COVID-19 Community Engagement Associate Officer, Officier associé de l’engagement communautaire COVID-19, Yaoundé, The Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation (EGPAF)

Role Responsibilities/ Responsabilités du rôle

JOB DESCRIPTION

Job Title: COVID-19 Community Engagement Associate Officer

Number of Positions:  01

Location : Centre Region

Contract Duration: 12 months renewable

Reports to : Country Lead- UNITAID COVID 19 Project

Background

The Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation (EGPAF) is the recognized global leader in the fight against HIV and AIDS in children and an advocate for every child to live a full and healthy life into adulthood. It works in 19 countries and more than 5,500 health facilities around the world to prevent the transmission of HIV to children and to help those already infected. Today, thanks to the highly successful work of the Foundation and its partners, pediatric AIDS has been virtually eliminated in the United States. With a global staff of more than 7,000, nine out of 10 of whom work in the field, the Foundation’s global mission is to implement HIV prevention, care and treatment programs; advance groundbreaking research; and conduct strategic, targeted global advocacy to bring dramatic change to the lives of millions of women, children and families around the world. Also in its efforts to eliminate pediatric AIDS and TB and ensure universal access to quality HIV and TB services for children, EGPAF supports innovative models of community engagement to address the needs of women, children and families affected by HIV and TB. For more information, please visit our website: http://www.pedaids.org.

Project Overview

The emergence of the global COVID-19 pandemic has brought new challenges to already strained health systems around the world. Under the UNITAID COVID-19 project, EGPAF will work with the country teams of the COVID-19 working group to accelerate end-to-end access to new solutions to the COVID-19 pandemic through testing, isolation, care and treatment approaches tailored to the needs of low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) such as Cameroon, Kenya and Mozambique. Community engagement is one of the key objectives of this project for strong community awareness, mobilisation and involvement in the response to COVID-19. The identification of community engagement approaches will support implementation as part of the response to COVID-19.

Job Purpose

With funding from UNITAID, EGPAF Cameroon is seeking to recruit two regional deputy managers for sensitization, community mobilization and demand creation for testing, referral to follow-up, contact tracing and mobilization for immunization for the Catalysing COVID-19 ACTION (CCA) project. This Catalytic project will contribute to the reduction of mortality and severe illness due to COVID-19; identify and treat/isolate more to reduce transmission of COVID infection and improve pandemic preparedness and early detection of outbreaks. The Deputy Community Engagement Officer for the CCA project will be based in the central region and will work with districts and Regional Public Health Delegations on new community engagement approaches to improve population knowledge, access to testing, identification and referral of COVID-19 cases to care and linkage to COVID-19 vaccination

Summary of the position

Under the supervision of the Country Project Manager and in collaboration with the Project Technical Officer for Testing, Care and Treatment, Health Districts, Regional Public Health Emergency Operations Centers and local partners, the Deputy COVID-19 Community Engagement Officer will work to coordinate work plans and identify needs for community interventions. He or she will work to ensure the success of the community response through effective, appropriate and quality implementation of interventions aimed at strengthening and increasing community mobilization, involvement and participation in the national response to COVID-19.  He or she will provide support for training, supervision, mentoring of community health workers and coordination of activities.

Key responsibilities

– Support the implementation of community strategies according to national guidelines for the response to COVID-19 including mobilization, sensitization and utilization of health services,

– Contribute to the development of innovative strategies to increase community involvement and commitment to the COVID-19 response

– Promote, support and ensure the use of community health workers for community-based case finding and linkage to health facilities,

– Support capacity building of community health workers and volunteers through ongoing training and mentoring to provide COVID-19 related services at community level

– Work with CCA project regional coordinators, project sites and districts for case finding around positive cases in the community, sensitization and mobilization for testing and vaccination,

– Work with schools, churches, social sectors, community-based organizations and local NGOs to sensitize and engage them to support community mobilization and engagement for rapid symptom screening and COVID-19 testing, and referral to follow-up of positive cases.

– Support the conduct of rapid formative assessments on community perceptions of COVID-19 testing and vaccination

– Assist in the design/update of messages for demand creation and community preparedness with active engagement of key community sectors/leaders

– Organize rapid testing campaigns for COVID-19 based on the formative evaluation and key promotional messages

– Assist in the regional planning, monitoring and coordination of the implementation of community activities and provide regular updates to the Country Manager and Regional Delegation team;

– Assist the Project Manager in managing relationships with the Ministry of Public Health and other partner organisations and community actors at regional and district level for ownership of the project’s innovative community-based approaches;

– Support the Ministry of Health and EGPAF’s Strategic Information and Evaluation Team to collect data for decision-making;

– Support the collection, verification and analysis of community data and submit monthly summary reports to the EGPAF team and the regional delegation

– Work with the regional CCA project manager and coordinators, district focal points to oversee COVID-19 community activities (sensitization, mobilization, community screening and linkage to care and contact tracing)

Qualifications:

– Bachelor’s degree in public health, social sciences or any other equivalent degree,

– At least 3 years of experience in community mobilization in Cameroon

– Documented proof of training on COVID-19 as part of continuing professional development would be an asset

– Very good command of Microsoft software (Word, Excel and PowerPoint) is mandatory

– Language: Bilingualism (French and English). However, fluency in French is a key requirement. In addition, the ability to write and coach in the other language is required;

– Ability to work independently and as part of a team and strong interpersonal communication skills

– Strong work ethic, ability and willingness to work under pressure;

– Ability to work in a team and willingness to learn;

– Good knowledge of the region is a major asset.

Professional competencies:

The Foundation expects all employees to possess the core competencies of interpersonal skills, communication, accountability, continuous learning and achieving results. The ideal candidate will be either proficient or advanced in the following skill set, specific to the officer level of this position:

• Team Building – Team building is the ability of an individual to inspire and foster team commitment, spirit, pride and confidence. He/she also facilitates cooperation and motivates team members to achieve group goals

• Customer Service – Customer service is the ability of an individual to anticipate and respond to the needs of internal and external customers while providing high quality products and services and being committed to continuous improvement

• Decision-making ability – Decision-making ability is the ability of an individual to make informed, effective and timely decisions, even when data is limited or solutions produce unpleasant consequences. He or she will also see the impact and implications of decisions.

The Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation (EGPAF) provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, colour, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability or genetics. In addition to the requirements of federal law, EGPAF complies with applicable state and local laws governing non-discrimination in employment in each location where the Foundation has facilities.

This position is subject to donor funding.

Postuler (Apply for the job) sur son site Internet: https://phe.tbe.taleo.net/phe02/ats/careers/v2/viewRequisition?org=PEDAIDS&cws=41&rid=2912

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