Technical Officer – Early Warning and Response (EWR)

OBJECTIVES OF THE PROGRAMME\:.

The mission of WHO’s Health Emergencies Programme (WHE) is to help countries, and to coordinate international action, to prevent, prepare for, detect, rapidly respond to, and recover from outbreaks and emergencies. Within WHE, the Health Security programme, contributes to strengthening Turkey’s health security through integrated preparedness and response to epidemic threats of all origins in line with international standards, as well as improving capacities for threat detection, outbreak identification, management, communication including communicable disease case diagnosis, reporting and epidemic intelligence in line with the needs of Early Warning and Response System (EWRS).

 DESCRIPTION OF DUTIES

Under the direct supervision of the Operations Coordinator and the guidance of the WHO Representative/Head of Country Office (WR) in Turkey, the incumbent will advise and support the national authorities in the development of institutional arrangements and related laws, regulations, procedures and strategies, to detect and respond to public health threats including communicable diseases, with special focus on the early warning and response (EWR) systems; at the central and provincial levels in Turkey, within the framework of the Health Security Project and in alignment with the CFCU direct grant agreement.

The incumbent will perform the following duties\:

•  In collaboration with the national authorities, plan, coordinate, conduct, evaluate and report on all EWRS activities, within the framework of the Health Security project and in accordance with the Description of Action (DOA).

• Advise and support the national authorities in reviewing the list of priority diseases, conditions and syndromes covered by the EWRS and the standard case definitions for cased based and indicator based surveillance.    

• Co-develop with the national authorities an integrated public health emergency preparedness plan, generic guideline and guidelines for priority diseases, conditions and syndromes.

• Conduct, with the national authorities, real-time analysis of outbreak intelligence data, for epidemic forecasting and detection, guide national authorities on data quality improvement, use of data for monitoring of trends, ALERT and ACTION thresholds (triggers), as well as methodologies for performing data quality audit (DQA).

• Liaise with the national authorities the development, implementation and evaluation of country strategies and workplans pertaining to strengthening the International Health Regulations programme and IHR core capacities.

• Guide the national authorities in establishing mechanisms for feedback and dissemination of public health information. Ensure that risk communication messages are technically sound and socio-culturally appropriate.

• Advocate the national participation/membership in international networks, both laboratory and epidemiological, focusing on EWRS, surveillance and control of specific diseases.

• Contribute in building the national capacities in threat detection, outbreak identification, management, reporting and epidemic intelligence in line with the needs of a sustainable Early Warning and Response System (EWRS).

• Maintain regular contacts with the WHO Country Office in Turkey and WHO Regional for Europe to ensure that the Project Implementation is consistent with administrative and financial organizational rules, regulations, reporting requirements and Regional strategies.

• Perform other duties as required by the WHO Representative/Head of Country Office and/or WHO Operations Coordinator for the successful implementation of the Project.              

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

1. Teamwork.

2. Respecting and prompting individual and cultural differences

3. Communication

4. Building and promoting partnerships across the organization and beyond

5. Producing results.

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.

- For information on WHO's operations please visit\: http\://www.who.int.

- WHO is committed to workforce diversity.

- 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.