OBJECTIVES OF THE PROGRAMME

The Division of Country Health Policies and Systems (CPS) assists countries in the Region with the design and implementation of appropriate health policies and systems to strengthen universal health coverage. It works to strengthen data-driven, evidence-informed, contextually tailored health policy development and implementation at national, regional, and local levels, taking an inclusive approach across the life course. The Division advocates strengthening of public health leadership, focusing on implementing policies that are people centered, promote health, prevent illness, and address the social and economic determinants of health, while fostering leadership on equity, human rights, and gender mainstreaming in health.

It focuses on building capacity for health systems innovation to enable the sustainable delivery of high-quality primary health and community services that are effectively linked to hospitals, and mental health, public health and social care services. To do so, CPS supports country efforts to facilitate access so as to leave nobody behind, to improve financial protection, to strengthen the health workforce, to increase access to affordable medicines and technologies, and to promote the uptake and implementation of digital technology.

The WHO European Centre of Excellence for Quality of Care and Patient Safety located in Athens (Athens Quality of Care Office/QoC), works to achieve the highest level of well-being, health, and health protection in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). Its main aims to support the Member States in the European region, with a special focus on southern European countries, in building safe, qualitative, effective, and resilient health systems at the core of post-COVID-19 strategies.

The Athens Office acts on the following major areas: Country support, national strategies and frameworks and sharing lessons to scale up successful interventions. This involves inter alia documenting and collating practices and country-specific assistance for strengthening quality of care and patient safety. Quality of care and patient safety innovation and knowledge synthesis. This includes the creation of an innovation hub to share novel quality of care and patient safety approaches. Policy analysis in the sphere of quality of care and patient safety.

This stream of work aims to systematize evidence on quality of care and patient safety to inform national health policies. Network building, alliances, and stakeholder engagement. Under this pillar partnerships with relevant stakeholders such as leading academic institutions and think tanks are developed and scaled up. Implementation of a Framework for Quality Measurement & Assessment of Health Care and of services project – HEALTHIQ” started in July 2023 aims at a) the development of a documented methodological guidebook for the establishment of permanent procedures for recording and measuring key indicators of qualitative performance regarding patient care, health needs and the provision of health services, b) the pilot implementation of human-centered quality health systems, which maximize the value of health care, through rationalization of costs and the assurance of equal access to provided health services for all and c) the dissemination of health quality standards, which will arise via the project, to all Member States of the European WHO region that face similar challenges with Greece.

DESCRIPTION OF DUTIES

Under the supervision of an operations professional or higher-level support staff, the incumbent will support the delivery of services and transactions, in the relevant office, in one or more of WHO’s specialized operational areas and subdisciplines, such as finance, human resources, procurement, logistics, and/or information technology management.

Key duties:

The incumbent will perform all, or part of the following, and other related responsibilities as required by the needs of the office:

• Support the delivery of services and transactions in one or more of the specialized, operational areas and subdisciplines (such as human resources management, procurement, and/or information technology management).
• Share information with clients, staff and partners on the procedures, rules, and regulations for the respective service lines.
• Maintain consistency in approach and adherence to the respective procedures, rules, and regulations in the delivery of services and transactions.
• Support the delivery of the relevant standard processes, transactions, services and work products to be aligned with business plans and in adherence to rules, regulations, and procedures.
• Escalate to the supervisor areas in which processes and procedures can be improved to deliver optimal client service, efficiency and effectiveness.
• Support training in relevant areas of business operations support for clients and staff.

Financial support services

• Perform a range of finance-support services under technical guidance, including impress accounts and payments, budget administration, financial monitoring, income and awards administration.

Human Resources support service

• Support the administration of the human resources plan and human resources support services including the following sub-disciplines: contract management; staff recruitment, selection, onboarding and briefing of new staff.

Procurement support services

• Procure goods/ services including support to purchase requisitions, administering tender/ bidding process and supporting supplier management.

Information technology support services

• Provide elements of information technology support services to support the day-to-day operation of the collaboration and network infrastructure, as well as common applications (such as shared directory) and the implementation, administration and maintenance of select associated hardware and software.

