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Qualifications
Area of expertise
Public Health & Humanitarian Information Management Specialist Consultant
Purpose of consultancy
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 emergencies, preparedness and response cluster has the mandate to collect and analyze COVID-19 data in the region, and to propose quality products to the public and to various stakeholders in the WHO African region. There exist multiple data and information that are segmented and not adequately collected, stored, cleaned and dispatched.
The frequency of humanitarian crises in the region requires the existence of a central place where various information related to events ad operations could be visualize. Beyond situational appraisal, such a tool will also be helpful for decision making and planning of operations related to humanitarian crises
Background
The Health Emergency Information and Risk Assessment Programme Area is responsible for identifying new public health events, assessing risks to public health, conducting epidemiological surveillance and field investigations, monitoring public health interventions, and communicating public health information to technical partners. Working with designated epidemiologists assigned to the area of work, the incumbent conducts, provides technical support in the areas of epidemiological surveillance, detection, verification, risk assessment and information management of public health and humanitarian emergencies. The incumbent will be expected to deliver the following outputs: i) public health situation analyses for acute and protracted humanitarian crisis; ii) updated Event Management System; iii) support the monitoring of health services availability in humanitarian settings; iv) support the development and deployment of data collection and monitoring tools in humanitarian crisis settings, v) development and dissemination of situation reports, including via visualization platforms, and v) scientific articles and reports on best practices and lessons learned on event detection and response. The incumbent may be deployed to emergencies when required.
Deliverables
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.
- Expected deliverables:
- Regular and updated public health and humanitarian information products
- A technical progress report
Qualifications, experience, skills and languages
Educational Qualifications
Essential
University degree in Epidemiology or Public Health, public health informatics or related field.
Desirable
Specialized training in infectious disease epidemiology and outbreak response
Experience
Essential
- At least a minimum of 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 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 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 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.
- 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.
Skills/Knowledge
Computer literacy: Advanced knowledge of statistical software (R, SPSS, STATA, or Epi Info).
Languages and level required
Expert knowledge of English and intermediate knowledge of French. The language requirements are interchangeable
Location
On site in EPR Nairobi Hub
Travel
The consultant will initially travel to Nairobi and during the assignment may make other trips as required.
Remuneration and budget (travel costs are excluded)
Remuneration
Band level B, USD 8,480/month
Living expenses
A living expense is payable to on-site consultants who are internationally recruited: Currency and rate will be communicated in due course.
Expected duration of contract
3 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.
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