Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is an international humanitarian aid organisation that provides
assistance in more than 60 countries to populations in distress, to victims of natural or
manmade disasters and to victims of armed conflicts, without discrimination of religion, creed or
political affiliation. To reinforce the capacity building of the national employees of South Sudan
mission, the Operational Department is recruiting a:
Training Project Manager (m/f)
South Sudan, officially the Republic of South Sudan, gained its independence from Sudan in
2011.
Education in South Sudan is modelled after the educational system of the Republic of Sudan.
Primary education consists of eight years, followed by three years of secondary education. After
that the education can be pursued at the university or the technical school;
Illiteracy rates are high in the country. In 2011, it is estimated that more than 80% of the South
Sudanese population cannot read or write.
Post-secondary education
After graduation from secondary school, one can pursue further education in either a university
or a vocational (technical school). There is a shortage of both, however like in most Sub-Saharan
countries too much emphasis is placed on acquiring a university education and not enough on
obtaining practical skills in a technical institution.
MSF in South Sudan
MSF has been providing medical assistance in South Sudan since 1983. Today, all MSF sections
are present in eight out of ten states in South Sudan addressing emergencies, widespread
vulnerability and the lack of access to free, quality health care. MSF OCB is running 4 projects in
South Sudan.
After years in South Sudan and multiple training efforts towards the development of a coherent
capacity building strategy, today international staff continue to spend a lot of time and energy on
basic hands-on activities and not just on supervision and management.
Despite the high motivation of the majority of our national staff to grow, staff trainings
organized up to today did not prove to be efficient. Often, even basic tasks cannot be performed
without close guidance; it’s particularly problematic for paramedical profiles. As a consequence,
in some of our projects (Doro, Gogrial) we have very large expatriate teams in order to perform
the work which is normally done by national staff and in the locations where the expatriate team
is limited for security reasons (Pibor), the quality of care provided does not reach the expected
standards.
The dramatically poor level of education in rural areas (sometimes we the struggle to find
people able to read and write) forces us to hire staff from Juba and relocate them to the field. In a
context like Pibor where the ethnical origin is an issue, this solution is even more complex.
Amongst almost 700 national staff we employ only 10 clinical officers, 5 nurses and 2 midwifes.
We do not manage to recruit any medical doctor.
Although it is clear that training cannot replace the general lack of education, the mission needs
to explore ways and find strategies to ensure optimal utilization of the national staff capacities.
Following this situation, the idea was born to create an MSF Training Centre.
Specific objective of this project is to increase the level of competencies of national staff (all
profiles) and expected results are:
- Technical gap between real competencies of national staff and competencies needed to
perform the work at a level defined by MSF is reduced;
- National staff in South Sudan mission is capable to perform tasks described in the Job
Profiles;
- National staff in South Sudan mission occupies supervision and management positions;
- Retention of national staff is increased;
OVERALL OBJECTIVE OF THE POSITION:
To make a project proposal for the creation of MSF Training Centre in South Sudan.
MAIN TASKS:
- Technical gap analysis and training needs assessment for the following profiles:
Paramedical
Logistics
HR / administration
Finance
- Diagnostics of the educational situation in South Sudan;
- Identification of the potential partners in South Sudan including MoH and governmental
structures, State and Private Schools and Universities with two eventual objectives:
a) Long term certifying trainings, especially for paramedical positions;
b) Module courses in the MSF Training Centre
- Identification of the potential partners in Kenya and Uganda and analysis of the possible
collaboration including cost analysis;
- Training Centre Management proposal including budget estimation;
CANDIDATE PROFILE:
Interested candidates should have the following qualifications, skills and professional
experience:
A relevant university degree or postgraduate qualification; in the absence of a university
degree, equivalent professional work experience of more than 10 years in the related
areas will be considered;
A minimum of three years’ international experience in educational projects in African
countries;
Project management skills;
Excellent command of spoken and written English
CONDITIONS:
3 months consultancy contract
Based (80%) in Juba, Nairobi, Kampala
Starting date: as soon as possible
HOW TO APPLY:
To apply, please send the CV and motivation letter under the reference “South Sudan Training
Project Manager » to Victoria Bytsko at vika.bytsko@brussels.msf.org. Please submit your CV
and cover letter in ONE file and name the file with your LAST NAME
