Public Health and Humanitarian Information Officer
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.
Key Responsibilities
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.
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.
Use of Language Skills
Essential: Expert knowledge of French
Desirable: Intermediate knowledge of English
The above language requirements are interchangeable.
REMUNERATION
WHO offers staff in the Professional Category an
attractive remuneration package, which for the above position includes an
annual net base salary starting at 64,121 US Dollars (subject to mandatory
deductions for pension contributions and health insurance, as
applicable). Other benefits include 30 days of annual leave, allowances
for dependent family members, home leave, and an education grant for dependent
children.
How to Apply
