Spain: Community of Practice Facilitator (Temporary post)

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 five operational directorates supported by MSF’s 21 sections, 24 associations and other offices together worldwide. 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, Athens and decentralised 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

MSF OCBA has obtained approval and funding from the MSF international movement to carry out a Transformational Investment Capacity (TIC) program called TEMBO: "Your personal learning and development environment".

This program aims to provide MSF field workers with a personal learning and development environment (PLDE), a learning system based on a software platform that will help MSF employees take control and manage their own learning and, therefore, their own development. Tailored to individual needs and learning competencies, this personally managed space will enable real-time access to a wide range of learning and development solutions on an important but not exclusive basis of online solutions.

The development of this program is planned over three years and will require a specialized team of between 10 and 15 staff with diverse competences in the fields of pedagogy, education, technology, human resources, medicine and humanitarian operations.

CONTEXT AND GENERAL OBJECTIVE OF THE POST

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 staffs 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 CoP Manager / User Experience Lead.

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 / User Experience Lead and the Tembo Knowledge and Content Project Manager.

Main Responsibilities:

§ Collaborate in the design and implementation of pilot communities of practice within MSF OCBA that meet the different learning needs and users within the Operations, Medical and Logistic departments with a primary focus on field staff currently working in MSF projects.

§ Promote broad participation in MSF communities of practice by encouraging diverse contributions and sufficient number of perspectives to support the development of new insights on issues or problems of importance within the community.

§ Ensure equity 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.

§ 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 by following through on actions and agreements.

§ In collaboration with the CoP Manager, Content Experts in the Operations, Medical and Logistic departments and the 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:

1. Animator of CoP (not content expert)

2. In collaboration with content experts and learning referents, identify “core” issues to be addressed within the CoP and develop appropriate activities / discussions linked with these issues.

3. Stimulate the formation of a central group of active participants.

4. Plan and facilitate CoP activities (convening, drafting minutes, and identifying explicit knowledge in results).

5. Report community of practice activities (through metrics and evaluations).

6. Connect informally with members of CoP, crossing organizational boundaries (missions, departments, etc.).

7. Manage the boundary between the CoP and the formal organization (departments, teams) to avoid friction.

8. Collect technical questions/feedback to be shared with content experts and to request their input to CoP.

9. Help build explicit practice, including background knowledge, lessons learned and best practices.

10. Ensure that the CoP initiative does not lose momentum and remains active for participants.

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

· Analytical Thinking

· Strategic Vision

· Results and Quality Orientation

· Service Orientation

· Initiative and Innovation

· Teamwork and Cooperation

Others

· Flexibility to travel and work outside normal business hours

CONDITIONS

· Temporary post based in Barcelona, in MSF headquarters offices.

· Full-time job

· Length of assignment: 12 months

· Annually gross salary: 26,915.32 € (divided in 12 monthly payments) + secondary benefits based on MSF OCBA Reward Policy.

· Starting immediately

· To apply, all applicants should please send their CV and cover motivation letter under the reference “**Community of Practice Facilitator**” to recruitment-bcn@barcelona.msf.org

· Please submit your CV and cover letter in ONE file and name the file with your LAST NAME

· Closing date: March 4^th 2019

· Replies will only be sent to short-listed candidates.

· 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 recognised disability and with an interest in the humanitarian area to apply for the above mentioned position.