Senior Technical Officer - Emergency Preparedness (AfCDC) at African Union(AU)

Purpose of Job

• The African Union, established as a unique Pan African continental body, is charged with spearheading Africa’s rapid integration and sustainable development by promoting unity, Solidarity, cohesion, and cooperation among the peoples of African and African States as well as developing a new partnership worldwide. Its Headquarters is in Addis Ababa, capital city of Ethiopia. 
• In seeking to achieve this objective and deliver on this mandate, the Africa CDC, is building strong, trustful, and respectful partnership with other public health organizations. In this regards, Africa CDC and GAVI have signed a memorandum of understanding highlighting 7 shared priorities including (1) Scale up Routine Immunisation (2) Build public trust and confidence in routine immunisation and COVID-19 (3) Facilitation of efficient regulatory pathways and timely authorisations of vaccines and efficient, effective pharmacovigilance (4) Strengthen diagnostic and disease surveillance capacity for epidemic prone vaccine preventable diseases (5) Engagement on the continental vision to expand vaccine manufacturing in Africa (6) Information sharing, coordination and aligned public communication on vaccine-related goals and (7) strengthen Pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response.  
• The implement this MoU, Africa CDC and GAVI have developed a two-years operational Joint Action Plan (JAP) with detailed activities. The Africa CDC therefore seeks to recruit a national and citizen of any Member State of the African Union to the position of Senior Technical Officer for Emergency Preparedness within the Emergency Preparedness and Response Division.

Main Functions

• Under the supervision of the head of Emergency Preparedness and Response Division and, the Senior Technical Officer for Emergency Preparedness shall support the Principal Program Officer for Preparedness & Response to ensure the planning and implementation of a variety of Africa CDC and GAVI joint planned activities in the area of Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response interventions. 

Specific Responsibilities
During deployment, the Senior Technical Officer for Emergency Preparedness shall support the Principal Programme Officer to perform the following major duties and responsibilities:

• Serve as regional focal point on PPPR and support strengthened regional engagement and coordination with other partnerships and initiatives 
• Support technical coordination of the Africa CDC and GAVI joint action planning, in partnership with various Africa CDC divisions and GAVI focusing on PPPR interventions.
• Organize and coordinate capacity building activities in selected MS on community-based surveillance and Event-based surveillance, sample management and referral systems to ensure early detection of prioritized VPDs 
• Organize and coordinate capacity building activities in selected MS on VPDs outbreak response including case management, Infection Prevention and Control specifically targeting health workers in case treatment centres (CTCs)
• Organize and coordinate regional trainings on preparedness for high-priority VPDs -to foster cross-border collaboration and coordination and sharing of assets and capacities between countries
• Support capacity building of PHEOCs/NPHIs staffs at regional and sub-regional levels with focus on preparedness and response to VPDs outbreaks
• Work with Emergency response officer to Coordinate Africa CDC response support to outbreak affected MS including deployment Africa Volunteers Health Corps (AVoHCs) Rapid Responders for VPDs outbreaks response in collaboration with WHO AFRO through the Joint Emergency Action Plan (JEAP) initiative and other relevant players in this space (e.g. IANPHI)
• Work with Africa CDC supply chain division for identification, specifications, quantification of high priority VPDs medical and non-medical countermeasures (MCM), and other priority epidemic prone diseases to strengthen Pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response, 
• Support strengthening strategic engagement on national and continental PPPR through advancing coordination and collaboration with relevant national, regional and global vaccines stakeholders
• Work with the project management unit to ensure organisation and coordination of Africa CDC and GAVI joint action planning workshops.
• Support the development of presentations, background documents, work and monitoring plans, as well as meeting reports and technical documents related to the Africa CDC and GAVI work-plan, focusing on PPPR
• Perform other related duties, as assigned by the supervisor.

Academic Requirements and Relevant Experience
Essential:

• Master’s Degree in public health (MPH), Epidemiology, Infectious Disease Control, or a related field from an accredited university with at least 7 years of experience including at the international level in the area of emergency preparedness and response, monitoring and evaluation, and/or project management, preferably in Africa out of which at least three (3) years should be at expert level.

Or 

• Bachelor’s Degree Public Health (MPH), Epidemiology, Infectious Disease Control, or a related field from an accredited university with at 10 years of experience including at international level in area of emergencies preparedness and response, monitoring and evaluation, and/or project management, preferably in Africa out of which at least three (3) years should be at expert level. 
• A Doctorate level Degree in medicine or a health-related field and additional training in project management is an advantage. 

Required skills and Competencies:
Functional Skills:

• Demonstrable technical expertise and experience in supporting and/or managing complex, public health programmes,
• Skills in programme monitoring and evaluation is an asset.
• Demonstrable skills to conceptualize, plan, develop, implement, and evaluate resource management support requirements. 
• Excellent organizational and time-management skills and proven ability to deliver under tight deadlines and works well under pressure. 
• Excellent skills and abilities applied to translating technical information into presentations, briefings, and report for both technical and lay audiences. 
• Knowledge of oral communication techniques and skill in presentation delivery, programme consultation and credible verbal response to inquiries. 
• Knowledge of interpersonal relationship practices and skills to meet and deal with persons of diverse backgrounds. 
• Demonstrable proficiency in MS Word, MS Excel, Power Point, data visualization and statistical packages as well as data analysis skills are mandatory. 

Personal Abilities:

• Ability to work under pressure, stay on track and meet deadlines. 
• Analytical and problem-solving abilities 
• Proven ability to produce precise and intelligible reports and office briefs in line with the requirements of the Africa CDC. 
• Able to operate in a multicultural environment. 
• High-level of autonomy at work, yet with profound team-spirit 
• Adaptive, patient, resourceful, resilient, and flexible 
• Pro-active and solutions oriented. 
• Knowledge of results-based management 

Tenure of Appointment:

• The Appointment will be made on a fixed term contract for a period of one (1) year, of which the first three (3) months will be considered as a probationary period. Thereafter, the contract may be renewed for a similar period subject to funding availability, satisfactory performance and agreed deliverables. 

Gender Mainstreaming:

• The AU Commission is an equal opportunity employer and qualified women are strongly encouraged to apply.

Language:

• Proficiency in one of the AU working languages (Arabic, English, French, Kiswahili, Portuguese, and Spanish) is mandatory and fluency in another AU language is an added advantage

Remuneration

• The salary attached to the position is an annual lump-sum of US$ 96,921.34  (P3 Step 5) inclusive of all allowances for internationally recruited staff, and US$ 78,461.08 inclusive of all allowances for locally recruited staff of the African Union Commission.