Detention Activity Manager (m/f/x) – MSF Belgium – Brussels

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is an international humanitarian aid organization 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 and irrespective of origin, religion, creed or political affiliation.

Detention Activity Manager (m/f/x) – MSF Belgium – Brussels

CONTEXT

The MSF mission in Belgium intends to address within a multi-disciplinary and collaborative approach, the health needs and main social determinants of populations in situation of exclusion in parallel to pro-actively engaging on the visibility of the problematics and promoting institutional change. The target population includes migrants in transit, in stagnation, undocumented migrants and those in administrative detention.

Today, the Belgian mission is structured around 4 axes of intervention:

• Mental health: first line mental health care is provided at the HUB humanitaire and in shelters & squats.
• Outreach: the mobile team is providing sensitization, prevention, control of infections, health promotion, primary health care and referral to specialized medical care if necessary.
• Emergencies: the mission responds to specific identified emergencies when needed.
• Advocacy & communications’ interventions on the reception crisis

The Detention Activity Manager will be responsible of implementing a new axe of intervention “Detention”, in the 6 “immigration” detention centres in Belgium.

The aim of the MSF intervention is to give detainees access to a second medical opinion. Even if this right exists and is enshrined in the law, it is rarely put to practice because detainees are not aware of this right and/or they cannot afford to pay for the service.

The Detention Activity Manager will create a network of voluntary medical doctors in Belgium willing to give some of their time to visiting patients in detention following the successful example of Medical Justice in the United Kingdom (https://medicaljustice.org.uk/). The medical doctors will not be giving any direct medical care to the patients (will not be giving out any medical prescriptions) but might be able to suggest changes/adaptations of treatments to the doctors of the detention centres.

MSF will be working in close collaboration with the Move Coalition for the identification and follow up of patients.

RESPONSIBILITIES

The Detention Activity Manager will be responsible of defining, coordinating and monitoring the detention activities according to MSF protocols, standards and procedures in order to ensure the delivery of quality medical care for patients.

• Together with the Medical Coordinator and the Responsible of Operations, participating in the definition, planning and updating of the appropriate MSF strategy in detention centres.
• Coordinating, assessing and supervising the proper functioning of the MSF detention activity
• In charge for the creation of the MSF network of volunteer medical doctors: organising the call for volunteer medical doctors, coordinating the face to face training of the doctors, identifying further specific training needs, responsible for the organisation of the follow up trainings on the MSF online training platform (Tembo).
• Is responsible for the creation of the administrative forms (including consent forms) and standard operating procedures in collaboration with the mission Medical Coordinator, the MSF legal department and Move Coalition.
• Responsible for organising the initial training of Move visitors in order to ensure correct patient identification.
• Will be responsible for the linking of the detainees needing a second medical opinion with a medical doctor within the volunteer pool and the organising of appointments at the detention centers.
• Will also be responsible for the follow up of all the administrative paperwork of the cases seen by the medical doctors and will be the person within MSF liaising with the Move legal experts to ensure the medical doctors complete the correct certificates/forms when needed.
• Contributes to the identification of the key performance indicators for the intervention in collaboration with the mission coordination and the analysis and advocacy department of MSF.
• Participates in the regular reporting of the activities and will also be responsible for carrying out a SWOT analysis after the first 6 months of intervention in order to plan on how to consolidate the activity and how a hand over of the network coordination might be carried out to our partners.

REQUIREMENTS

Education

• Medical or paramedical background

Experience

• Essential 2 year working experience related to the diploma/degree
• Previous experience in similar position required
• Previous experience with MSF or similar organisation required

Languages

• Good oral and written French and English language skills
• Dutch is an asset.

Others

• Driver license B
• Interest and knowledge of the migration sector

Competencies

• Cultural awareness
• Behavioral flexibility
• Solution oriented
• Teamplayer
• Organisation and planning skills

CONDITIONS

• Expected starting date: As soon as possible
• Location*: Brussels
• Contract type: Fixed-term contract – 100% (part-time possible)
• Contract duration: until December 31st 2023
• Salary according to MSF-OCB HQ grid
• Meal Vouchers – Hospital Insurance (DKV) – Pension Plan – 100% reimbursement for public transportation costs
• Dynamic and stimulating work environment alongside multicultural colleagues
• Adhere to the MSF principles and to our managerial values: Respect, Transparency, Integrity, Accountability, Trust and Empowerment
• Adhere to the MSF Behavioral Commitments

*Due to administrative constraints given the duration of the contract, candidates must already have the permanent right to work in Belgium (European Union citizen) or a residence permit/document with the mention “access to the labour market unlimited”.