Public Health Officer

The Public Health Officer will provide technical leadership and operational support to WHO’s health emergency response in the North Kivu, South Kivu and Ituri provinces, focusing on emergency preparedness, response, and resilience to reduce morbidity and mortality among crisis-affected populations. The role involves coordinating with provincial authorities, WHO teams, and humanitarian actors to manage public health risks and ensure continuity of essential health services in crisis-affected areas.

Responsibilities

• Assess public health risks, damage to health infrastructure, functionality of health services, referral systems, laboratories, cold chain, essential medicines, health information systems and the priority needs of crisis-affected populations.
• Support national and provincial health authorities, WHO staff, Health Cluster partners and humanitarian actors to plan, coordinate and implement public health response activities in line with WHO’s Emergency Response Framework and the Health Cluster strategic response.
• Analyse public health risks, needs, vulnerabilities, health service gaps and response capacities, and advise WHO and partners on priority interventions, operational bottlenecks and corrective actions.
• Monitor access to and continuity of essential health services in crisis-affected areas, with attention to equity, vulnerable groups, internally displaced persons, returnees and host communities.
• Support the implementation of evidence-based public health interventions, including emergency health care, maternal and newborn health, child health, outbreak prevention and response, health promotion, mental health and psychosocial support, and protection-sensitive health programming.
• Compile, analyse and interpret data from multiple sources, including surveillance, early warning, displacement trends, health service functionality, partner presence and field assessments, to inform operational decision-making.
• Support coordination meetings with WHO teams, provincial health authorities, Health Cluster partners and other relevant sectors; prepare minutes, track action points and contribute to lessons learned and after-action reviews.
• Provide technical inputs to situation reports, health cluster bulletins, outbreak updates, donor reports, operational plans, briefing notes and other information products.
• Support coordination across WHO technical pillars (including surveillance, laboratory, clinical management, vaccination, IPC, RCCE,) and other humanitarian sectors including WASH, nutrition, protection, logistics and education, to ensure an integrated response.
• Ensure that WHO-supported interventions comply with IASC principles, humanitarian standards, accountability to affected populations and the Humanitarian Programme Cycle.
• Perform any other incident-specific duties assigned by the functional supervisor.

Requirements

• Advanced university degree (Master’s level or above) in public health and/or health-related fields from an accredited/recognized institute.
• Doctorate degree in Medicine (desirable).
• Post graduate studies or specialized training in emergency response or disaster management in the context of public health (desirable).
• Diploma in tropical medicine or diploma in disaster management (desirable).
• At least seven years of relevant experience, at the national and international levels, in public health in emergencies response or health sector coordination, with emphasis on managing outbreaks and health emergencies and/or health consequences of emergencies and crises.
• Experience in capacity building, developing and promoting collaborative partnerships.
• Relevant work experience in WHO, other UN agencies, health cluster partners, recognized humanitarian organizations or relevant nongovernmental or humanitarian organizations (desirable).
• Experience in capacity building program planning/development, project management, monitoring and evaluation (desirable).
• Experience with resource mobilization in emergency settings (desirable).
• In-depth knowledge of WHO incident management system, WHO ERF, public health emergency preparedness and response, health systems strengthening, disease surveillance, outbreak prevention and control, and continuity of essential health services in humanitarian settings.
• Demonstrated knowledge and field experience in managing the public health impacts of complex humanitarian crises, population displacement, armed conflict, natural disasters and epidemic-prone disease outbreaks.
• Strong skills in health needs assessments, public health risk analysis, strategic information management, epidemiological interpretation, operational planning and prioritization of interventions in emergency settings.
• Demonstrated ability to support coordination across national authorities, provincial health teams, Health Cluster partners, UN agencies, NGOs and other humanitarian actors.
• Proven capacity in proposal development, donor reporting, situation reporting, technical brief writing, monitoring and evaluation, and documentation of lessons learned.
• Ability to anticipate emerging public health risks, identify service delivery gaps and propose practical corrective actions in complex and insecure field environments.
• Knowledge of Microsoft Office software applications.
• Expert level of French and intermediate level of English.

Skills

• Public Health Emergency Management
• Health Sector Coordination
• Outbreak Risk Management
• Health Needs Assessment
• Public Health Risk Analysis
• Strategic Information Management
• Epidemiological Interpretation
• Operational Planning
• Intervention Prioritization
• Capacity Building
• Collaborative Partnership Development
• Project Management
• Monitoring and Evaluation
• Resource Mobilization
• WHO Incident Management System
• WHO Emergency Response Framework
• Health Emergency Preparedness
• Public Health Systems Strengthening
• Disease Surveillance
• Outbreak Prevention and Control
• Continuity of Essential Health Services
• Proposal Development
• Donor Reporting
• Situation Reporting
• Technical Report Preparation
• Microsoft Office Suite

Languages

French, English