Health Specialist (Public Health Emergencies), P-4, (Temporary Appointment for 364 days), UNICEF Regional Office for South Asia, Kathmandu, Nepal

UNICEF works in over 190 countries and territories to save children’s lives, defend their rights, and help them fulfill their potential, from early childhood through adolescence.

At UNICEF, we are committed, passionate, and proud of what we do. Promoting the rights of every child is not just a job – it is a calling.

UNICEF is a place where careers are built: we offer our staff diverse opportunities for personal and professional development that will help them develop a fulfilling career while delivering on a rewarding mission. We pride ourselves on a culture that helps staff thrive, coupled with an attractive compensation and benefits package.

Visit our website to learn more about what we do at UNICEF.

For every child, a future

How can you make a difference? 

Background:

• Support efforts for the establishment of a regional surveillance observatory,
• Actively seek information and monitor public health events in the region, follow up notification and response with countries, HQ and partners, ensuring that information on the events is updated and shared with relevant parties as needed.
• Create a network of PHE focal points from all countries
• Support UNICEF country offices in the development/updating on health emergency work planning, contingency planning processes with other sectors to ensure cross sectoral response programming and resilience building and other relevant documents as needed.
• Support development and review of health emergencies related resource mobilization proposals and reports, relevant TA and funding applications documents as needed.
• Contribute to the development and dissemination of UNICEF policies, standards and guidelines for Public Health Emergencies (PHE) and Health in emergencies and technical support. This includes development/update of the Regional Office strategy and plan for Emergencies in Health, dissemination of standards, guidance documents and policies on health emergencies, and participation in country missions including joint missions with UN agencies and donors as appropriate to provide on the ground support to countries in emergency situations.
• Conduct country support missions as part of the first line of regional response to public health events and/or in response to TA requests/ joint preparedness and performance monitoring including for accelerated disease control initiatives.

C. Capacity building:

• Provide public health emergency guidance, reports and other information to all country focal points, health managers and chiefs of health as needed.
• Develop the expression of interest for national health specialists/officers, and a PHE consultancy roster and review, assess and recommend candidates for selection as needed.
• Support the development and roll out of a PHE toolkit in priority countries in the region, and a Maternal, newborn and child health package for humanitarian settings.
• Develop/update a package for cholera response capacity building in collaboration with WASH and Social and Behavior Change regional focal points.

• Lead public health emergencies risk analysis in selected countries in collaboration with country health teams and use the findings to develop health sector emergency preparedness and response plans with subnational level analysis and outputs, as needed.
• Provide technical support to UNICEF SAR country offices and partners including contributing to the development/adaptation of or sharing relevant standards, protocols, guidelines and training materials for public health and health in humanitarian crises.
• In collaboration with WASH and Social and Behavior Change sections, conduct a regional stock take and review of UNICEF SA Cholera Strategic Framework and update as necessary.
• Lead a stock take and review or development of the UNICEF SA SOPs on early reporting and country office response to public health emergencies informed by country office and regional PHE work.
• Lead the review of primary health services for hard-to-reach communities, IDP and refugees
• Lead the development and roll out of a case series on health in conflict and humanitarian situations in selected SA countries with focus on Afghanistan, Pakistan and Sri Lanka
• Ensure that the most up to date technical information is collated in an accessible format and platform for country and regional level reference.
• Lead the development of periodic technical reports on health emergencies and public health emergencies, including a monthly summary of ongoing and emerging public health events, their impact and implications for UNICEF work, review of technical information on public health emergencies in country office and regional level documents.
• Contribute to resource mobilization efforts through the development and review of funding appeals, donor reports, advocacy notes, project proposals related to health emergencies.

• Work with sectors/sections to coordinate technical support to COs as required. This includes active participation in UNICEF’s cholera working team, Emergency Technical Team and Emergency Management Team
• Support Country Offices to develop/update and implement health emergency preparedness and response plans.
• Support monitoring of vaccine roll out in humanitarian settings, identifying bottlenecks and collaborate with the regional immunization team to support countries to address them.
• Lead the development of technical updates and documents for use by SAR countries with respect to implementation of health programmes in humanitarian situations including using integrated approaches and existing emergency mechanisms.
• Support UNICEF COs to respond to specific disease outbreaks. This includes integration of high-quality health response in overall emergency response, and support COs to design responses that contribute to health systems strengthening.
• Develop a database and dashboard to monitor ongoing outbreaks
• In collaboration with supply division, provide technical advice and other support to ensure that sufficient medicines and health-related supplies are available for country needs in health emergencies and broader humanitarian situations

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…

Minimum requirements:

• Eight years of progressively responsible experience in public health, with field experience in responding to health emergencies.
• Experience in coordination & partnerships, risk assessments, planning, programming, implementation monitoring and evaluation of public health emergency programs relevant to communicable disease control.
• Expertise in viral haemorrhagic diseases; vaccine preventable diseases; epidemiology & surveillance; International Health Regulations including JEEs/country core capacity assessments.
• Experience with UNICEF and other agencies/NGOs in emergency settings agency, and/or INGOs.
• Country work experience, especially in the region, with work experience in a decentralized health systems is an advantage.

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF’s Core Values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust and Accountability and Sustainability (CRITAS) underpin everything we do and how we do it. Get acquainted with Our Values Charter: UNICEF Values

The UNICEF competencies required for this post are…

(1) Builds and maintains partnerships

(2) Demonstrates self-awareness and ethical awareness

(3) Drive to achieve results for impact

(4) Innovates and embraces change

(5) Manages ambiguity and complexity

(6) Thinks and acts strategically

(7) Works collaboratively with others 

Familiarize yourself with our competency framework and its different levels.

UNICEF is here to serve the world’s most disadvantaged children and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to include everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, age, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, or any other personal characteristic.

We offer a wide range of measures to include a more diverse workforce, such as paid parental leave, time off for breastfeeding purposes, and reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities. UNICEF strongly encourages the use of flexible working arrangements.

UNICEF does not hire candidates who are married to children (persons under 18). UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority, and discrimination. UNICEF is committed to promoting the protection and safeguarding of all children. All selected candidates will undergo rigorous reference and background checks and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles. Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.

UNICEF appointments are subject to medical clearance.  Issuance of a visa by the host country of the duty station is required for IP positions and will be facilitated by UNICEF. Appointments may also be subject to inoculation (vaccination) requirements, including against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid). Should you be selected for a position with UNICEF, you either must be inoculated as required or receive a medical exemption from the relevant department of the UN. Otherwise, the selection will be canceled.

Remarks:

As per Article 101, paragraph 3, of the Charter of the United Nations, the paramount consideration in the employment of the staff is the necessity of securing the highest standards of efficiency, competence, and integrity.

UNICEF’s active commitment to diversity and inclusion is critical to deliver the best results for children. For this position, eligible and suitable women candidates are encouraged to apply.

Government employees who are considered for employment with UNICEF are normally required to resign from their government positions before taking up an assignment with UNICEF. UNICEF reserves the right to withdraw an offer of appointment, without compensation, if a visa or medical clearance is not obtained, or necessary inoculation requirements are not met, within a reasonable period for any reason. 

UNICEF does not charge a processing fee at any stage of its recruitment, selection, and hiring processes (i.e., application stage, interview stage, validation stage, or appointment and training). UNICEF will not ask for applicants’ bank account information.

All UNICEF positions are advertised, and only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process. An internal candidate performing at the level of the post in the relevant functional area, or an internal/external candidate in the corresponding Talent Group, may be selected, if suitable for the post, without assessment of other candidates.

Additional information about working for UNICEF can be found here.