Job Opportunities at World Health Organization

OBJECTIVES OF THE PROGRAMME

• The mission of WHO AFRO’s EPR Cluster is to support member states i) to prepare for and prevent disease outbreaks and health emergencies, ii) to promptly detect, speedily report, and confirm outbreaks and iii) to strengthen and sustain their capacity to promptly respond to and recover from the negative effects of outbreaks and health emergencies. Within the EPR Cluster, the overall mandate of the HIR unit is to provide risk management support, develop public health intelligence and strengthen epidemiological surveillance and information systems, in member states to rapidly mitigate the impact of public health crises. The HIR unit leads the implementation of the “Transforming African Surveillance Systems” (TASS) flagship program which is structured around five key pillars: Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response (IDSR) implementation, data and information management, workforce development, policy dialogue & advocacy and predictable and sustainable financing.

PURPOSE OF THE POSITION

• The mission of WHO’s Health Emergencies Programme is to build the capacity of Member States to manage health emergency risks and, when national capacities are overwhelmed, to lead and coordinate the international health response to contain outbreaks and to provide effective relief and recovery to affected populations.
• The outbreak of different pandemic requires a timely and quality production and sharing of information. The Health Information and Risk Assessment team of the WHO, emergencies, preparedness and response cluster has the mandate to collect, analyze data in the region and propose quality products to the public and to various stakeholders in the WHO African region. There is need to maintain and enhance the GIS data collection and analyses process leading to quality products, as well as to enhance the existing products or build new products.

DESCRIPTION OF DUTIES

Within the framework of the delegated authority, the incumbent is assigned all or part of the following duties which are performed according to needs:

• Contribute to all aspects of the documentation of public health and humanitarian events including surveillance, risk assessments and analyses, monitoring, and information-sharing on potential events that may constitute a public health and humanitarian emergency of international concern;
• Develop and/or maintain a database of historical events reported in the region to ease access, retrieval and analysis of data and information required for evidence-driven risk assessment;
• Support the development and deployment of humanitarian events monitoring tools by contributing to the definition of technical requirements and testing of surveillance, event management and other modules;
• Develop and/or update the standard operating procedures and tools for humanitarian events management;
• Perform analyses to assist in the formulation of briefing documents and materials; situation analyses; and convening multi-disciplinary risk assessments, as appropriate.
• Participate in activities including but not limited to supporting the further development and maintenance of the WHO Event Management system (EMS) and Event Information System (EIS) and other event-based surveillance systems; supporting the development and future implementation of new tools;
• Monitoring and evaluation of performance of surveillance and response activities;
• Develop or contribute to the development of critical humanitarian emergency information products, including but not limited to PHSA, Health Resources and Services Availability Monitoring System (HeRAMS), Flash Appeals, Situation Reports; reports on best practices and lessons learned on the implementation surveillance in the region; and scientific articles.
• Contribute to development of training materials and capacity building in the areas of early detection and response to public health and humanitarian events.
• Partake in emergency epidemiological field missions as required.
• Perform other related responsibilities as assigned, including backstopping for others as required.
   

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

Education

• Essential: University degree in one of the following disciplines: Public Health, Epidemiology, Public Health Informatics, or related disciplines.
• Desirable: In-service training in field epidemiology such as Field Epidemiology (and Laboratory) Training Programmes (FELTP), the European Program for Intervention Epidemiology Training (EPIET), the CDC Epidemic Intelligence Service programme, or equivalent experience.

Experience

• Essential: At least a minimum of five (5) years' experience in humanitarian information management, disease surveillance, prevention, and control.
• Proven experience and knowledge of implementing epidemiological surveillance activities at country level.
• Experience in statistical data analysis, data management.
• Practical experience in the use of statistical software packages (e.g., SPSS, R, STATA, SAS) for epidemiological analysis during emergencies will be an asset.
• Experience using DHIS2 or other data management platforms.

Desirable: 

• Working experience on emergencies in Africa. Experience in conducting disease surveillance, prevention and control in humanitarian settings. Experience of working with WHO or other UN agencies would be an asset.
• Experience in WHO and/or the UN System in the areas of outbreak preparedness and response; field experience in public health programmes or emergency response programmes in developing countries.
• Experience in routine analysis and reporting of time-sensitive public health data. Good understanding of the IDSR strategy and its implementation is an asset.
• Field experience in epidemiology, surveillance and/or control of acute public health events experience in resource limited countries; experience of working with event-based surveillance; good understanding in inter-agency collaboration or in WHO, UN, UN Agencies or other international organizations.
   

