Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) Surveillance Specialist

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• FAO is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality, background and culture.
• Qualified female applicants, qualified nationals of non-and under-represented Members and person with disabilities are encouraged to apply;
• Everyone who works for FAO is required to adhere to the highest standards of integrity and professional conduct, and to uphold FAO's values
• FAO, as a Specialized Agency of the United Nations, has a zero-tolerance policy for conduct that is incompatible with its status, objectives and mandate, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination　　
• All selected candidates will undergo rigorous reference and background checks
• All applications will be treated with the strictest confidentiality

Organizational Setting

FAO plays an essential role in supporting governments, producers, traders and other stakeholder groups to use antimicrobials responsibly to keep antimicrobials working and to protect food and agriculture sectors from the harms of antimicrobial resistance (AMR).

Currently, AMR activities in FAO are carried out under the umbrella of the FAO Action Plan on AMR 2021-2025 that sets out the five objectives to guide the programming of FAO activities. The five key objectives to help focus efforts and accelerate progress are: 1. Increasing stakeholder awareness and engagement; 2. Strengthening surveillance and research; 3. Enabling good practices; 4. Promoting responsible use of antimicrobials; 5. Strengthening governance and allocating resources sustainably.

Adopted by 164 session of FAO council meeting, FAO established the Joint FAO/WHO Centre (CODEX Food Standards, Zoonotic
Diseases, and AMR). The center coordinates and reinforce the FAO work on AMR across divisions and sectors and foster collaborations with external partners to support global efforts to effectively address the threats of zoonotic diseases and AMR at global, regional and country levels.

Reporting Lines

The AMR surveillance Specialist reports to the Senior Animal Health Officer (FAO AMR Focal point) and the Animal Health Officer (AMR surveillance lead), under the overall policy, technical guidance and operational supervision of the Chief of Joint Center for Zoonoses and AMR (CJWZ)/ FAO Chief Veterinary Officer (CVO), and the IT supervision of the Digital Solutions Officer in the Digitalization and Information Division (CSI) who will provide final sign-off on IT activities to ensure the warranty and utility of work as per defined standards.

Technical Focus

FAO is currently developing the International FAO AMR Monitoring (InFARM) IT platform and system with two objectives: i) to support countries in collecting, analyzing, and using their AMR data from animals and food for AMR surveillance at national level; ii) to facilitate countries to publicly share AMR data from food and agriculture sectors for global surveillance as a public good for international advocacy and action to tackle AMR. The InFARM IT platform will also host all relevant contextual information on AMR and AMU surveillance programmes and linked activities (e.g. national surveillance plans, reports of the application of FAO assessment tools) and will be used as a system providing access to capacity building tools and resources for the generation of harmonized AMR data and the dissemination of surveillance information.
An essential component of the InFARM system will be to integrate information on country capacities to generate and share AMR data. Since 2016, FAO has been deploying the FAO Assessment Tool for Laboratories and AMR Surveillance Systems (FAO-ATLASS) helping countries in mapping capabilities and prioritizing needs to improve national AMR surveillance systems in the food and agriculture sectors. In order to expand and facilitate the implementation of the FAO-ATLASS tool at a global level, FAO needs to develop an IT solution composed of a web and mobile based application. This FAO-ATLASS IT solution will facilitate the deployment of the tool, and the processing of the data generated from the different questionnaires into a database for information management, follow-up and production of automatic reports. FAO-ATLASS assessments provide a mechanism to identify the level of reliability of the AMR data hosted in the InFARM IT platform. Therefore it will also be essential to build the interoperability of the FAO-ATLASS and InFARM IT solutions.
The incumbent will support AMR surveillance activities, specially focusing on the technical development, operationalization and maintenance of FAO AMR surveillance and laboratory data services (development of FAO-ATLASS IT application, and maintenance and expansion of the InFARM IT platform and system).

