WHE Global External Emergency Roster - Emergency Health Logistics and Supply Partner Coordination Officer

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

The role of the Emergency Health Logistics and Supply Partner Coordination Officer is to provide technical expertise in health logistics, establishing and utilizing coordination tools and systems to support the design and fulfillment of Health Response Plans developed by WHO, member states, and emergency response partners in response to health events.

The Emergency Health Logistics and Supply Partner Coordination Officer is a key player in supporting emergency health logistics response efforts. Working in coordination with the Incident Management Teams (IMT) Operations Support and Logistics (OSL) pillar led by the OSL lead at Country and/or Regional levels, s/he supports the setup, coordination and deployment of Health Logistics services to WHO’s and MS Health response partners including IASC related Clusters when activated, Sectors, NGO consortiums, humanitarian actors, national and community based response teams, in compliance with WHO mandate, rules and procedures.

The Emergency Health Logistics and Supply Partner Coordination Officer plays a crucial part in contributing to establishing, coordinating and steering the response strategic and operational logistics plans of actions and contributing to resource mobilization activities to identify and respond to needs and gaps, and by preventing duplications and gaps whenever necessary.

To achieve effective collaborations and coordination among Health logistics Partners, the Emergency Health Logistics and Supply Partner Coordination Officer establish, enhances and steer a partner collaborative platform on the site of the emergency, ensuring collaborative establishment/enhancing of health logistics capacity matching response requirement as well as coordinated and prioritized supply line in the response ecosystem.

As a member of the WHO Emergency OSL roster, the Emergency Health Logistics and Supply Partner Coordination Officer 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 Incident Manager, guided by the Head of WHO Country Office, working within the relevant health partner coordination system (HC or other Health partner coordination platform), the incumbent acts as the Health Logistics and Supply expert to 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 broad range of actors from the Ministry of Health (MOH), health emergency response partners and WHO responders to provide emergency technical support and guidance, to contribute to the development and implementation of logistics plans of action pertaining to health emergencies priority actions agreed upon with the emergency response leadership, partners and recipients.

Summary of 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:

• Proactively Identify, propose and establish collaborative solutions to improve health logistics operations and global essential health supply flow.
• Establish agile sharing information, tools and knowledge platform, ensuring information flow among relevant partners, and recipients, contribute to situation reports, activity dashboards and other communication products.
• 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

• Establish and Manage Health Logistics Coordination Platform for Incident Management Teams and Health Logistics Partners.
• Build and maintain a strong network of health logistics partners, actively supporting the coordination mechanism.
• Ensure that UN/WHO emergency health operations guidelines, technical guidance, and critical information are accessible to all stakeholders.
• Represent the Health Logistics Task Force in health and logistics cluster meetings, facilitating effective two-way communication and information sharing between clusters.
• Lead the health logistics task force dedicated to specific emergencies, coordinating efforts for efficient response with all health emergency stakeholders.
• Contribute strategic insights and guidance to the development of Integrated Emergency Response Plans (WHO/National Strategic Response, Humanitarian Response Plan, etc.), including budget considerations.
• Manage Integrated Pipeline of Essential Health Emergency Response Supplies.
• Monitor global emergency stock levels (including those held by Ministries of Health and health partners) and proactively alert stakeholders about potential gaps.
• Design and recommend logistics support frameworks for global supply, covering customs clearance, storage, cold chain, and distribution requirements, working closely with health and logistics clusters.
• Develop and formalize guidance and operating procedures for importation processes.
• Provide partners with clear guidance on each step of the importation process, including a list of key contacts and authorities.
• Act as a liaison between partners and relevant authorities to ensure smooth importation, clearance, regulatory compliance, and timely access to necessary supplies.
• Monitor and Optimize Health Emergency Operations
• Develop and implement monitoring tools and indicators to measure the quality, reach, and impact of health logistics support.
• Share insights and performance metrics with WHO teams, partners, and other stakeholders to inform adjustments and improve outcomes in ongoing and future health emergency operations.

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 specialties 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 Public Health, Pharmacy, Business Administration, Management, Logistics, 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 Supply Chain Management, Strategic and operational planning, Quality management.

Specialized training in Emergency management, logistics for emergency and/or humanitarian responses.

Experience

Essential

• Significant Experience with management of Health commodities, strategic and operational planning, inbound customs clearance and importation measures, network and working group coordination.
• Experience with Monitoring and Evaluation of emergency operations.

Desirable

• 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 global emergency response planning for Health or Humanitarian emergencies.
• Working experience with WHO/UN, OCHA, clusters partners, recognized humanitarian organizations or with an international nongovernmental organization. Field experience during emergencies, humanitarian crisis.
• Experience with geographic information system (GIS) tools, mobile data collection and graphic dashboarding platforms and tools.

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.
• 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 atshws@who.int.
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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.