Coordinator, Surveillancenew

Organizational Context

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) is the world’s largest humanitarian network, with 191-member National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. IFRC uses the Triple R – response, resilience and respect – to deliver on Strategy 2030. IFRC responds to disasters and crises, ensuring timely, coordinated and locally led humanitarian action. IFRC supports its members in building community resilience in the areas of climate and environment, health and wellbeing, and migration and displacement. IFRC promotes respect for our fundamental principles of humanity, impartiality, neutrality, independence, voluntary service, unity, and universality, including in our work on values, power and inclusion. The IFRC focuses throughout on our core mandate – our raison d’être – of strategic and operational coordination, humanitarian diplomacy, National Society development, and accountability. 

IFRC is led by its Secretary General and has its Headquarters in Geneva and five regional offices in Africa (Nairobi); the Americas (Panama); Asia Pacific (Kuala Lumpur); Europe (Budapest); and MENA (Beirut) as well as representation offices, service centres and delegations across the globe.

IFRC has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment and other forms of harassment, abuse of authority, discrimination, and lack of integrity (including but not limited to financial misconduct). IFRC also adheres to strict child safeguarding principles. 

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is responding to an outbreak of Bundibugyo virus disease (BVD), a form of Ebola virus disease, in a complex operating environment characterised by population movement, insecurity, constraints on access to health services and significant risks of continued transmission and geographic spread. The absence of an approved vaccine or specific targeted treatment for the Bundibugyo strain reinforces the importance of early detection, effective infection prevention and control, appropriate clinical and supportive care, safe and dignified burials, and trusted community-based action.

IFRC is supporting the DRC Red Cross to deliver a locally led, community-centred response aligned with national outbreak priorities and coordinated with the Ministry of Health and key technical and humanitarian partners. The response brings together community-based surveillance, risk communication and community engagement, safe and dignified burials, infection prevention and control and WASH, mental health and psychosocial support, clinical care and continuity of essential health services. Through its extensive volunteer and community networks, the DRC Red Cross plays a critical role in strengthening community trust, supporting early detection and referral, promoting protective behaviours and helping communities access timely and appropriate services.

Alongside immediate outbreak control, IFRC's support seeks to strengthen the capacity, systems and operational readiness of the DRC Red Cross and reinforce its auxiliary role to public authorities. The response therefore combines technical and operational support, coordination, surge capacity, resource mobilisation and institutional strengthening, while continuously adapting priorities and interventions to the evolving epidemiological, operational and community context. This approach aims not only to contribute to interrupting transmission and reducing the humanitarian impact of BVD, but also to leave stronger National Society and community capacities for future epidemics and health emergencies.

Job Purpose

Reporting to the Health Manager, the Surveillance Coordinator is the overall technical lead for IFRC’s surveillance support during the Bundibugyo virus disease (BVD) outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The role establishes a coherent, risk-informed approach to community-based surveillance (CBS), supporting DRC Red Cross volunteers and branches to recognize and promptly report alerts, facilitate timely referral and connect communities with the public health response. The Surveillance Coordinator provides strategic direction, technical oversight and quality assurance, ensuring that Red Cross activities complement Ministry of Health surveillance systems and national outbreak priorities.

The Surveillance Coordinator translates epidemiological evidence, community insights and operational constraints into surveillance priorities across affected and at-risk health zones. The role strengthens the full pathway from community detection and notification to documented follow-up, feedback and action; guides agreed community-level support to active case finding and contact tracing; and ensures that timely, reliable and responsibly managed data inform deployment and response decisions. Clinical assessment, formal case investigation, case classification and laboratory confirmation remain the responsibility of authorized health services.

The Surveillance Coordinator retains overall technical accountability, supervisory responsibility and oversight of critical risks and corrective action. In partnership with DRC Red Cross leadership and technical counterparts, the role builds on existing National Society CBS capacities, strengthens national and provincial leadership and volunteer supervision, and embeds community trust, safety, confidentiality and sustainable epidemic preparedness throughout the response and transition.

