Author Coordinator Public Health Engineering in Precarious Situations Guidelines - CONSULTANCY

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  • Added Date: Thursday, 31 July 2025
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Location: Homebased

+/- 5 hours from CET time zoneย 

Contract: Consultancy

Duration: 22 months - 10 days per month

Deadline to apply: 17.08.2025

Starting date: ASAP

I. MSF INTERNATIONAL

Mรฉdecins Sans Frontiรจres (MSF) is an international, independent, medical humanitarian organisation that delivers emergency aid to people affected by armed conflict, epidemics, healthcare exclusion and natural disasters. MSF offers assistance to people based only on need and irrespective of origins, religion, gender or political affiliation.

MSF International is the legal entity that binds MSFโ€™s 24 sections, 27 associations and 18 branch offices together. Registered in Switzerland, MSF International provides coordination, information and support to the MSF Movement, as well as implements international projects and initiatives as requested.

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II. POSITION BACKGROUND

Mรฉdecinsย Sansย Frontiรจresย (MSF) produces medical guides for non-specialized staff in the field. The objective of the guides is to disseminate adapted medical and public health knowledge to help in analyzing, understanding the situation, designing and implementing a quality response rapidly. Based on its experience gathered in it projects, and in the absence of relevant documents from other agencies, MSF has been producing medical-operational practical guidelines for more than 30 years.ย The International Guideline Publication (IGP) has been establishedย to ensure theย qualityย production of MSF guidelines.ย International guides include 2 categories: ย 

Publicย guides:ย for use within and outside MSF.ย MSFโ€™s public guides are used by other non-governmental organisations and international agencies, thereby contributing to enhancing MSF's profile.

Internal guides: for use by MSF only.ย  ย 

There are currently about 20 different guides, some of them are produced in several languages (English, French, Spanish, Arabic).ย ย ย 

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The Public Health Engineering in Precarious Situations (PHE) guideline is available for the public in ENG and FR.

The guideline is divided into 8 chapters. All chapters are presented in a similar way: a narrative section answering Why, What Where, When and by Who, and finally How. Following the narrative section, practical Technical Briefs (TB) are describing the different techniques commonly used in the field.

The latest version dates back from 2010 and needs structural revision. The Water and Sanitation (WatSan) Platform has already identified in detail all required change and translated it into work plan which would drive the author-coordinatorโ€™s work.

III. PLACE IN THE ORGANISATION

The Author Coordinator is part of MSF Intersectional WatSan Platform. She/he reports to theย MSF WatSan Core Platform lead and works closely with key staff in all five Operational Centres of MSF, as well as with the MSF International Guidelines Publications manager and members.

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IV. OBJECTIVES OF THE POSITION

The purpose of the position of Author -Coordinator is to review the Public Health Engineering in Precarious Situations, edition 2010.

This includes:

1) Coordinate and write the revision of the content of PHE guidelines.ย She/he ensures the guidelines stayย scientifically (evidence based) and technically (feasible in MSF context of interventions and up to date), consistent with otherย MSF International guidelines, and that all work is relevant and adapted to MSFโ€™s operationalย environment

2) Adapt and execute the proposed detailed revision plan forย PHEย guidelines

3) Write new Technical Briefs and update others, coordinate and incorporate the input and feedback of stakeholders

4)ย Participate to and familiarise with medical writing (process) improvement meetings/policies set by the IGP team.

V. MAIN RESPONSIBILITIESย 

Project management

๐Ÿ“š ๐——๐—ถ๐˜€๐—ฐ๐—ผ๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ ๐—›๐—ผ๐˜„ ๐˜๐—ผ ๐—š๐—ฒ๐˜ ๐—ฎ ๐—๐—ผ๐—ฏ ๐—ถ๐—ป ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฒ ๐—จ๐—ก ๐—ถ๐—ป ๐Ÿฎ๐Ÿฌ๐Ÿฎ๐Ÿฏ! ๐ŸŒ๐Ÿค ๐—ฅ๐—ฒ๐—ฎ๐—ฑ ๐—ผ๐˜‚๐—ฟ ๐—ก๐—˜๐—ช ๐—ฅ๐—ฒ๐—ฐ๐—ฟ๐˜‚๐—ถ๐˜๐—บ๐—ฒ๐—ป๐˜ ๐—š๐˜‚๐—ถ๐—ฑ๐—ฒ ๐˜๐—ผ ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฒ ๐—จ๐—ก ๐Ÿฎ๐Ÿฌ๐Ÿฎ๐Ÿฏ ๐˜„๐—ถ๐˜๐—ต ๐˜๐—ฒ๐˜€๐˜ ๐˜€๐—ฎ๐—บ๐—ฝ๐—น๐—ฒ๐˜€ ๐—ณ๐—ผ๐—ฟ ๐—จ๐—ก๐—›๐—–๐—ฅ, ๐—ช๐—™๐—ฃ, ๐—จ๐—ก๐—œ๐—–๐—˜๐—™, ๐—จ๐—ก๐——๐—ฆ๐—ฆ, ๐—จ๐—ก๐—™๐—ฃ๐—”, ๐—œ๐—ข๐—  ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฑ ๐—ผ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐˜€! ๐ŸŒ

