Senior Research Assistant - Community Health Sciences

Senior Research Assistant

Department: Community Health Sciences

Entity: Medical College

Location: Karachi, Pakistan

Introduction

The Department of Community Health Sciences (CHS) is the leading unit of its type in Pakistan, recognized regionally and internationally for the relevance, quality and extent of its work in support of public health and the development of primary health care systems. It comprises of five major operational units: Epidemiology & biostatistics, Health policy & management, Population & reproductive health, Environmental health, and Non-communicable diseases & mental health.

The Department is managing the Urban Health Program (UHP) - a Primary Health Care (PHC) Programme which works in squatter settlements of Karachi. The Programme aspires to contribute to reductions in health inequities and address the underlying socio-economic determinants of health through sustainable community-oriented health and social development initiatives.

Responsibilities

You will be responsible for:

• Facilitating community mobilization as per the Urban Health Program's strategic plan
• Facilitating field based staff in implementation of programmatic activities
• Planning and coordinating with community leaders for the celebration of International World Health Days in community settings
• Participating and supervising field staff in preparation and implementation of world health days
• Developing and updating material for health education sessions and world health days
• Building liaison with Government and Non-Government Organizations (including community based organizations), school management in UHP catchment sites
• Collaborating with Community Based Organizations (CBOs) to ensure continuous community participation in various field based activities and coordinating with schools' heads for school based sessions
• Conducting meetings in the department and community settings, maintaining and updating record of community based groups including meeting minutes
• Facilitating learning and regular activities of core groups in the communities
• Searching relevant literature for planning and designing community based activities
• Coordinating and managing routine administrative matters which include supervising and monitoring field staff in their day-to-day activities and in achieving their monthly and quarterly targets
• Assessing staff capacity, building needs and maintaining records of staff training and development activities
• writing monthly and quarterly reports based on their work in the communities
• Facilitating students' (graduate and undergraduate) field visits in the community settings by coordinating with concerned staff in CHS and with Government and private care providers in the community
• Maintaining records of all the activities in UHP and preparing a quarterly UHP newsletter to disseminate UHP programmatic activities within the department
• Maintaining records of programmatic expenditures on quarterly basis and assisting in preparation of an Annual Report.

Requirements

You should have:

• A Graduate degree, preferably in Sociology, Anthropology, Psychology or Social Sciences, however, Masters will be preferred
• Two years' of related work experience preferably in community based setting
• Command over major regional languages (Sindhi, Punjabi, Balochi or Pashto)
• Good writing skills especially in summarizing learning material
• Ability to take field notes and observations
• Experience of how to conduct interviews (in-depth & focus group) and literature search
• Basic skills in Microsoft office (especially, PowerPoint, Word, Excel)
• Ability to interact with community members and stakeholders
• Ability to demonstrate professionalism and integrity at workplace.

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.

Applications should be submitted latest by May 5, 2019