Job Duties and Responsibilities

Technical leadership, accountability and response coordination

• Lead a rapid needs, capacity and feasibility assessment using available data and field consultation, covering DRC Red Cross CBS capacity, community acceptance, partner coverage, telecommunications, alert and referral pathways, response capacity and operational bottlenecks; agree a surveillance strategy and costed operational plan that builds on existing systems rather than creating parallel structures.
• Prioritise affected and at-risk health zones using transmission patterns, delayed detection, community deaths, population movement, access constraints and service availability; map volunteer coverage and surveillance gaps, including underserved settlements, displaced populations and border or transport-linked communities.
• Represent IFRC in surveillance and epidemiology coordination mechanisms with the Ministry of Health, DRC Red Cross, WHO and partners; agree complementary roles, reporting channels and information-sharing arrangements without assuming a formal coordination mandate that has not been assigned.
• Agree on simple, locally understood community alert definitions consistent with current national BVD guidance, distinguishing volunteer recognition and reporting from clinical diagnosis and formal case classification; maintain updated SOPs, referral directories and escalation arrangements.
• Oversee community event detection and agreed active case-finding support through trained volunteers and trusted local networks, including recognition of unusual illness, clusters and community deaths; integrate detection into existing community activities and ensure immediate notification rather than waiting for routine reports.
• Establish a closed-loop alert pathway: supervisor review without delaying notification, receipt by authorised surveillance teams, tracking of investigation and referral status, escalation of delayed action and appropriate feedback to volunteers and communities. Agree safe referral and transport arrangements with designated services; volunteers must not independently transport suspected cases.
• Define any DRC Red Cross contribution to contact identification, listing and daily follow-up with health authorities, subject to an agreed mandate, training, supervision and resources. Support confidential, non-coercive engagement, prompt reporting of symptoms and escalation of missed follow-up; maintain clear boundaries with formal investigation and clinical functions.
• Provide technical direction, mentoring and regular supervision while retaining overall accountability for the quality and coherence of IFRC’s surveillance support.
• Agree technical supervision arrangements with DRC Red Cross at national, provincial, branch and health-zone levels, respecting National Society management of personnel and volunteers; oversee competency-based training, field mentoring, alert reviews and corrective action.
• Integrate surveillance with Risk Communication and Community Engagement (RCCE), clinical referral, Infection Prevention and Control (IPC)/WASH and psychosocial support, ensuring that relevant signals from all community-facing teams reach the agreed alert system. Coordinate community death notification with designated mortality-response services without assuming responsibility for burial operations.
• Work with RCCE counterparts to address delayed reporting, mistrust, stigma and barriers to referral or contact follow-up; ensure communities understand what to report, how information will be used, expected follow-up, confidentiality safeguards and available feedback or complaints channels.

Job Duties and Responsibilities (continued)

• Ensure proportionate personal-data collection, clear explanations to affected people, secure storage, restricted access and agreed retention and sharing rules, applying applicable consent requirements. Use de-identified analysis and prevent public disclosure of identifiable case or contact information.
• Analyse alert trends, reporting and response delays, coverage gaps and community feedback alongside official epidemiological data. Produce concise dashboards, maps and management briefings for IFRC, DRC Red Cross and authorised public-health counterparts; explain data limitations and recommend targeted deployment, scale-up or corrective action rather than treating alert volume alone as success.
• Maintain responder-safety and operational-readiness oversight with health, security, logistics and staff-care teams: safe community engagement without physical contact with suspected cases or deceased persons, exposure reporting, communications, transport, supervision and psychosocial support. Cost staffing and equipment needs, monitor resource gaps and escalate activities that cannot meet agreed safety standards.

