Consultant – Readiness Checklists

Purpose of consultancy

The consultant will contribute to the development of hazard specific operational readiness checklists and anticipatory actions for the readiness planning.

Background

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.

The Country Readiness Strengthening Department seeks to strengthen countries’ readiness for emergencies of all hazards and supporting WHO regional offices and country offices to assess and analyze readiness capabilities, country planning and partner coordination.

Health emergencies continue to have significant and sometimes catastrophic impacts on countries' health, economies, and development. Both recent and ongoing public health events have demonstrated that the many communities remain at high risk, and that strong levels of national preparedness across all relevant sectors are crucial to ensuring the effective management of health emergencies, when they occur. As part of the WHO Transformation Agenda a unit on Readiness Assessment and Prioritization was created in the Country Readiness Strengthening Department of WHO Health Emergencies Preparedness and IHR Division of the WHO Health Emergencies Program (WHE).

Due to the unprecedented nature of the COVID-19 crisis, WHO has developed the Partners Platform (e.g., Platform). The Platform is a web-based tool to collaboratively scale-up readiness and response to health emergencies. All countries can show the world what actions they are planning and implementing, to request international support, and to track contributions and progress in real-time.

The Partners Platform:

• Facilitates planning aligned to international guidance on specific threats developed in collaboration with countries and partners with a focus on fragile, vulnerable and conflict settings.
• Supports the monitoring of readiness and response activities at national and subnational levels.
• Enables the costing of resource requests when they are not available at the country-level.
• Provides visibility into the donor contributions in health emergencies.

Deliverables

• Deliverable 1: Develop HERO (Health Emergency Readiness Operational) Checklists from the perspective of national and local implementation considerations, for specific hazards and pre-populate based on reference material and consultations with technical experts, as a component of the global guidance for operational readiness.
  • Activity 1.1. Develop operational readiness checklists for 8-10 of the top 20 hazards as described by the WHO hazard categories and high priority threats in the Global Architecture HEPR implementation
  • Activity 1.2: Establish extensive contacts with the hazard experts from across WHO to advise on hazard specific readiness requirements aligned with WHO standards.
  • Activity 1.3: Provide technical expertise to the development and use of hazard specific readiness checklists.
  • Activity 1.4: Provide technical expertise to the digital development of the hazard specific readiness checklists on the Partners’ Platform.
  • Activity 1.5: Contribute to the respective strategic development and expansion of the WHO Partners Platform with respect to health emergency operational readiness for specific hazards.
• Deliverable 2: Expand the hazard specific readiness checklists to include readiness gaps and anticipatory actions needed for countries to rapidly assess operational readiness and develop actionable operational readiness plans.
  • Activity 2.1. Expand the hazard specific readiness checklist tool to include choices for country level readiness gaps and anticipatory actions across key technical functional areas for 8-10 of the top 20 hazards.
  • Activity 2.2: Contribute to the collection and synthesis of technical inputs from the hazard experts and technical function experts across WHO to develop master lists of country level readiness gaps and anticipatory actions aligned with WHO standards.
• Deliverable 3: Provide technical expertise to the Readiness Assessment and Prioritization (RAP) Unit to assess operational readiness and identify anticipatory actions for readiness planning for specific imminent and high impact health emergency threats in 1-3 at-risk countries.
  • Activity 3.1. Provide readiness assessments and prioritization of anticipatory actions in support of the regional offices and country offices in 1-3 at-risk countries using the hazard specific readiness checklists.
  • Activity 3.2: Undertake country-level support missions and/or deployments with Regional Office counterparts, to countries at-risk for imminent or high impact health emergency threats.

Qualifications, experience, skills and languages

Educational Qualifications:

Essential:

• Advanced university degree in public health or any related field. 

Experience

Essential:

• Over 10 years of relevant experience in the development of technical guidance documents.
• Demonstrated experience at the international level, including developing/ resource limited and FCV countries.

Skills/Knowledge:

• Demonstrated expertise in writing strategic documents related to the management of public health emergencies.
• Strong analytical skills.
• Excellent knowledge and proven skills in public health.
• Effective working relations with multidisciplinary and multicultural teams.
• Personal attributes include integrity tact and discretion.
• High level of judgement, responsibility, and initiative.
• Knowledge of WHO programs and work related to drafting strategic guidance documents and driving a consultative process with various departments and stakeholders.
• Good knowledge of WHO’s work and responsibilities under the International Health Regulations and the WHO corporate risk management policy and process.

Languages required:

Essential:

• Expert Knowledge of English.

Desirable:

• Intermediate knowledge of another UN official language.

Location

Off site: Home-based.

Travel

The consultant is expected to travel.

Remuneration and budget (travel costs are excluded):

Remuneration:

Band level C - USD 10,000 - 12,500 per month

Living expenses (A living expense is payable to on-site consultants who are internationally recruited):

N/A

Expected duration of contract:

11 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.
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