SSA- Surveillance Officer for COVID-19 (29 Posts) at WHO Tanzania., May 2020

In the context of the WHO Health Emergencies incident management system, at the country level, the incumbent will coordinate and implement technical activities directed towards surveillance of COVID-19, scale up the implementation of evidence-based interventions, facilitate policy and decision-making processes through improved health information coverage, analysis and quality throughout the full cycle of the incident.

In the region of assignment, reporting to the Team Lead, and based on priorities set by the Incident Manager and the WHO Head of Country Office, and working closely with counterparts at the respective regional office and HQ, the incumbent will act as the technical expert for the surveillance programme. S/he will provide technical oversight for the implementation, monitoring and evaluation of public health policies and programmes pertaining to surveillance of COVID-19. The incumbent will work in close collaboration with relevant technical officers at the country level and subnational levels.

Scope and Methodology

Under the general guidance and supervision of the Incident Manager (IM) and general guidance of the WHO Representative, the incumbent will perform the following:

Summary of Assigned Duties:

Co-develop the guidelines, tools and indicators for effective disease surveillance at the subnational and community levels, where necessary.
Participate in the process of verification and risk assessment on reported COVID-19 cases.
Strengthen the capacities of surveillance teams for the effective and sustained surveillance of COVID-19 through training on field investigation, detection, contact tracing, data management, and rapid response to epidemics and health emergencies.
Support surveillance activities including community-based surveillance, cross-border surveillance and PoE surveillance within the framework of Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response (IDSR);
Support in depth investigation of COVID-19 and active case and search and make appropriate recommendations for action to region and National task force.
Support the field incident manager in coordination and oversight the surveillance, laboratory and case management.
Conduct, in collaboration with other team members and PHEOC Manager, real-time analysis of outbreak intelligence data, from a broad range of sources including non health sectors, for epidemic forecasting and detection.
Support the establishment of Alert management system (if applicable i.e. if not in existence)
Ensure availability of core data and other information on related technical areas such as: case incidence; case management surveillance data; laboratory surveillance data; contact tracing, etc.;
Analyze, 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.
Perform any other incident-specific related duties, as required by the functional supervisor.
Technical Supervision

Objectives of the Review

The mission of WHO’s Health Emergencies Programme (The Programme) is to help countries, and to coordinate international action, to prevent, prepare for, detect, rapidly respond to, and recover from outbreaks and emergencies.

SPECIFIC REQUIREMENTS

LANGUAGE:

Essential: Excellent knowledge of the English.
Desirable: Working knowledge of Swahili, Knowledge of French or other UN language.

EDUCATION:

Essential: First level university degree in medicine, nursing, environmental health, epidemiology, statistics or database management from an accredited/recognized institute Desirable: Advanced university degree in epidemiology, public health 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 nongovernmental organization with expertise in disaster and outbreak response.

Skills and Competencies

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 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 REQUIRED

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

Other Skills (e.g. IT):

Excellent knowledge of Microsoft Office applications.
Working knowledge of online data collection applications, statistical analysis packages (Stata, SPSS, etc).
Working knowledge of GIS mapping software (or similar) would be an asset.

PLACE OF ASSIGNMENT

The Surveillance officer will be stationed in any United Republic of Tanzania region(s).

TIMELINE AND REPORTING

Duration

The contract will be for three (03) months
Salary

Grade: NOB-01

APPLICATION PROCEDURE

Interested and qualified applicants should send cover letter and comprehensive resume to the WHO Country Representative via the following email addresses afwcotzremit@who.int; afwcotz@who.int or use the following link to apply online https://careers.who.int/careersection/ex/jobsearch.ftl

Deadline for submission of applications is Friday 8th May 2020