 

National Society leadership, capacity strengthening and transition

• Agree a prioritised surveillance capacity-strengthening plan with DRC Red Cross, building on existing CBS experience, branch networks and national systems. Strengthen technical leadership, trainers, volunteer supervisors, data management and links with health-zone surveillance teams; support transparent, competency-based selection and distribution of volunteer data collectors and supervisors to ensure appropriate geographic coverage, community acceptance, language capacity, safety and inclusion.
• Oversee practical training, simulations, mentoring and periodic joint reviews through the Delegate and National Society counterparts; assess correct alert recognition, notification, safe engagement and data handling, and translate lessons into measurable improvements rather than training numbers alone.
• Plan transition and handover from the outset, agreeing ownership, recurrent costs, maintained alert and referral links, equipment and data stewardship, refresher training and reactivation triggers. Advise on risk-based continuation of enhanced surveillance and sustainable integration into wider epidemic preparedness.

Education

Required:

• University degree in epidemiology, public health, medicine, nursing or a related health discipline, with formal training in epidemiological surveillance, community-based surveillance or outbreak investigation.

Preferred:

• Master’s degree in public health, epidemiology, humanitarian health or a related discipline.
• Specialist training in field epidemiology, community-based or event-based surveillance, contact tracing, or surveillance leadership in outbreak response.
• IFRC training in community-based surveillance, epidemic control for volunteers, public health in emergencies, RCCE or equivalent.
• IMPACT or equivalent knowledge.

Experience

• At least 7 years of relevant professional experience in public health, epidemiology or humanitarian health operations, including at least 3 years in surveillance or outbreak-response technical leadership or coordination in complex emergencies.
• Demonstrated experience designing or scaling community-based surveillance across multiple locations, supervising technical teams and volunteer networks, and managing alert-to-response pathways, operational plans, budgets and quality assurance.
• Direct outbreak-surveillance experience linking community alerts, active case finding and contact-tracing support with public health authorities; ability to adapt these approaches safely to Ebola or other viral haemorrhagic fever outbreaks.
• Experience strengthening local partner or National Society leadership and systems through competency-based training, coaching, mentoring and transition planning.

Knowledge, Skills and Languages

• Strong strategic planning and analytical skills; ability to translate epidemiological evidence, operational data and community feedback into priorities, deployment scenarios and measurable results.
• Advanced knowledge of community-based and event-based surveillance, simplified alert definitions, notification and referral pathways, contact follow-up and integration with national surveillance systems; clear understanding of volunteer and clinical role boundaries.
• Ability to oversee safe community surveillance during viral haemorrhagic fever outbreaks, including IPC precautions, exposure reporting, confidential and non-coercive contact follow-up, and timely risk escalation.
• Ability to translate surveillance guidance into practical SOPs, training and supervision tools, and to ensure data quality, confidentiality, secure information sharing and field-level quality improvement.
• Strong partnership and diplomatic skills; ability to advise National Society leadership, build consensus with authorities and partners, and support locally led decision-making.
• Sound judgement under pressure, with the ability to make and communicate risk-informed recommendations amid uncertainty, competing priorities and access constraints.
• Excellent representation, negotiation and communication skills, including concise technical briefings, management reporting and contributions to proposals and donor updates.
• Ability to integrate surveillance with RCCE, clinical referral, IPC/WASH and psychosocial support, using community insights to address under-reporting, mistrust and barriers to timely care.
• Cultural sensitivity and commitment to dignity, community accountability, confidentiality and respectful engagement with affected families.
• Strong people-management and mentoring skills, including setting objectives, delegating effectively, supervising technical staff and strengthening counterpart leadership and ownership.
• Ability and willingness to travel and work in a demanding working environment
• Proficiency in spreadsheet-based surveillance analysis, alert registers and digital data collection, including data cleaning, basic mapping and interpretation of completeness, timeliness and coverage; secure digital collaboration and responsible use of AI without disclosing identifiable health data.
• Understanding of and commitment to IFRC’s mission and values.

 

Languages

• Good command of both spoken and written French and English

Competencies, Values and Comments

Values: Respect for diversity; Integrity; Professionalism; Accountability

Core competencies: Communication; Collaboration and teamwork; Judgement and decision making; National society and customer relations; Creativity and innovation; Building trust

Managerial Competencies: Managing Staff Performance; Managing Staff Development

Functional Competencies: Strategic Orientation; Building Alliances; Leadership; Empowering Others