JPO Technical Officer Community Management

Junior Professional Officer Program (JPO) Chiffre Nr. 2025-1-12

TERMS OF REFERENCE

PART I: INFORMATION ABOUT THE ASSIGNMENT

Title: JPO Technical Officer Community Management

Organization: WHO, World Health Organization

Programme/Department: WHO Health Emergencies Programme / Management and Operations

Country and Duty Station: The WHO Hub for Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence, Berlin, Germany

Duration: 2 years with possibility of extension for another year. The extension of appointment is subject to yearly review concerning priorities, availability of funds, and satisfactory performance

Please note that for participants of the JPO-Programme two years of work experience are mandatory! Relevant work experience can be counted. In order to assess the eligibility of the candidates, we review the relevant experience acquired after obtaining the first university degree (usually bachelor’s degree).

Objective of the WHO Programme/Department:

The mission of the WHO Health and Emergencies (WHE) Program (The Programme) is to work with countries and coordinate international action to prevent, prepare for, detect, rapidly respond to, and recover from disease outbreaks and other health emergencies. The Programme contributes to the implementation of the 13th WHO Global Program of Work (GPW13) and is guided by WHO strategic priorities to keep the world safe, improve health and serve the vulnerable.

The Health Emergency Intelligence and Surveillance Systems division (WSE) is responsible to build a system of collaborative intelligence enabling better decisions to avert and manage public health threats and risks. Its goal is to enable, strengthen and support countries, regional and global actors in averting and managing public health threats and risks through collaborative problem-solving and decision-making for short-term action and long-term policies, informed by better data and analytics.

The WHO Hub for Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence is a new office of WHO, located in Berlin. It works with partners to enable the generation of public health relevant information to provide timely actionable insights and improve decision-making to prepare for, avert and respond to public health threats. It also aims to reduce fragmentation and inefficiency by creating an ecosystem that promotes collaboration across multiple professional disciplines, sectors, and initiatives; and empowers decision-makers, public health professionals, and civil society to make informed public health decisions.

Assignment Summary:

The technical officer will facilitate the knowledge generation process within communities of practices to derive data analytical insights pertinent to public health events. The primary focus will be on supporting diverse communities of practice and implementing knowledge-generating processes to ensure the dissemination of outputs to a wider audience. The technical officer will also contribute to the development of advanced analytics, leveraging data generated by communities of practice or shared with WHO, aimed at providing readily available insights for decision-makers.

Frequent collaboration across the WHO Health Emergency Programme and with partners is essential to obtain and clarify information, discuss needs and priorities, foster cooperation, and develop solutions. Success in this role hinges on establishing extensive contacts with key partners and stakeholders to identify, develop, and disseminate data-based knowledge for enhanced public health intelligence. The Technical Officer reports to the Unit Head and provides support in managing technical and programmatic activities.

Duties, Responsibilities and Output expectations:

Under the direction of the Insight and Analytics (IAA) Unit Head, the Technical Officer plays a pivotal role in collaborating with various stakeholders across WHO (HQ, Regional, and Country offices), academia, public health institutes, and the private sector. The Technical Officer is expected to have the following duties and responsibilities:

1. Identify and research relevant communities of practice pertaining to public health emergencies.
2. Develop knowledge-generating products (presentations, briefings, activity reports, etc.) to effectively communicate technical information to diverse audiences.
3. Organize and participate in physical meetings of communities of practice, including developing briefing materials, writing reports, and ensuring action items closure.
4. Provide project management assistance to the IAA Unit Head, supporting initiatives under their purview in implementation and general management.
5. Liaise with stakeholders at all levels within WHO and with external partners to foster and sustain communities of practice, promoting a culture of multidisciplinary and cross-cutting approaches.
6. Undertake other related responsibilities as assigned, including providing backup support as needed.

Supervisor: First and second level supervisors will be within the ISY department.

PART II: CANDIDATE PROFILE

Qualifications and Experience:

Education:

Master’s degree in public health, epidemiology, health sciences or a related discipline.

Desirable: Additional qualifications in management or international business.

Work experience: Essential: At least two years’ professional work experience in project management or public administration with public health exposure.

Desirable:

• Experience working in an UN-Organisation.
• Experience working with communities of practices within the epidemiological data field.

Skills required for the assignment:

• Proficiency in spoken and written English.

• Capacity to build effective relationships organising events or workshops with a range of stakeholders/ communities, and to deliver results through collaboration.
• Capacity to lead and deliver on deadlines during periods of intense stress and activity.
• Excellent organizational skills combined with ability to multi-task and produce accurate results under pressure.
• Excellent writing and communication skills.
• Ability to identify key issues, formulate conclusions and recommendations.

WHO competencies required for the assignment:

• Teamwork
• Producing results
• Respecting and promoting individual and cultural differences
• Communication
• Moving forward in a changing environment

Learning objectives of the JPO during this assignment

Upon completion of the assignment, the JPO will have / be able to …

Achieving the learning objectives

Learning Objective	Training Components	When?
Contribute to the organizational learning of the WHE Programme as related to core capabilities readiness.	Through activities listed above and on-the-job mentoring.	During the entire assignment.
Be able to analyse, synthesize and translate information for senior management decisionmaking.	On the-job-training and mentoring from the supervisors as well as WHO focal points.	Same as above.
Contribute to the system and capacity building (including on-the-job training) of staff and stakeholders.	Through activities listed above and on-the-job mentoring.	Same as above.

The progress towards achieving the objectives will be evaluated annually by the JPO together with the first and second level supervisors. Achievement will be against WHO’s Performance Management and Development System (PMDS).

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