JOB DESCRIPTION

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QUALIFICATIONS

Purpose of consultancy

To provide technical and operational public health laboratory expertise to the Dengue and oPt emergency responses.

Background

The World Health Organization (WHO) established the WHO Health Emergencies (WHE) programme to help countries, and to coordinate international action, to prevent, prepare for, detect, rapidly respond to, and recover from outbreaks and emergencies. In January 2024, WHO launched its 2024 Health Emergency Appeal. The Appeal, which targets over 166 million people who will require health assistance in 2024, aims to enable response to 41 ongoing health crises and deliver critical health care services and protection of vulnerable communities against deepening threats around the world. Safe, reliable, and timely laboratory and diagnostic support is an essential component of all health emergencies. The Public Health Laboratory strengthening unit in Lyon supports Member States to be ready to detect and respond to health emergencies earlier, faster, and more safely covering the full cycle of preparedness, readiness and response.

The worldwide incidence of Dengue fever has increased over the past two decades becoming a growing public health problem worldwide. Since 2023, the world has faced an upsurge of dengue transmission characterized by the number, size, and concurrence of multiple outbreaks and the spread to areas previously free of dengue. WHO have assessed the global dengue crisis as a global grade 3 emergency and Incident management systems (IMS) have been established at WHO Headquarters, Regional and Country Offices and a global appeal for 15.5 million was launched in February 2024.

Since the October conflict escalation in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt) the healthcare situation in the Gaza Strip has reached a critical point. With over 1.9 million people internally displaced, the heightened risk of communicable diseases, worsened by increasingly crowded shelters and hospitals, remains a grave concern. Syndromic surveillance indicates high risks of communicable diseases and the lack of diagnostic testing adds complexity to disease control efforts. There is an urgent need to enhance laboratory and diagnostics in Gaza to support both clinical care and infectious disease early warning and surveillance. IMS have been established at WHO Headquarters, EMRO Regional and oPt Country Offices with a laboratory sub-pillar established within the health operations pillar.

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Deliverables

• Objective 1: Dengue global grade 3 emergency response.
  • Deliverable 1: Provide technical expertise and coordination on the process of developing interim guidance for dengue fever diagnostic testing to support outbreak investigation, surveillance, monitoring impact of interventions and clinical case management. Duties will encompass conducting and/or coordinating evidence reviews, evidence synthesis, presentations and meeting preparations to support technical consultations, in collaboration with the technical team.
    Expected by: 31 May 2024
  • Deliverable 2: Based on the outputs of deliverable 1, contribute to the drafting and finalization of the interim guidelines on dengue fever diagnostic testing, including development of diagnostic algorithms and the use of genomic surveillance.
    Expected by: 30 September 2024.
  • Deliverable 3: Contribute to the development of WHO procurement criteria for dengue diagnostics (including multianalyte later flow assays for use at the point of care, ELISA and PCR) to support country and regional response activities.
    Expected by: 31 May 2024
  • Deliverable 4: Facilitate the establishment of an expert review panel for diagnostics (ERPD) and enable Dengue fever diagnostic test kit evaluations through protocol design, sourcing of well characterized samples, coordination of test kit procurement and identification of suitable evaluation laboratories through the network of WHO collaborating centres and other centres of excellence.
    Expected by: 31 May 2024
• Objective 2: Occupied Palestinian territory (oPt)-Israel escalation of conflict emergency response.
  • Deliverable 5: Contribute to the development and operationalization of public health surveillance, outbreak response and laboratory surge capacity plans in oPt.
    Expected by: 30 September 2024
  • Deliverable 6: Contribute to the development of laboratory and surveillance guidelines and standard operating procedures for the expansion of laboratory and diagnostic testing capacity in oPt, including for specimen management.
    Expected by: 30 September 2024
  • Deliverable 7: Provide relevant technical  expertise on the procurement of essential diagnostics and laboratory equipment, reagents and consumables to reequip the laboratory system in oPt.
    Expected by: 30 June 2024
  • Deliverable 8: Participate in incident management system coordination and technical meetings and provide relevant support for the laboratory sub-pillar based on identified needs.
    Expected by: 30 September 2024
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Qualifications, experience, skills and languages

EDUCATIONAL QUALIFICATIONS:

Essential:

• Advanced university degree in life science, biomedical science, laboratory medicine or medical microbiology/virology.

