National Professional Officer - Laboratory (NO-C) at World Health Organization (WHO)

Job ID: 1902833
Location: Abuja
Schedule: Full-time
Contract duration: 6 Months
Organization: AF_NGA Nigeria
Contractual Arrangement: Special Services Agreement (SSA)

Purpose of the Position

• The mission of WHO's Health Emergencies Programme (WHE/Nigeria) is to help Nigeria, and to coordinate international action, to prevent, prepare for, detect, rapidly respond to, and recover from outbreaks and emergencies.

Description of Duties

• Supervised by the WHE Laboratory technical officer, under the supervision of the WHO Country Representative and working closely with WHO country office clusters, WHO counterparts at the Africa Regional Office and HQ, the incumbent will act as the subject matter expert for laboratory within the health operations and expertise team.
• S/he will support the laboratory component of the incident management system, and provide technical support to the Federal Ministry of Health (MOH) and partners within the health sector.
• Provide technical support to the National Reference Laboratory to strengthen laboratory capacity for rapid detection and response to priority pathogens: measles/yellow fever, cerebrospinal meningitis, cholera, Lassa fever, monkeypox
• Develop guidelines and other laboratory tools for laboratory performance in line with IDSR and IHR guidelines and establish targets and measurable indicators for the monitoring and evaluation of laboratory services;
• Develop, plan and implement training workshops to improve sample collection, packaging and shipping at national and state levels
• Develop and monitor the national specimen transportation and referral  system for epidemic prone diseases; 
• To provide oversite of the public health network stock management and supply chain system for laboratory consumables;
• Work with WHO County office clusters to provide technical and operational support to ensure timely ordering of laboratory reagents and consumables and implementation of laboratory related workplans to strengthen laboratory capacity at public and state laboratories
• Ensure adherence to good laboratory practice and biosafety management at public and state laboratories
• Perform any other duties that may be assigned by his/her supervisor

Required Qualifications
Education:

• Essential: Advanced University degree (Master's level or above) in Life Science, Medicine or Medical Virology from an accredited/ recognized institute. Certified training or qualification in molecular biology, virology, bacteriology, infectious diseases, and/or epidemiology and laboratory techniques.
• Desirable: Master's level degree in public health or health related field.

Experience:

• Essential: At least five years of practical and operational application and management of laboratory services, laboratory diagnosis of communicable diseases at the national and international levels. Some related experience in outbreaks and/or health emergency response of international impact.

Desirable:

• Experience in establishing or improving laboratory infrastructure for microbiology and/or detection of infectious diseases.
• Experience in planning and implementing laboratory trainings at national and regional levels.
• Previous experience in UN organizations/agencies, health cluster partners, recognized humanitarian organizations, international institutions or nongovernmental organizations, particularly in developing countries.

Use of language skills

• Essential: Expert knowledge of English

Skills:

• Specific skills required: Demonstrated proficiency using software applications, including PowerPoint, MS word, spreadsheet and databases,EPI Info, SPSS etc

Competencies:

• Producing result
• Fostering integration and teamwork
• Ensuring the effective use of resources
• Communicating in a credible and efficient way
• Moving forward in a changing environment