Skills:

The following functional knowledge, skills and experience are required:

• Experienced using R and Shiny
• Experienced using business intelligence tools (PowerBI)
• Programming skills (Python, Java Scripts, etc.)
• Experienced using programming skills for geoprocessing automation
• Experienced using ESRI products
• Experienced working in emergency situations
• Good interpersonal skills

WHO Competencies

• Teamwork
• Respecting and promoting individual and cultural differences.
• Communication.
• Promoting innovation and organizational learning
• Building and promoting partnerships across the organization and beyond.
   

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OBJECTIVES OF THE PROGRAMME

• The mission of WHO's Emergency Preparedness and Response (EPR) Programme is to build the capacity of Member States to manage health emergency risks and, when national capacities are overwhelmed, to lead and coordinate the international health response to contain outbreaks and to provide effective relief and recovery to affected populations. Within EPR, and in the context of Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response (IDSR) and the International Health Regulations (IHR), the genomic surveillance programme is supporting countries to build and maintain regional genomic surveillance capacity to include: identifying the cause of outbreaks and epidemics; better understanding of transmission patterns; validating diagnostics; and tracking disease variants.

PURPOSE OF THE POSITION

• The Laboratory Diagnostics Technical Officer supports laboratory activities for pathogens of epidemic potential in Member States of the WHO African region.

DESCRIPTION OF DUTIES

Within the framework of the delegated authority, the incumbent supports planning and implementation of laboratory activities at country and regional levels. As a laboratory scientist, she/he is recruited to timely deliver the following activities in collaboration with the team in the assigned Hub:

• Provide regular technical support to countries on addressing all issues to laboratory testing capacities;
• Guide on decentralization processes using recognized testing strategy;
• Ensure corrective actions based on the findings from External Assessment Programme;
• Promote implementation of biosafety and biosecurity, including the timely shipment of infectious substances;
• Develop the minutes of all the laboratory discussions during the laboratory meetings and teleconferences with country offices, partners/donors on laboratory main achievements, issues/challenges;
• Monitor the progress made on laboratory testing in countries;
• Support laboratory activities: assessment of the implementation of laboratory activities through interaction with country focal points and country incident manager;
• Develop periodic PowerPoint presentations on progress made in the laboratory for pathogen response to share with the IMST, HQ, and other partners;
• Participate in other sub-pillar meetings to contribute to laboratory activities for pathogen response;
• Liaise with Africa CDC on lab issues in the sub-region and develop joint work plans between AFRO and Africa CDC · Liaise with the logistics pillar on the country laboratory needs;
• Participate in IMS meetings for collecting laboratory information and best practices as well as the needs and challenges identified for various diseases in the region;
• Update monthly summary progress report of laboratory activities in the WHO African region;
• Ensure Weekly contribution of the AFRO RD briefs;
• Support on mapping of laboratories involved in molecular testing and sequencing for pathogens by country;
• Contribute to the preparation of webinar training on relevant subjects in the region;
• Contribute to the analysis of the Laboratory Data Dashboard and monitoring of the laboratory performance indicator system.
   

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

Education

• Essential: Master’s degree in laboratory biological sciences, virology, microbiology or other related science-based discipline from an accredited institution.
• Desirable: Postgraduate qualifications in public health, or epidemiology is an added advantage

Experience

• Essential: At least seven years’ experience in laboratory management or planning, Experience in supervising and training in laboratory testing for emerging respiratory disease.
• Desirable:  Experience in WHO and/or the UN System in the areas of outbreak preparedness and response; field experience in public health programmes or emergency response programmes in developing countries.

Skills

• An understanding of the role of the public health laboratory sector in the overall health system (essential);
• An awareness of emergency planning in relation to the health sector (essential);
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills (essential)
• Sound strategic and tactical thinking with ability to formulate clear comprehensive policies, strategies and plans;
• Superior organizational skills with ability to multi-task and produce results under pressure;
• Excellent interpersonal with proven ability to communicate in a clear and effective way, with tact, diplomacy and courtesy;
• Authoritative and comprehensive knowledge of the theory, principles, methods and techniques in international emergency risk management and humanitarian response, with a broad-based understanding of its growing complexity including knowledge of the workings of relevant international policy-setting bodies.

WHO Competencies

• Teamwork
• Respecting and promoting individual and cultural differences
• Communication
• Producing results
• Creating an empowering and motivating environment

Use of Language Skills

• Essential: Expert knowledge of English
• Desirable: Intermediate knowledge of French
• The above language requirements are interchangeable.