Public Health Coordinator

The Ethiopian Red Cross Society (ERCS) was established in 1935 and is one of the oldest and largest humanitarian organizations in Ethiopia. ERCS provides services to communities affected by natural and manmade disasters through the provision of emergency responses, ambulance and first aid, family reunification, essential drugs, water and sanitation, and other humanitarian services. ERCS also runs disaster risk reduction programs with the aim of creating resilience households and communities. Currently the ERCS has a structure consisting of Currently the Society has 14 regional branches, 40 zonal branches, 180 woreda branches, and 5,871 Kebele Red Cross Committees.

ERCS also runs disaster risk reduction programs relating to food security, climate change adaptation, livelihood diversification, and institutional capacity building interventions, with the aim of creating resilience households and communities. ERCS works in partnership with the Ethiopian Government, International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent (IFRC), International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), partnering National Societies, members, volunteers and the communities we serve.

Details of the vacant position

• Job Title: Public Health Coordinator
• Work Unit: Health and WaSH Department
• Reports to: Health and WaSH Coordinator
• Terms of employment: Contract
• Place of Work: Addis Ababa
• Salary: As per the organizational Scale

Job Summary

The Public Health Coordinator will provide overall technical leadership, coordination, quality assurance, and implementation support for health interventions under the EC2R Programme. The position will be based at HQ and will support field teams across Amhara, Oromia, Benishangul-Gumuz, and Tigray. The Public Health Coordinator will ensure that health interventions are planned, implemented, monitored, and reported in line with approved programme documents, national health guidelines, donor requirements, humanitarian standards, and organizational policies.

The role will focus on public health programming in emergency and resilience contexts, including disease prevention, community-based health promotion, outbreak preparedness and response, referral linkages, WASH-health integration, community engagement, and strengthening coordination with government and humanitarian partners.

Specific Duties and Responsibilities

1. Programme Planning and Implementation

• Lead the planning, coordination, and technical implementation of public health activities under the EC2R Programme.
• Develop detailed activity plans, implementation schedules, and technical guidance for public health interventions across the target regions.
• Ensure that public health interventions respond to the needs of conflict- and drought-affected communities, including internally displaced persons, returnees, host communities, women, children, older people, and persons with disabilities.
• Support integration of public health activities with WASH, nutrition, protection, community engagement, disaster risk reduction, and resilience-building interventions.
• Ensure implementation of community-based health promotion, disease prevention, hygiene promotion, risk communication, referral strengthening, and outbreak preparedness activities.
• Provide technical support to field teams to ensure timely, quality, and accountable delivery of programme activities.
• Ensure public health interventions are aligned with national health policies, regional priorities, humanitarian standards, and donor-approved plans.\

2. Technical Leadership and Quality Assurance

• Provide technical leadership on EC2R public health programming in emergency, recovery, and resilience contexts.
• Develop or adapt public health training materials, standard operating procedures, technical tools, checklists, and field guidance notes.
• Ensure the quality of public health activities through regular technical supervision, field visits, mentoring, and review of implementation progress.
• Support field teams to identify public health risks, gaps, and emerging needs in conflict- and drought-affected areas.
• Promote evidence-based and community-centered public health approaches.
• Ensure public health activities mainstream gender, protection, disability inclusion, safeguarding, accountability, and conflict sensitivity.
• Support implementation of quality improvement actions based on monitoring findings, feedback, and lessons learned.

3. Coordination, Representation, and Partnership

• Coordinate closely with the Programme Coordinator, regional branches/offices, field teams, and relevant technical departments.
• Represent the programme in public health, emergency health, nutrition, WASH-health, and humanitarian coordination platforms as delegated.
• Maintain strong working relationships with the Ministry of Health, Regional Health Bureaus, Zonal Health Departments, Woreda Health Offices, health facilities, and Health Extension Workers.
• Coordinate with humanitarian partners, UN agencies, NGOs, clusters/working groups, and community structures to ensure complementarity and avoid duplication.
• Support field teams to participate in regional, zonal, and woreda-level coordination meetings.
• Facilitate collaboration between implementing actors.

4. Supervision and Capacity Building

• Provide technical supervision and coaching to public health officers, field staff, volunteers, and community structures involved in EC2R public health activities.
• Identify capacity gaps among staff, volunteers, and partners and support the development of capacity-building plans.
• Organize and facilitate trainings, orientations, mentoring sessions, and supportive supervision on public health topics.
• Strengthen the capacity of field teams in community-based disease prevention, health promotion, outbreak preparedness, referral pathways, health data collection, and accountability.
• Promote a volunteer-based and community-centered approach to public health programming.
• Support staff and volunteers to apply safeguarding, protection, and accountability principles during implementation.

