Background : The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) is the world's largest humanitarian organisation with 186 member National Societies. Present all over the world - not just physically in towns, villages and neighborhoods, but also in the minds and hearts of people - we represent an important "public good". With the arrival in the Secretariat of a new senior management team in April 2009 it became necessary to review and adjust the Secretariat structure in Geneva. This review was driven by anticipating what the Federation's evolving Strategy 2020 would mean for the Secretariat as well as the Secretary General's Moving Forward agenda. This modified job description reflects the outcome of this review and the desired adjustments and focus for the Head of the Health and Social Services Department. The GAVI Alliance is a unique public-private global health partnership committed to saving children's lives and protecting people's health by increasing access to immunisation in poor countries.
Purpose of the position : Civil society organizations - defined as non-governmental organisations, community-based organisations, professional associations, and technical and academic institutions - are critical members of the GAVI Alliance.
Civil society (CS) is strengthening its voice as a GAVI constituency through the development of a more active body. The purpose is to promote consistent inputs from civil society into GAVI governance bodies, processes, and policy development. The work to enhance functioning of the CS constituency with the GAVI Alliance has been in development since 2007 and culminated in a decision in March 2010 to create a new structure that includes a Communications Focal Point (CFP) to coordinate constituency activities and support the newly created steering committee (June 2010) that includes Board committee representatives. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) will host the Communications Focal Point for an initial period of 1 year. The IFRC presently serves as the Chair of the GAVI CSO Steering Committee. Descriptions of how the GAVI CSO Constituency functions can be found in the CSO Charter (adopted in November 2010). The Communications Focal Point will work closely with the Chair of the CSO Steering Committee (presently the IFRC), and other key members of the Steering Committee. This position is funded by the GAVI Alliance.
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a) Facilitating communications among Steering Committee members and between Steering Committee and Forum members, and Steering Committee and Board representatives GAVI Alliance Committee members, and task team/work group members. This will include synthesizing/filtering information to prevent information overload of Steering Committee and Forum members; b) Developing and managing communications tools for the GAVI civil society constituency (ex. google listserv, website, routine teleconferences, etc); c) Serving as a non-voting member ex officio of the Steering Committee; d) As appropriate, attending GAVI Board meetings as an observer and reporting on them to CS Forum; e) Participating in contacting civil society organizations to seek input on specific issues and topics of relevance to the GAVI Alliance mandate and work of the CS constituency; f) Communicating about GAVI Alliance activities and decisions back to the CS community, governments and the public in various fora; g) Facilitating debates/discussion within the wider constituency on critical issues, using approaches such as MyGAVI and other social networking technologies, meetings, conferences, etc.; h) Ensuring communication of constituency views to appropriate Steering Committee members and parts of the GAVI Alliance (Secretariat, Board, etc.); i) Assisting in organizing meetings/teleconferences, etc., of Steering Committee and Forum; j) Assuring timely completion of CS constituency member tasks; k) Developing and maintaining a database of CS resources (available technical assistance on various areas such as logistics, health financing, health policy, social mobilization, vaccine management, etc.; grants; training and partnership opportunities, etc.) l) Managing, analyzing and updating database of GAVI Alliance constituencies (Southern Coalitions & Networks, Civil Society Forum membership, CSO Constituency website); m) Supporting the CSO Board representative, and Alternate, as needed; and n) Undertake other pertinent assignments that the SC through the Chair might ask to be performed.
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