ABOUT THE COMPANY:

Our goal is to build a better, healthier future for people all over the world. Working through offices in more than 150 countries, WHO staff work side by side with governments and other partners to ensure the highest attainable level of health for all people.

JOB SUMMARY

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Qualifications

1.    Purpose of consultancy  

To provide technical support to WHO India Country Office and key stakeholders in India to phase out use of mercury-containing measuring devices in healthcare.

2.    Background 

WHO is actively engaged in activities to address the health impacts of mercury and has long-standing programmes that regularly update the evidence about the health impacts of the different forms of mercury, provide guidance on identifying populations at risk from mercury exposure, develop and disseminate tools to reduce mercury exposure, and provide guidance on the replacement of mercury-containing thermometers and sphygmomanometers blood pressure measuring devices in health care.

WHO also leads projects to promote the sound management and disposal of health-care waste and has facilitated the development of an affordable, validated, non-mercury-containing blood pressure measuring devices.

WHOs activities are supported by a World Health Assembly Resolution WHA67.11 (2014) on the public health impacts of exposure to mercury and mercury compounds: the role of WHO and ministries of public health in the implementation of the Minamata Convention.

In-line with its role as the leading international health agency and existing mandates and activities in support of the Minamata Convention, WHO will actively work to phase out the use of mercury-containing measuring devices in healthcare.

WHO, in collaboration with UN Environment Programme (UNEP) Global Mercury Partnership is executing a Global Environment Facility (GEF) project to phase-out mercury in healthcare.

This global project is being implemented in five countries in three regions, India (South-East Asia); Burkina Faso and Uganda (Africa) and Montenegro and Albania (Europe). The expected objective of the project is to eliminate the uncontrolled releases of mercury from healthcare settings. The project will comprise three components: 1) The development or improvement of national health-system wide strategies for phasing-out the import, export and manufacture of mercury thermometers and sphygmomanometers in line with WHO recommendations and related provisions of the Minamata Convention; 2) Implementation of national strategies to phase-out manufacture, import and export and piloting phase out of use and 3) knowledge management and awareness raising.

The proposed National Technical Consultant will support NPO (EH), WCO India in coordinating the project implementation.

The key objectives of the consultancy assignment will be as follows:

Provide technical support to WCO India and key stakeholders in India in implementing the five- year project to phase out use of mercury-containing measuring devices in healthcare.

3.    Deliverables

Monthly report to be submitted on 30^th of each calendar month that will include the activities work undertaken based on the below scope of work:

Liaise with MoHFW, MoEFCC, WHO HQ, WHO SEARO and other stakeholders

·                  Act as day-to-day national technical focal point for the project and perform daily requests for technical information and project implementation.

·                  Arrange regular monthly national project coordination meetings, including drafting agenda, invitation letters; communication materials; meeting reports

·                  Participate in virtual or in-person global, regional and in-country meetings related to the project.

·                  Organize national inception meeting, national capacity-building and waste management meeting in coordination with national stakeholders.

·                  Participate in regular progress meetings at a periodicity to be mutually agreed.

Provide technical expertise on implementation of components.

·         Conduct national situational analysis, following template and guidance provided.

·         Prepare draft national phase-out plan following template and guidance provided.

·         Prepare information on technical, progress and other information about the project and disseminate it through relevant channels including those of ministry of health, medical device and other technical networks.

·         Provide technical support and implementation of pilots on waste management and safe disposal of Mercury as per the Bio Medical Waste Management Rules.

2016

·         Support implementation of Pilots for substitution of mercury in health care devices

Contribute to reporting requirements of the GEF projects

·         Provide input to quarterly project status reports, including progress on workplan, budget reports and contribute to forecasting of expenditure.

·         Prepare a summary report for mid-project and end-project review.

·         Liaise with Communications team of WCO India for developing communication products related to the project

·         Liase and support Regional Advisor, EH, SEARO in organizing regional workshop to disseminate the learnings from the project in India

In addition to the above, provide other technical and administrative support to the WHO Country Office for India, as needed.

