One-Health Sherpa Officer - NO-B at World Health Organization (WHO)

Job Code: 2104377
Location: Abuja
Contractual Arrangement: Special Services Agreement (SSA)
Contract Duration (Years, Months, Days): 12 Months
Organization: AF_NGA Nigeria
Schedule: Full-time
Grade: No grade

Objectives of the Program

• WHO Member States adopted the International Health Regulations (IHR, 2005), for the prevention and control of events that may constitute a public health emergency of international concern. The World Organization for Animal Health (OIE)’s Performance of Veterinary Services (PVS) Pathway is a range of tools to assist countries in the evaluation and strengthening of the capacities of their veterinary services. These two tools require synergy at implementation level. For this purpose, the IHR-PVS National Bridging Workshops (NBW) were developed and Nigeria conducted hers in Dec 2019.
• The key output of these NBW is the NBW Roadmap, a joint action plan that the national experts from animal health, human health sectors and other sectors including environment have developed jointly to improve their collaboration. As part of the NBW Follow-up strategy, a nationally-recruited NBW Sherpa will be required to be positioned at the interface between the sectors to advocate, catalyse, and provide technical and financial assistance to the country for the implementation of the NBW Roadmap activities.

Description of Duties

• Evaluate and catalyse the implementation of the National Bridging Workshop’s roadmap and identify challenges in the operationalization of the collaboration at the human-animal interface for complying with the International Health Regulations (IHR, 2005).
• Active liaising between the animal health and human health sector following the NBW to keep the momentum;
• Advocate and push for the implementation of activities jointly defined during the NBW and listed in the NBW Roadmap;
• Provide technical assistance for the implementation of roadmap activities;
• Organize a small meeting at national level to conduct the NBW follow-up survey;
• Identify challenges in the operationalization of the collaboration at country level, propose solutions and possible tripartite support opportunities;
• Identify low-cost high-impact NBW roadmap activities which could be funded by the tripartite;
• Participate in the animation of the NBW network via online forums;
• Attend the yearly NBW network consultative meeting and facilitate partner and donor engagements under the One-Health strategy.
• Serve as technical focal point and advocate for other tripartite activities (Joint risk assessment tool, Multisectoral Coordination Mechanisms tool, etc);
• Any other duty as required.

Qualifications Required
Education:

• Essential: A first University Degree in Health Sciences (Human, Animal or Environmental) or related field from an accredited/recognized institute.
• Desirable: Master's Degree in Public Health, Epidemiology or other related courses.

Experience:
Essential: 

• At least 2 years of experience in zoonotic diseases prevention, surveillance, and control.
• Experience with public health or animal health systems in host country.
• Very good understanding of the One Health approach and its implementation through multi-sectoral coordination in countries.
• Proven experience in writing proposals, reports, guidance documents and in the production of manuscripts and documentation/ dissemination products

Desirable:

• Relevant work experience with WHO/other UN agencies/International development agencies

WHO Competencies:

• Teamwork
• Respecting and promoting individual and cultural differences 
• Communication 
• Building and promoting partnerships across the Organization and beyond
• Producing result

Other Skills and Knowledge:

• Knowledge of One-health approach; plans, policies, guidance documents and SOPs.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills and sensitivity to political and cultural issues
• Proven ability to work in multi sectoral teams
• Proven ability to meet deadlines
• Excellent presentation skills
• Demonstrated ability to work under pressure to achieve multiple deadlines.
• Ability to "think out of the box" and to make innovative proposals to push forward one health strategy. 
• Knowledge of public health sector and issues.
• Excellent knowledge of Microsoft Office applications (Outlook, Word, PowerPoint, SharePoint, and Excel).
• Good communication soft skills

Use of Language Skills:

• Essential: Expert knowledge of English