Technical Officer

The Technical Officer supports WHO's efforts in the Eastern Mediterranean Region to eradicate polio and prevent vaccine-preventable diseases. The role involves providing technical guidance for immunization activities, outbreak response, surveillance enhancement, and strengthening routine immunization systems in assigned countries.

Responsibilities

• Provide technical guidance for coordination and planning of Supplementary Immunization Activities (SIA) planning in endemic and outbreak-affected countries as well as SIA activities to reduce vulnerability in countries at high risk of outbreaks.
• Plan and prioritize allocation of vaccine supplies, funding, and human resources based on thorough understanding of risks and polio virus situation and in close coordination with HQ, countries and partners.
• Provide effective response to any importation of wild poliovirus or outbreak of circulating vaccine derived polio virus in previously polio-free areas through planning, implementation, and coordination with GPEI partners for response to outbreaks in accordance with global guidelines.
• Conduct and administer three- and six-month assessments of status of outbreaks, effectiveness of response and the likelihood of continuing transmission.
• Monitor progress and identify risks in countries or sub-regions assigned. Identify constraints to polio eradication in priority countries and areas and support the development of plans of action to overcome those constraints.
• Promote activities to enhance Acute Flaccid Paralysis (AFP) surveillance, including rapid surveillance assessments, development of action plans to improve surveillance, evaluation of the impact of these plans, and training/orientation of national and sub-national staff.
• Develop guidelines and other tools that provide evidence and advice on the best practice strategies for interrupting poliovirus transmission and conducting AFP surveillance.
• Promote and monitor in-depth analysis of polio priority areas to understand the root causes for continuing polio virus transmission, the proposed strategies to address the problems, and the progress of the programme in implementing these strategies.
• Identify training needs, evaluate and document outbreak response activities to ensure that all lessons learned are effectively incorporated into current best practices.
• Develop and manage approaches in assigned countries that can achieve polio eradication while contributing to strengthening routine immunization systems.
• Assist in identification and response to other VPD outbreaks with focus on Measles and Diphtheria.

Requirements

• University degree in medicine, sciences, engineering, international development or a related discipline and an advance degree, at least at Masters level, in public health, epidemiology, related science or health discipline.
• At least seven years of relevant experience combined at the national and international levels in public health including developing country settings, out of which at least four years in disease eradication, immunization, or infectious disease control.
• Significant experience with polio eradication programmes and in the management of large-scale public health programmes involving immunization is desirable.
• Working experience with international organizations and/or non-governmental organizations is desirable.
• Good knowledge of public health and epidemiology, with broad practical knowledge of public health, infectious disease surveillance and control, vaccine science, immunization and disease eradication policies and strategies and their application in developing countries.
• Strong ability and experience with analysis of surveillance, immunization monitoring and epidemiologic data.
• Strong technical writing and analytical skills.
• Demonstrated ability to work effectively with governments, and in field conditions.
• Expert knowledge of English is essential.
• Intermediate knowledge of French is desirable.
• Intermediate knowledge of Arabic is desirable.

Skills

• Public Health
• Epidemiology
• Disease Eradication
• Immunization Programmes
• Infectious Disease Control
• Polio Eradication
• Vaccine Science
• Communicable Disease Surveillance
• Surveillance Data Analysis
• Immunization Monitoring
• Epidemiologic Data Analysis
• Technical Writing
• Health Programme Management
• Outbreak Response
• Routine Immunization Systems
• Field Work in Public Health
• Government Collaboration
• International Organization Experience

Languages

English, French, Arabic