Disease control - Gaza response

The World Health Organization serves as the directing and coordinating authority for public health within the United Nations system. WHO seeks to promote health, ensure everyone can attain the highest level of health, keep the world safe and serve the vulnerable through partnerships, people and countries.

The WHO Egypt Country Office supports the Ministry of Health & Population and other national partners in Egypt to strengthen public health systems, reduce the burden of communicable diseases, enhance surveillance and outbreak response capacity, and integrate preparedness and response for health emergencies. The Office also contributes to the regional humanitarian and health security agenda, including response actions in neighbouring contexts such as Gaza.

The UN Volunteer will support the WHO Egypt Country Office’s communicable diseases control programme, with a special component on the Gaza humanitarian health response. In Egypt, WHO collaborates with national health authorities to sustain and enhance disease surveillance, laboratory capacity, infection prevention and control, and public-health risk communication. At the same time, given the evolving humanitarian and health situation in the Gaza Strip, WHO Egypt Country Office is contributing to cross-border / regional coordination, supporting refugee and displaced populations, facilitating health system surge capacity, and linking with WHO Field Offices or partners in Gaza. The UN volunteer will thus contribute to both national communicable disease work in Egypt, and the regional/Gaza-response dimension, providing an opportunity to gain hands-on experience in public health, outbreak control, humanitarian health and cross-border response dynamics.

Under the direct supervision of the technical lead for Communicable Diseases in the WHO Egypt Country Office, the UN Volunteer will support and assist the team in the following tasks.
The UN Volunteer will contribute to, assist in, and support these tasks as part of a team:


1. Data management, surveillance & reporting
• Support in the collection, cleaning, analysis, and reporting of surveillance data on communicable diseases in Egypt (e.g., HIV, Hepatitis, TB, NTDs, etc ).
• Contribute to the development of dashboards or visualizations of communicable disease trends for WHO Egypt and partners.
• Assist in preparing summaries and situation reports on communicable diseases, including for the regional response to Gaza-related health risks (e.g., cross-border influx, refugee health screening, communicable disease risks linked to displacement in Gaza).
• Support coordination with the WHO Gaza response team (or the relevant field office) by compiling and forwarding relevant data trends, outbreak alerts, and public-health intelligence from Egypt and neighboring areas affecting Gaza.

2. Community outreach, risk communication & public health education
• Support public health campaigns and awareness programmes in local Egyptian communities on disease prevention (hygiene, vaccination, infection prevention & control).
• Assist in designing and distributing communication materials (print, social media, radio) on communicable disease prevention in Egypt and in the context of displaced or refugee populations from Gaza.
• Contribute to risk-communication and community engagement (RCCE) activities linked to the Gaza response: e.g., liaising with NGOs, community groups, and health partners working with populations impacted by the Gaza crisis; supporting awareness-raising for communicable disease prevention among displaced persons or cross-border affected communities.
• Assist in monitoring rumours, misconceptions or health-information gaps in relation to the Gaza humanitarian health context (e.g., displaced individuals arriving in Egypt or cross-border health risks), and feed back findings to the team for communication strategy adaptation.

3. Program implementation support & humanitarian response (Gaza component)
• Support the implementation of communicable-disease control interventions in Egypt and specifically the Gaza response context: e.g., support health care service delivery and linkage to care for populations affected by the Gaza crisis, distribution of supplies (e.g., prevention packages) in refugee/host-community settings linked to Gaza, infection-prevention controls in temporary shelters.
• Participate in field visits or coordination missions (within Egypt or as needed in collaboration with the Gaza response component) to assess needs for communicable disease prevention among displaced populations from Gaza, host communities, or cross-border health initiatives.
• Support the liaison with WHO and health partners to ensure integration of communicable disease prevention and control measures, rapid outbreak detection efforts, and referral linkages for populations from Gaza into Egyptian health services (or via cross-border health support).
• Assist in monitoring the impact of WHO-supported interventions in the Gaza response (e.g., outreach sessions, outbreak investigations) and prepare inputs for review.

4. Capacity building & training assistance
• Support training sessions for local healthcare workers, community health volunteers, and NGO staff in Egypt on communicable-disease control, surveillance, outbreak investigation and response.
• Contribute to training modules or materials specifically adapted for the Gaza humanitarian context (e.g., communicable-disease prevention in refugee settings, camps or shelters, cross-border displaced populations, rapid risk assessment in Gaza-affected settings).
• Assist in organizing workshops/webinars involving Egyptian health authorities, academic institutions and humanitarian partners focused on communicable disease control in Egypt and the Gaza humanitarian health context.

5. Report writing, documentation & knowledge sharing
• Assist in drafting periodic progress reports, briefs, fact-sheets and case-studies on communicable disease control in Egypt and the Gaza response context (for example: outbreak investigation summaries, lessons learned in Gaza-linked health interventions).
• Contribute to documenting best practices, lessons learned and knowledge-products that bridge the Egypt country programme and the Gaza humanitarian health response (e.g., integration of refugee health screening, cross-border coordination of disease control).
• Support internal knowledge-sharing sessions, partner meetings and external dissemination (e.g., WHO website, newsletters) of the Egypt/Gaza response experience.

6. Liaison and coordination with partners
• Support coordination efforts with Egyptian national health authorities (Ministry of Health & Population), governorate health directorates, laboratories, and community organizations for communicable-disease control in Egypt.
• Contribute to establishing and maintaining strong communication links with humanitarian partners, UN agencies, NGOs, and community-based organizations working with displaced persons, refugees and host communities affected by the Gaza response.
• Participate in coordination meetings (Egypt national, or Gaza-response platforms) for communicable disease surveillance, outbreak preparedness and response, and ensure follow-up on action items and information sharing.

7. Any other related tasks as required: The UN Volunteer will undertake any other tasks as agreed with the supervisor that contribute to communicable disease control.