Organization: Première Urgence Internationale
Country: Colombia
Closing date: 30 Apr 2019
Première Urgence Internationale (PUI) is a Humanitarian, non-governmental, non-profit, non-political and non-religious international aid organization. Our teams are committed to supporting civilian victims of marginalization and exclusion, or hit by natural disasters, wars and economic collapses, by addressing their fundamental needs. Our aim is to provide emergency relief to uprooted people in order to help them recover their dignity and regain self-sufficiency. The association leads on average 200 projects per year in the following sectors of intervention: food security, health, nutrition, construction and rehabilitation of infrastructures, water, sanitation, hygiene and economic recovery. PUI is providing assistance to around 6 million people in more than 23 countries – in Africa, Asia, Middle East, and Europe.
Find out about our history and values
Humanitarian situation:
Venezuela faces a major political, economic and social crisis, with hyperinflation, acute scarcity of food, medicine and other basic goods and one of the world’s highest murder rates. During widespread protests against Maduro’s government, dozens of opposition demonstrators have been killed. The July 2017 election of an all-powerful Constituent Assembly closed down almost all remaining democratic spaces, sparking widespread condemnation in the region and around the world. In recent years, almost 2.3 million people left Venezuela to live, mostly, in Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Argentina, and Chile. In the short term, migration places significant pressures on the provision of services, institutions, labor markets and the social dynamics of the receiving areas, affecting most the vulnerable populations in both the migrant and local communities.
Colombia hosts the largest number of Venezuelan migrants (1.2 million), 750 000 on the first nine month of 2018. Amongst them, 24% are nationals who are returning to their home country. Between 70,000 and 80,000 Venezuelan citizens cross the border with Colombia every day. While most return to their country the same day, others stay in Colombia. On 2 August, 442,000 Venezuelans were granted a Special Stay Permit (PEP) providing them legal status for two years.
In absolute terms, Bogotá is the city with the largest number of migrants. However, in relative terms, the border areas (Norte de Santander, Arauca and Guajira) are the most affected, with the migrants representing between 2.5% and 5% of the population. These regions have development lags, which limits their ability to absorb migrants.
Some Venezuelans in Colombia live in precarious conditions, sometimes staying in public installations such as transport terminals, with multiple needs including shelter, protection, health and WASH. Almost 70% of Venezuelans in Colombia are estimated to have irregular migratory status and are particularly vulnerable to violence and exploitation. They lack access to basic services and work. Only 40% of the migrant children are in school, and the migrant population is twice as likely to be unemployed than the local Colombian population. The cost of additional public services caused by migration including education, health, water and sanitation, early care, housing support, employment services and institutional strengthening lies between 0.23% and 0.41% of Colombia’s GDP.
In early February, the Colombian government tightened entry restrictions and security along the border with Venezuela, deploying an additional 3,000 security personnel, and temporarily halted the processing of new border mobility cards. Increased traffic along illegal border crossing routes has been reported since entry restrictions changed. Armed groups control many illegal crossing points, which leads to protection concerns for people using these crossings.
New policies implemented by other Latin American countries will likely worsen the situation in Colombia. Since 18 August, Ecuadorian authorities demand that all Venezuelans must hold a valid passport to enter the country. The same measure was to be implemented from 25 August in Peru. Other countries, such as Panama, Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala and El Salvador, had already started to implement a special visa policy for Venezuelans. Colombian authorities are concerned that these new policies will lead to an increase in human trafficking, tensions with host communities, and general insecurity.
Première Urgence Internationale positioning
PUI sent a first mission to Colombia in early 2019, to understand better the situation and figure out if there was a possibility of intervention for PUI. This first exploration phase was done together with Solidarités, and led the teams in Bogota to meet with stakeholders and in several regions all across the country to assess the situation at field level. All information is available in the report of this mission, but basically it showed great needs, lacks in coverage and some financial opportunities. From now on and still in close collaboration with Solidarités, PUI wishes to position itself in Colombia to open a mission and start projects in the country. In a longer term, the interest would actually be on Venezuela, where it would be intended at some point to open a mission as well.
As in many areas, PUI is willing to begin its humanitarian answer in health. If it still has to be built, the partnership with Solidarités is meant to go on, and complementarity is to be found in the activities. Therefore a serious understanding of humanitarian health needs and of PUI intervention framework are needed to properly set-up the mission there.
As part of our action in Colombia, we are recruiting an Exploratory Medical Coordinator.
Under the direct supervision of the Emergency Officer, the Exploratory Medical Coordinator main objectives are the following.
To set PUI as a renown medical actor in Colombia.
To set-up an operational health strategy in country keeping in mind potential PUI-SI expertise integration.
To contribute to fundraising for PUI/SI strategy in Colombia, especially regarding health.
Main responsibilities:
Establish field level PUI-SI collaboration particularly regarding health sector integration with SI expertise.
Coordinate needed health assessments.
Manage the team for assessment if needed.
Design and Draft the technical parts of the first concept notes and proposals.
Develop a draft of health strategy for PUI in Colombia.
Represent PUI towards donors and crucial stakeholders, especially health authorities and actors/health coordination mechanisms, health working groups.
Follow up and produce a Monthly Medical situation updates and an analysis of the humanitarian context.
Training and experience:
Training: Medical training OR Paramedic training + Public health
Medical internship
Previous experience as Medical Coordinator in an NGO, including with PUI
Previous experience in assessment / exploratory missions
Sound understanding of consortium dynamics and strong will to collaborate with other NGO
Health projects coordination
Excellent negotiation skills & writing skills
English and spanish mandatory
Proposed-terms:
Fixed-term contract: 2 months
Starting date: as soon as possible
Monthly Gross Income: from 2 200 up to 2 530 Euros depending on the experience in International Solidarity + 50 Euros per semester seniority with PUI
Cost covered: Round-trip transportation to and from home / mission, visas, vaccines…
Insurance including medical coverage and complementary healthcare, 24/24 assistance and repatriation
Housing in collective accommodation
Daily living Expenses (« Per diem »)
Break Policy : 5 working days at 3 and 9 months + break allowance
Paid Leaves Policy : 5 weeks of paid leaves per year + return ticket every 6 months
For more information on our job offer, please look at the complete description on our website!
How to apply:
Please send your application (CV and Cover Letter) to Camille Attias, Human Resources Officer for Expatriates, at recrutement@premiere-urgence.org
