Unit Head ARC/PHI

Overview

Lead and coordinate health emergency risk assessment and response efforts.

You have:

• Advanced level university degree in medicine or public health, complemented by specialization in epidemiology
• A minimum of 10 years of professional experience in the management of communicable disease prevention and control applied epidemiology and/or public health
• Demonstrated experience managing human and financial resources
• Expert knowledge of English
• Intermediate knowledge of French
• Strong skills in the area of developing and establishing policies and strategies
• Ability to engage and communicate effectively and diplomatically with external partners

Contract

This is a P-5 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 10 years of experience, depending on education.

Salary

The salary for this job should be between 207,103 USD and 259,547 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 mission of WHO's Health Emergencies Programme (The Programme) is to build the capacity of Member States to manage health emergency risks and, when national capacities are overwhelmed, to lead and coordinate the international health response to contain outbreaks and to provide effective relief and recovery to affected populations.The WHE Response division (WRE) is responsible for rapidly detecting and responding to health emergencies while leveraging relevant national and international partnerships,ensuring that emergency-affected populations in acute and protracted emergencies have access to essential health services and that systems are maintained and strengthened in fragile, conflict and vulnerable settings while implementing at scale, proven prevention strategies for priority pandemic/epidemic-prone diseases.The Department of Alert and Response Coordinationis responsible to provide end-to-end capacity for the detection, management, coordination and monitoring of acute public health emergencies, as well as the generation and dissemination of publichealth information around such events. It identifies potential acute events through early warning activities, provides risk assessment of such events, and delivers on the management, coordination and ongoing monitoring of acute events that require activation of an incident management structure at HQ. These include epidemics and acute humanitarian emergencies.

DESCRIPTION OF DUTIES

Generic duties:--> Provides technical leadership,coordination and managerial support within the Department/Programme, in the Unit of Public Health Intelligence, Risk Assessment and Dissemination ensuring that activities in this area are carried out efficiently and effectively.--> Develops and proposes technical health policies and strategies for implementation through collaboration with Regional and Country Offices and provides advice in developing further the systematic detection, verification and risk assessment of public health events for strengthening and improving technical capacity of target clienteles,including under IHR (2005).--> Oversees a unit of technical teams specialized in various domains within their area of expertise and facilitates the efficient flow of team synergies.--> Manages the programme area in delivering its objectives through efficient managing a small team of technical staff, financial resources and effective work planning to optimize the programme's deliverables in line with the mandate of the Organization.--> Leads and conducts research on best practices in implementing programmes and activities and dissemination of information for capacity building in the respective area of work. --> Manages the monitoring and evaluation and reporting of the subject area of work of key performance indicators and reporting requirements and mechanisms to optimize performance of Programme deliverables.--> Serves as the technical reference among the peer community, UN Agencies and other stakeholders at the technical levels in the respective area of expertise. --> Liaises with and utilizes partnerships in other UN Agencies, Donor, or research institutions in the systematic detection, verification and risk assessment of public health events to position the technical area of work and implementation into Global and/or National policies.--> Represents the programme area of work at various meetings to advocate for systematic detection, verification and risk assessment of public health events.--> Perform all other related duties as assigned.Specific duties:--> Spearheads and coordinates efforts to strengthen all aspects for the systematic detection, verification and risk assessment of events that may constitute a public health emergency of international concern in the global context of public health risks and/or threats based onthe elaboration of all-encompassing strategies and policies; the design and enactment of state-of-the-art set-up epidemiological and information systems; overseeing the formulation of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and their implementation throughout The Programme, WHO HQ, Regional and Country Offices.--> Drives the preparation and delivery of effective capacity building and training for operational epidemiological and information systems, based on the application of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) to institute or adapt operational epidemiological and information systems with focus on field epidemiology as a crucial component of rapid deployment to areas affected by emergencies and outbreaks to provide technical assistance to the host countries, local or national authorities and key partners to use field epidemiology methods, gather and analyze epidemiological information for public health action using state-of-the-art quantitative methods.--> Advocates and Leads the integration of epidemiological analysis of global early warning, monitoring and evaluation capacities based on the identification of innovative approaches, protocols and methods to advance systematic detection, verification and risk assessment of events of potential importance for international public health with focus on critically monitoring and evaluating performance and results of epidemic intelligence activities, and providing expertise and technical support to Regional and Country Offices and Member States toward building and furthering partnerships.--> Promotes a culture of multi-disciplinary and cross-cutting approaches and activities to facilitate and further full participation within and outside ARC, with key partners and stakeholders on all aspects of the successful implementation of epidemiology,monitoring and evaluation, and risk assessment in line with IHR requirements.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

Education

Essential: Advanced level university degree in medicine or public health, complemented by specialization in epidemiology Desirable: PhD in public health or epidemiology and/or specialization in event based surveillance or epidemic intelligence.

Experience

Essential: A minimum of 10 years of professional experience in the management of communicable disease prevention and control applied epidemiology and/or public health, event-based surveillance, complemented by field and/or managerial experience at the national and international levels, including experience in the area of health policies and strategies. Demonstrated experience managing human and financial resources. Demonstrated experience at the international level. Desirable: Experience in project management with focus building, coordinating and organizing epidemic intelligence related activities; knowledge of WHO policies and processes in the field of epidemiological surveillance.

Skills

--> Concrete skills in the planning and coordination of multidisciplinary public health programmes, which may include the implementation of a public health/disease control programmes.--> Strong skills in the area of developing and establishing polices and strategies --> Excellent skills and ability in managing diverse teams and financial resources.--> Good skills in mobilizing resources. --> Ability to engage and communicate effectively and diplomatically with external partners including Ministries of Health, Donor institutions, Civil Society, and other stakeholders. Commitment to collaborate effectively with other key partners in the Health Subject area.

WHO Competencies

Teamwork Respecting and promoting individual and cultural differences Communication Building and promoting partnerships across the organization and beyond Promoting innovation and organizational learning Creating an empowering and motivating environment

Use of Language Skills

Essential: Expert knowledge of English. Desirable: Intermediate knowledge of French. Intermediate knowledge of Other WHO Language.

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 90,664 (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 5553 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.

Potential interview questions