National Consultant (Infectious Hazard Management) at World Health Organization (WHO)

Ref Id: 1704249
Grade: NO-B
Contractual Arrangement: Individual Service Contractor
Contract duration: 6 Months
Schedule: Full-time

Purpose of the Position

• In the context of the WHO Health Emergencies program, the incumbent will implement and coordinate WHO’s support to government through development of strategies for the monitoring and implementation of public health surveillance and response programmes with special focus on early detection, verification and rapid response to epidemics and other public health incidents related to the health emergencies.
• The incumbent will provide technical guidance to the Ministry of Health and other partners in strengthening preparedness, surveillance and emergency response for priority diseases, conditions and events in the context of Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response (IDSR) and for capacity building of national experts, to strengthen the countries International Health Regulations (IHR 2005) core capacities.

Description of Duties
The incumbent will work in close collaboration with relevant technical officers at the national level, will coordinate the work and provide technical guidance to the ministries of health at national and state levels, to carryout the following duties;

• Support the NCDC to develop comprehensive strategies  and plans for outbreak preparedness and response
• Ensure the implementation of response plans addressing the risk of outbreak, co-develop action plans for interventions in high-risks groups and recommend measures for special attention.
• Monitor the early prevention, detection, verification, assessment and investigation of any risks of outbreaks and the dissemination of data related to the occurrence of outbreaks
• Conduct, in collaboration with other team members, real-time analysis of outbreak intelligence data, from a broad range of sources including non-health sectors, for epidemic forecasting and detection
• Support surveillance technical activities, within the context of the outbreak and health emergencies programme at the national and state levels
• Manage the rapid response teams responsible for the rapid investigation of alerts, field risk assessments and early response.
• Ensure that messages are technically sound and socio-culturally appropriate to induce, engage and empower stakeholders in the prevention, mitigation and control of risks of outbreaks
• Make recommendations and give guidance on relevant courses of actions to be taken in affected as well as non-affected areas in order to prevent and/or control cause of excess morbidity and mortality due to outbreaks.
• Prepared comprehensive outbreak investigation and response reports.
• Support documentation and publication of health security and emergencies interventions
• Support resource mobilization
• Perform any other duties as may be assigned by the supervisors. 

Required Qualifications
Education:

• Essential: Medical Degree (MB,BS) from a recognized University 
• Desirable: Master of Public Health from a recognized University

Experience:

• Essential: At least 5 years working experience in Health emergency preparedness and response.
• Desirable:Working experience in related areas with WHO, other UN agencies or other recognized international organizations

Use of language skills

• Essential: Proficiency in written and spoken English.
• Desirable: Working knowledge of French an added advantage

Specific Skills Required:

• Computer abilities such as word processing, spread-sheets; data analysis tool such as Epi-Info, SPSS, GIS and excellent report writing skills.