Surveillance Officer 328 views0 applications

World Health Organization (WHO) is the directing and coordinating authority for health within the United Nations system. It is responsible for providing leadership on global health matters, shaping the health research agenda, setting norms and standards, articulating evidence-based policy options, providing technical support to countries and monitoring and assessing health trends.

Surveillance Officer 

Job ID: 1902389
Location: Maiduguri, Borno
Grade: NO-C
Schedule: Full-time
Contract duration: 12 Months
Contractual Arrangement: Temporary appointment under Staff Rule 420.4

Objectives of the Programme

• The mission of WHO’s Health Emergencies Programme (The Programme) is to build the capacity of Member States to manage health emergency risks and, when national capacities are overwhelmed, to lead and coordinate the international health response to contain outbreaks and to provide effective relief and recovery to affected populations

Description of Duties

• Coordinate and manage surveillance technical activities and programs, within the context of the outbreak and health emergencies programme at the country level.
• Strengthen the capacities of the SMOH surveillance teams for the effective and sustained surveillance of epidemic prone diseases through training courses on field investigation, detection, data management, and rapid response to epidemics and health 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.
• Promote the effective coordination for rapid assessment, surveillance and response activities for epidemic-prone diseases in consultation with Country Office, Regional Office and HQ as well as local, regional and national health entities and other international health partners including UN agencies and NGOs.
• Analyse, systematize, and disseminate scientific and evidence-based technical information and knowledge; support the development of the WHO Situation Reports, other related regular and ad-hoc surveillance reports.
• Undertake regular field supervision visits to assess and evaluate the implementation of surveillance activities, identify gaps and recommend corrective actions based on key performance indicators.
• Co-develop the guidelines, tools and indicators for effective disease surveillance at the national, subnational and community levels.
• Facilitate the implementation of the International Health Regulations (IHR) including participation in the process of verification and risk assessment on reported public health events. Perform any other incident-specific related duties, as required by the functional supervisor.

Required Qualifications
Education:

• Essential: Field Epidemiology Training Program or Master’s University Degree in epidemiology, statistics, database management or public health from an accredited/recognized institute
• Desirable: Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery,

Experience:

• Essential: At least five years’ related experience, at the national levels, quantitative epidemiology and the implementation of public health surveillance, outbreak investigation and response in humanitarian settings.
• Desirable: Prior humanitarian working experience at field level with WHO, other UN agencies, health cluster partners, recognized humanitarian organizations or with an international non-governmental organization with expertise in disaster and outbreak response.

Skills:

• Demonstrated knowledge of surveillance and monitoring systems as related to emergency response relief operations, complemented by skills in the field of epidemiological or statistical data collection, assessment, analysis and the evaluation and monitoring in a public health context.
• Proven ability to multitask across various planning and implementation processes within a highly demanding environment. Demonstrated knowledge, competency and professional skills on the public health aspects of infectious disease control, epidemic and pandemic preparedness and response with particular attention to application of an all hazard approach in the context of the International Health Regulations and the use of event based and indicator based surveillance, as well as descriptive epidemiology and principles of public health in communicable disease surveillance and response

WHO Competencies:

• Teamwork
• Respecting and promoting individual and cultural differences
• Communication
• Producing results
• Ensuring the effective use of resources
• Use of Language Skills
• Essential: Expert knowledge of English

Remuneration

• Remuneration comprises an annual base salary starting at NGN 20,769,322 (subject to mandatory deductions for pension contributions and health insurance, as applicable) and 30 days of annual leave.

Additional Information

• This vacancy notice may be used to fill other similar positions at the same grade level
• Only candidates under serious consideration will be contacted.
• A written test may be used as a form of screening.
• In the event that your candidature is retained for an 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.
• Any appointment/extension of appointment is subject to WHO Staff Regulations, Staff Rules and Manual.
• Staff members in other duty stations are encouraged to apply.
• 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.
• This is a National Professional Officer position. Therefore, only applications from nationals of the country where the duty station is located will be accepted. Applicants who are not nationals of this country will not be considered.