MSF recruits 01 Community of practice facilitator
GENERAL CONTEXT
Médecins Sans Frontières is an international independent medical-humanitarian organization, which offers assistance to populations in distress, to victims of natural or man-made disasters and to victims of armed conflict, without discrimination and irrespective of race, religion, creed or political affiliation.
MSF is a civil society initiative that brings together individuals committed to the assistance of other human beings in crisis. As such MSF is by choice an association. Each individual working with MSF does it out of conviction and is ready to uphold the values and principles of MSF.
The MSF movement is built around six operational directorates. MSF OCBA is one of those directorates. The operations are implemented by field teams and the mission coordination teams; together with the organizational units based in Barcelona and decentralized in Nairobi, Dakar and Amman. The field operations are guided and supported by 5 Operational Cells, the Emergency Unit and other departments supporting operations
TEMBO PROGRAM FRAMEWORK
Several change programs are currently planned or under way across MSF, with the hope to change the way staff work, interact and learn from each other. These include Tembo. Tembo (elephant in Swahili) provides MSF staff with personal learning and development environments (PLDE) – a learning approach and system that helps learners take control and manage their own learning and, therefore, their own development.
Communities of Practice are part of the Tembo learning and support ecosystem where MSF staff can share ideas, experiences, or tackle issues together, in a safe space. MSF staff share their learnings, learn from others, and create solution together to solve common challenges. Although still in an initial development stage, Communities of Practice within Tembo plan to expand the number of communities and MSF staff participating in this dynamic aspect of “social learning.” The overall Tembo program is currently in its second phase, finalizing deployment and adoption in MSF OCBA and scaling up to all MSF Operational Centers.
Within the Community of Practice space, users can search and connect with other colleagues that may have been in a similar situation or context, look for different experiences and practices from MSF projects that may offer alternatives and inspiration to help solve practical problems, as well as contribute to the personal learning and experience of individual staff members.
GENERAL OBJECTIVE OF THE POST AND CONTEXT
To implement Communities of Practice and ensure the target population(s) actively participates in and contributes to these communities through the TEMBO platform.
- Communities of practice in MSF will allow staff in dispersed locations to connect, share, collaborate and build knowledge together via a virtual platform. Opportunities for these types of exchanges and learnings are limited due to MSF staff distance from each other and limited opportunities to meet face-to-face (F2F) as a community.
- By encouraging communities of practice (CoP), MSF can promote greater horizontal and vertical collaboration and learning among MSF staff which will contribute both to individual growth and development (knowledge and competencies) as well as increased organizational effectiveness (impact) and quality of interventions.
- Through this process, MSF will contribute to the creation of two important dynamics. First, there are staff active in the field and HQ with personal experience and knowledge that the organization needs to document in a more explicit manner and be able to articulate and share with others. Secondly, MSF needs to create dynamics in the organization so those staff that absorb this new knowledge and learn about these experiences and lessons learned, internalize and utilize them in their own practice.
- The overall objective of the communities of practice initiative is to facilitate the articulation, documentation and internalization of knowledge and experiences in MSF in a dynamic and participatory manner.
The Community of Practice Facilitator is hierarchically accountable to the Community of Practice Manager.
RESPONSIBILITIES AND MAIN TASKS
The main objective for the Community of Practice Facilitator is to implement and support dynamic and participative communities of practice among targeted MSF staff to promote connections, sharing, collaboration and building of knowledge. The work will be carried out under the overall guidance of the CoP Manager and the Tembo Knowledge Sharing Project Manager. The Tembo CoP team all work with a collaborative approach both for internal team tasks as well as working with external partners on individual projects.
Main Responsibilities:
- Accompany in the design and implementation of communities of practice within MSF utilizing a co-creation / design thinking approach to understand learning and support needs of potential community audiences.
- Promote broad participation in MSF communities of practice by encouraging various contributions, perspectives and opinions on issues or problems of importance within the community.
- Build trust within the communities of practice by inviting risk taking, encouraging learning from mistakes, and fostering mutual trust. Support trust building by acknowledging members’ feelings and learning experiences, upholding norms of interaction within the group, and work collaboratively with Community owners and stakeholders in order to build a safe space for members to take risks, learn from mistakes and foster mutual trust.
