Purpose of consultancy

In the context of the WHO health emergencies Incident Management System (IMS), at the country level, the incumbent will implement and coordinate WHO and health cluster strategies for the monitoring and implementation of public health surveillance and response programmes with a special focus on early detection, verification and rapid response to epidemics and other public health incidents related to the health emergencies. The incumbent will provide technical guidance to the Ministry of Health and other partners in strengthening surveillance and response for priority diseases, conditions and events in the context of Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response (IDSR) and for capacity building of national experts, in compliance with the International Health Regulations (IHR 2005).

Assessment design and implementation will use different tools, including but not limited to:

• Multi-cluster/sector Initial Rapid Assessment (MIRA)
• Humanitarian Emergency Setting Perceived Needs Scale (HESPER)
• Standardized Monitoring and Assessment of Relief and Transitions (SMART Nutritional and retrospective mortality survey)
• Rapid risk assessment (RRA) of acute public health events
• Public Health Situation Analysis of humanitarian affairs.
• Early warning, alert and response (EWAR) to epidemic-prone diseases (infectious disease surveillance)

Specific monitoring will be carried out using the following methods:

• Health Resources and Services Availability Monitoring System (HeRAMS)
• Response mapping using the 3/4Ws matrix
• Health Cluster Performance Monitoring WHO Emergency Response Framework monitoring
• Needs Assessments
• Contribution to Humanitarian Needs Overview (HNO) and Humanitarian Response Plans (HRPs)
• Health Cluster Bulletins (PCBs).

Deliverables

• During deployment, the duty station may change, and duties may be modified based upon the technical needs of the Programme:
• Conduct real-time analysis of outbreak intelligence data, with other team members, for epidemic intelligence; guide team members on data quality improvement; use data for monitoring trends, ALERT and ACTION thresholds (triggers), and methodologies for performing data quality assessments (DQA).
• Oversee data entry, data validation, analysis and reporting of assessments and surveys. Synergize data received from multiple sources, including health information systems, death registries, vertical reporting programmes, community-based surveillance and IDSR.
• Coordinate the establishment and functionality of Rapid Response Teams (RRTs), early warning systems (including event-based and indicator-based surveillance) for epidemic and pandemic-prone diseases for early detection and response to public health events,
• Contribute to preparing other WHO and health cluster communication products (situation reports, health cluster bulletins, donors’ alerts, and other ad-hoc reports).
• Design, in cooperation with technical partners, surveillance guidelines, protocols, surveys and monitoring/surveillance systems for detection, verification and response to public health incidents at the national level; ensuring efficiency of data collection, correlation, analysis, interpretation, timely reporting and coordinate the work of a network of sub-regional monitors, as well as provide technical guidance to the epidemiologists assigned, as required.
• Represent WHO in coordination meeting with partners involved in epidemiology, surveillance and monitoring.
• Develop appropriate training plans for building the core surveillance, alert and response national capacities following IHR 2005. Oversee the capacity building at national, subnational and health facility levels.
• Lead the development, consolidation and maintenance of a country-specific and event-specific repository of information (at the highest geographic resolution possible) on core public health indicators (e.g. crude and under-five mortality rates, prevalence of malnutrition, vaccination coverage); updated population estimates (resident, displaced, refugees), standards indicators and values used by partners for monitoring needs and response; vulnerability mapping; nutrition, mortality and vaccination coverage survey reports; health needs assessment reports.
• Perform any other incident-specific related duties, as required by the functional supervisor.

Requirements

Educational Qualifications

Essential

• A university degree in epidemiology, statistics, or public health from an accredited/recognized institute

Desirable:

• Specialized training in field epidemiology, including EPIET or FETP.
• Specialized training in infectious disease epidemiology.

Experience

Essential

• At the national and international levels, at least five years’ related experience in quantitative epidemiology and implementing public health surveillance, outbreak investigation, and response in humanitarian settings.
• Previous experience in implementation of Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response (IDSR).