Consultant – Technical guidance on rehabilitation workforce and rehabilitation in primary care

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Qualifications

Purpose of consultancy

To provide technical guidance to WHO and Member States in advancing health equity for persons with disabilities, including providing guidance on advocacy activities.

Background

Globally, health and demographic trends are changing; populations are rapidly ageing, and people are living longer with chronic conditions and multimorbidity. More than ever, health systems are compelled to invest in primary health care and accelerate progress to universal health coverage. These endeavors are contingent on a health and care workforce with the capacity and competence to meet the evolving needs of populations. Furthermore, the COVID-19 pandemic has strained and disrupted health systems and caused a shift in economic policy priorities. The pandemic has highlighted the critical role of the health workforce in emergency preparedness and health security and positioned it as central to health system resilience. As countries work to deliver primary health care and essential services in the context of highly disrupted health systems, the need to protect, support and bolster the health workforce is more critical than ever.

Among the many and diverse health needs population currently experience, those that require rehabilitation are going largely unmet. Lack of access to skilled rehabilitation workers in low- and middle-income countries in particular poses a major barrier to people receiving the care they need, where they need it. Profound under-investment and widespread misconceptions regarding rehabilitation and its value to population health underpin the rehabilitation workforce crisis experienced in large parts of the world. Countries are compelled to take action, in particular to strengthen workforce production, regulation, and competency-based education and lifelong learning, but many lack the necessary data and technical tools to make meaningful progress.

In order to address this situation, WHO has intensified its efforts to strengthen the health workforce, including targeted efforts to address the rehabilitation workforce crisis. Among these efforts is the development of a Rehabilitation Competency Framework, including assessments and interventions for a range of health conditions; Guide for Rehabilitation Workforce Evaluation (GROWE) to assess the competencies and performance of the rehabilitation workforce in countries; a Guide for Rehabilitation Workforce Evaluation, the expansion of the National Health Workforce Accounts to include more rehabilitation occupations. To be truly impactful in countries, these resources need to be accompanied by technical assistance, advocacy, and resources to increase awareness and improve their useability, as well as support their implementation.

Furthermore, strengthening rehabilitation at primary care level is essential to meet the enormous and growing need across countries worldwide. Currently, WHO is developing a new technical product on integrating rehabilitation in primary care.

Deliverables

Qualifications, experience, skills and languages

Educational Qualifications:

Essential:

• Advanced university degree in public health or a related field.
• University degree in rehabilitation science, e.g. rehabilitation medicine, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech and language therapy, prosthetics and orthotics, or related field.

Experience:

Essential:

• Over 10 years of experience in rehabilitation.
• Demonstrated experience in rehabilitation projects or technical tasks of high complexity and depth requiring expert technical knowledge and skills.
• Demonstrated experience in project management and collaboration related to rehabilitation in primary care.
• Demonstrated experience in project management and collaboration related to rehabilitation workforce.
• Previous experience working providing technical guidance to countries.
• Demonstrated experience in writing and launching technical products.
• Previous experience facilitating workshops, trainings, and high-level meetings for WHO, other UN agencies or governmental organizations.

Desirable:

• Previous experience with WHO or other UN agencies.

Skills:

• Advanced technical knowledge in public health, workforce, and rehabilitation.
• Excellent skills in data synthesis, evaluation and reporting, including in country reports and academic publications.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.

Languages required:

Essential:

• Expert knowledge of English.
• Expert knowledge of Spanish.

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.

• 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.
• For information on WHO’s operations please visit: http://www.who.int.
• WHO is committed to workforce diversity.
• WHO has a smoke-free environment and does not recruit smokers or users of any form of tobacco.
• Applications from women and from nationals of non and underrepresented Member States are particularly encouraged.
• WHO prides itself on a workforce that adheres to the highest ethical and professional standards and that is committed to put the WHO Values Charter into practice.
• WHO has zero tolerance towards sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA), sexual harassment and other types of abusive conduct (i.e., discrimination, abuse of authority and harassment). All members of the WHO workforce have a role to play in promoting a safe and respectful workplace and should report to WHO any actual or suspected cases of SEA, sexual harassment and other types of abusive conduct. To ensure that individuals with a substantiated history of SEA, sexual harassment or other types of abusive conduct are not hired by the Organization, WHO will conduct a background verification of final candidates.
• Consultants shall perform the work as independent contractors in a personal capacity, and not as a representative of any entity or authority. The execution of the work under a consultant contract does not create an employer/employee relationship between WHO and the Consultant.
• WHO shall have no responsibility whatsoever for any taxes, duties, social security contributions or other contributions payable by the Consultant. The Consultant shall be solely responsible for withholding and paying any taxes, duties, social security contributions and any other contributions which are applicable to the Consultant in each location/jurisdiction in which the work hereunder is performed, and the Consultant shall not be entitled to any reimbursement thereof by WHO.
• Consultants working in Switzerland must register with the applicable Swiss cantonal tax authorities and social security authorities, within the prescribed timeframes (Guidelines issued by the Swiss Mission are available at: https://www.eda.admin.ch/missions/mission-onu-geneve/en/home/manual-regime-privileges-and-immunities/introduction/Manuel-personnes-sans-privileges-et-immunites-carte-H/Non fonctionnaires et stagiaires.html