4.    Qualifications, experience, skills and languages

Educational Qualifications:  

Essential: A Post graduate degree in Environmental Sciences or allied field

Experience 

Essential: 

·         Experience of 2 years of working on Mercury, Bio Medical Waste Management especially with Government counterparts

·         Experience of working with WHO/UN agencies

·         Experience working with a range of health care settings related to the thematic area

Skills/Knowledge:

Essential:

·         Knowledge of the Indian political system, economic structures, and socio-cultural landscape, and a network of professional contacts in India

·         Experience in technical or scientific writing and oral presentations on health-related subjects to different audiences.

·         Strong organizational and scheduling skills.

·         Excellent communication, writing and editing skills.

·         Excellent data management skills.

·         Excellent interpersonal skills with the ability to build strong relationships with a variety of stakeholders across different sectors.

·         Excellent analytical and presentation skills.

·         Competence in the use of Microsoft Office (Word, PowerPoint and Excel).

·         Ability to travel domestically and to work based in New Delhi

·         Work in a fast-paced environment with minimal supervisions and handle multiple tasks and work well under pressure

Languages and level required (Basic/Intermediate/Expert):

Proficiency in English and working knowledge of Hindi and/or one additional Indian language is preferred

5.    Location

On site: WHO Country Office, New Delhi, India (please indicate office and duty station)

6.    Travel

The consultant will also be supported in taking 12 round trips to pilot implementation states, depending on the needs of the project

7.    Remuneration and budget (travel costs are excluded):

Remuneration: NO-B pay band range; monthly remuneration of INR 279,083.

Expected duration of contract: 1 September 2024 to 30 July 2025 for 11 months

Additional information

• This vacancy notice may be used to identify candidates for other similar consultancies at the same level.

• Only candidates under serious consideration will be contacted.

• A written test may be used as a form of screening.

• If your candidature is retained for interview, you will be required to provide, in advance, a scanned copy of the degree(s)/diploma(s)/certificate(s) in English required for this position.

WHO only considers higher educational qualifications obtained from an institution accredited/recognized in the World Higher Education Database (WHED), a list updated by the International Association of Universities (IAU)/United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

The list can be accessed through the link: http://www.whed.net/. Some professional certificates may not appear in the WHED and will require individual review.

• For information on WHO’s operations please visit: http://www.who.int.

• WHO is committed to workforce diversity.

• WHO has a smoke-free environment and does not recruit smokers or users of any form of tobacco.

• Applications from women are encouraged.

• WHO prides itself on a workforce that adheres to the highest ethical and professional standards and that is committed to put the WHO Values Charter into practice.

• WHO has zero tolerance towards sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA), sexual harassment and other types of abusive conduct (i.e.

Discrimination, abuse of authority and harassment).

All members of the WHO workforce have a role to play in promoting a safe and respectful workplace and should report to WHO any actual or suspected cases of SEA, sexual harassment and other types of abusive conduct. To ensure that individuals with a substantiated history of SEA, sexual harassment or other types of abusive conduct are not hired by the Organization, WHO will conduct a background verification of final candidates.

• Consultants shall perform the work as independent contractors in a personal capacity, and not as a representative of any entity or authority.

The execution of the work under a consultant contract does not create an employer/employee relationship between WHO and the Consultant.

• WHO shall have no responsibility whatsoever for any taxes, duties, social security contributions or other contributions payable by the Consultant.

The Consultant shall be solely responsible for withholding and paying any taxes, duties, social security contributions and any other contributions which are applicable to the Consultant in in each location/jurisdiction in which the work hereunder is performed, and the Consultant shall not be entitled to any reimbursement thereof by WHO.

• This assignment is subject to local recruitment and will be filled by persons recruited in the local commuting area of the duty station/assignment location

REQUIRED EDUCATION: Bachelor Degree

EXPERIENCE REQUIREMENTS: 60