5. Planning, Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability, and Learning PMEAL

• Work closely with the PMEAL team to develop and track public health indicators, targets, tools, and reporting formats.
• Ensure routine monitoring of public health activities against approved work plans, log frames, indicators, and donor requirements.
• Support accurate and timely collection, verification, analysis, and use of public health data.
• Contribute to baseline assessments, rapid needs assessments, post-distribution monitoring, evaluations, learning reviews, and programme quality assessments.
• Document good practices, lessons learned, case stories, challenges, and recommendations for adaptive programming.
• Ensure community feedback and accountability mechanisms are integrated into public health interventions.
• Use monitoring findings and community feedback to improve programme quality and responsiveness.

6. Reporting and Documentation

• Prepare and submit timely, accurate, and quality technical reports to the Programme Coordinator.
• Contribute to donor reports, internal progress updates, technical briefs, success stories, case studies, and programme review documents.
• Compile public health achievements, challenges, risks, lessons learned, and recommendations from field implementation areas.
• Ensure proper documentation and filing of public health activity reports, training reports, supervision reports, attendance sheets, photos, assessment findings, and other evidence.
• Provide regular updates to programme management on implementation progress and emerging public health issues.

7. Financial, Logistics, and Administrative Support

• Contribute to the preparation of public health activity budgets, procurement plans, and spending plans.
• Monitor the utilization of public health budgets in collaboration with finance, logistics, and programme teams.
• Support timely procurement, distribution, and proper use of public health supplies, visibility materials, training materials, and equipment.
• Ensure efficient and accountable use of programme resources in line with organizational policies and donor requirements.
• Review and validate activity requests, technical specifications, and field-level resource needs related to public health programming.

Risk Management, Safeguarding, and Compliance

• Identify public health, operational, security, access, safeguarding, and implementation risks and propose mitigation measures.
• Ensure public health activities are implemented in compliance with organizational policies, FCDO requirements, national regulations, and humanitarian principles.
• Promote safe, dignified, inclusive, and accountable service delivery.
• Ensure safeguarding, prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse, child protection, gender sensitivity, and do-no-harm principles are integrated into public health activities.
• Report risks, incidents, implementation challenges, and compliance concerns to the Programme Coordinator in a timely manner.

Reporting and Communication

• The Public Health Coordinator reports directly to the Programme Coordinator.
• The position will maintain regular communication with field teams, regional offices/branches, technical units, government counterparts, and implementing partners.
• The role will provide regular technical updates, field visit reports, progress summaries, and donor-reporting inputs as required.
• The position will coordinate closely with PMEAL, finance, logistics, WASH, nutrition, protection, and programme operations teams.

Required Qualifications:

Education

• Master’s/ bachelor’s degree in public health, Environmental Health, Nursing, Health Promotion, Health Officer, Epidemiology, or another relevant health-related field.

Experience

• Minimum of 7 years (for Masters) or 9 years (for Bachelor) of relevant experience in public health programme implementation, preferably in humanitarian, emergency, recovery, or resilience settings.
• Experience coordinating health or public health interventions (3/5 years) in conflict, drought, displacement, or emergency affected areas.
• Experience working with government health structures, community-based health systems, health facilities, and local partners.
• Experience in donor-funded programmes; experience with FCDO-funded programmes is an added advantage.
• Experience with NGOs, the Red Cross/Red Crescent Movement, UN agencies, or humanitarian organizations is desirable.

Skills and Competencies

• Strong technical knowledge of public health programming in emergency and resilience contexts.
• Knowledge of disease prevention, outbreak preparedness, community health promotion, referral systems, WASH-health integration, and risk communication.
• Strong coordination, planning, facilitation, supervision, and problem-solving skills.
• Good understanding of humanitarian principles, safeguarding, accountability, protection mainstreaming, and conflict sensitivity.
• Strong report writing, documentation, data interpretation, and analytical skills.
• Ability to work with government, donors, partners, community structures, and field teams.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities, work under pressure, and meet deadlines.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office applications, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook.
• Knowledge of local languages spoken in the implementation areas is an added advantage.
• Willingness and ability to travel frequently to conflict- and drought-affected field locations, subject to security conditions.