Purpose of the Position

In line with WHO Health Emergencies Programme mandate and in the context of the deployment of qualified emergency personnel to support response teams during health emergencies, the purpose of this vacancy announcement is to identify suitable candidates for the WHO emergency Operations Support and Logistics (OSL) roster to perform the following functions.

Position Description Summary

The Information Management Officer (IMO) is a key player in supporting emergency health response efforts through advanced data management, analysis, and information visualization. By establishing comprehensive data systems, the IMO enables health response teams to make timely, data-driven decisions and ensures seamless information sharing among partners. This role is critical for accurately tracking health supply needs, logistics, and operational requirements, as well as for monitoring the impact of health response activities during emergencies.
The IMO provides cross-functional support to Incident Management Teams, collecting, consolidating, and standardizing health logistics data into dashboards and mapping tools to visualize and track health partner needs and deliveries. In collaboration with Health Partners, including IASC Clusters, sectors, NGO consortiums, humanitarian actors, and national health teams.

The IMO also manages daily updates to databases and dashboards, refining information management systems to improve data consolidation and accessibility.

As a member of the WHO Emergency OSL roster, the IMO may be deployed to assist in emergency operations based on expertise and experience.

Objectives of the Programme and of the immediate Strategic Objective

The mission of WHO’s Health Emergencies Programme is to strengthen emergency technical capacities of countries, and to act as a backstop to coordinate international action, to prevent, prepare for, detect, rapidly respond to, and recover from outbreaks and emergencies.
Organizational context:

Under the supervision of the OSL Lead and/or the Incident Manager, guided by the Head of WHO Country Office, working closely with relevant counterparts including WHO, partners, and national personnel, the incumbent acts as the Logistics Specialist to provide support to WHO emergency team on the field and to the Ministry of Health of the host country. Activities involves regular contacts and information sharing with relevant WHO responders as well as with a broad range of actors from the Ministry of Health (MOH), to provide emergency technical support and to contribute to the development and implementation of logistics plans of action.

Summary of Assigned Duties

During deployment, the duty station may change, and duties may be modified, based upon the technical needs of the Programme, which is determined by the nature and scale of the emergencies in which the Programme is being involved. The incumbent will perform all or part of the following duties:

Generic OSL duties:

• Identify and propose proactively solutions to improve logistics and operations.
• Share adequately information, tools and knowledge with colleagues, relevant partners, and recipients, contribute to situation reports, activity dashboards and other communication products.
• Contribute to the performance of emergency procurement activities with relevant actors.
• Coordinate activities with partners and recipients whenever relevant and possible.
• Prioritize sustainable activities with capacity building and transfer of knowledge to national actors and partners, whenever possible.
• Apply and demonstrate WHO emergency competencies (cf. WHE learning strategy-companion document on competency framework).
• In line with UN charters, promote diversity, gender equity, environmentally friendly solutions, and humanitarian localisation principles whenever possible.
• Know and apply UN principles for Duty of Care of personnel, SPHERE standards, WHO Charter and values, as well as UN policies for the prevention sexual abuse and exploitation.

Specific duties

• Data Management Platform Setup and Integration
• Set up data management platforms to capture, manage, and share critical information on health supply needs and operational activities as required.
• Implementation of Information Management Systems
• Build and maintain databases to consolidate health response data, ensuring accurate and timely dissemination to stakeholders.
• Dashboard Development and Visualization
• Design and develop visualizations that present detailed insights into health supply needs, service delivery, and overall response operations and progress, enhancing transparency and decision-making.
• Data Integration and Advanced Analysis
• Integrate datasets from existing health information systems, such as HeRAMS, EWARS, ArcGIS applications and other large datasets managed through Python, SQL, or Excel.
• Utilize geospatial and artificial intelligence (AI) platforms to generate maps and advanced visualizations that complement dashboard data, offering a comprehensive view of the key aspects of the health response.
• Data Harmonization and Categorization
• Highlight critical health logistics considerations, including prioritization, storage, transportation, in and outbound logistics considerations, risks, constraints, hazards, and timelines.
• Stakeholder Coordination and Cross-Sector Collaboration
• Act as a liaison with clusters, sectors, NGO consortiums, and national health actors to incorporate cross-cutting data relevant to all health response stakeholders.
• Data Accessibility and Operationalization
• Avoid creating dependencies by actively transferring knowledge and tools to WHO colleagues, response partners, and national actors, supporting the long-term sustainability of information management systems.
• Standard Operating Procedures and Training
• Develop and refine information management operating procedures, ensuring best practices in data management, analysis, and reporting.

