Roster of consultants – Health System Resilience and Essential Public Health Functions

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Qualifications

Purpose of consultancy

To develop technical resources related to health systems resilience and Essential Public Health Functions (EPHFs). The outputs to be delivered include Technical Products and associated tools and meetings, on EPHFs and building health systems resilience. The tasks will involve delivering various activities such as conducting desk reviews and technical consultations, and developing technical reports, planning and advocacy tools and meeting materials.

Background

Recent and ongoing public health challenges including COVID-19 pandemic, humanitarian crisis, climate threats, multimorbidity, etc. continue to reveal the vulnerability of health systems to and the need for the development of more resilient health systems with strong public health and primary health care (PHC) orientation. From WHO HQ, the Health Systems Resilience (HSR) and Essential Public Health Functions (EPHF) Team within the Special Programme on Primary Health Care (SP-PHC) is responsible for providing global leadership and technical guidance on HSR and EPHFs. This involves strengthening and developing the convergence in health systems strengthening to achieve interrelated goals – universal health coverage, health security and healthier population, including applying humanitarian-development-peace nexus (HDPN) in fragile, conflicts-affected and vulnerable settings.

Examples of the Team’s priorities include providing health systems inputs in UHC and health security efforts (including recovery); strengthening national public health institutes (NPHIs) for better public health stewardship, strengthening public health functions and services at the subnational and primary care levels, supporting measurement of health system resilience to various threats, informing the public health and emergency workforce roadmap, etc. The Team is also responsible for WHO Technical Products; the Health system resilience toolkit (Global Public Health Good 924), Health systems resilience – moving from concept to practice; Health systems recovery planning guide; Critical role of PHC in EPHFs; Institutionalizing enablers for HDPN; Strengthening national to subnational institutional capacities for EPHFs; Guidance for public health institutions for building health systems resilience with EPHFs; and other associated products.

Deliverables

Specific deliverables will be pre-defined for each consultancy. Consultants are expected to contribute to assignments and perform a variety of tasks related to the following:

• Deliverable 1: Review available literature in relation to public health services delivery and system enablers at the national and subnational levels.
• Deliverable 2: Develop guidance materials such as Technical Products on health systems resilience and EPHFs operationalization and measurement, including the role of primary health care.
• Deliverable 3: Adapt technical resources on health system resilience for application at health service and policy levels in countries.
• Deliverable 4: Deliver consultative meetings to discuss findings of reviews on measuring EPHFs and identify options to address identified gaps in existing approaches.
• Deliverable 5: Provide technical inputs to develop a Technical Product on Institutionalizing enablers for Humanitarian Development Peace Nexus toward increased resilience.
• Deliverable 6: Contribute to updating health system resilience webpages to incorporate new technical resources.

Qualifications, experience, skills and languages

Educational Qualifications:

Essential:

• Band Level A: A first level university degree in health science or a related field.
• Band Level B: Advanced university degree (Masters level) in public health, health systems or related field.

Desirable:

• Band Level A: Advanced university degree (Masters level) in public health, health science or related field.
• Band Level B: Additional professional qualifications related to public health, health systems strengthening or related field.

Experience

Essential:

• Band level A: At least 4 years of experience in public health system strengthening and health systems resilience related work, including within international organizations.
• Band level B: At least 7 years of experience in public health system strengthening and health systems resilience related work, including within international organizations.

Desirable:

• Band level A:
  • Experience in working with WHO in related field of health systems resilience including health system health security synergy.
• Band level B:
  • Experience in health security with which at least one year working in connection with or under the auspices of an organization focusing on global public health.
  • Experience in working with WHO in related field of health systems resilience including health system health security synergy.

Skills:

Essential:

• Demonstrated knowledge of public health and health systems functions.
• Demonstrated skills in report writing, data management, literature reviews, research and standard Microsoft office applications.

Desirable:

• Webpage management.

Languages required:

Essential:

• Expert knowledge of English.

Location

• Off site: Home-based.

Travel

The consultant is expected to travel.

Remuneration and budget (travel costs are excluded):

Remuneration:

Band level A – USD 3,955 – 6,980 per month.
Band level B – USD 7,000 – 9,980 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.

Additional Information

• 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.
• The WHO is committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment of mutual respect. The WHO recruits workforce regardless of disability status, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, language, race, marital status, religious, cultural, ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds, or any other personal characteristics.
  The WHO is committed to achieving gender parity and geographical diversity in its workforce. Women, persons with disabilities, and nationals of unrepresented and underrepresented Member States (https://www.who.int/careers/diversity-equity-and-inclusion) are strongly encouraged to apply for WHO jobs.
  Persons with disabilities can request reasonable accommodations to enable participation in the recruitment process. Requests for reasonable accommodation should be sent through an email to reasonableaccommodation@who.int.
• An impeccable record for integrity and professional ethical standards is essential. 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 (https://www.who.int/about/who-we-are/our-values) 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 short-listed candidates.
• WHO has a smoke-free environment and does not recruit smokers or users of any form of tobacco.
• Consultants shall perform the work as independent contractors in a personal capacity, and not as a representative of any entity or authority.
• WHO shall have no responsibility 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.
• Please note that WHO’s contracts are conditional on members of the workforce confirming that they are vaccinated as required by WHO before undertaking a WHO assignment, except where a medical condition does not allow such vaccination, as certified by the WHO Staff Health and Wellbeing Services (SHW). The successful candidate will be asked to provide relevant evidence related to this condition. A copy of the updated vaccination card must be shared with WHO medical service in the medical clearance process. Please note that certain countries require proof of specific vaccinations for entry or exit. For example, official proof /certification of yellow fever vaccination is required to enter many countries. Country-specific vaccine recommendations can be found on the WHO international travel and Staff Health and Wellbeing website. For vaccination-related queries please directly contact SHW directly at shws@who.int.
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For roster VNs:

The purpose of this vacancy is to develop a list of qualified candidates for inclusion in this advertised roster. All applicants will be notified in writing of the outcome of their application (whether successful or unsuccessful) upon conclusion of the selection process. Successful candidates will be placed on the roster and subsequently may be selected for consultancy assignments falling in this area of work or for similar requirements/tasks/deliverables. Inclusion in the Roster does not guarantee selection to a consultant contract. There is no commitment on either side.