Surveillance Officer at the World Health Organization (WHO)

World Health Organization (WHO) is the directing and coordinating authority for health within the United Nations system. It is responsible for providing leadership on global health matters, shaping the health research agenda, setting norms and standards, articulating evidence-based policy options, providing technical support to countries and monitoring and assessing health trends.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: Surveillance Officer (Multiple duty station)

Job ID: 2106337
Location: Nigeria
Schedule: Full-time
Grade: NO-B
Contractual Arrangement: Fixed-term appointment
Contract Duration (Years, Months, Days): 2 years
Organization: AF_NGA Nigeria

Objectives of the Programme

• The mission of WHO is to help countries, and to coordinator international action, to prevent, prepare for, detect, rapidly respond to, and recover from outbreaks and emergencies.

Description of Duties

• Co-develop the guidelines, tools and indicators for effective disease surveillance at the national, subnational and community levels.
• Coordinate and manage surveillance technical activities and programs, within the context of the outbreak and health emergencies programme at the country level.
• Facilitate the implementation of the International Health Regulations (IHR) including participation in the process of verification and risk assessment on reported public health events.
• Strengthen the capacities of surveillance teams for the effective and sustained surveillance of epidemic-prone diseases through training courses on field investigation, detection, data management, and rapid response to epidemics and health outbreaks.
• Conduct, in collaboration with other team members, real-time analysis of outbreak intelligence data, from a broad range of sources including non-health sectors, for epidemic forecasting and detection.
• Promote the effective coordination for rapid assessment, surveillance and response activities for epidemic-prone diseases in consultation with Country Office, Regional Office and HQ as well as local, regional and national health entities and other international health partners including UN agencies and NGOs.
• Provide technical guidance for the management of a unified information system to ensure availability of core data country files and other information on related technical areas such as: case incidence; case management surveillance data; laboratory surveillance data; contact tracing, etc.;
• Analyse, systematize, and disseminate scientific and evidence-based technical information and knowledge; support the development of the WHO Situation Reports, other related regular and ad-hoc surveillance reports.
• Undertake regular field supervision visits to assess and evaluate the implementation of surveillance activities, identify gaps and recommend corrective actions based on key performance indicators.
• Perform any other incident-specific related duties, as required by the functional supervisor.

Required Qualifications
Education:

• Essential: First level University Degree in Epidemiology, Statistics, Database Management or Public Health from an accredited / recognized institute.
• Desirable: Advanced university degree in quantitative epidemiology or health related field. specialized training in communicable diseases.

Experience:

• Essential: At least two years’ related experience in quantitative epidemiology and the implementation of public health surveillance, outbreak investigation and response in humanitarian settings.
• Desirable: Prior humanitarian working experience at field level with WHO, other UN agencies,health cluster partners, recognized humanitarian organizations or with an international non-governmental organization with expertise in disaster and outbreak response.

Skills:

• Demonstrated knowledge of surveillance and monitoring systems as related to emergency response relief operations, complemented by skills in the field of epidemiological or statistical data collection, assessment, analysis and the evaluation and monitoring in a public health context.
• Proven ability to multitask across various planning and implementation processes within a highly demanding environment.
• Demonstrated knowledge, competency and professional skills on the public health aspects of infectious-disease control, epidemic and pandemic preparedness and response with particular attention to application of an all hazard approach in the context of the International Health Regulations and the use of event-based and indicator-based surveillance, as well as descriptive epidemiology and principles of public health in communicable disease surveillance and response

WHO Competencies:

• Teamwork
• Respecting and promoting individual and cultural differences
• Communication
• Producing results
• Ensuring the effective use of resources

Use of Language Skills

• Essential: Expert knowledge of English.

Remuneration
Remuneration comprises an annual base salary starting at NGN17,429,054 (subject to mandatory deductions for pension contributions and health insurance, as applicable) and 30 days of annual leave.

Deadline: 11:59 pm: 16th December, 2021.

How to Apply
Interested and qualified candidates should:
Click here to apply online

Important Information and Notice

• Please note that the deadline for receipt of applications indicated above reflects your personal device’s system settings.
• This vacancy notice may be used to fill other similar positions at the same grade level
• Only candidates under serious consideration will be contacted.
• A written test may be used as a form of screening.
• In the event that your candidature is retained for an 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.
• Any appointment/extension of appointment is subject to WHO Staff Regulations, Staff Rules and Manual.
• Staff members in other duty stations are encouraged to apply.