Grants Officer – Première Urgence Internationale (PUI) عودة إلى الفرص

General information on the mission

Context:

Première Urgence Internationale (PUI) is a non-governmental, non-profit, non-political and non-religious international aid organization. Our teams are committed to supporting civilians’ victims of marginalization and exclusion, or hit by natural disasters, wars and economic collapses, by answering 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 in average 200 projects by year in the following sectors of intervention: food security, health, nutrition, construction and rehabilitation of infrastructures, water, sanitation, hygiene and economic recovery. PUI is assisting around 7 million people in 22 countries – in Africa, Asia, Middle East, Eastern Europe and France.

 Crisis context 

After an armed and civil uprising ended Muammar al Gadhafi’s regime in late 2011, the authorities have had difficulties to address pressing security issues, reshape the country’s public finances, or create a viable framework for post-conflict justice and reconciliation. Thus, since 2014, non-state armed groups have disrupted Libya’s political transition. 

In 2019, the whole population is still affected by the armed conflict and the lack of a functioning government, and 823 000 people will still need humanitarian assistance (including 554,000 people in need of health care services) throughout the whole assessed territory in Libya. The complex humanitarian crisis is primarily driven by the absence of the rule of law, lack of access to basic services, displacement of population, the collapse of the economic system and the financial crisis. On April 4th 2019, the Libyan National Army (LNA) under the guide of General Haftar, announced the beginning of a large scale offensive against the Government of National Accord (GNA) in Tripoli. Soon after, the southern neighbourhoods of the city were engulfed in the conflict. To date, continued clashes, involving the use of heavy weaponry and airstrikes, affected 500,000 people, and displaced over 100,000 people within the Libyan capital, to the neighbouring cities, and, more recently to Tunisia. 

Throughout 2019, in Benghazi and its surroundings, the situation remains calm even though tensions and heavy fighting took place in other towns of the country (Darnah, Tripoli, and Sabha). In eastern Libya, the situation remained relatively stable, allowing PUI program’s to progress despite bureaucratic interferences. However, this fragile equilibrium could be rapidly overturn depending on the evolution of conflict. Premiere Urgence Internationale (PUI) is monitoring closely the events and, is evaluating potential scenarios to adapt its humanitarian response. The violation of human rights and humanitarian law remain high countrywide, including of children and women’s rights. Important levels of gender-based violence are reported. 

In the Southeast of the country, the tensions between the Tebu and the Zway tribes seriously affects the health system and the access to basic services. Tribe communities, when they are a minority in the area, are suffering from segregation in most of Al Kufrah’s institutions, including health care facilities. This occurs in a context of underdevelopment and poverty that exacerbates the impact of the conflict on the population in the region. Indeed, this area has been suffering, even before the conflict, from a poor investment from the central government. However, few information are available on this area and its humanitarian needs due to a poor, if not almost inexistent, presence of NGOs. 

Besides, in the Libyan context, migrants, refugees and asylum seekers leaving outside and within the detention centres (DCs) represents another significant vulnerable group in Libya. Estimated to be around 700,000 to 1 million, they are among the most vulnerable population in the country and are currently facing acute needs. This includes number of migrants in detention centers. These persons, including both asylum seekers and refugees, have been consistently identified as being the most vulnerable individuals throughout Libya for several reasons. In particular, they are identified as having reduced access to, and availability of life-saving assistance. Additionally, various report show that refugees and asylum seekers in Libya face significant protection concerns, with their status making them particularly vulnerable to abuse, marginalisation, and exploitation. Those who move through the country are exposed to widespread abuses and human’s rights violation along the route. Due to their irregular status, lack of domestic support networks, impunity for crimes committed against foreign nationals, racism, xenophobia and policies linked to the control of mixed migrations flows in Europe, they are highly vulnerable and in need of humanitarian assistance.

PUI’s strategy/position in the country and current programs

Since May 2016 and the beginning of the exploratory mission, PUI still identifies the support to the health system and the improvement of access to health care as some of the major needs for the eastern Libyan population along with its ongoing field intervention. This analysis has been confirmed by the 2020 HNO, which defines the access to critical services (including public healthcare services and Wash facilities) as the second key humanitarian priority need, with the health sector being the one with the highest number of people in need (554,000 individuals). PUI Libya mission has started implementing operations in East of Libya (Benghazi area) in 2017 and developed an emergency health response that provides primary health care services to the most vulnerable population. PUI’s intervention focuses on health care through the deployment of Mobile Health Teams (MHT) delivering direct services to internal displaced populations, the host communities, migrants, refugees and asylum seekers. 

PUI Libya Programming aims at strengthening the resilience of the most vulnerable populations affected by the ongoing conflict in Libya. PUI program targets both Libyan and non-Libyan populations suffered of life-threatening risks from exposure, vulnerability and inability to cope with human rights violations and abuses, conflict and violence, and deprivation of essential services and commodities. Thus, the program is based on a vulnerable approach and is implemented in various settings: 

• Since 2017 in urban settings with mainly the valuable support of DG ECHO as well as CDCS, Mairie de Paris in 2017 – 2018 and for 2020 with the Swiss Cooperation 
• Since 2018 in detention centers through a partnership with the UNHCR. 

While the core of PUI intervention remains the provision of primary health care through direct service delivery (outreach modality), since 2018, PUI has also expanded its sectors of intervention in the lenses to develop an integrated and sustainable approach. As an example, PUI has expanded its direct service delivery to WASH activities with the objective to improve the overall health situation of the most vulnerable (as preventive action): 

• in IDP camps with the distribution of hygiene kits or, 
• in detention centers with the implementation of WASH related activities to ensure that the detention conditions met the minimum international standards. 

On another hand, PUI conducted several rehabilitation projects to allow the reactivation of the public health services. To date, six primary health care centers located in Benghazi Mantika were rehabilitated and provided with medical equipment. The rehabilitation projects also allowed the reactivation of a water pumping station in one of the main conflict-affected area of Benghazi. Moreover, the Food and Drugs Agency of East Libya has been put back into service. Complementing PUI life-saving activities, those projects aim a more long-term impact and will be pursued in 2020 with the additional objective to enhance social cohesion between non-Libyan and Libyan people and improve acceptance between both communities. 

In 2019, PUI has also begun implementing a two-year, EU Delegation funded health intervention focused on strengthening the MoH’s capacity to provide quality healthcare for Non-Communicable Diseases. This project includes the training of MoH staffs, which deliver direct service in pilot healthcare centers. The ultimate objective is to develop a national protocol based on a two-year testing period conducted in five pilot sites throughout the entire country. At last in 2020, PUI will start developing a protection component first in detention center and then in urban settings with present request and reinforce its MHPSS intervention. 

To date, PUI has mobile health teams operating in the entire eastern Libya, two of which targeting vulnerable communities in urban setting and one targeting refugees and asylum seekers in detention centres. In the view to extend its operational coverage to all Eastern Libya, PUI conducted an exploratory mission in the Al Kufrah region (southeast Libya) in order to identify the specific needs of this isolated area and develop an adapted humanitarian response. Since then, PUI started to implement comprehensive health related activities to ensure a continuous access to essential care with the opening of Al Kufrah office in August 2019. To note, due to important bureaucratic restrictions, the humanitarian intervention in Libya is being managed remotely from Tunis.

Job Description

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