Ethiopia: Epidemiologist-P4-Ethiopia

Duty Station: Addis Abba, Ethiopia

Duration: 6 months

Start Date: ASAP

Position Level: P-4

Required Languages: Fluent English

CANADEM is seeking qualified individuals with previous relevant experience available for an immediate deployment to Mozambique as a seconded expert with World Health Organization for a 6-months contract.

TORs-WHO-Epidemiologist-P4-Ethiopia

Based on priorities set by the WHO Representative and the Incident Manager, and working closely with counterparts at the country level, in the WHO Regional Office for Africa and HQ, the incumbent will act as the Epidemiology and surveillance Team lead for the AWD response. S/he will also provide technical oversight for the implementation, monitoring and evaluation of public health policies and programmes for surveillance and response of infectious disease outbreaks particularly those with epidemic and pandemic potential. The incumbent will work in close collaboration with relevant technical officers at the national level, will coordinate the work and provide technical guidance to the surveillance officers at the regional and district levels.

Assessment design and implementation will use different tools, including:

• Multi Cluster/sector Initial Rapid Assessment ( MIRA)

• Humanitarian Emergency Setting Perceived Needs Scale ( HESPER)

• Standardized Monitoring and Assessment of Relief and Transitions (SMART Nutritional and retrospective mortality survey)

• Rapid risk assessment of acute public health events

  • Early Warning on- and response to- epidemic prone diseases (disease surveillance)

  Specific monitoring will be carried out using the following methods:

• Health Service Availability Mapping Surveys ( HeRAMS)

• Monitoring of Events Against Safe Use & Running of Health Services in complex emergencies (MEASURES)

• Response mapping using the Who is doing What, Where (3Ws)

• Health Cluster Performance Monitoring

• WHO Emergency Response Framework monitoring

Summary of Assigned Duties Facilitate and monitor timely collection of surveillance data on AWD and other epidemic-prone diseases from all reporting regions and districts; ensuring efficiency of data collection, collation, analysis, interpretation, timely reporting and coordinate the work of assigned regional surveillance officers, as well as provide technical guidance as required.

1. Design, in cooperation with FMoH and technical partners, surveillance guidelines, protocols, surveys and monitoring/surveillance systems for detection, verification and response to the AWD outbreak; including undertaking supervisory support field visits to monitor implementation.
2. Conduct real-time analysis of AWD outbreak surveillance data, with other team members, for epidemic forecasting and detection, guide team members on data quality improvement, use of data for monitoring of trends, and provide regular feedback to all reporting Regions/districts on disease trends and outbreaks.
3. Support the Ethiopian Public Health Institute (EPHI) and MOH to prepare and disseminate weekly summaries of AWD cases and deaths, and other epidemic-prone disease situation reports from the regional/district surveillance units to the national level.
4. Support prompt outbreak investigation using standard operating guidelines and facilitate the deployment of Rapid Response Teams for early response to AWD cases and other public health events.
5. Contribute to the preparation of other WHO and Health Cluster communication products (situation reports, health cluster bulletins, donors’ alerts, and other ad-hoc reports).
6. Represent WHO in coordination meeting with partners involved in epidemiology, surveillance & monitoring.
7. Develop appropriate training plans for building the core epidemiology, surveillance, alert and response national capacities in accordance with the requirement for IHR 2005. Oversee the capacity building of Epi-Surveillance and Health Management Teams, and Health facility staff.
8. Perform any other incident-specific related duties, as required by the functional supervisor.

list in order of priority, commencing with the most important ones.

1. Creating an empowering and motivating environment

2. Respecting and promoting individual and cultural differences

3. Ensuring the effective use of resources

4. Teamwork

5. Communication

Functional Knowledge and Skills

* Describe the essential knowledge and the skills specific to the position

• Sound knowledge and skills in database management and statistical analysis, secondary data review, survey designing and implementation, monitoring and evaluation systems design or use, and public health information management.
• Proven ability to multi-task across various planning and implementation processes within a highly demanding environment
• Demonstrated knowledge, competency and professional skills on the public health aspects of infectious disease control, epidemic and pandemic preparedness and response with particular attention to application of an all-hazard approach in the context of the International Health Regulations and the use of event based and indicator based surveillance, as well as descriptive epidemiology and principles of public health in communicable disease surveillance and response.

Education Qualifications

* Essential

An advanced university degree (Master’s level or above) in Epidemiology, Statistics, Database Management or Public Health with substantial training in Quantitative Epidemiology from an accredited/recognized institute.

Desirable

First university degree in health related field. Specialized training in Communicable Diseases.

Experience

* E ssential

At least seven years related experience, at the national and international levels, in quantitative epidemiology, and the implementation of public health surveillance, outbreak investigation and response in humanitarian settings. Previous experience in implementation of Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response (IDSR).

Desirable

Prior humanitarian working experience at field level with WHO or with an international Non-Governmental Organization with expertise in disaster and outbreak response.

Use of Language Skills

Excellent knowledge of English.

Other Skills (e.g. IT)

Excellent knowledge of Microsoft office applications.

Working knowledge of online data collection applications, statistical analysis packages (Stata, SPSS, etc).

Working knowledge of GIS mapping software (or similar) would be an asset.

If you have all of the above-mentioned skills, please register with CANADEM before contacting us. This can be done on our website at www.canadem.ca/register. Then send an email to pantiwa.naksomboon@CANADEM.ca no later than Aug.26th, 11:59 pm EDT. Please include in the Subject Line: " WHO-Epidemiologist-P4-Ethiopia " In your email, please include an updated resume, date of availability, your current location, and a phone number where we can reach you. Please also forward blank referee questionnaire that can be found at www.canadem.ca/rqf to two of your references (recent supervisors preferred). Full instructions on how to complete the forms are included in the document; also please send us any evaluation report you might have concerning your field work. We will be considering applications as they are received.