Health Director North-West Syria
Relief International
Total years of experience :22 years, 2 Months
Served as the Primary Technical resource for Health Services in North-West Syria, tasked with the quality assurance of FAST consortium (Relief International and SAMS lead by World Vision) medical and health services to the Syrian population. Other duties included:
● Strategic direction and overall supervision and successful implementation of the health sector.
● Develop and update work plans and support program team in budget management according to health sector outputs and results.
● Manage teams of expatriate and/or national staff to complete health sector goals on time and on budget.
● Routinely evaluate activity progress, conduct on track/off track assessments and determine necessary actions to course correct.
● Oversee the preparation and submission of technical program reports that are timely and meet institutional and donor requirements.
● Support health assessments, program design, monitoring & evaluation of health programs for consortium members
● Assist Health Teams document best practices and lessons learned in work plans and regular reports
● Represent the FAST Health Team and NW Syria Response in donor meetings, inter-agency working groups and other global/regional forums
Key Achievements
● Development of Annual Work Plan (health sections) for all consortium members
● Remotely monitored & supported disease outbreaks in North Syria
● Supported, coordinated and jointly supervised health programs for FAST
● Presented to Headquarters and Donor (OFDA) multiple presentations on the situation and status response of the region to the crisis in Syria
- Establish an effective information management System to Strengthening Information Coordination of the Afghanistan Ministry of Public Health (MOPH) Command and Control Center (CCC), in line with all goals and strategies of the IMMAP Afghanistan Program, Humanitarian Clusters and applicable donor agencies.
- Develop all relevant Standard Operational Procedures on the different aspect of CCC core function for Afghanistan Context with respect to Global EOC-Net SOPs, assist and/or provide the required capacity building to enable the effective adoption of the IM solution during the performance of the CCC tasks.
- Support all goals and strategies of the iMMAP Afghanistan Program in its work with national partners, international partners and applicable donor agencies. The work benefit iMMAP Afghanistan country programs. Insights gained from working alongside partner agencies should help formulate the future.
- Develop and maintain constant and good contacts with humanitarian partners.
Key Achievements
● Lead the production of the technical component of the Information Management system.
● Drafted the conceptual framework for operations inside CCC
● Finalizing first draft of SOP
● Recruited CCC technical staff
● Created and maintained an effective working relationship with all partners and stakeholders
Key Achievements/consultancies
● The Center for Development services, Meridian Group International & Population Council: Facilitated and delivered the Professional Development program for multiple factory managers on health management in the workplace and occupational health (Cairo/Ismailia/Port Said). February - May 2018
● Supported the business development and strategy formulation for “Kahraba Hospital” (Cairo/Egypt): May 2017 - July 2017
● Volunteered pro bono to speak on multiple “Rotary Act” meetings to discuss the Syrian Crisis and its influence on Egypt and the region.
● “Save the Children” (Dhaka/Bangladesh): June 2016 - September 2016
○ Led the Communication Strategy development for PHC health system strengthening project
○ Supported & supervised the development of the Annual Work plan for 2016-2017.
Served as the primary technical resource to IRC’s Health Unit for Jordan, Syria, Turkey, Iraq and Lebanon tasked with the quality assurance of IRC’s medical and health services to the Syrian populations and Syrian refugees in neighboring countries. Other duties included:
● Support health assessments, program design, fundraising, monitoring & evaluation of health programs
● Support Country Management Teams recruit senior health staff; support professional development of field staff through training and mentoring
● Assist Country Health Teams document best practices and lessons learned in reports, research publications and proposals
● Represent the IRC Health Unit and Syria Regional Response in donor meetings, inter-agency working groups and other global/regional forums
Key Achievements
● Development of Strategy Action Plan (health sections) for all 4 country programs (Syria was included in 3 countries)
● Led the recruitment of Healthcare team members in 3 country programs
● Led the inclusion of Lebanon health programming as part of the Syria Regional Response
● Remotely monitored & supported disease outbreaks in Iraq & North Syria
● Supported, coordinated and jointly supervised business development opportunities through reviewing multiple proposals targeting increased healthcare funding for 3 country programs.
● Presented to Headquarters a full presentation on the situation and status response of the region to the crisis in Syria
Conduct the end of project performance evaluation of multiple USAID projects in Egypt through assessing the extent to which the project performance contributed to the achievement of intended results.
Conduct multiple qualitative research methods to address key performance evaluation questions and to formulate findings, conclusions and deliver recommendations for improving Health systems inside Egypt’s Ministry of Health & Population (MOHP) in multiple areas.
Support USAID, Egypt to determine investment opportunities in the area of health systems strengthening moving forward.
Key Achievements:
o Developed questionnaires and conducted interviews with key informants inside MOHP and USAID.
o Presented to USAID and MOHP the research findings, conclusions and recommendations regarding, performance evaluation of work done.
o Developed the final technical report that included findings, conclusions and recommendations.
Capacity Development Advisor, PHC Project, URC/MSI (USAID Iraq): July 2011 - June 2012
* Acting Director for Health systems Management (5 months) through providing overall leadership for project activities aimed at PHC supportive management systems and community partnership.
* Support Ministry of Health in Iraq to mobilize and manage teams with broad representation from multiple clinical, technical and management staff at various levels through developing quality healthcare standards and operational guidelines.
* Conduct research, data collection and analysis to prepare, present and deliver recommendations for improving PHC delivery inside Iraq's MoH for a total of 360 clinics nationwide.
