Program Management Associate Officer

WHO is the directing and coordinating authority for health work of an international character within the United Nations system. It is responsible for leading global health action, setting health research agendas, setting standards and benchmarks, presenting evidence-based policy options, providing technical support to countries, and monitoring and to assess trends in public health.
In the 21st century, health is a shared responsibility that requires equitable access to essential care and collective defense against transnational threats.

The mission of WHO’s Emergency Preparedness and Response (EPR) Programme (WHE) is to build the capacity of Member States to manage health emergency risks and, when national capacities are overwhelmed, to lead and coordinate the international health response to contain outbreaks and to provide effective relief and recovery to affected populations. The Health Emergency Information and Risk Assessment (HIR) Programme area of the EPR focuses on four major streams of work: (i) enhancing public health intelligence for early detection and risk assessment of health events; (ii) strengthening public health surveillance (PHI) and epidemiology based on the IDSR framework; and (iii) modernizing information management systems and data analytics; and (iv) supporting countries in laboratory diagnostics and genomic surveillance.
The WHO in the African Region has been implementing the Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response (IDSR) strategy for the past two decades as a platform for public health surveillance. The IDSR framework achieved major milestones over the years, with huge surveillance infrastructure established in 46 Member States in the African region. None-the-less, implementation of IDSR also encountered several challenges. These gaps became apparent during the Covid-19 pandemic when IDSR structures and systems were overwhelmed, with no capability to adapt. In the bid to strengthen public health surveillance in the African region, WHO AFRO developed the Transforming African Surveillance Systems (TASS) Flagship Initiative to consolidate progress and address gaps in IDSR implementation in all Member States in the region. The TASS project will focus on fully implementing the IDSR strategy including leveraging new technologies to reduce the time to identify and control public health threats
WHO AFRO opened Regional Emergency Hubs to support countries more effectively, in close cooperation with partners and the broader United Nations ecosystem. The Dakar Hub covers 27 member states in the western and central African region and accordingly, supports crucial HIR unit activities in these countries. The primary objective of this position is to support the HIR project area in the Dakar Hub on its core work on project management, project coordination, Project monitoring and evaluation, project impact assessment, stakeholder management, project facilitation, project administration decisions across WHO and Member States.

Under the overall guidance of the EPR Hub Coordinator and the EPR Health Information and Risk Assessment Programme Area Manager, the incumbent will:

-Support the following up of the sub-regional work in the area of program management and coordination.

-Contribute to the effective management and coordination of HIR projects across as-signed regions, ensuring high-impact delivery aligned with WHO's goals, while ensur-ing consistent and collaborative project execution.

-Assist with strengthening of internal and external communication with stakeholders at all levels of WHO and external partners to enhance project outcomes and strategic alignment and guaranteeing alignment and compliance with WHO's policies and the HIR’s strategic objectives to maximize the impact of current projects.

-Support successful attainment of objectives and expected results in high-impact pro-ject delivery, collaborative execution, and strong stakeholder communication, with fo-cus on initiating, negotiating and strengthening partnerships with a broad range of ex-perts, policymakers and representatives of multi- and bilateral agencies, the UN and agencies, Member States, NGOs, academic and public health institutions.