GIS Specialist (Geographical Information System)

Contract

This is a P-4 contract. This kind of contract is known as Professional and Director staff. It is normally internationally recruited only. It's a staff contract. It usually requires 7 years of experience, depending on education.

Salary

The salary for this job should be between 141,549 USD and 182,499 USD.

Please keep in mind that the salary displayed here is an estimation by UN Talent based on the location and the type of contract. It may vary depending on the organization. The recruiter should be able to inform you about the exact salary range. In case the job description contains another salary information, please refer to this one.

OBJECTIVES OF THE PROGRAMME

The Precision Public Health Metrics (PPHM) Unit is part of and contributes to the work of the Universal health coverage/Communicable and non-communicable diseases (UHC/UCN) cluster in the WHO African region. The strategic agenda of the cluster is to reduce disease burden in the WHO African Region, by guiding disease control agenda in Africa,and using analytics to inform strategic investments and tailored interventions for disease control, thus contributing through its country support investments to disease control outcomes at country-level: improved disease programme governance; improved interventions coverage; and improved services quality. Investments towards these outcomes are guided by comprehensive whole of society, people-centred, integrated approaches to disease control. The comprehensive whole of society approach entail investments around: (a) coherent implementation of triple response - technical response: implementing diseases specific normative guidance, promoting intervention mixes and deploying medical commodities; health systems response: building capacities of district service delivery systems in disease mapping and stratification, interventions tailoring, and sector/subsector planning; and multi-sectoral response: addressing socio-economic and environmental determinants of diseases through mobilizing non-healthsectors, communities and stakeholders; (b) disease control partnership of public and private sectors, health and non-healthsectors; and (c) community involvement intargeted high risk communities, focused on managing determinants of diseases, health services demand creation and accountability by local health stewards. The people centred, integrated approaches to disease control involves investments around: (a) integrated guidance on disease control for each health service delivery platform, a move away from stand-alone disease specific guidance; and (b) integrated and efficient diseasecontrol investments in strengthening the capacity of appropriate health services delivery platforms through deployment of appropriate technologies and analytics to guide stratification of disease risks across population groups in order to develop and deploy comprehensive packages of interventions appropriate for each population group and health service delivery platform, aswell as monitor population access, coverage and impact to leave no one behind. In addition to country support roles, UCN including PPHM office provides regional strategic leadership towards enhanced disease control investment efficiency, equity and impact with focus on the following objectives: (i) leadership in coordination, partnerships and resource mobilization for disease control; (ii)generation of analytics-driven strategic information to set disease control agendas and guide investments; (iii) development of WHO disease control technical products, services, and tools; and (iv) facilitation of technical support and institutional capacity building including support to national disease programmes and regulatory authorities.

DESCRIPTION OF DUTIES

The incumbent is expected to perform the following tasks:SOPs and Precision Public Health StrategyCoordinate the development of standard operating procedures and tools for assessing the UCN cluster data and information management systems and produce regular reports/updatesCoordinate the development, implementation and monitoring of the regional strategy for precision public healthLead the development of policies and proposals related to precision public health effective implementation at regional and national levelsPlatforms and technical productsContribute to the development and deployment of a digital platform for sub-national stratification of COVID-19 vaccination coverage and disease occurrence aimed at analytics-informed identification of underserved and/or high risk areas or population groups for targeted interventionsContribute to the standardization of geo-registries,metadata, data elements and indicators, visualizations, with a downstream aim of developing a common data platform across disease and health programmesContribute to development of a project plan to strengthen the use of routine health data and applied spatial-statistical data science to address UCN data analytics need including defining and/or prioritizing at sub-national level, “disease(s) affected areas, communities or populations”, “left behind areas, communities or population”, and/or “high risk areas, communities or populations” for prioritized targeting with appropriate mix of (tailored) disease control interventions Lead the development of precision public health training materials building and support capacity building in the region. Support the development of relevant advocacy documents for PPH and information use in support disease control agenda in the WHO African region.Lead the development and publications of scientific articles Support the documentation of best practices in the adoption and use of the PPH in the region Coordinate the conceptualization, design, and implementation of data/demand-driven solutions in support of UCN programmes performance management and adaptation.Data management and useCoordinate the development of guides, tools and procedures for collecting, collating, cleaning and managing geographic and other data on communicable and non communicable diseasesSupport the preparation and maintenance of a geodatabase of communicable and non-communicable diseases in the region.Provide geospatial services and data analysis to UCN Cluster in support of program management, analysis, planning, and advocacy.Support the acquisition, production, and provision of geospatial data, cartography, and development of other visualization products.Document approaches and statistical procedures for generating diseases outlook reports at national and sub-national levels leading to the production of country-levelprofilesTo summarize data, produce visualizations and reports as required for disease outlooks, reports, policy briefings, and scientific publications.Advocate and provide support to countries for the use of multi-indicator local data toinform subnational tailoring of interventions, effective implementation and evaluation of impact; Contributeto the organization of a training on the use of health data GIS analysis for data managers in UCN Cluster; contribute to country capacity building for use of analytics to drive diseases control agenda setting and to guide investments including use of triangulated data on disease occurrence (incidence and mortality), interventions coverage, health services access, and determinants information for disease stratification and tailoring of national policies and operational responses in member states.Contribute to the UCN data analysis plan through documenting spatial data analysis workflowPartnershipPromote partnerships with networks of GIS and information management experts in the region including subject matter experts, GIS, Data science, information management experts, and technical institutions and networks working on GIS, big data and information managementRepresent the Cluster at national, regional and global meetings on data, information and GIS related matters. Perform of any other duties as assigned by the supervisor.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