โš ๏ธ ๐‚๐ก๐š๐ง๐ ๐ž ๐˜๐จ๐ฎ๐ซ ๐‹๐ข๐Ÿ๐ž ๐๐จ๐ฐ: ๐๐จ๐ฐ๐ž๐ซ๐Ÿ๐ฎ๐ฅ ๐“๐ž๐œ๐ก๐ง๐ข๐ช๐ฎ๐ž๐ฌ ๐ก๐จ๐ฐ ๐ญ๐จ ๐ ๐ž๐ญ ๐š ๐ฃ๐จ๐› ๐ข๐ง ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐”๐ง๐ข๐ญ๐ž๐ ๐๐š๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง๐ฌ ๐๐Ž๐–!

Adapt the existing project plan and planning, in coordination withย theย relevant Platforms members and other stakeholders (i.e. external expertโ€ฆ)

Implement a plan for continuous collection of feedback from the different stakeholders ensuring MSFโ€™s operational realities are well integrated

Adjust planning, in coordination with the WatSan Lead and International Guidelines Project (IGP) manager,ย if new evidence or recommendations relevant to the guideline emerge and more or less time is needed

Centralise documentation of feedback collected for Public Health Engineering (PHE) Guidelinesย (from working group,ย IGP editors,ย fieldย staff), revisions made, consensus or decisions reached

Ensure permissions are obtained and stored for all illustrations, images and photos that are notย from MSF official sources

Archiveย documents, references, decisions around key topics used for the guides, to help answer any future questions related to the guidelines.ย ย ย ย 
ย 2. Coordination

Coordinate theย input of MSF internal and external experts and facilitates consensus-seeking and decision-making on content.ย To do so, s/he will organise dedicated expert group work, according to the technical WatSan topics concerned by the revision (i.e. water supply chapter to be reviewed by water specialists, same with vector control by entomologists etcโ€ฆ)

Coordinate with other authors working on international guidelines and managers of existing tools for coherence

Disseminate finding of literature research, external guidelines review, etc.ย to MSFย WatSan Core Platform members and experts.
3. Writing

Conduct proactiveย literature search, external guidelines review,ย etc.to support content with up-to-date scientific evidence, or if lacking, on a consensus of internal and/or externalย experts.

Writeย the revision of the PHE guidelines and/or new Technical Briefs in compliance withย theย โ€œGuide of Guidelinesโ€, requestย and integrate relevantย MSF and external expertsโ€™ inputs,ย as well asย references, illustrations,ย etc.

Coordinate closely with IGP editor throughout the writing and/or revision process e.g. provide regular updates on content changes, consider and integrate feedback and submit final text for feedback and validation

Prepare a discussion document for the Medical Director and focal point in case no agreement has been reached between the different collaborators (author(s), MSF and external expert) on a certain topic. Document and integrate the decisionย taken

Finalise the text, considering all feedback

Support translation process by identifying which references are available in French

Trackย and ensure references are used and cited correctly.ย ย 

VI. Milestones

Month 1: Project plan and workflows developed and approved

Month 5: 1st chapter on water supply revised and feedback of internal stakeholders and editor processed

Month 15: chapters on wastewater/excreta/dead body disposal and waste management revised and feedback of internal stakeholders and editor processed

Month 22: full updated guideline

VII. Deliverables

Draft project planning updated and kept up to date along the project.

A plan for continuous collection of feedback from the different stakeholders ensuring MSFโ€™s operational realities are well integrated developed, approved and executed.

Coordination workflow developed, approved and followed during the development of the revision of the PHE guideline. Consensus successfully coordinated, where needed.

Literature review and research of internal policies/guidance documents done, for every chapter.

Revision of the PHE guideline drafted (chapter per chapter) in compliance with the โ€œGuide for producing Guidelinesโ€, feedback from internal stakeholders and content editor processed, final versions delivered and approval requested and received.

Discussion documents prepared, when needed.

Monthly update meetings with WatSan Core Platform lead, IGP editor and manager conducted

Quarterly update reports developed and delivered to validating bodies.

Presentation to the validating bodies of the final revised version developed and presented.

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