Tasks and responsibilities

• Participate in trainings (online and/or onsite) and deployments of FAO-ATLASS assessment missions and post-ATLASS discussions to familiarize with the tool and understand the needs of the different users.
• Guide and provide support for the technical analysis of business needs to develop an FAO-ATLASS IT application and to build its interoperability with the InFARM IT platform.
• Support the development of an FAO-ATLASS IT application. This includes the revision and writing of technical documentation, participating in regular and ad-hoc meetings with IT vendor and/or CSI team, and countries participating in the piloting phase.
• Provide technical guidance from the business side in the operationalization and maintenance of the InFARM IT platform, including the development of additional functionalities such as the generation of advanced AMR reports in Tableau.
• Provide support to make the InFARM IT platform interoperable with the Global Integrated System for Surveillance of AMR/Antimicrobial Use administered by FAO, the World Organization for Animal Health – WOAH, and the World Health Organization –WHO.
• Provide assistance in the preparation of InFARM advocacy and information events, including launch and/or public consultation for global roll out of the platform and system.
• Support the development of additional modules for integration into FAO-ATLASS IT application such as modules for assessment of capacities to provide Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS) services at laboratory level, to use WGS data at national level for AMR surveillance purpose and to integrate AMR/U surveillance across sectors, in compliance with International WOAH Standards and FAO/WHO Codex Alimentarius Standards and Guidelines.
• Support the publication of general information and technical guidance documents facilitating the administration of FAO-ATLASS IT application, and InFARM IT platform and system.
• Support to build the interoperability of FAO ATLASS IT application and InFARM IT platform with Laboratory Information Systems and WHONET.
• Contribute to the technical updates for FAO ATLASS IT application and InFARM IT platform.
• Support CSI work in the preparation of documents on FAO-ATLASS and InFARM architecture and code following IT Division standards, procedures and guidelines.
• Technical support and maintenance of user interfaces for FAO ATLASS IT application and InFARM IT platform.
• Support the formation of national surveillance networks generating high-quality AMR data and metadata in food and agriculture. This includes support in the establishment of knowledge and discussion fora on AMR Epidemiology/Surveillance.
• Collaborate with the network of FAO Reference Centers on AMR and key implementing partners to gather information on available surveillance protocols, initiatives and platforms for AMR/Antimicrobial Use (AMU) surveillance in food and agriculture.
• Support the implementation of available guidance on integrated surveillance of AMR/AMU following international standards from Codex Alimentarius and WOAH.
• Perform other duties as required.

CANDIDATES WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE FOLLOWING

Minimum Requirements

• University degree in veterinary medicine, public health, epidemiology, microbiology, food science, or a related field;
• Three years of relevant experience in infectious disease and/or AMR monitoring and surveillance, with emphasis on collection, compilation, analysis, use and dissemination of data;
• For Consultants working knowledge of English, French or Spanish and limited knowledge of one of the other two or Arabic, Chinese, Russian.
• For PSAs only working knowledge of English is required.

FAO Core Competencies

• Results Focus
• Teamwork
• Communication
• Building Effective Relationships
• Knowledge Sharing and Continuous Improvement

Technical/Functional Skills

• Work experience in more than one location or area of work
• Extent and relevance of experience in collecting and analysing technical information and data
• Extent and relevance of experience in the collection, harmonization, statistical analysis and dissemination of surveillance data on infectious diseases and/or AMR
• Extent of knowledge and experience in visualization and analytical tools for surveillance of infectious diseases and/or AMR
• Extent and relevance of experience in the development and/or management of infectious disease surveillance data platforms or epidemiological information systems
• Extent and relevance of experience of capacity development activities in surveillance of antimicrobial resistance
• Extent and relevance of experience in the preparation, editing and revision of technical/scientific documents and in organizing meetings and workshops
• Ability to write clearly and concisely, prepare technical reports, protocols, papers for publication and deliver effective oral presentations

Please note that all candidates should adhere to FAO Values of Commitment to FAO, Respect for All and Integrity and Transparency