* Assist in identifying health information technology approaches through designing and adopting an efficient and digitized paper-based patient records system.
* Develop the project's capacity development strategy and training plan and provide overall coordination of project training activities.
* Develop and write SOWs for key project short-term technical assistance as required.
* Key Achievements: o Lead the development of Iraq's management standards and guidelines for PHC services inside clinics, paving the way for development of a strong results oriented PHC supervision system.
o Developed the project competency-based Capacity building strategy for implementing activities nationwide & conducted multiple training activities for local healthcare teams inside MoH.
o Assisted in development of strategy and program for In-service training of PHC employees
o Developed the project leadership and management strategy and assisted in the development of the training program
Senior Healthcare Consultant, IBM (MENA): January 2009 - December 2010
* Conduct research, data collection and analysis to prepare, present and deliver recommendations and solutions in healthcare delivery.
* Act as healthcare advisor facilitating and leading responses to client's business and/or IT needs
* Assist in drafting/preparing proposals and creating business opportunities that combines the fields of healthcare and IT
* Participate in the delivery and implementation of solutions for clients in healthcare.
* Key Achievements: o Development of Egypt's Ministry of Health (MOH) strategy for management of healthcare information through development of MOH Information Technology (IT) Strategy
o Development of the e-health strategy for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's MOH as the team's Healthcare Strategy consultant and Healthcare Business Analyst.
3) USAID, Egypt Healthcare Projects: January 2004 - December 2008
* Family Planning/ Reproductive Health Specialist, TAKAMOL Project, Pathfinder International, Egypt. March 2006 - December 2008
o Scale up existing practices and build capacity to carry out continuous quality improvement at level of Primary health care in 200 facilities nationwide.
o Assist Egypt's Ministry of Health and Population (MOHP) to implement, support, sustain and replicate Project interventions nationwide.
o Key Achievements: • Assisted in development of the integrated standard operating procedures and clinical guidelines for Reproductive Health & Maternal and Child Healthcare
• Develop the project PHC capacity building program and implement activities as well as conducted multiple training activities for local healthcare teams inside MoH.
* Implementation Specialist, "Partners for Health Reform Plus Project" (PHRplus), Abt Associates, Egypt (USAID funded project) . January 2004 - December 2005
o Coordinated key reform activities and built capacity to promote, advocate, enhance and implement a comprehensive family health model inside the Governorate of Suez.
o Assisted in conducting a market analysis of Suez to determine health and socio-demographic characteristics of the target population. Identified sectors that are underserved/ poor and lack proper medical insurance/coverage.
o Communicated to Suez population benefits of enrollment in the reformed PHC clinics through conducting multiple awareness campaigns to different sectors of the community.
o Integrated the family health model emphasizing on: Quality Improvement, marketing health reform in Suez, Drug management, rational use of drugs, facility capacity building and developing strong performance-based incentives to meet national accreditation standards.
o Maintained close communication with different stakeholders, locally or centrally inside the MOHP. Discussed progress and issues of concern regarding implementation of the reform activities.
o Key Achievements: • Assisted in development and implementation of a family Health model for all Suez PHC clinics
• Develop the project PHC capacity building program and conducted multiple training activities for local healthcare teams inside MoH.
World Bank, Egypt Population Project: July 2002 - December 2003
Program Officer, "Egypt Population Project (EPP) "
o Managed, coordinated and monitored institutionalizing and building capacity of reproductive health teams in 80 districts in the 8 Governorates of Upper Egypt.
o Provided Technical support and trained local NGO's working in Population & Reproductive Health activities (areas of support included: Gender, communication for behavioral change, Family health, Family planning and reproductive health)
o Assisted, built capacity and maintained a working relationship with NGOs in fund raising, fiduciary management and community-driven development.
o Shared actively in revitalizing and restructuring the NGO department, within the sector for Population and Family Planning at MOHP.
Member of Technical Support Office, Human Resource Committee team, Health Sector Reform Program, Ministry of Health and Population, Egypt. June 2000 - June 2001.
o Recruited physicians to work in the field of PHC.
o Appointed to collaborate, coordinate and work in close conjunction with Local & International partner universities in building capacity and developing human resources in the field of PHC/Family Medicine.
o Shared actively in the promotion and introduction of "Family Medicine" as a new specialty.
o Coordinated and assisted in the design and production of an automated database for trainees in PHC through collaboration with Partners for Health Reform.
o Represented the MOHP with Project Hope and Pfizer Pharmaceuticals in preparing to run the International medical training center at Abbassia, Cairo.
Assistant Project Director (seconded), "Upgrading Primary Health Care services Project I & II", The Social Fund for Development. May 1999 - June 2001.
o Introduced and implemented Family Medicine as a new Primary Health Care concept in 12 pilot districts in 12 Governorates.
o Attended regularly multi-sectoral meetings with local executive committees inside each governorate to assist in resolving critical Public Health issues within their community, e.g. built consensus in raising a proposal to Ismailia Governor to support in upgrading water pipes running into "East Kantara" district inside Sinai Peninsula, proven to be a source of lead poisoning.
* May 2002: Masters of Public Health, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University (USA)
* May 2002: Certificate in Health Finance & Management, School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University
* November 1999: Diploma in Family Medicine, School of Medicine, Suez-Canal University (EGYPT)
* June 1995: Bachelor of Medicine & Surgery (MBBCh), School of Medicine, Cairo University (EGYPT)