Career Opportunities at World Health Organization (WHO)

Description Of Duties

• The incumbent will have the following assigned responsibilities/duties:

Routine Immunization

• Participate in monitoring and evaluation exercises, programme reviews and annual sectoral reviews with government and other partners to assess performance and help formulate required action/interventions to ensure improvement
• Conduct and update the situation analysis for the development, design and management of immunization related programmes
• Support the application and implementation of accelerated diseases control activities towards the achievement of eradication (polio), elimination (measles & rubella) and control of vaccine preventable diseases

COVID-19 Vaccine Delivery

• Provide technical support and day to day coordination and collaboration with the EPI Programme, partners and other stakeholders on COVID-19 vaccination with focus on vaccination among most disadvantaged populations and high risks communities
• Participate in monitoring of COVID-19 vaccination roll-out, including field site visits, identifying issues, solutions and priority actions with stakeholders. This includes technical support for the development and implementation of digital tools and strategies for real-time monitoring.
• Provide technical support related to data management, analysis, monitoring, evaluation and reporting for COVID-19 vaccination
• Support and facilitate relevant trainings, orientation, workshops to build capacity of health workers, community members, partners on COVID-19 vaccination, including microplanning, community engagement outreach and monitoring.
• Support and participate in communications and visibility, collecting stories from the field, including human interest stories.
• Monitor COVID-19 vaccine registration, reception and track expiry.
• Support safety monitoring of COVID-19 vaccines.

New Vaccine Introduction

• Support implementation of studies to establish local level data and evidence on disease burden and other data including cost-effectiveness analysis to support new vaccine introduction
• Support the country to put together the country’s application documents to Gavi or any other supporting organization
• Provide technical support for the introduction of new vaccines including development of introductory guidelines, capacity building, deployment monitoring, post-introduction evaluation etc

Impact studies on vaccines on the National Immunization Schedule

• Provide technical support to the EPI Programme to continue implementation of the malaria vaccine pilot including scale-up to other districts
• Support impact studies on new vaccines including vaccines for rotavirus diarrhoea and pneumonia
• Support implementation of studies to monitor in the impact of rubella containing vaccines on congenital rubella syndrome in Ghana
• Innovation, knowledge management and capacity building
• Identify, document and share lessons learned/best practices for knowledge development and to build the capacity of stakeholders.
• Apply innovative approaches and promote good practices to support the implementation and delivery of concrete and sustainable programme results.
• Participate as a resource person in capacity building initiatives to enhance the competencies of stakeholders.
• Advocacy, networking, and partnership building
• Build and sustain effective close working partnerships with development partners, research institutions, academia and sub-national stakeholders through sharing of information and knowledge to enhance programme implementation and build the capacity of stakeholders
• Participate in the EPI coordination meetings to collaborate with government and other partners on operational planning to integrate and harmonize WHO’s mission and strategies.

Required Qualifications

Education

Essential

• Advanced university degree in Medicine, Public Health, Epidemiology, or Health Related Sciences

Desirable

• Diploma or Certificate in Vaccinology, Immunisation systems or related fields

Experience

Essential:

• At least five (5) years’ experience at the national and/or international level in the implementation of immunisation programmes.
• A previous working experience in low and middle-income countries will be an added advantage.
• Demonstrated professional experience working at the country level providing technical advice and services to national counterparts, Ministry of Health, and other external partners on planning, monitoring and evaluation of immunisation programmes including new vaccine introduction.
• Relevant experience in using data for decision making and strong data management skills
• Experience in programme management and working with diverse teams

Desirable

• Relevant work experience with WHO and/or UN agencies, health cluster partners; experience working in relevant nongovernmental or humanitarian organizations.
• Demonstrable experience in management of Immunization system and large-scale vaccination campaign.
• Experience is applying, introducing, and evaluating new vaccine introduction, including coordination of vaccine effectiveness studies
• Experience working with National Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI) and with WHO will be an asset

Skills

• Strong knowledge of the principles and practices of planning, implementation, supervision, and monitoring of immunization services including large-scale vaccination program in response to vaccine preventable disease (VPD) outbreak
• Proven experience in providing capacity building on the use of immunisation data for decision making
• Presentation skills and competencies in communication
• Excellent interpersonal skills with ability to solve and explain technical issues and take part in training activities with tact and diplomacy.
• Ability to write in a clear and concise manner.
• Knowledge of WHO practices and procedures an advantage.

WHO Competencies

• Communicating in a credible and effective way
• Respecting and promoting individual and cultural differences
• Fostering integration and teamwork
• Creating an empowering and motivating environment
• Producing results

Essential: Excellent knowledge of English.

Desirable: Working knowledge of local languages

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Description Of Duties

• Advise on the development, implementation and evaluation of the national strategies and work-plans pertaining to the prevention and control of high threat diseases of pandemic & epidemic potential or infectious risks and the implementation of evidence-based strategies to manage infectious hazards, interventions in high-risks groups and recommend measures for special attention, ensuring compliance with organization-wide IHM strategies.
• In close collaboration with the risk assessment, health information management and other teams in HQ and the respective Regional Office, 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.
• Adapt IHM global policies, concepts, tools and strategies and manage their implementation at the country level, for the prevention and, where feasible, elimination of diseases/epidemic risks. Work with partners, to improve approaches and methods of controlling epidemics in different epidemiological situations.
• Conduct the periodic reporting of infectious hazards activities, support the information systems and the monitoring facilitating integration with the national health information systems, as required.
• Contribute to the surveillance and risk analysis of infectious diseases; participate in the rapid response teams responsible for the rapid investigation of alerts, field risk assessments and early detection and response.
• Ensure that risk communication messages are technically sound and socio-culturally appropriate to induce, engage and empower stakeholders in the prevention, mitigation and control of infectious hazards.
• 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.
• In close collaboration with other technical teams, provide technical assistance on vaccination, enhanced surveillance, infection control (including personal protection), enhanced sanitation and hygiene, increased provision of water and/or nutrients, prepositioning of drugs and medical supplies, vector control etc.
• Request the activation of technical experts networks at global or regional level to characterize the pathogen and the disease in case of unknown infection.
• Represent the Country Office at official meetings as needed.
• Perform any other related duties, as required by the functional supervisor..

Required Qualifications

Education

• Essential: University degree in medicine, public health or health related field from an accredited/recognized institute.
• Desirable: Specialized training in epidemiology. Specialized training in infectious diseases.

Experience

• Essential: At least two (2) years of national professional experience in planning, developing and implementing the control and prevention of infectious diseases programme including outbreak prevention and control, infectious hazard management and/or dangerous pathogens.
• Relevant experience with the inter-agency mechanisms used to coordinate international preparedness for and response to health emergencies.
• Desirable: Relevant work experience in WHO, other UN agencies; experience working in relevant non-governmental or humanitarian organizations. Experience in developing countries.

Skills

• Knowledge of office software applications.