Consultant - TDR Disease Control at World Health Organization (WHO)

World Health Organization (WHO) is the directing and coordinating authority for health within the United Nations system. It is responsible for providing leadership on global health matters, shaping the health research agenda, setting norms and standards, articulating evidence-based policy options, providing technical support to countries and monitoring and assessing health trends.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: Consultant - TDR Disease Control

Job ID: 2500638
Location: Anywhere
Expected duration of contract: 11 months
Contractual Arrangement: External consultant
Organization: HQ/IMP Research for Implementation SCI

Background

• TDR, the Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases, is a global programme of scientific collaboration that helps facilitate, support and influence efforts to combat diseases of poverty. 
• As part of the research for Implementation portfolio, TDR has been working with public health programmes and international partners, to support research efforts in low- and middle-income countries. 

Deliverables
Task 1: Contribute to TDR activities for facilitating the introduction of malaria vaccine in west and central Africa countries. This activity will be conducted in collaboration with researchers of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, researchers of the University of Thies, project officers of the WHO Malaria Vaccine Implementation Unit (MVIP), WHO Malaria department and WHO pharmacovigilance department under the guidance of the responsible TDR officer.

• Output 1: (i) Draft a research package composed of a coverage survey research protocol, a guidance document for conducting interviews/focus group discussions to understand vaccine hesitancy, a case-control protocol to measure vaccine effectiveness (on non-severe malaria cases), and a cohort event monitoring protocol for measuring adverse events following immunization (AEFI), (ii) updated TDR website for malaria vaccine 
• Expected by: June 2025 
• Output 2:  Technical assistance provided to at least 4 countries in west and central Africa for the conduct of research informing the introduction of the malaria vaccine.
• Expected by: end of the consultancy

Task 2: Contribute to the delivery of a training programme on operational and implementation research for the west and central Africa regional network for TB control (WARN/CARN-TB) and provide support to at least 2 countries for TB research:

• This activity will be conducted in collaboration with the secretariat of the WARN/CARN-TB under the guidance of the TDR officer.
• Output 3: (i) development of a two-year training programme, (ii) coordinate with the secretariat on the delivery of the training module 2 (virtual one week training workshop), and (iii) technical support provided to at least 2 countries for the development and conduct of their research protocol.
• Expected by: end of the consultancy.

Task 3: Facilitate the finalisation of the publication process of the yellow fever root cause analysis toolkit

• Output 4: (i) published document, (ii) TDR news to announce its publication and (iii) updated yellow fever TDR webpage  
   Expected by: end of July 2025

Task 4: Contribute to TDR projects related to the area of work as needed and contribution to TDR team activities

• Output 5: virtual participation at the IMP unit meeting and TDR staff meeting 
  Expected by: end of the consultancy

Qualifications, experience, skills and languages
Educational Qualifications:
Essential:

• Advanced university level degree (Master’s level or above) in public health, epidemiology, or other relevant disciplines.

Experience:
Essential:

• At least 7 years of relevant experience combined at the national and international levels, in planning, programming, implementation of health/Immunization programmes.
• Experience in research (operational / implementation research - OR/IR) and data analysis.
• Experience in the delivery of OR/IR training programme.
• Field experience in Africa, Latin America or the Caribbean.

Desirable:

• Experience in disease control and vaccination.
• Experience with WHO, UN agencies, US CDC or a health cluster member organization.
• Experience with the WARN/CARN-TB.

Skills/Knowledge:
Essential:

• Proven ability in the development of a research toolkit
• Expertise in vaccination coverage surveys, vaccine hesitancy investigations
• Excellent communication and presentation skills
• Ability to work as a team with a variety of stakeholders and meet deadlines
• Proficiency in the Microsoft office suite of applications (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Teams, SharePoint) and remote working technologies

Desirable:

• Background/familiarity with emergency settings
• Sound knowledge of vaccine preventable diseases
• Sound knowledge of Tuberculosis
• Languages and level required

Languages and Level Required:
Essential:

• Expert knowledge of English
• Expert knowledge of French.

Remuneration
Band level B: USD 7,000 - 9,980 per month.

Application Closing Date
28th February, 2025.

How to Apply
Interested and qualified candidates should:
Click here to apply online