Two medical doctors / HIV /project management

1. General information Type of expertise: resident, long-term technical assistance Area: HIV and coinfections / Public Health Country: Nepal Partnership: Save the Children Beneficiaries: National Centre for AIDS and STD Control (NCASC) – Kathmandu and Pokhara hospitals Team: a Nepalese assistant for logistic, administration and accounting. Duration: minimum 1 year (renewable) Contact: Matthieu Vanel, project manager: matthieu.vanel@expertisefrance.fr 2. Context and objectives Expertise France is the French International Expertise Agency. It offers a wide range of interventions, based on an integrated public policies approach, to partner states, and other authorities, or multilateral or European donors. Expertise France is implementing a technical assistance program in Nepal at health facilities and central government to improve HIV care. A hospital partnership between French and Nepalese hospitals will be implemented as well. Under the supervision of Expertise France health department and the project manager, medical doctors will be responsible for providing capacity building to health care workers (HCW) involved in HIV medical care in order to improve their ability to care, treat and follow up HIV infected persons in a comprehensive approach and to coordinate the project on the ground. Starting in 2016, this project funded by the Global Fund aims to increase the quality of care and number of PLHIV under ARV treatment in the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, with a focus on Kathmandu and Pokhara. Expertise France has no office in Nepal. Clinicians will be assisted by Save the Children to implement the project. Nepal's HIV prevalence has seen little change over the last five years, it has remained within 0.2 - 0.3 percent among 15-49 years-old in 2014 (adult male 0.28%, adult female 0.13%). Although HIV prevalence has not changed much, the country has managed to reduce the number of new infections, from 8,000 new infections annually in 2000 to 1,500 in 2014.The most affected age group is the group aged 25-49. An estimated number of 2,576 deaths were caused by AIDS in 2014, a decrease compared to the estimated 3,362 deaths in 2013, which is largely due to increased access to treatment. The HIV epidemic remains concentrated among key populations of labour migrants, Injection drug users, men who have sex with men, transgender people, and female sex workers. More than 80% of HIV infections spread through sexual transmission. With this level of HIV infection, there are approximately 40,000 people living with HIV in Nepal in 2014 (65% of men and 35% of women), including around 2,000 children under 15 years. 3 outputs structure the project: Output 1: Strengthen the health system's capacity to improve access and deliver better care for HIV / AIDS patients Output 2: Strengthen patient management and monitoring capabilities Output 3: Strengthen HIV pediatric care Work will be performed in partnership with Save the Children, the leader clinicians, academics, civil society and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs). 3. Tasks and responsibilities HIV Care Quality improvement & Capacity building of healthcare workers in partnership with Save the Children and the Nepalese clinicians of reference centers 3.1. Assess, design and implement • Assess the needs, design an action plan to strengthen the capacity of the health workers and implement it with different types of activities related to the following various topics of HIV care; • HIV topics: counseling, testing, diagnosis, prophylaxis, care and treatment of HIV, ART prescription and monitoring, PMTCT and pediatric care, Opportunistic Infections management, TB/HIV/hepatitis co-infection, Sexually Transmitted Infections, hospital hygiene, dispensing & adherence support, psychological support, support to health mediators-peer counsellors (PLHIV) for the support of patients and assistance of healthcare workers, integrated care for intravenous drug users with HIV, data management & analysis; • Stigma reduction and gender approach are key elements which should be included in all the activities; • Suggest operational research issues and if needed implement and support them in the field. 3.2. Classroom trainings • Assess the trainings needs of the different types of health workers; • Participate in the elaboration of a curriculum for HCW and peer-counsellors on the topics detailed above; • Organize and conduct trainings and trainings-of-trainers; • Coordinate the trainings of trainers; • Participate in the evaluation of training activities. 3.3. Clinical mentoring and bed-side trainings • Organize and conduct bed-side trainings according to identified needs; • Provide onsite clinical mentoring to reinforce HCW skills & capacities; 3.4. E-medecine • Support remote trainings; • Implement regular multidisciplinary medical meetings to encourage links between clinical partners: leading care centers abroad (France, Thailand, Nepal…) by video conference. 3.5. Civil society • Support interaction between civil society, Community Based Organizations and HCW. Support to national actors in partnership with Save the Children and University leaders • Participate to the elaboration and updating of national HIV guidelines and recommendations; • Give support to the National Center for AIDS and STD Control: raising awareness among local health authorities for the integration of HIV into their routine activities: trainings and on-site joint supervision; • Provide support for national HIV strategy and Global Fund request documents. Representation, coordination and reporting • Attend coordination meetings relevant to country programs when dealing with medical issues; • Coordinate, guide and support the international experts coming for trainings during their mission in Nepal (agreement, training planning, reporting, financial monitoring…); • Coordinate, guide and support the hospital twinning partnership (agreement, training planning, reporting, financial monitoring…) • Coordinate and implement the training plan; • Working Relationships with all members of the team, involved in the same project or others; • Coordinate specific events such as workshop; • Management of the project and the Nepalese team on the ground, with the support of the Expertise France project officer in Paris; • Reporting to the project officer in Paris (logistic, administrative, finance) and to Save the Children. 4. Qualifications • Medical doctor with specialization in HIV/AIDS; • Knowledge and experience in training and capacity building; • Experience in resource-limited countries and/or work with key populations will be highly appreciated; • Clinical and/or operational research experiences would be an added value; • Fluent French and English; • Basics in Nepalese language would be an added value.