Less than ten months after the earthquake of January 12, 2010, which caused the death of close to 230,000 people, Haiti is once again facing another crisis. On October 19, 2010, the first cases of severe watery diarrhea began presenting at hospitals in the Artibonite region; days later these cases were tested and confirmed for the presence of the bacterium vibrio cholerae. Within one month, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) confirmed that cases of cholera had been declared in all ten departments of the country. To date, the Ministry of Public Health and Population (MSPP-Ministère de la Santé Publique et de la Population) has registered 234,303 cases, 126,344 hospitalizations, and 4,533 deaths due to cholera, and this is considered to represent only a portion to the actual number of cases.
Since the beginning of the epidemic, the mortality rate has decreased from 5-7% to 1.9% overall, largely due to the rapid mobilization of the international community to prevent and treat the disease. Despite this progress, however, the current average mortality rate remains higher than normally observed in cholera epidemics elsewhere. Furthermore, despite the steady decrease in cases, cholera is now endemic to Haiti and will remain a threat to vulnerable populations, particularly those who have limited access to hygiene education, potable water and health services.
The particular challenges facing Haiti in managing this epidemic are:
• The Haitian population has no inherent immunity to the vibrio cholerae bacterium, as it has not circulated in Haiti for several decades;
• Prior to the outbreak, medical personnel throughout the country had not received previous clinical training for the treatment of cholera, as it was not present in recent history;
• Community health workers (CHWs), the first line of defense in the primary health care network in Haiti, had not been trained in the prevention, recognition, and referral of cholera cases;
• Poor infrastructure, particularly in rural areas, making access to appropriate medical facilities, difficult and delaying the onset of treatment;
• Under resourced clinical facilities, in terms of both staff and supplies, and;
• Lack of appropriate sanitation practices and infrastructure.

CRS joined the fight against cholera within the first month of the outbreak. Since the outbreak, CRS has been aligning it’s response with MSPP, building up activities that focus on cholera treatment and prevention throughout the country. In the beginning, CRS leveraged private funding to procure essential medications, medical supplies and hygiene materials for seven AIDSRelief partner hospitals and four Caritas health centers. In Port-au-Prince, hygiene promoters have been trained, Aquatabs and soap has been distributed, and cholera messages have been disseminated to over 20,000 families in ten IDP camps. Additionally, in these camps, the chlorine content of water sources has been increased, 60 new hand washing stations have been installed, and the disinfection of sanitation facilities has intensified. CRS has received grants from the Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA), Cordaid (Caritas Netherlands), CAFOD (Catholic Overseas Development Agency), and United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) to expand and complement these efforts. Cordaid is providing a 12 month supply of essential medications and medical items for cholera treatment, sufficient to cover needs in all seven of CRS’ AIDSRelief partner hospitals as well as health centers supported by Caritas throughout the ten dioceses. CAFOD is providing WASH technical support to the same facilities for appropriate sanitation, disinfection, and waste management. A grant from UNICEF is supporting cholera prevention activities targeting primary schools in the South and Grande Anse departments. The OFDA is helping to train and mobilize community health workers (CHW) and health facility personnel according to MSPP approved CTU protocols in seven departments (West, Artibonite, North, South, North-West, Nippes, and Grande Anse).

In addition to this funding, CRS is in the process of negotiating a USD $2 million, 12 month grant from a US donor to focus on cholera medical interventions in its seven AIDSRelief hospitals and continue with control interventions and disease prevention through community level activities that include the establishment of oral rehydration points and continuous support for the activities of CHW.
CRS current cholera response portfolio now represents more than $7 million USD of the Haiti programming budget. CRS is seeking a seasoned Program Manager II for a period of one year (with possibility of extension) to manage this growing portfolio while managing important donor and partner relationships under the guidance of the health programming unit.
Job Summary:

Primary responsibilities:
The primary responsibilities of the Cholera PM is to ensure that all CRS Haiti supported cholera activities are coordinated; that the program adheres to donor requirements and to agency/country program quality standards; and that all activities are technically sound, adhering to national treatment protocols and other MSPP and WHO guidelines. More specifically the Cholera PM has the following responsibilities:

