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Consultant - Implementation of the Regional Framework for Traditional and Complementary Medicine in the Western Pacific Region

Manila

  • Organization: WHO - World Health Organization
  • Location: Manila
  • Grade: Consultancy - International Consultant - Internationally recruited Contractors Agreement
  • Occupational Groups:
    • Medical Practitioners
    • Maritime
  • Closing Date: Closed

Purpose of the Consultancy

This consultancy aims to support the implementation of the Regional Framework for Harnessing Traditional and Complementary Medicine for Achieving Health and Well-being in the Western Pacific.

The Framework proposes four strategic actions:

  • promoting the role of T&CM for health and well-being through national policies;
  • strengthening context-specific mechanisms to ensure the safety, quality and effectiveness of T&CM services;
  • increasing coverage and equitable access to safe and effective T&CM services; and
  • supporting documentation, research and innovation for T&CM services.

The expert will support conducting the activities related to the four strategic actions in the WHO Regional Office for the Western Pacific (WPRO) and the Member States in the Western Pacific Region. Further, the expert will also support other activities related to the traditional medicine programme in WPRO.

Background

Over the past decade, countries in the World Health Organization (WHO) Western Pacific Region have made significant health gains and increased commitments to advance universal health coverage (UHC). Though intensively pursued in recent decades, UHC remains far from becoming a reality. In some countries in the Region, up to 60% of the population does not have access to essential health services. UHC and the health and well-being of societies can only be achieved if the mental, social, emotional and environmental dimensions of illness are addressed and particular attention to holistic and person-centred approaches to health and well-being is given.

The necessity of information system for traditional and complementary medicine (T&CM)

Of particular importance is the potential role of traditional and complementary medicine (T&CM) to contribute to health and well-being. According to the WHO Global Report on Traditional and Complementary Medicine 2019, traditional and complementary medicine (T&CM) is used by at least 80% of the Member States across all WHO regions, with more than 90% of Member States in the Western Pacific region reporting their use of T&CM. However, while countries have made substantial efforts and demonstrated progress in utilizing T&CM to achieve UHC and their vision of health and well-being, many still find difficulties in establishing a unifying framework in public health policies, especially in maximizing the use of both traditional and conventional medicine. Especially, the lack of refined and organized information and data on how T&CM is utilized in individual countries, including for what health issues and health expenditures spent on T&CM services has been a barrier to making informed policy decisions for Member States for appropriate inclusion of T&CM in their existing health systems and to promoting safe use of T&CM in a compatible way with each country’s unique situation.

In response, WHO WPRO developed a new set of indicators under 6 domains which are Quality and safety, Utilization and access, Health workforce, Health information, Health financing, and Governance. The new set of indicators will be evaluated in terms of the feasibility of data acquisition and maturity by being applied to developing country profiles of selected countries as a pilot test. The consultant will support preliminary work before developing country profiles. The responsibility specifically includes developing a questionnaire based on WPRO traditional medicine indicators to collect the data for country profile and prefilling the questionnaire for selected Member States at different development stages of integrating T&CM into national health systems.

Also as another response to facilitate sharing of refined and organized data on how T&CM is utilized in individual countries, the consultant will collect clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) for T&CM services from Member States to support establishing and enhancing the CPG database in the Region.

Planned timelines (subject to confirmation)

Start date: 15 December 2022

End date: 31 May 2023

Work to be performed

Output/s

Output 1: To promote the role of T&CM for health and well-being through national policies

Deliverable 1.1: To develop a questionnaire based on WPRO traditional medicine indicators and to prefill the questionnaire for selected Member States.

Deliverable 1.2: To update the country profiles utilizing the T&CM indicator

Output 2: To support documentation, research and innovation for T&CM services

Deliverable 2.1: To collect clinical practice guidelines for T&CM services from Member States to establish a CPG database in the Region

Output 3: To provide technical support for the implementation of the Regional Framework for Harnessing Traditional and Complementary Medicine for Achieving Health and Well-being in the Western Pacific based on the request from supervisors

Deliverable 3.1: Monthly progress report on activities supported by the expert

Technical Supervision

The selected Consultant will work on the supervision of:

Responsible Officer:

Dr Jae Kyoun Kim, Technical Officer, EMT

Email:

jakim@who.int

Manager:

Dr Geraldine HIll, Coordinator, EMT

Email:

ghill@who.int

Specific requirements

- Qualifications required:

University degree in traditional and complementary medicine or health-related sciences

Desirable Educational Requirements:

Post-graduate degree in public health

- Experience required:

At least 5 years of experience in traditional and complementary medicine-related work, clinical practice, projects and research and/or public health research.

Desirable experience required:

Research on traditional and complementary medicine products/practitioners/services, integration models of traditional and complementary medicine, or health systems-related issues

- Skills / Technical skills and knowledge:

Technical knowledge in traditional and complementary medicine; skills for conducting public health research; skills for systematic literature review; and skills for data analysis

- Language requirements:

Written and spoken fluency in English is essential.

Competencies

  • Technical Expertise
  • Overall Attitude at Work
  • Respecting and Promoting Individual and Cultural Differences
  • Communication

Place of assignment

The place of assignment will be decided upon the arrangement with the consultant. If needed, the consultant will be requested to work in WHO WPRO in Manila, Philippines and travel based on discussion with supervisors.

Medical clearance

The selected Consultant will be expected to provide a medical certificate of fitness for work.

Travel

All travel arrangements will be made by WHO – WHO will not be responsible for tickets purchased by the Consultant without the express, prior authorization of WHO. While on mission under the terms of this consultancy, the Consultant will receive subsistence allowance.

Visas requirements: it is the consultant’s responsibility to fulfil visa requirements and ask for visa support letter(s) if needed.

Additional Information

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.

This vacancy is now closed.
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