Other operational service areas

• Provide support for logistics and transportation administration, including the warehouses, management of the office vehicles, supervision of drivers, and all related activities.
• Administer the inventory of supplies and organizational assets.
• Travel administration, processing requests, visa issuances, flight and hotel bookings and follow up on travel related issues.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

Education

Essential: Completion of secondary education.

Training and certification in one or more UN operational service areas or systems.

Experience

Essential: A minimum of three years of work experience relevant to the position (administrative support services and transactions in the operational support area, including finance, and/or human resources, and/or procurement, and information technology management support).

Desirable: Experience in administrative support positions within WHO or another United Nations agency. Experience in Oracle-based systems or another enterprise resource planning system.

Skills

• Knowledge of WHO’s support procedures, and practices in one or more of the following specialized operations’ support disciplines: financial, human resources, procurement and/or information technology support services.
• Strong interpersonal skills
• Flexibility to adapt to competing priorities and work in a fast-paced environment.
• Proficiency in computers and office software packages, handling of web-based management systems, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems and Cloud Management Enterprise System such as Workday.
• Ability to identify and manage one’s own emotions, as well as helping others to do the same.

WHO Competencies

• Teamwork
• Respecting and promoting individual and cultural differences
• Communication
• Producing results
• Ensuring the effective use of resources

Use of Language Skills

Essential: Expert knowledge of English.

Expert knowledge of Local Language.
Desirable: Intermediate knowledge of French, Russian and/or German.

REMUNERATION

WHO offers staff in the General Services category an attractive remuneration package, which for the above position includes an annual net base salary starting at EUR 25,772 (subject to mandatory deductions for pension contributions and health insurance, as applicable) and 30 days of annual leave.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

• This vacancy notice may be used to fill other similar positions at the same grade level
• Only candidates under serious consideration will be contacted.
• A written test and/or an asynchronous video assessment may be used as a form of screening.
• In the event that your candidature is retained for an interview, you will be required to provide, in advance, a scanned copy of the degree(s)/diploma(s)/certificate(s) 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.

• According to 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.

  Due regard will be paid to the importance of recruiting the staff on as wide a geographical basis as possible.

• Any appointment/extension of appointment is subject to WHO Staff Regulations, Staff Rules and Manual.
• The WHO is committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment of mutual respect. The WHO recruits and employs staff regardless of disability status, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, language, race, marital status, religious, cultural, ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds, or any other personal characteristics.
• The WHO is committed to achieving gender parity and geographical diversity in its staff.

  Women, persons with disabilities, and nationals of unrepresented and underrepresented Member States (https://www.who.int/careers/diversity-equity-and-inclusion) are strongly encouraged to apply.

• Persons with disabilities can request reasonable accommodations to enable participation in the recruitment process. Requests for reasonable accommodation should be sent through an email to reasonableaccommodation@who.int
• An impeccable record for integrity and professional ethical standards is essential. 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.

• WHO has a smoke-free environment and does not recruit smokers or users of any form of tobacco.
• For information on WHO’s operations please visit: http://www.who.int.
• WHO also offers wide range of benefits to staff, including parental leave and attractive flexible work arrangements to help promote a healthy work-life balance and to allow all staff members to express and develop their talents fully.
• The statutory retirement age for staff appointments is 65 years.

  For external applicants, only those who are expected to complete the term of appointment will normally be considered.

• Please note that WHO’s contracts are conditional on members of the workforce confirming that they are vaccinated as required by WHO before undertaking a WHO assignment, except where a medical condition does not allow such vaccination, as certified by the WHO Staff Health and Wellbeing Services (SHW). The successful candidate will be asked to provide relevant evidence related to this condition.

  A copy of the updated vaccination card must be shared with WHO medical service in the medical clearance process. Please note that certain countries require proof of specific vaccinations for entry or exit. For example, official proof /certification of yellow fever vaccination is required to enter many countries. Country-specific vaccine recommendations can be found on the WHO international travel and Staff Health and Wellbeing website. For vaccination-related queries please directly contact SHW directly at [email protected].

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