The pandemic creates an opportunity to bring a more people-centred, bottom-up approach to PHC. Indeed, COVID-19 presents an opportunity to recommit to the PHC approach and leverage new technologies to realize a more community-based, multi-sectoral vision of PHC. The high-level event has the following objectives:

- To call on political leaders from EMR to reaffirm the importance of primary health care in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic and other health-related emergencies.
- To present GAP Accelerators (1) partners support for the vital role of PHC in managing the pandemic and strive to transfer existing knowledge and experience to other countries, governments, and relevant stakeholders.
- To share best practices and success stories of strengthening primary health care to facilitate COVID-19 response (including COVID vaccine roll-out), promote equitable recovery and boost health system resilience.
Primary Health care Measurement and Improvement initiative (PHCMI)

To support MS in fulfilling their commitments of the Astana Declaration and move into action, the EMRO developed the PHCMI initiative, which aimed to support EMR countries in collecting quantitative and qualitative PHC data, identifying gaps and challenges in PHC performance, and developing an improvement plan to guide countries towards strengthening PHC.

Over the last two years, EMRO has worked with 20 out of 22 countries on completing the PHCMI assessment. Of those, 11 countries have completed and developed profiles: Egypt, Morocco, Iran, Pakistan, Jordan, Libya, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, Iraq, and Afghanistan. The remaining 9 countries – Lebanon, Djibouti, OTP, Somalia, Sudan Syria, Tunisia, UAE, and Yemen – are still actively in various phases of the data collection process. Over the coming period, the remaining 9 countries are expected to also complete and endorse their data as well as use collected information to inform future improvement plans.

Review role of PHC in the context of COVID-19

The review purpose is to explore PHC countries’ experiences during the COVID 19 pandemic, addressing how PHC of the future should be shaped to for leading equitable recovery. The review will follow the Astana PHC components (1) primary care; 2) community engagement; and 3) multisectoral collaboration, with the following main objectives:

To review EMR country experiences during the different waves of the pandemic.
To evaluate the impact of the pandemic on PHC services.
To identify the major challenges faced PHC during pandemic.
To estimate pandemic impact on the essential health services delivery.
To document best practices and success stories of strengthening PHC to facilitate COVID-19 response (including COVID vaccine roll-out), promote equitable recovery and boost health system resilience.
Collaborate with WRO Palestine in identification PHC Model of Care

One of the important levers in the Operational Framework on PHC is development of a context specific ‘Model of Care’ that is a conceptualization of how services should be delivered, including the processes of care, organization of providers and management of services, supported by the identification of roles and responsibilities of different platforms and providers along the pathways of care.

The objective of develop PHC oriented “Models of Care” is to promote high quality, people-centred primary care and essential public health functions as the core of integrated health services throughout the course of life, by actions and interventions at three levels.

Planned timelines (subject to confirmation) total of 12 months

Start date: 1 October 2021

End date: 30 September 2022

Work to be performed

To achieve the above objectives, the consultant will be contracted with the following deliverables:

Deliverable 1: Develop a PHC regional position paper
Deliverable 2: Organize two days PHC High-level event
Deliverable 3: Draft a consolidate report on the review of EMR country experiences during the different waves of the pandemic, evaluate the impact of the pandemic on PHC services, and identify the major challenges faced PHC during pandemic.
Deliverable 4: Write/prepare case studies documenting best practices and success stories of strengthening PHC to facilitate COVID-19 response (including COVID vaccine roll-out), promote equitable recovery and boost health system resilience.
Deliverable 5: Draft 3-5 analytical paper on the status of PHC using PHCMI findings.
Deliverable 6: Follow up on any remaining data collection endorsements of PHCMI profiles.
Deliverable 7: Support WRO Palestine in developing “Implementation Guidance for Model of Care to Strengthening PHC for UHC”.

Required Qualifications

Education:

First University degree in public health or relevant topics

Experience****:

At least 3 - years’ experience in public health with experience in service delivery innovations.

Skills/ Technical knowledge

Good experience in health system, stakeholder analysis and service delivery.

Language

Fluent (Read - Write - Speak) in English and Arabic

Location:

The consultant will work in WHO EMRO

Medical clearance : The selected Consultant will be expected to provide a medical certificate of fitness for work.

Travel (If travel is involved, a medical certificate of fitness for work will be required.) All travel arrangements will be made by WHO – WHO will not be responsible for tickets purchased by the Consultant without the express, prior authorization of WHO. While on mission under the terms of this consultancy, the Consultant will receive subsistence allowance. Visas requirements: it is the consultant’s responsibility to fulfil visa requirements and ask for visa support letter(s) if needed.

Additional Information section

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.
Remuneration is in line with WHO consultant established rates
Successful candidates will be included in the roster for consideration for future contractual engagement via a consultancy, as they become available. Inclusion in the roster does not guarantee any future contractual relationship with WHO
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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Interested candidates are strongly encouraged to apply on-line through Stellis. For assessment of your application, please ensure that: (a) Your profile on Stellis is properly completed and updated; (b) All required details regarding your qualifications, education and training are provided; (c) Your experience records are entered with elaboration on tasks performed at the time.