirements of the MSF Ethics Review Board (ERB) and national committees by using the appropriate channels for the submission for ethical clearance.
  • Monitor the progress of ongoing studies and investigations and ensure compliance with the protocol
  • Analyses research data to ensure translation into information for programmatic decision-making
  • Provide support in writing manuscripts for publication in scientific journals
  • Ensure publication of scientific articles in journals to increase MSF WaCA’s visibility in the scientific community
  • Implement advanced methods of medical data analysis and disseminate these analyses through appropriate channels within MSF WaCA.
  • In liaison with other team members, be directly responsible for the regular update of operational research and documentation projects.
  • Write policy documents based on research evidence, programs descriptions to inform or provoke thinking, guide advocacy within MSF WaCA.
  • In collaboration with the Head of Innovation and the projects, test innovative tools or strategies and document their relevance; if necessary, document the improvements needed to achieve the expected results.

Capitalization and documentation

  • Coordinate the monitoring and evaluation of projects by systematically monitoring project log frames, analyzing whether performance has been achieved and identifying reasons including opportunities to improve the impact of interventions.
  • Conduct secondary analyses including meta-analyses and disseminate the results internally or externally (scientific publication) after technical and strategic validation by the Head of Epidemiology and the Deputy Medical Director respectively.
  • Coordinate the capitalization of projects and ensure the dissemination of lessons learned
  • Conduct visits to MSF WaCA projects to discuss operational research opportunities and provide operational supports.
  • Support to junior or national epidemiologists
  • On delegation from the Head of Epidemiology accompany junior epidemiologists involved with MSF WaCA.
  • Participate in the training activities of the new generation of field epidemiologists able to respond to health emergencies of the MSF movement and partner ministries of health.
  • Accompany the junior epidemiologists in methodological terms for the drafting of protocols for surveys
  • Accompany the junior epidemiologists in the implementation of the analysis of survey data

JOB PROFILE

Education / Qualification / Pre-requisites

  • Medical or paramedical profile with at least a Master’s degree in epidemiology or public health (in the latter case additional training in advanced statistics or research methodology will be required)
  • PhD in Epidemiology or Biostatistics or Public Health on a topic related to tropical medicine (Asset)
  • Training or certificate in clinical research (an asset)

Competencies / Skills

  • Highly skilled in data analysis and use of statistical software (R and python or similar)
  • Ability to conduct meta-analyses
  • Excellent level in English and good level in French.

Professional experience required

  • Experience in protocol writing including methodological aspects such as design selection, sample size calculation and development of statistical analysis plans
  • Proven experience in writing and publishing scientific articles in refereed journals (list of scientific publications will be requested)
  • Field experience as a research assistant or monitor
  • Experience in conducting systematic reviews and meta-analyses

Langages skills

  • English (excellent)
  • French (excellent)

Computer skills

  • Good Knowledge of Microsoft Office Package

———————————————————————————————————————–

In a dynamic work environment, MSF offers equal recruitment and development opportunities without any form of discrimination based on gender, religion, sexual orientation, ethnicity, geographical origin, profile, physical disability or any other discriminatory ground.

Female candidates who meet the requirements are strongly encouraged to apply.

N.B.: This job description provides a framework for the main responsibilities and primary activities of the position. It is not exhaustive. Therefore, the responsibilities and activities of the position may differ from those described in this job description due to organizational and operational needs.

Deadline: 15/10/2022 at 18:00 GMT Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.

How to apply

Kindly Apply via this Link: EPIDEMIOLOGY/OPERATIONAL RESEARCH ADVISOR (recruitee.com)