Public Health Officer (Flood & Humanitarian Response) - Grade NOC

Contract

This is a No grade contract. More about No grade contracts.

1. Background and Justification

South Sudan has continued to experience protracted humanitarian crises since 2013, orchestrated by cyclic trends of disasters and conflict. The current wave of acute food insecurity, famine, malnutrition, and their related risk of epidemic-prone disease, is driven by climatic shocks (floods and dry spells), insecurity (caused by sub-national and localized violence), population displacements, persistent annual cereal deficits, diseases and pests, economic crisis and hyperinflation. The protracted emergencies currently graded at UN Level 3 have resulted in mass population displacement, worsening food insecurity, malnutrition, and heightened risk of disease outbreaks leaving an estimated 8.9 million people in need of urgent humanitarian assistance (HRP 2022). Access to essential services has been cut off increasing dependency on humanitarian assistance. Available data posits that the country has suffered from a triple shock of sub-national violence, food insecurity, and flooding that began in 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022 depleting local coping mechanisms, and it is projected that the trends will continue into the last quarter of 2022 as evidence by the current floods in most states of south Sudan. It is expected that the floods and insecurity will further decimate people’s livelihoods and social services mechanisms sending more people into displaced camps where the risk of disease outbreaks is higher.

Objectives of the WHO’s Emergency Preparedness and Response Programme.

Since the start of 2022, South Sudan has suffered simultaneous outbreaks of diseases, including cholera, hepatitis E, meningitis, anthrax, and measles in most of the high-risk counties, with COVID-19, and malaria affecting all 80 counties. The mission of WHO’s Health Emergencies Programme is to help countries, and coordinate international action, to prevent, prepare for, detect, rapidly respond to, and recover from outbreaks and emergencies. The ongoing floods, acute food insecurity, and other humanitarian responses in the country are intended to ensure continuity of access to essential health and nutrition services, address the increased health needs, and prevent and respond to disease outbreaks in emergency locations in a fashionable and well-coordinated manner.

The objective of the role:

The incumbent will support the following:

1. Strengthening emergency response and preparedness activities to reduce mortality, morbidity especially due to the impact of flooding, disease outbreaks and other public health emergencies
2. Advising national actors on public health issues related to emergency response
3. Liaising with other sectors in providing a public health response in emergencies and outbreaks
4. Providing technical public health input for strategic planning, project management and reporting
5. Support the strengthening of IDSR support and core functions for effective surveillance and response to cholera alerts, acute watery diarrhea cases, and other IDSR priority diseases
6. Support the development of outbreak preparedness and control plans, including the reactive use of oral cholera vaccines.

Specific responsibilities

The incumbent will be under the direct supervision of the Health Operations and Technical Expertise as the first level supervisor and EP&R Team Lead as the second level supervisor. The incumbent will work closely with the state, county, implementing partners, UN agencies and other INGOs to guide the prioritization and implementation of critical response interventions in emergency locations. This will be a roving role and the public health officer should be ready to be deployed to any location within South Sudan to address emerging health needs. He/ she will perform the following duties:

1. Guide emergency response, planning, coordination, and implementation of the emergency health response activities at the field level
2. Coordinate and lead rapid assessment in collaboration with other sectors and clusters to collect critical information for response planning
3. Coordinate and oversee the provision of essential health and nutrition services in flood-affected and other emergency locations
4. Coordinate and implement outbreak response interventions including reactive and preventive vaccination campaigns for cholera and measles
5. Lead partner coordination and collaboration at the sub-national level to ensure effective utilization and use of partners' and stakeholders' resources.
6. Capacity build and support to the state-based emergency rapid response teams (RRT)
7. Collaborate with national authorities, WHO state focal points and health partners in the field to coordinate and implement public health response activities (rapid response missions and deployments) as part of the health WHO’s strategic response.
8. Conduct prompt investigation of outbreaks of epidemic diseases and make appropriate recommendations for action to the MOH, state health authorities, partners organization and NGOs if there is a public health threat related to an outbreak alert.
9. Identify gaps in the delivery of health services or emergency interventions in the field, participate in rapid health assessments for threats to human life and health, damage to health infrastructure for primary and secondary care, the state of health referral and support systems recommending appropriate actions and innovative approaches to improve the situation.
10. Provide technical support to the MOH and NGO partners to provide emergency life-saving interventions
11. Lead emergency project implementation, monitoring and evaluation, and data collection and donor reporting

12. Undertake any other related responsibilities as assigned by the WR or team leader.

13. Education Qualifications Essential: Bachelor's degree in Medicine from a recognized university

Desirable: Specialized training in infectious disease epidemiology, public health; fellowship or Ph.D. in infectious disease control

3. Experience Essential: At least 5 years of experience in public health practice

Experience in public health surveillance and response including IDSR

Experience in engaging stakeholders and partners

Experience in humanitarian response and leading public health interventions in the field

Desirable: Extensive work with counties, health facilities, states, and partners in the humanitarian context Experience working with WHO, other UN Agencies, Health Cluster partners, recognized humanitarian organizations, or relevant nongovernmental or humanitarian organizations. Competencies

6. Producing results
7. Communication
8. Building and promoting partnerships across the organization and beyond
9. Respecting and promoting individual and cultural differences.
10. Teamwork

11. Functional Competencies and Skills

12. Proficiency with Microsoft Office applications for word processing, PowerPoint and good report writing skills

13. Good interpersonal, oral, and written communication skills with fluency in oral and written English
14. Good negotiation and diplomatic skills and ability to work in multi-cultural settings and culturally sensitive communities.
15. Energetic and able to work and live in insecure and hardship conditions in the field
16. Time management and ability to prioritize multiple tasks
17. Self-motivated person able to work without close supervision
18. Able to work effectively in a diverse team environment

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's workforce adheres to the WHO Values Charter and is committed to put the WHO Values into practice.
• WHO has a smoke-free environment and does not recruit smokers or users of any form of tobacco.
• This is a National Professional Officer position. Therefore, only applications from nationals of the country where the duty station is located will be accepted. Applicants who are not nationals of this country will not be considered.