Desirable:

• Training in public Health or public health laboratory surveillance.

EXPERIENCE:

Essential:

• At least seven years relevant experience in public health laboratory science with special focus on infectious diseases and/or high threat pathogens.
• Experience of microbiological and clinical laboratory techniques for diagnosis of infectious diseases.
• Proven track record of successfully contributing as an international laboratory science specialist or consultant.
• Experience working with national and/or international staff as a member of emergency preparedness and response teams.

Desirable:

• Experience working with or supporting low and/or middle-income countries.
• Experience in guideline development processes and principles.
• Experience in international humanitarian and public health emergency coordination systems.
• Experience in managing partnerships with various stakeholders.
• Relevant work experience with WHO and/or other UN agencies.

SKILLS:

• Proven capacity to network sensitively, cooperatively, and productively with multiple stakeholders.
• Ability to plan, organize, coordinate, and implement activities based on the inputs from several sources.
• Strong analytical and writing abilities.
• Flexible and capable of adapting to changes.
• Knowledge of guideline development processes and principles.
• Knowledge of international humanitarian and public health emergency coordination systems.

LANGUAGES REQUIRED:

Essential:

Expert knowledge of English.

Desirable:

Intermediate knowledge of French or another UN language.

LOCATION

Off site: Home-based.

TRAVEL

The consultant is expected to travel.

REMUNERATION AND BUDGET (TRAVEL COSTS ARE EXCLUDED):

REMUNERATION:

Band level B – USD 7,000 – 9,980 per month.

LIVING EXPENSES (A LIVING EXPENSE IS PAYABLE TO ON-SITE CONSULTANTS WHO ARE INTERNATIONALLY RECRUITED):

N/A

EXPECTED DURATION OF CONTRACT:

6 months.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

• This vacancy notice may be used to identify candidates for other similar consultancies at the same level.
• Only candidates under serious consideration will be contacted.
• A written test may be used as a form of screening.
• If your candidature is retained for 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.
• 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.
• Applications from women and from nationals of non and underrepresented Member States are particularly encouraged.
• WHO prides itself on a workforce that adheres to the highest ethical and professional standards and that is committed to put the WHO Values Charter into practice.
• WHO has zero tolerance towards sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA), sexual harassment and other types of abusive conduct (i.e., discrimination, abuse of authority and harassment). All members of the WHO workforce have a role to play in promoting a safe and respectful workplace and should report to WHO any actual or suspected cases of SEA, sexual harassment and other types of abusive conduct. To ensure that individuals with a substantiated history of SEA, sexual harassment or other types of abusive conduct are not hired by the Organization, WHO will conduct a background verification of final candidates.
• Consultants shall perform the work as independent contractors in a personal capacity, and not as a representative of any entity or authority. The execution of the work under a consultant contract does not create an employer/employee relationship between WHO and the Consultant.
• WHO shall have no responsibility whatsoever for any taxes, duties, social security contributions or other contributions payable by the Consultant. The Consultant shall be solely responsible for withholding and paying any taxes, duties, social security contributions and any other contributions which are applicable to the Consultant in each location/jurisdiction in which the work hereunder is performed, and the Consultant shall not be entitled to any reimbursement thereof by WHO.
• Consultants working in Switzerland must register with the applicable Swiss cantonal tax authorities and social security authorities, within the prescribed timeframes (Guidelines issued by the Swiss Mission are available at: https://www.eda.admin.ch/missions/mission-onu-geneve/en/home/manual-regime-privileges-and-immunities/introduction/Manuel-personnes-sans-privileges-et-immunites-carte-H/Non fonctionnaires et stagiaires.html

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