Epidemiologist

Contract

This is a UNV National Specialist contract. This kind of contract is known as National UN Volunteer. It is normally only for nationals. More about UNV National Specialist contracts.

Description of task

Under the supervision of the WHO Country Representative or his designated mandated representative (s) and under the overall guidance of the Incident Manager, the UNV Epidemiologist will perform the following tasks;

Work with the COVID-19 response team to perform outbreak investigation of confirmed cases.

Prepare daily regional/district COVID-19 epidemiological situation to support incident management real time decision making.

​Work closely with the regional and district surveillance focal persons to support epidemiological investigations of clusters.

Ensure daily and timely reporting of districts using Open Data Kit (ODK) through daily follow-ups and provision of of feedback to district on quality report.

Support incident commander to process incident information, follow up action points and ensure adequate information sharing between the command centre and the district task force.

Collate and verify data on reported COVID-19 or rumours received from multiple sources, conduct retrospective analysis of reported incidents; determine trends, distribution patterns, and efficiency of the verification mechanism.

Contribute in building the core surveillance, alert and enhance national capacities in accordance with the requirements for International Health Regulation (IHR 2005); provide trainings for subnational incident management team and health facility level staff suited for the areas of responsibility and any particular local, cultural language or other aspects that may pertain to it, support the team in the supervision and on-the-job training at health facility level.

Support the development of early warning systems (including event/community based and indicat​or-based surveillance) for epidemic and pandemic-prone diseases for early detection and response to public health incidents.

Conduct field investigation, provide technical support for vulnerability assessment, risk mapping and development of preparedness/contigency plan at district level.

Maintain a clean line list of all reported COVID-19 cases at National and Subnational level and ​document all steps taken in the verification and response process.

Facilitate the district surveillance regular review meeting including the tracking of the surveillance performance indicators. In cooperation with the team, monitor and evalate the implementation of the planned surveillance activities, as well as alert and response capacities for incident detection, verification and response in compliance with IHR 2005.

Prepare and disseminate outbreak updates and assessments to World Customs Organiztion (WCO) as required using standard tools and templates.​

Perform any other incident-specific related duties as required by the functional supervisor

Educational additional comments

Master's degree or equivalent in epidemiology, health, or public health from an accredited and recognized academic institution is required, or, a Bachelor's degree or equivalent in combination with relevant training and/or professional experience may be accepted in lieu of an advanced university degree.

Experience remark

At least 3 years of professional work experience at the national level in implementation of public health surveillance, outbreak investigation and response.

Previous experience in implementation of Intergrated Disease Surveillance and Response (IDST) is required.

Previous work experience in a developing country context, collaborating with multiple actors in​ public health surveillance is desirable.

Prior humanitarian work experience at the field level, with WHO/UN system, health cluster partners, relevant non-governmental or humanitarian organizations with expertise in disaster and outbreak response is desirable.

Strong overall computer literacy, including proficiency in various MS Office applications and office technology equipment.

Proven ability to multitask across various planning and implementation processes within a highly demanding environment.

Language skills

• English(Mandatory), Level - Fluent

Area of expertise details

Strong overall computer literacy, including proficiency in various MS Office applications and office technology equipment.

Experience in surveillance and development of early warning systems for epidemic and pandemic-prone diseases for early detection.

Competencies values

Accountability, Ethics and Values, Professionalism

Application procedure

• Not yet registered in the UNV Talent Pool? Please first register your profile at https://vmam.unv.org/candidate/signup. Important: After creating your account, complete all sections of your profile and submit it. Then go to ‘My Page’ https://vmam.unv.org/candidate/mypage and click on the ‘Special Calls’ hyperlink. Lastly, select the special call to which you would like to apply. * Already registered in the UNV Talent Pool? Please first update your profile at https://vmam.unv.org/candidate/profile. Then go to ‘My Page’ at https://vmam.unv.org/candidate/mypage and click on the ‘Special Calls’ hyperlink to select the special call to which you would like to apply. Application deadline: 08 August 2021