Technical Officer (AMR)

**Parental leave cover – 6 months**

OBJECTIVES OF THE PROGRAMME

The Division of Health Security (HSE) supports countries to prevent, prepare, respond to, and recover from multi-hazard health emergencies, including through surveillance, IHR core capacities strengthening, epidemic and pandemic preparedness, immunization programme support and AMR accountability. It also supports the development and implementation of national and regional health security strategies and plans, engaging with Member States and partners on One Health coordination, communicable disease prevention and control, community resilience building and emergency response operations.
The Pandemic Threats, Communicable Diseases, and AMR Unit (PCT) is mandated to lead regional efforts and provide support to Member States in the prevention and control of pathogens of pandemic and epidemic potential and priority communicable diseases. These include, but are not limited to, respiratory viruses (such as Influenza, SARS-CoV-2, and RSV), tuberculosis, emerging, zoonotic and vector-borne pathogens, tuberculosis, HIV, viral hepatitis, and sexually transmitted infections, and viral hepatitis. PCT also addresses cross-cutting priorities such as antimicrobial resistance (AMR) accountability, Infection Control and Prevention (IPC) and the One Health approach.
PCT is responsible for maintaining and enhancing collaborative surveillance systems and approaches—including cross-sectoral epidemiologic, microbiologic, and serologic surveillance— to detect events, monitor trends and patterns in priority infections.  PCT supports evidence generation through operational research and enhanced surveillance and monitoring to better understand disease burden, risk factors, clinical outcomes and effectiveness of control and prevention measures of priority infections in order to inform risk assessments and support prevention, control, and management strategies, policies and interventions across the region. PCT is responsible for supporting member states preparedness against a range of epidemic threats, coordinating regional laboratory networks for TB and other diseases and monitoring progress of countries towards implementing control plans for AMR and other pathogens using a range of tools.
PCT provides rapid and specialized technical expertise to support national, regional and global responses to emerging and re-emerging infectious disease threats and contributes to strengthening pandemic preparedness capacities in Member States as well as provides technical leadership across WHO EURO.
 

DESCRIPTION OF DUTIES

The incumbent supports the AMR Accountability Commission and oversees data collection and report development for the Accountability Index. In addition, s/he provides support to Member States related to the activities of the AMR programme, including the development and implementation of national AMR action plans, development of antibiotic stewardship programmes and educational materials, evidence-based policy briefs; and organizes technical workshops and stakeholder meetings and awareness and behaviour-change campaigns in close collaboration with other relevant programmes within the Regional Office and WHO headquarters.
Key duties:
Under the supervision of the Programme Manager (PCT) and in collaboration with all relevant technical staff working on disease control programmes experiencing the emergence of drug resistance, the incumbent will perform the following functions:
1) Provide support to Member States on the development and implementation of national AMR action plans through the provision of policy options, gathering and sharing state-of-the-art knowledge on successful interventions, assisting in the assessment of capacities and capacity building needs, and facilitating expert support;
2) Serves as the Accountability Index focal point and guardian - delivering Secretariat duties for the AMR Accountability Commission, supporting the Commission produce annual reports and publish/disseminate – including reporting to the WHO governing bodies.
3) Provide input to the development of WHO policy documents and briefs on evidence-based interventions for AMR and to scientific publications related to the topic, e.g. epidemiological studies.
4) Funds permitting, with and through partners, collaborating centres and institutions:
a) Develop and support interventions and educational materials targeted at medical and other health care professionals for key AMR-related areas such as antibiotic stewardship and infection prevention and control, incl. further development of the Massive Open Online Courses on antibiotic stewardship.
b) Support integrated activities to improve infection prevention and control practices, health professional practices and behaviors, and antimicrobial stewardship programme implementation with the aim to transform key national institutions into national Centers of Excellence;
c) Support the regional work on bacteriophage therapy; supports partners and WHO HQ on building an evidence-base. 
d) Develop, review and deliver training and information materials relevant for different target audiences and appropriate for the regional context, including organization of expert workshops and stakeholder meetings on intersectoral coordination and national action plan development and implementation, support to global training toolkits developed by headquarters.
e) Support the efforts of the AMR programme to strengthen national AMR surveillance systems and their inclusion in regional and global networks by assisting in the development of technical documents and surveillance reports, organization of national and multi-country surveillance workshops, providing technical and practical support to proof-of-principle projects. 
f) Provide support to development and implementation of behaviour change campaigns through the Tailoring Antimicrobial Programmes pilot projects in selected countries (i.e. assist with planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the projects, support the arrangement of the related meetings and workshops), contributing to the cross programmatic work on Tailoring Health Programmes, and provide support to the planning of national and regional campaigns for the annual World Antibiotic Awareness Week.
g) Support the initiation of the monitoring of the healthcare-associated infections in selected countries, in collaboration with the infection prevention and control units at the Regional Office and headquarters.
5) Participate to and represent the Regional Office in, technical international for a related to antimicrobial resistance.
6) Perform other duties as required by the supervisor.
 

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

Education

Essential: University degree (Bachelor's level) in medicine, public health, infectious disease epidemiology or related fields.
Desirable: Master's degree in one of the above-mentioned fields. Professional training relevant to AMR (e.g. disease surveillance, pharmaco-epidemiology).
 

Experience

Essential: At least five years of experience at the national and international level in infectious disease prevention, surveillance and control. Demonstrated work experience in the field of antimicrobial resistance stewardship or epidemiology. Demonstrated experience in intersectoral collaboration or working with relevant agencies and partners in the area of antimicrobial resistance surveillance or related fields.
Desirable: Relevant work experience in WHO at regional or country level, or in any other UN agencies in the area of health.

Skills

1. Demonstrated knowledge of the work of WHO/UN system or NGOs in the field of AMR
2. Demonstrated knowledge of health system frameworks in low-and middle-income countries
3. Proven skills in designing, teaching and implementing training programmes
 

WHO Competencies

Teamwork
Respecting and promoting individual and cultural differences
Communication
Producing results
Building and promoting partnerships across the organization and beyond
 

Use of Language Skills

Essential: Expert knowledge of English.
Desirable: Intermediate knowledge of Russian.

 

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 71,335 (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 4435 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 and/or an asynchronous video assessment may be used as a form of screening.

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