Contractual Arrangement: External consultant
Contract Duration (Years, Months, Days): 11 months
Job Posting: Dec 22, 2023, 7:04:05 AM
Closing Date: Jan 6, 2024, 10:59:00 PM
Primary Location: Anywhere
Organization: HQ/SAG Strategy and Guidelines
Schedule: Full-time
IMPORTANT NOTICE: Please note that the deadline for receipt of applications indicated above reflects your personal device’s system settings.
Purpose of consultancy
To contribute to WSE’s advancement in the implementation of collaborative surveillance concept across five major workstreams – namely to:
Engage key stakeholders and garner commitment from aligned global actors.
Provide tools to assist national authorities to assess their surveillance capacities.
Mobilize resources by establishing investment cases for surveillance.
Provide technical assistance to strengthen surveillance approaches, capacities, and collaboration.
Share key resources and best practices between stakeholders for mutual benefit. Background
Starting May 2022, the WHO embarked on initiative to strengthening the global architecture for health emergency prevention, preparedness, response and resilience (HEPR). This initiative encompassed the need to strengthen five core national, regional, and global operational HEPR systems. The first of these, collaborative surveillance, was defined to address fragmentated and insufficient surveillance capacities that challenge decision-makers to have a comprehensive situational overview, particularly during emergencies. Building on this momentum, the WHO Health Emergencies Programme launched Phase 2 of the HEPR initiative, with a focus on country and regional adoption and implementation of actional next steps in the domains of governance, financing, and systems strengthening.
To complement these activities and to sustain a necessary specialist focus on surveillance and public health intelligence strengthening, the WHO Division of Health Emergency Intelligence and Surveillance Systems (WSE) is embarking on a series of projects and services to facilitate implementation of collaborative surveillance. This project collective aims to empower national surveillance authorities, partners, investors, and policymakers to fully leverage the collaborative surveillance concept.
Deliverables
The consultant will perform the following tasks:
I. Systematically review and analyze the surveillance landscape and relevant literature to identify criteria for assessing and developing surveillance capacities, selecting appropriate approaches, and enabling cross-programme collaboration.
II. Facilitate the engagement of surveillance leaders, advisors, partners, and other stakeholders to provide expert input.
III. Contribute to the development of guidance to aid national surveillance authorities in self-assessing and enhancing their surveillance capacities. Review the feasibility of developing tools/applications that may enhance these processes.
IV. Collaborate with WHO Regional Offices and partners to co-create an implementation roadmap for collaborative surveillance.
V. Develop case studies and related materials to advocate for and highlight the value of collaborative surveillance.
VI. Undertake duties to aid implementation and progress of collaborative surveillance initiatives.
Qualifications, experience, skills and languages
Educational Qualifications:
Essential:
University degree in data science, public health, epidemiology, or a related discipline.
Experience
Essential:
At least five (5) years of professional experience in epidemiology and public health surveillance.
Desirable:
Experience with UN or other international or multinational organizations.
Experience in conducting public health research (particularly systematic reviews or qualitative evidence syntheses).
Skills/Knowledge:
Strong interpersonal skills and ability to maintain high efficiency in a multicultural environment.
Solid analytical skills with demonstrated ability to rapidly gather and consolidate information from multiple sources.
Excellent writing skills and ability to produce documentation to a high standard.
Ability to effectively collaborate with teams in an international, multicultural, multi-disciplinary environment working under different time-zones.
Highly organized approach to activities; executes thoroughly under time pressure.
Proactive, flexible, resourceful, and able to work independently.
Proficient in the use of MS Office Suite (Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, etc.).
Knowledge of global public health surveillance standards and systems.
Proficient in the use of MS SharePoint, MS Visio, MS Project.
Languages required:
Essential:
Expert knowledge of English.
Desirable:
Basic knowledge of French or another official UN language.
Location
Off site: Home-based.
The consultant must be available during the core working hours of Geneva and Berlin (UTC/GMT +1 hour).
Travel
The consultant is expected to travel.
Remuneration:
Band level B – USD 7,000 – 9,980 per month
Living expenses (A living expense is payable to on-site consultants who are internationally recruited):
N/A
Expected duration of contract:
11 months.
Additional Information
This vacancy notice may be used to identify candidates for other similar consultancies at the same level.
Only candidates under serious consideration will be contacted.
A written test may be used as a form of screening.
If your candidature is retained for interview, you will be required to provide, in advance, a scanned copy of the degree(s)/diploma(s)/certificate(s) required for this position. WHO only considers higher educational qualifications obtained from an institution accredited/recognized in the World Higher Education Database (WHED), a list updated by the International Association of Universities (IAU)/United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The list can be accessed through the link: http://www.whed.net/. Some professional certificates may not appear in the WHED and will require individual review.
For information on WHO's operations please visit: http://www.who.int.
WHO is committed to workforce diversity.
WHO has a smoke-free environment and does not recruit smokers or users of any form of tobacco.
Applications from women and from nationals of non and underrepresented Member States are particularly encouraged.
WHO prides itself on a workforce that adheres to the highest ethical and professional standards and that is committed to put the WHO Values Charter into practice.
WHO has zero tolerance towards sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA), sexual harassment and other types of abusive conduct (i.e., discrimination, abuse of authority and harassment). All members of the WHO workforce have a role to play in promoting a safe and respectful workplace and should report to WHO any actual or suspected cases of SEA, sexual harassment and other types of abusive conduct. To ensure that individuals with a substantiated history of SEA, sexual harassment or other types of abusive conduct are not hired by the Organization, WHO will conduct a background verification of final candidates.
Consultants shall perform the work as independent contractors in a personal capacity, and not as a representative of any entity or authority. The execution of the work under a consultant contract does not create an employer/employee relationship between WHO and the Consultant.
WHO shall have no responsibility whatsoever for any taxes, duties, social security contributions or other contributions payable by the Consultant. The Consultant shall be solely responsible for withholding and paying any taxes, duties, social security contributions and any other contributions which are applicable to the Consultant in each location/jurisdiction in which the work hereunder is performed, and the Consultant shall not be entitled to any reimbursement thereof by WHO.
Consultants working in Switzerland must register with the applicable Swiss cantonal tax authorities and social security authorities, within the prescribed timeframes (Guidelines issued by the Swiss Mission are available at: https://www.eda.admin.ch/missions/mission-onu-geneve/en/home/manual-regime-privileges-and-immunities/introduction/Manuel-personnes-sans-privileges-et-immunites-carte-H/Non fonctionnaires et stagiaires.html
