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Public Health Officer

Juba

  • Organization: WHO - World Health Organization
  • Location: Juba
  • Grade: Level not specified - Level not specified
  • Occupational Groups:
    • Public Health and Health Service
    • AF_SSD South Sudan
  • Closing Date: Closed

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES OF THE FUNCTION

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.

In the context of the WHO Health Emergencies System, at the country level, the incumbent will provide technical advice for Health cluster strategic categories and related public health programmes, including\:
i) Strengthening emergency response/resilience and preparedness
activities to reduce mortality, morbidity especially due to the impact of
outbreaks and or public health emergencies.
ii) Advising national and international actors on public health issues related
to emergency response.
iii) Strengthening the health system, enhancing health equity, tackling the
social determinants of health and envisioning the achievement of
universal health coverage.
iv) Underpin the response to the major communicable and non
communicable diseases (NCDs) and their risk factors among affected
population.
v) Advocate the utilization of reliable information, evidence, innovation and
knowledge for improving population health outcomes, throughout the full
cycle of the emergency response.
vi) Liaising with other sectors in providing a public health response in
emergencies and outbreak
vii) Providing technical public health input for strategic planning, project
management and reporting

Reporting to the Health Cluster Coordinator, under the overall guidance of the Head of the WHO Country Office, the Public Health Officer will be accountable for the effective technical management, guidance and provision of expert advice for the application and adaptation of health cluster policies and strategies; to achieve programme goals and expansion of Health cluster-assisted public health interventions. S/he will have responsibility for coordinating Health cluster operations to ensure the timely delivery, effective and efficient implementation of the activities, to achieve the best attainable health status for the populations that the health cluster and its partner serve. The incumbent will work with technical Health cluster programmes in a challenging environment, in which there are multiple players including the national health authorities, other public sector ministries, emergency and development partners, UN Agencies, civil society organizations and academic institutions. The incumbent will oversee quality assurance of health services and programmes delivered by implementing and operational partners to health cluster.

DESCRIPTION OF DUTIES

The incumbent will perform the following duties in support of the health cluster functions\:
  1. Assess threats to human life and health, damage to health infrastructure for primary and secondary care, the state of health referral and support systems, including cold chain, laboratory, essential drugs and health information systems, and the vital needs of the affected populations.
  2. Collaborate with national authorities and health partners to coordinate and implement public health response activities as part of the health cluster’s strategic response; analyse existing coordination mechanisms, designing and recommending improvements.
  3. Provide analysis of the public health risks, needs and capacities and advise on priority interventions for health cluster and partners; challenges and operational course correctors, as applicable.
  4. Analyse social determinants of health and their impact on the health cluster strategic plan including identifying inequities, gaps in the delivery of health services or emergency interventions, recommending appropriate actions and innovative approaches to improve the situation.
  5. Facilitate the implementation of effective, evidence-based policies, public health programmes and interventions through all life cycles, this might include maternal and new born health, health promotion and education, NCDs, the elderly, social determinant of health, violence and injury prevention, gender and health equity and other related areas.
  6. Secure information from a broad range of health sectors, analysing such and consolidating health data in trends and trends assessment, with particular attention to surveillance, monitoring and early warning.
  7. Coordinate meetings with all relevant partners and health cluster team, producing and circulating minutes, related decisions and tracking the later, and developing detailed “lessons learnt” reports, recommending improvement to current and future field operations.
  8. Provide input to communications and information products (Sitreps, health cluster bulletins, outbreak bulletins etc.) as required.
  9. Ensure compliance with IASC principles and the Humanitarian Programme Cycle in delivering health cluster response.
  10. Perform any other related incident-specific duties, as required by the functional supervisor.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

Education

Essential\:
  • University degree in medicine or public health and/or health-related fields from an accredited/recognized institute.
Desirable\:
  • MD or Masters degree in public health. Post graduate studies or specialized training in emergency response or disaster management in the context of public health.
  • Diploma in tropical medicine or diploma in disaster management.
Experience

Essential\:
  • At least five years of relevant experience, at the national level, in public health in emergencies response or health cluster/sector coordination, with emphasis on managing outbreaks and health emergencies and/ or health consequences of emergencies and crises.
  • Experience in capacity building, developing and promoting collaborative partnerships.
Desirable\:
  • Relevant work experience in WHO, other UN agencies, health cluster partners, recognized humanitarian organizations or relevant nongovernmental or humanitarian organizations.
  • Experience in project management, monitoring and evaluation.
  • Experience with resource mobilization in emergency settings.
Use of language skills

Essential\:
  • Excellent knowledge of English. Working knowledge of another WHO official language would be an asset (Arabic).
Specific skills required\:
  • In-depth knowledge of public health programmes with focus on prevention and control of communicable and non-communicable diseases and their major risk factors, health system
  • Demonstrated knowledge and experience of operational management of health aspects/consequences of humanitarian crises and outbreaks in field settings.
  • Demonstrated skills in capacity building, proposal and report writing, knowledge of and experience with needs assessments in emergency settings, strategic information analysis and planning and ability to anticipate new trends in the field of public health and take actions accordingly.
  • Managerial skills for the development, implementation and analysis of technical cooperation programmes and activities, including the development of programmatic indicators.
  • Good working knowledge of Microsoft Office applications.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

·Remuneration – this is a NO-C level assignment with a monthly remuneration of $4,450.

·Only candidates under serious consideration will be contacted.

·A written test may be used as a form of screening.

·If your candidature is retained for 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.

·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.

·Applications from women are particularly encouraged.

·WHO's workforce adheres to the WHO Values Charter and is committed to put the WHO Values into practice - https\://www.who.int/about/who-we-are/our-values

·Holders of Special Service Agreements (SSA) shall perform the work as independent contractors in a personal capacity, and not as a representative of any entity or authority. The execution of the work under an SSA contract does not create an employer/employee relationship between WHO and the SSA holder.

·WHO shall have no responsibility whatsoever for any taxes, duties, social security contributions or other contributions payable by the SSA holder. The SSA holder shall be solely responsible for withholding and paying any taxes, duties, social security contributions and any other contributions which are applicable to the SSA holder in each location/jurisdiction in which the work hereunder is performed, and the SSA holder shall not be entitled to any reimbursement thereof by WHO.

This vacancy is now closed.
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