Jobs at World Health Organization

• The coordinator will manage this team, ensure effective delivery and reporting of activities, ensure pro-active coordination between WHO units and offices (HQ/regional/country) and also pro-active coordination between AIRA’s members and partners.
• The AIRA Secretariat is housed at WHO under the Communications Unit, and also work very closely with the WHO Emergency Preparedness and Response (EPR), Universal Health Coverage and Healthier Populations (UHP) clusters, as part of the WHO Community Protection and engagement regional strategy.

Deliverables

The incumbent will be expected to perform the following duties:

• Guide and coordinate the infodemic response team at WHO AFRO and ensure timely outputs of deliverables.
• Consult partners for the revision of AIRA’s Terms of Reference (TORs), membership and workflow for a sustainable response to infodemics, and get it adopted by AIRA members.
• Build new strategic partnerships with key stakeholders, donors, media partners, academia with a focus on African-based organizations.
• Guide the development of innovative, impactful activities, including the better inclusion of social behavior change in infodemic management, support the further development of the Africa Misinformation Portal and other Artificial Intelligence initiatives
• Support the documentation of AIRA’s activities, generation of evidence, writing of scientific articles and share AIRA’s experience at key international events.
• Identify funding opportunities and work on resource mobilization and funding proposals.
• Chair the Africa Infodemic Response Alliance meetings and represent WHO AFRO in meetings on infodemic management.
• Prepare regular reports on infodemic response activities to the relevant WHO clusters and AIRA members on the efficacy of infodemic management campaigns and interventions.
• Provide regular reports to key donors on infodemic response activities and community protection.

Qualifications, experience, skills and languages

Educational Qualifications

• Essential: Master’s degree in public health, health communication, risk communication, social behavior change
• Desirable: University degree in communication/journalism

Experience

• Essential: Minimum of seven years in infodemic management, health communication and/or risk communication and community engagement, or similar, with demonstrated work experience of coordinating multistakeholder networks. Team management of an international team is required.
• Desirable: Experience with working with the WHO is a strong asset. Experience working with inter-governmental organizations and international organizations in Africa is desired.

Skills/Knowledge

• A proven track record of working on infodemic management or risk communication, with field experience (preferably in Africa).

Languages And Level Required (Basic/Intermediate/Expert)

• Essential: Expert knowledge of English.
• Desirable: Intermediate knowledge of French; Basic knowledge of Portuguese.

Closing Date

Jun 19, 2024,

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Description of duties
Under the direct supervision of the EMR team lead at the hub and with technical support from the emergencies immunization officer at AFRO, the incumbent is responsible for, but not necessarily limited to the following assigned duties.

• In collaboration with the Emergencies Immunization officer, coordinate WHO support for vaccination in emergency context by ensuring regional coordination and guide decision making on vaccination interventions immediately after the onset or during planning in anticipation of a likely acute emergency.
• Support the implementation of the global roadmap to end cholera under the direction of the Global Taskforce for Cholera Control
• Providing guidance and technical support to countries in determining and setting policies and use OCV in outbreak and in preventive settings
• Support planning and coordination of the implementation of oral cholera vaccine strategies in member states with active cholera outbreaks
• Support member states to develop multi-year plans of action for oral cholera vaccine use
• Participate in the incident management structure at the regional level
• Support member states to plan and implement reactive vaccination activities during outbreaks and emergencies
• Provide technical guidance in the development of oral cholera vaccine monitoring and evaluation tools
• Supporting WCO in the submission of applications to GAVI to receive financial support (for GAVI eligible countries)
• Lead the development of annual regional progress reports on oral cholera vaccine introduction
• Perform other related responsibilities as assigned, including replacing and backstopping for others as required.

Deliverables

• Weekly briefs on the vaccination response for ongoing incidents (e.g., cholera)
• Representation of the vaccines pillar at the weekly event coordination meetings
• Support countries with active outbreaks to implement vaccination activities
• Contribute to development of tools and technical guidance documents on vaccination. response and strategies to ongoing vaccine-preventable disease outbreaks.
• Minutes of agency or interagency meetings.

Educational Qualifications
Qualifications, experience, skills and languages
Essential

• First university degree in degree in public health or related field of health science or relevant field.

Desirable

• Specialized training in field epidemiology.
• Specialized training in emergency/humanitarian response.

Experience
Essential

• At least five (05) years experience in emergency response vaccination or supporting reactive vaccination campaigns and programmes.
• Experienced with the design, planning and implementation of vaccination campaigns in developing countries.
• Experience in the development of capacity building tools for monitoring and evaluation purposes, introduction process of new vaccines, monitoring of VPD programmes including demand generation.

Desirable

• Relevant work experience in WHO or UN agencies or humanitarian organizations.
• Field experience in public health programmes or emergency response programmes in developing countries.
• Experience with cholera programs and oral cholera vaccine campaigns.

Skills/Knowledge

• Ability to coordinate vaccination interventions including mass campaigns.
• Demonstrated managerial skills in international and multi-cultural settings combined with proven ability to successfully coordinate and manage projects and build partnerships with multiple partners in the context of health emergencies.
• Sound strategic and tactical thinking with ability to formulate clear comprehensive policies, strategies, and plans.
• Excellent interpersonal with proven ability to communicate in a clear and effective way, with tact, diplomacy, and courtesy.

Other Skills

• Proven ability to use standard office software packages, conversant with common IT software including eHealth tools.

Languages and level required

• Expert level of English and intermediate level of French.
• The two languages are interchangeable.