Education

Essential: Minimum Masters degree in GIS, Geoscience, public health informatics, epidemiology or related field. Desirable: PhD in Geoscience, Data science, epidemiology, geography, bioinformatics or related fieldStrong analytical background and capacity to conduct geospatial analysisDemonstrated expertise in scientific writing evidenced by several publicationsKnowledge of communicable and/or non-communicable diseases

Experience

Essential: At least seven years of experience in GIS, such as GIS system integration, geographic/terrain analysis, remote sensing, mapping, GPS, geo-spatial related information technology, epidemiology.Proven experience in GIS training for capacity development and on-job training, and project management and evaluation of existing GIS projectsWriting skills evidenced by scientific publications and reports on GIS and related field. Desirable: Practical experience of the GIS software such as ArcGIS: ArcInfo, ArcView; Knowledge ofgeo-database, software program languages and web technology.Working experience with WHO will be an asset.

Skills

Strong knowledgeof the principles and practices of communicable disease epidemiology with specific experience in VPD surveillance and data management; Proven experience in providing capacity building on the use of health-related data for decision makingProven experience in the management of a regional platform of health-related data, DHIS2 or HIMS;Proven experience in using ESRI packages, R, Business Intelligence tools like PowerBIor Tableau Software, SQL Server Reporting (SSR) toolsProven skills in using advanced Excel for data managementProven experience in working on malaria surveillance in moderate or low transmission settings Proven skills and knowledge in automating data ETL (extract, transform, load) using either SQ or any scripting languages including R, Java, VBA or Python; Presentation skills and competencies in communicationExcellent interpersonal skills with ability to solve and explain technical issues, and take part in to training activities with tact and diplomacy. Ability to write in a clear and concise manner, and to present factual information on data base applications; Knowledge of WHO/AFRO practices and procedures is an advantage.

WHO Competencies

Teamwork Respecting and promoting individual and cultural differences Communication Producing results Creating an empowering and motivating environment

Use of Language Skills

Essential: Expert knowledge of English. Intermediate knowledge of French. Desirable: Intermediate knowledge of Portuguese. The above language requirements are interchangeable.

REMUNERATION

WHO salaries for staff in the Professional category are calculated in US dollars. The remuneration for the above position comprises an annual base salary starting at USD 75,602 (subject to mandatory deductions for pension contributions and health insurance, as applicable), a variable post adjustment, which reflects the cost of living in a particular duty station, and currently amounts to USD 3440 per month for the duty station indicated above. Other benefits include 30 days of annual leave, allowances for dependent family members, home leave, and an education grant for dependent children.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

• This vacancy notice may be used to fill other similar positions at the same grade level

• Only candidates under serious consideration will be contacted.

• A written test may be used as a form of screening.

• In the event that your candidature is retained for an 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.

• Any appointment/extension of appointment is subject to WHO Staff Regulations, Staff Rules and Manual.

• Staff members in other duty stations are encouraged to apply.

• For information on WHO's operations please visit: http://www.who.int.

• WHO is committed to workforce diversity.

• 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.

• WHO has a smoke-free environment and does not recruit smokers or users of any form of tobacco.

• WHO has a mobility policy which can be found at the following link: http://www.who.int/employment/en/. Candidates appointed to an international post with WHO are subject to mobility and may be assigned to any activity or duty station of the Organization throughout the world.

• Applications from women and from nationals of non and underrepresented Member States are particularly encouraged.