Closing date:

Regional advisor, emergency and humanitarian action (P-6)

City/location:
Brazzaville
Organization:
World Health Organization Regional Office for Africa

This job posting has closed

Objectives

The objectives of the Emergency and Humanitarian Action programme are to prevent, reduce and mitigate the health consequences of emergencies, natural and man-made disasters and conflicts in countries in the Region, by effective risk reduction, preparedness, and alert, response and recovery actions.

Duties

Under the supervision of the Assistant Regional Director the incumbent will be expected to perform the following duties:

1. Develop, disseminate and promote regional strategies on emergency and humanitarian action;
2. Develop and disseminate norms, standards, guidelines and tools to be applied by countries, the WHO/EHA staff at all levels in the Region, humanitarian NGOs and other partners, for interventions related to health action in crises;
3. Develop, coordinate and evaluate regional capacity-building and training on emergency preparedness, response and humanitarian assistance in the health sector, including assisting countries in developing and conducting their national training programmes;
4. Strengthen the technical capacity of the WHO country offices in emergency and humanitarian action preparedness and response;
5. Working with Inter-country Support Teams and Coordinators, provide technical support to countries in situation analysis, vulnerability assessment and mapping of the main hazards and identification of the priorities, disaster risk reduction, formulation and implementation of national emergency policies, strategies and plans;
6. Support countries in developing disaster-related information collection systems, developing and updating an emergency database, establishing an information dissemination network for early warning and quick alert systems in the Members States;
7. Working with Inter-country Support Teams and relevant Regional Office programs, support countries in the region to provide timely response to emergencies including early recovery actions
8. Mobilise regional technical capacity on health action in crises, including establishing and managing a regional roaster of EHA experts and consultants;
9. Support resource mobilisation for health action in crises, including in the preparation of proposals targeting the various humanitarian funding and appeal instruments and mechanisms;
10. Develop an appropriate logistics system and ensure the availability of the necessary resources, equipment and supplies to provide timely assistance to countries when emergencies occur;
11. Develop mechanisms for public information and awareness-building on emergencies;
12. Provide technical oversight, management and supervision for emergency health activities undertaken in the Regional Office, and technical leadership of activities in WHO Country Offices and the EHA Inter-country teams in various locations;
13. Promote partnership and collaboration with UN agencies, NGOs, bilateral cooperation institutions and other partners for emergency preparedness and response programmes;
14. Coordinate emergency related actions within the Regional Office, between the Regional Office and the HAC and other clusters/departments in HQ, NGOs and other partners;
15. Monitor and evaluate programmes and plans for emergency preparedness and response in the health sector in the region.

Required qualifications

Education
- Essential: Degree in Medicine and advanced degree in public health from a recognized university; knowledge in epidemiology.
- Desirable: Training in emergency preparedness and response, social sciences and communication.

Skills
- Knowledge and field experience in managing emergency preparedness programmes and response to emergency situations at national and sub-regional levels;
- knowledge and experience in health policy formulation and management of health development programmes in multi-sectoral, national and international context. Knowledge of the WHO Policy and strategy for emergency and humanitarian action and interventions of the other UN agencies; donors and NGOs for humanitarian assistance.

Experience
- Essential: Extensive experience in the management of health interventions in emergency situations and other major public health problems at national and international levels. Experience in programme formulation and evaluation, partnership and collaboration in emergency activity implementation with national and/or international organization.
- Desirable: Experience in planning and policy formulation, operational research, development of training programmes.

Languages
- Excellent knowledge of English or French with a good working knowledge of the other. Ability to work in Portuguese (at least reading).

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