CONSULTANT- Technical Officer, Data Manager

BACKGROUND

The Vaccine Preventable Diseases (VPD) Programme is part of and contributes to the work of the Universal Health Coverage/Communicable and Non-communicable diseases (UHC/UCN) cluster in the WHO African region. The strategic agenda of the cluster is to reduce disease burden in the WHO African Region, by guiding disease control agenda in Africa, and using analytics to inform strategic investments and tailored interventions for disease control.
The specific objectives of the UCN cluster to which the VPD programme contributes, are to: (i) provide leadership on disease control coordination, partnership and resource mobilization; (ii) contribute to the development of WHO disease-control technical products, services and tools including adoption of new technologies and innovations; (iii) support generation and use of strategic information for action and decision making including optimizing investment; and (iv) provide or facilitate provision of technical support in deployment of WHO technical products and services and institutional capacity building, including support to national disease programmes and regulatory authorities.

PURPOSE OF CONSULTANCY

Within the context of the UHC Cluster and Vaccine Preventable Diseases (VPD) Programme, Inter-country Support Team for West Africa (IST WA), the purpose of Data manager, IST WA, is to strengthen the capacity of Member States and support them in routine immunization and VPD surveillance through provision of overall guidance, technical expertise and technical assistance in all aspects data management. S/he also provides feedback on data quality, epidemiological trends, and immunization and surveillance performance from data analysis, triangulation, collation and maintenance in addition to supporting the production of immunization and VPD surveillance related materials, such as graphic visualisation of data, for bulletins, publications, reports, conferences and meetings.

SCOPE OF WORK

The consultant will perform the following duties:

Leadership on disease control coordination, partnerships and resource mobilization through:

• Contributing to the development, update and maintenance of electronic routine immunization and Surveillance databases and support the automation and generation of customized reports including weekly, monthly and quarterly bulletins and annual reports.
• Coordinating data collection and analysis to determine timeliness and completeness of countries data and provide suggestions for any new and/or innovative tools that improve data collection and warehousing activities.
• Facilitating partnerships and networks for immunization data management and analytics in the subregion
• Development of WHO disease control technical products, services, and tools through:
• Collaborating closely with other Data Managers in the UCN Cluster on the development, monitoring, and revision of data management policies, SOPs and practices to improve, maintain and ensure data integrity and a cohesive approach, in line with WHO/AFRO policies.
• Providing technical support in the area of data management, monitoring and evaluation tools for VPDs surveillance and outbreaks preparedness and response by providing feedback, reports and capacity building on data management and programme reviews in the region.

Generation of analytics-driven strategic information for disease control agenda setting and interventions tailoring through:

• Facilitating development and deployment of functional e-platforms including operational manuals, for subnational stratification of communicable and non-communicable diseases, and annual disease control agenda setting and investments guidance (publication of respective country annual disease outlook with district disease profiles);
• Facilitating development of common geo-registers and metadata and harmonization of current multiple data platforms as necessary;
• Facilitating provision of advanced analysis support to UCN Teams in the data processes and as relevant to other clusters in the Regional and Country offices;
• Strengthening the capacities of UCN Teams in the data-to-action processes;
• Assembling global ancillary data (climate biodiversity, genomics, socio economic etc.)
• Supporting disease and health programme teams to implement analysis for subnational tailoring of public health interventions in countries;
• Facilitating development of annual disease outlook reports that implement country deep dives aligned with the African Health Observatories and various WHO global reports;
• Facilitating community surveys, programme reviews.

Technical support and institutional capacity building for disease control support through:

• Facilitating country capacity building for use of analytics to drive diseases control agenda setting and guide investments including use of triangulated data on disease occurrence (incidence and mortality), interventions coverage, health services access, and determinants information for disease stratification and tailoring of national policies and operational responses in member states;
• Facilitating country capacity strengthening for country surveillance systems;
• Facilitating data collection, quality control and management for publication of insightful reports and information;
• Supporting automation and generation of customized reports weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual
• Facilitating capacity building for national data managers aimed at improving data quality including tools including DHIS2, ODK, Arc-GIS, Power BI ensuring proper collection, analysis, recording and feedback.

Qualifications, experience, skills and languages

Qualifications:

Essential:
First university degree in informatics, health statistics or computer science, preferably with a specialization in database development and management.

Desirable:
Additional training in, or a good understanding of, public health data collection and IT practices.

Experience:

Essential:
At least five (5) years’ experience in data management, analysis and management of electronic information, statistics and/or information technology, identification of user requirements, system development and maintenance, ideally related to epidemiological data collection and management and/or knowledge of local public health practices with a minimum of 3 years inclusive at the international level in low and/or middle-income countries.

Desirable:

• Experience or understanding of WHO practices in data, IT and procedures, or other intergovernmental agencies or the UN system and knowledge of national and regional networks. Good understanding of heath related databases.
• Strong knowledge of the principles and practices of communicable disease epidemiology with specific experience in VPD surveillance and data management.

Knowledge and Skills

• Proven experience in providing capacity building on the use of health-related data for decision making
• Proven experience in the management of a regional platform of health-related data, DHIS2 or HIMS;
• Proven experience in using ESRI packages, R, Business Intelligence tools like PowerBI or Tableau Software, SQL Server Reporting (SSR) tools
• Proven skills in using advanced Excel for data management
• Proven experience in working on malaria surveillance in moderate or low transmission settings
• Proven skills and knowledge in automating data ETL (extract, transform, load) using either SQ or any scripting languages including R, Java, VBA or Python;
• Presentation skills and competencies in communication
• Excellent interpersonal skills with ability to solve and explain technical issues and take part in to training activities with tact and diplomacy.
• Ability to write in a clear and concise manner, and to present factual information on database applications.
• Knowledge of WHO/AFRO practices and procedures an advantage.

Computer skills:

• Good level of Computer literacy and ability to analyze and mange electronic information.
• GIS software: Arc-GIS / QGIS
• Database & Statistical analysis software: Epi Info, R, Stata,
• Online tools: Power BI, DHIS2
• Other software: Offices package (MS Access, Excel).

Languages

Essential: Expert knowledge of English or French with intermediate level of the other.

Desirable: Intermediate knowledge of Portuguese.

The above language requirements are interchangeable.

Location & Travel

On-site consultancy: IST West Africa, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. The consultant is expected to travel.

Remuneration

Monthly rate at Band level B (P3 level) - USD 7,000 – 8,480 per month (depending on years of relevant and proven experience).

A living expense is payable to on-site consultants who are internationally recruited.

Duration of consultancy

Three (3) months (from 15 February 2023) with possibility of extension.

Additional Information:

• This vacancy notice may be used to identify candidates for other similar consultancies at the same level.

• 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 and from nationals of non and underrepresented Member States are particularly encouraged.

• 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.

• Consultants 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 a consultant contract does not create an employer/employee relationship between WHO and the Consultant.

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