- Ensure inclusivity in the communities of practice to support varied learning needs and perspectives and develop strong collective understandings and commitments. Encourage opportunities for all members to generate ideas or to consider complex issues as well as raise questions and alternative perspectives.
- In collaboration with the CoP Manager, Content Experts in MSF departments and Learning Referents, the Community of Practice Facilitator will promote, support and exchange on a number of “core” topics that address specific aspects of certain field positions’ responsibilities while also addressing challenges or problematic topics that they confront in their daily work.
Main Tasks:
Accompanying the process of creating a CoP:
- Assess the necessity of the Community together with the stakeholder (who requested a CoP).
- Design, together with stakeholder, CoP launch plan, first activities, and agree on division of roles in the Community (content matter expert, communications, etc.).
- Liaison between stakeholder and technical team in order to set up of community space.
- Coordinate details of the formal community launch.
Community-building activities:
- In collaboration with content experts and learning referents, identify “core” issues to be addressed timely within the CoP and develop appropriate activities / discussions linked with these issues.
- Stimulate the formation of a group of active participants.
- Plan and facilitate CoP activities and communication (convening, drafting, and identifying explicit knowledge in results).
- Report community of practice activities (through metrics and evaluations).
- Connect informally with members of CoP, crossing organizational boundaries (missions, departments, etc.).
- Manage the boundary between the CoP and the formal organization (departments, teams) to avoid friction.
- Collect technical questions/feedback to be shared with content experts, request their input to CoP and support periodic “health checks” (reporting) of the community over time with CoP stakeholders.
- Build explicit practice, including background knowledge, lessons learned and best practices.
- Ensure that the CoP initiative does not lose momentum and remains active for participants.
Advisory activities:
- Provide inputs and advise Community owners to help them nurture and grow active communities.
- Provide information and advice stakeholders interested in creating a new Community for them to properly assess and frame needs and expectations.
- Advice stakeholders on strategies and methodologies to integrate social learning and communities in their learning and support ecosystems.
Internal contribution to Tembo CoP Team:
- Capture best practices and lessons learned.
- Create documentation and guidelines when needed.
- Support, design or facilitate internal Tembo meetings or workshops.
MSF is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, race, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are encouraged to apply. We are committed to achieving a balanced gender distribution and therefore encourage women to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence.
MSF provides a work environment that reflects the values of gender equality, teamwork, integrity and a healthy balance of work and life. MSF does not tolerate sexual exploitation and abuse, any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment and discrimination. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo reference checks.
Médecins Sans Frontieres, as a responsible employer, under article 38 of “Ley de Integración Social del Minusválido de 1982 (LISMI)” invite those persons with a recognized disability and with an interest in the humanitarian area to apply for the above-mentioned position.
Expériences / Formation
SELECTION CRITERIA
Education and experience
- Bachelor’s degree in pedagogy, educational psychology with proven experience of some years in similar fields of communities of practice.
- Experience in implementing and supporting communities of practice.
- Prior experience in working in complex, multi-layer projects.
- Extensive experience in e-learning.
- Fluent written and spoken English. Spanish and/or French is an asset.
Competencies
- Commitment to MSF’s Principles
- Cross-cultural Awareness
- Behavioural Flexibility
- Stress Management
- Analytical Thinking
- Results and Quality Orientation
- Service Orientation
- Planning and Organising
- Teamwork and Cooperation
Others
- Flexibility to travel and work outside normal business hours
- Co-creation / co-design / collaboration skills
Salaire
CONDITIONS
- Based in any MSF-OCBA Hub (Barcelona, MSF-Spain office delegations, Amman, Dakar or Nairobi). Final location will be subject to the employability of the preselected candidate (residency, work permit,etc.).
- Full-time job.
- Temporal contract: until December 2023.
- Annual gross salary HQ-2C (divided in 12 monthly payments) based on MSF OCBA Reward Policy.
Comment postuler
HOW TO APPLY
- To apply, please follow the link below and submit your CV and cover letter
- Closing date: February 2nd, 2022, 23:59 CET (Central European Time)