Medical Officer (Roster)

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 168,113 USD and 216,746 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.

1. Background and Justification

* Purpose of the Position

As an expert in Maternal Health programming, the incumbent will serve as a Medical Officer in the Maternal Health Unit (MAH) of the Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health and Ageing (MCA) Department. The incumbent will be responsible for developing strategies, approaches and interventions to enhance MNCH programming with particular focus on maternal health, on development of implementation guidance, approaches and tools, and on providing technical assistance to regions, countries and partners engaged in maternal health programmes. The incumbent will support the development of the MCA coordination desk that will align MCA actions across MNCH global initiatives and implementation. The incumbent will support the development of evidence-based integrated service delivery standards and tools for maternal health at all levels of the health service, and support action to achieve universal access to quality care.

2. Job Description

* Objectives of the Programme and of the immediate Strategic Objective

The Department of Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health and Ageing supports a world where by 2030, every woman, newborn, child, adolescent and aging person in every setting realizes their rights to physical and mental health and well-being. This will be achieved by supporting WHO’s General Programme of Work and universal health coverage for all. The department provides support to countries with a focus on high burden countries to ensure evidence-based policies and strategies are in place to achieve universal access to high quality health services for maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health and ageing (MNCAH&A), and increase coverage and quality of effective MNCAH&A interventions among pregnant women, newborns, children, adolescents, young adults and older people, and to create mechanisms to measure the impact of those strategies.

* Organizational context (Describe the individual role of incumbent within the team, focusing on work environment within and outside the organization)

The Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health and Ageing (MCA) Department sits within the Division of Universal Health Coverage-Life Course (UHL). The Universal Health Coverage across the Life course division brings together the building blocks for UHC – ensuring alignment between the systems, the financing and health workforce needed. The work is aimed at strengthening service delivery at the country level for more impact, with a people-centred focus which is built from strong primary health care, and emphasizes key areas around reproductive and sexual health and rights; maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health; and a strong focus on healthy ageing, with the aim to achieve that 1 billion more people benefit from universal health coverage. Within this Division, the specific purpose of the MCA department is to enable countries to strengthen their health systems to address population-specific health needs, reduce risk factors for ill health and address barriers to equity, across the life course and through multisectoral action.

The MCA department is made up of six units:

- Maternal Health unit

- Newborn Health unit

- Child Health and Development unit

- Adolescent and Young Adult Health unit

- Ageing and Health unit

- Epidemiology, Monitoring and Evaluation unit

The units work across four cross-cutting teams:

- Research and Guidelines

- Policies, Standards and Programmes

- Epidemiology, Monitoring and Evaluation

- Life-course trajectories

Within the Maternal Health unit and in support of the Policies, Standards and Programmes team, working under the supervision of the MAH Unit Head and in collaboration with the PSS team lead, he/she will provide expertise in the area of maternal, newborn and child programming, with a specific focus on maternal health and particularly the application of WHO MNH clinical guidance across all global initiatives. The Medical Officer undertakes responsibility in supporting the development and implementation of public health approaches for improving maternal health; in leading maternal health clinical and programmatic guidance; and in development of evidence-based clinical and programmatic tools and guidance in this area. The Medical Officer undertakes responsibility developing, adapting and implementing of cost-effective interventions, and the identification of implementation gaps to support member states in implementing evidence-based strategies and interventions on MNHC with a particular focus on MH. Specifically, he/she advises member states and partners on the technical and practical aspects of promoting public health approaches to enhance maternal health and MNCH integration, and promotes WHO's work in this area through advancing collaboration with relevant academic and research international and national institutions, and partners including Ending Preventable Maternal Mortality (EPMM), Every Newborn Action Plan (ENAP), and AlignMNH.

* Summary of Assigned Duties (Describe what the incumbent has to do to achieve main objectives; include main achievements expected)

