Primary care advisor, South Sudan

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Primary care advisor, South Sudan
Employer: Lainya County Health Department
Location: Lainya County, Central Equatoria State, South Sudan
Start date: 8 Nov 2012
Length: 24 months
Exciting opportunity to work in the newest country in the world to support primary health care services in delivering the best care possible.
Background
The European Voluntary Humanitarian Aid Corps (EVHAC) is an initiative developed by the European Community Humanitarian Office (ECHO) of the European Commission. Volunteers working under the EVHAC project will be placed directly with VSO”s partner organisations in Bangladesh or South Sudan, and will be supported by VSO offices in each of those countries.
VSO is the world”s leading independent international development organisation that works through volunteers to fight poverty in developing countries. VSO”s high-impact approach involves bringing people together to share skills, build capabilities, promote international understanding and action, and change lives to make the world a fairer place for all. VSO has around 1,500 volunteers working with partners in 36 countries.
What does the role involve?
The volunteer professional will work with the Lainya County Health Department (CHD) and Primary Health Centre to build capacity of staff and improve health care provision. To do this you will:

• Build the capacity of the heads of department in the CHD.
• Deliver on the job training to improve office management systems, IT skills and administrative systems.
• Work with staff of the CHD to develop an action plan to implement national policy, including identifying and addressing obstacles to implementation.
• Develop community participation activities to involve communities in health promotion and take ownership of local services.
• Provide support to CHD team in managing donor efforts, including planning, financial management and accountability reporting.
• Provide clinical advice, where needed, to the County Hospital and the Primary Health Care Unit and build the skills of the staff as the Primary Health Care Unity transitions into a hospital.
Skills, qualifications and experience required
You’ll be a qualified clinician (nurse, doctor, clinical officer) with at least 3 years experience in management in a primary or community health setting. You’ll need to know about what it takes to deliver accessible primary and community health care services and skills in health promotion. You’ll also be experienced in working with local communities to increase community participation in primary and community services (ideally health services). As part of your management experience you’ll have financial budgeting skills, IT skills, project and change management experience. You’ll need to be willing and able to work cross culturally with limited resources and be sympathetic to the needs of working in a post conflict environment. You’ll be a flexible, proactive and positive person with an appetite for adventure!
And the rest…
You’ll be based in Lainya County, in Central Equatoria. This is a voluntary placement. We”ll ask you to commit 18-24 months to make a sustainable contribution to development goals and in return we”ll provide you with invaluable training before your placement, a local living allowance, return flights, accommodation and insurance.

To apply for this role please go to EVHAC/VSO website or email evhac@vsoint.org. Please put the following job reference on your application form: SS0060/0001/0001.

Please note the EVHAC project is only open to citizens of EU countries. We will be unable to respond to applications from applicants outside the EU. Please visit http://www.vsointernational.org/ for non-EU volunteering opportunities with VSO.