Competencies

• Teamwork
• Respecting and promoting individual and cultural differences
• Communication
• Producing results
• Moving forward in a changing environment
• Ensuring the effective use of resources

Functional Knowledge and Skills

• Demonstrated knowledge of operations and health logistics specialities in emergency context, with proven ability to identify and solve technical problems in difficult circumstances.
• Excellent analytical and organizational skills.
• Proven ability to share information and knowledge, and to strengthen recipients’ capacities.
• Excellent interpersonal skills and ability to work and collaborate under pressure.
• Proven ability to promote cohesive action, teamwork and to convince with tact and diplomacy.

Education

Essential
A degree, in Computer Sciences, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Information Systems, Information Management, Business Information Technology, Digital and Media Management, Statistics, or other related fields from an accredited/recognized institute. Additional years of experience can be considered in lieu of university degrees.
For P3 grading a first level university degree and a minimum of 5 years of experience are required.
Candidates without a first level university degree can apply if they can demonstrate at least 8 years of professional experience in relevant activities.
For P4 grading a master’s degree and a minimum of 7 years of experience are required.
Candidates without a master’s degree, but with a first level university degree can apply if they can demonstrate at least 11 years of professional experience in relevant activities.

Desirable

• Certification/qualification/training in computing and digital technologies areas such as graphics programming and coding, Information Management and dashboarding.
• Specialized training in logistics for emergency and/or humanitarian responses, specialization in information management systems, specific training in humanitarian response or information management in emergencies.

Experience

Essential

• Significant Experience with Data Base, Information Management and data visualization.
• Experience with Data Analysis and Monitoring and Evaluation,

Desirable

• Experience with applications such as ArcGIS, GeoPanda, Raspberry Pi, Python, Javascript, Tableau, MS Power BI, Advanced Excel, SQL and other data analysis and graphics coding tools.
• Experience in Public Health and/or emergency health logistics at both national and international levels within international organizations and institutions, with a significant portion providing field support for emergency humanitarian operations.
• Experience with medical supply chains management
• Working experience with WHO/UN, clusters partners, recognized humanitarian organizations or with an international nongovernmental organization. Field experience during emergencies, humanitarian crisis.

Language Skills

• Excellent knowledge of English and/or French (depending on the country of assignment).
• Working knowledge of another WHO official language (Arabic, Russian, Spanish,) would be an asset.
• Working knowledge of Hindi, Portuguese, and Swahili or another local language also an asset.

Other Skills

• Strong knowledge of Microsoft Office applications.
• Good knowledge of geographic information systems, Open Data Kit (ODK) and other open-source mobile data collection and dashboarding platforms
• Demonstrated skills using innovative ICT technologies for data collection, data management, data sharing and visualization.

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) 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.
•    The WHO is committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment of mutual respect. The WHO recruits workforce 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 workforce. 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 for WHO jobs.
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 (https://www.who.int/about/who-we-are/our-values) 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 short-listed candidates.
•    WHO has a smoke-free environment and does not recruit smokers or users of any form of tobacco.
•    Consultants shall perform the work as independent contractors in a personal capacity, and not as a representative of any entity or authority.
•    WHO shall have no responsibility 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 each location/jurisdiction in which the work hereunder is performed, and the Consultant shall not be entitled to any reimbursement thereof by WHO.
•    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 shws@who.int.
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•    Consultants working in Switzerland must register with the applicable Swiss cantonal tax authorities and social security authorities, within the prescribed timeframes (Guidelines issued by the Swiss Mission are available at: https://www.eda.admin.ch/missions/mission-onu-geneve/en/home/manual-regime-privileges-and-immunities/introduction/Manuel-personnes-sans-privileges-et-immunites-carte-H/Non fonctionnaires et stagiaires.html

The purpose of this vacancy is to develop a list of qualified candidates for inclusion in the advertised roster. Successful candidates will be placed on the roster and subsequently may be selected for consultancy assignments; however, contracting of rostered candidates is not guaranteed.

This Vacancy Notice is open to external candidates, staff on temporary appointments, consultants and SSA holders who meet the minimum requirements of the position. 

Level of Education: Bachelor Degree

Work Hours: 8

Experience in Months: No requirements