1. Support the updating and further development of the MCA’s technical strategic approach, clinical guidance and tools to improve MNCH programming using an integrated approach with particular focus on integration across MNH and global initiatives such as EPMM and ENAP;
2. Coordinate, facilitate and monitor departmental efforts in managing the EPMM implementation, of planned activities including preparation of technical reports;
3. Liaise with other UN Agencies, donors, research and academic institutions and other relevant partners including AlignMNH to advance the MCA agenda and its translation into global, national and/or subnational policies and programmes, including EPMM and ENAP.
4. Develop the MCA coordination desk and strategic information room on MNCH including promoting coordination of MCA’s clinical and programmatic implementation portfolios across the department and the regions, and across global initiatives, starting with five countries;
5. Contribute to generating the evidence for the development of guidance for MNCH progamme management and implementation, with particular focus on MCA’s maternal health Scoping Review, and in collaboration with associated WHO programmes and regions, promote their implementation;
6. Develop MNCH clinical and programmatic guidance and tools to enhance programme implementation at national and subnational levels, with a particular focus on maternal health priorities such as revision of Emergency Obstetric Care (EmOC), development of networks of care concept and implementation guidance, etc;
7. Collate, document and disseminate best practices and experiences in implementation strategies, approaches and interventions; and the sharing of learning across regions and countries;
8. Provide high-level, specialist technical support with a focus on regions and countries to advance MCA’s work in the area of MNCH programming with a particular focus on maternal health;
9. Build capacities and provide technical assistance to the regions and countries in the area of MNCH programming, with particular focus on maternal health, and support implementation of key strategies and interventions aimed at improving MNCH; working in collaboration with other WHO programs, Regional Offices and partners;
10. Advocate and mobilize resources for WHO’s work on MNCH programming with a focus on support to clinical and programmatic guidance implementation and development of normative tools.

11. Performs all other related duties, as assigned.

    Achievements expected include:

• Guidance and tools to support clinical practice, implementation and monitoring of MNH programmes updated or developed.
• MCA coordination desk established and disseminated to support Member States in the development and implementation of integrated MNCH related initiatives programming.
• Capacities built for quality improvement in MNCH services in countries.
• Best practices distilled and sharing of learning across countries facilitated.
• MNCH programming and implementation activities coordinated.

3. Recruitment Profile

Competencies: Generic

Describe the core, management or leadership competencies required - See WHO competency model - list in order of priority, commencing with the most important ones.

1. Teamwork;

2. Respecting and promoting individual and cultural differences;

3. Communication;

4. Building and promoting partnerships across the organization and beyond.

5. Producing Results.

Functional Knowledge and Skills

* Describe the essential knowledge and the skills specific to the position

1. Good knowledge of global health issues with in-depth knowledge of issues related to MNH programme development and implementation, and knowledge in the field of maternal health, including knowledge in maternal health interventions, programme implementation and monitoring.
2. Ability to identify priorities, develop technical guidance and tools in the field of MNH programming, and to build consensus on standards of care, implementation tools, and methods for improvement of quality of care.
3. Proven ability in contributing to coordination and implementation of MNH programmes and initiatives.
4. A good communicator with skills to present information clearly, both orally and in writing and able to make judgments using available evidence with ability to work within and contribute to a team.
5. Ability to identify priority issues to enhance MNCH programming, in particular in the context of low- and middle-income countries and national strategies for maternal and newborn health.
6. Good knowledge of and experience in engaging a diverse group of international, regional and national stakeholders, including professional networks.
7. Proven ability in convening or facilitating events at national and international levels.
8. Skills and experience in developing proposals for resource mobilization, and in writing, editing of reports, technical guidance or advocacy materials.
9. Demonstrated skills in project implementation.

10. Skills in research management.

    Education

Essential: A medical degree (at a Master’s level or equivalent) from a recognized university

Desirable: Advanced university degree in Public Health or related discipline.

Experience

* Essential

1. A minimum of 7 years of progressive responsibility at the national and international levels in the field maternal, newborn and child health, public health, health-care service quality of care improvement, of which at least 4 years' demonstrated professional experience working at the country in low and middle-income countries and/or regional level providing technical support to government partners as well as developing strategies and programmes for MNCH; experience in programme development, implementation and support or managing initiatives, collaborations or relations with national governments and external stakeholders; experience in management of projects, reporting and learning systems, education and training in MNCH programming; s; experience in managing international networks; producing well-written documents, requiring excellent verbal and written communication skills; minimum of 10 peer-reviewed publications.

   Desirable

Experience in working with muti-stakeholders and partners. Experience in management of multi-country initiatives/projects.

4. Use of Language Skills

Languages

English

Read:

Expert knowledge

[Yes]

Required

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Desirable

Write:

Expert knowledge

Speak:

Expert knowledge

French

Read:

Basic knowledge

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Required

[Yes]

Desirable

Write:

Basic knowledge

Speak:

Basic knowledge

Please indicate if language requirements for English and French are interchangeable. [No]

Other WHO language

Read:

Basic knowledge

[]

Required

[Yes]

Desirable

Write:

Basic knowledge

Speak:

Basic knowledge