Coordination and Communication
1. Ensure that CRS Cholera programming adheres with national protocols and MSPP guidelines;
2. Provide support to all offices and partners implementing cholera activities, with a primary focus on technical assistance, capacity building and monitoring;
3. Provide the latest information on cholera messaging and treatment issued by MSPP, and other cholera related information issued by the health cluster, to all CRS offices, AIDSRelief partners, and other local partners (church and NGO), and liaise with Caritas Secretariat to ensure that all the Dioceses receive the latest information in a timely manner;
4. Ensure that effective and regular communication is maintained between CRS/Haiti and AIDSRelief partners, Caritas partners (via the Caritas Secretariat) and other partners that CRS is assisting in the cholera response;
5. Provide regular updates to CRS programming staff working in sectors relevant to the cholera response: health (by default), WASH and protection and seek linkages with existing programs in these sectors;
6. Gather information of all cholera activities on a monthly basis for integration into the CRS Haiti monthly Situation Reports;
7. Share activity updates and reports with collaborating agencies, donors, Haitian Ministries, and the CRS representatives at the health, WASH and protection clusters for their sharing with the humanitarian community.

Monitoring and Evaluation
1. Assist with the development of a coordinated M&E plan, including the detailed Implementation Plan, and system that assure that partners are collecting accurate data for reports;
2. Collaborate with the cholera M&E officer to develop/or to adapt existing monitoring tools for data collection on performance indicators and work with cholera team members to develop the baseline and final evaluation;
3. Work with cholera partners to set up the guidance and system for data collection and information management on program activities and assist in trainings on these systems and M&E tools as necessary;
4. Reinforce information and data collection systems in order to ensure timely and quality reporting on program activities to donors;
5. Analyze monitoring and evaluation data and track performance indicators to measure performance and recommend improvements;
6. Take the lead in identifying promising practices on cholera prevention activities;
7. Establish a mechanism for organizational learning based on the information collected in the M&E system.

Financial Management
1. Use CRS finance tools to carry over program budgets into CRS standard budget information forms in order to budget program and support costs on a monthly basis;
2. Monitor cholera program budgets on a regular basis and ensure compliance with donor and grant regulations;
3. Work with Finance Department to facilitate appropriate trainings for cholera team members and partners on expense planning, tracking and budget management;
4. Propose budget modifications as necessary and in compliance with stated regulations in the grant agreement;
5. Track partner disbursements and liquidations and work with Finance Department to provide support to partners as needed;
6. Ensure partner financial reports are in accordance with their approved budget;
7. Work with cholera team members and Finance Department to elaborate interim and final financial donor reports.

Reporting
1. Provide partners with clear reporting templates and schedule for interim and final reports;
2. Ensure timely and complete reports are received from all implementing partners;
3. Prepare and submit required narrative and financial reports as required and in compliance with donor formats and requirements;
4. Facilitate lessons learned workshops with donors and cholera team members as appropriate to incorporate lessons into reporting.

Networking/Representation
1. Contribute to raising the profile of CRS as a leader in cholera prevention and treatment programming through the publication of best practices, sharing results from operations research, program activities, dissemination of progress and evaluation reports, and participation in conferences/seminars;
2. Liaise with donors and explore and secure funding for CRS/Haiti’s cholera program;
3. Identify, explore and promote relationships with key MSPP representatives at the national and local level;
4. Liaise and communicate with partners in a manner that is sensitive, diplomatic and clear, reflecting CRS principal of promoting Haitian leadership through subsidiarity.

Essential:
1. MD or Masters in Public Health;
2. Minimum of five years of experience in providing support to health programming;
3. Experience in managing a portfolio of programs, project development, working with donors and partner organizations, monitoring and evaluation, training and strong writing skills as demonstrated through previous experience researching and writing public donor proposals, progress reports, evaluations and final reports;
4. Experience in designing and implementing participatory planning and evaluation methods;
5. Strong leadership, advisory and negotiation skills;
6. Previous experience managing a multi-cultural staff;
7. Fluency in English and French
8. Willingness to travel (at least 30% of the time)

Preferable:
1. US government grant management and reporting experience;
2. Previous cholera programming experience

Interested candidates should send their curriculum vitae with a cover letter, and copy of certificates with the mention of H-CPM-0211, before March 12th, 2011.

2011-03-13