Issued on: 16 January 2023
Extended deadline: 31 March 2023
The World Health Organization (WHO) is seeking experts to serve as members of the Strategic and Technical Advisory Group on Tuberculosis. This “Call for experts” provides information about the Advisory Group (AG) in question, the expert profiles being sought, the process to express interest, and the process of selection.
Background
Tuberculosis (TB) continues to impact every part of the world, in particular, affecting vulnerable populations and the most disadvantaged communities worldwide. In order to accelerate progress towards ending TB, the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals and the WHO’s End TB Strategy set out ambitious targets to reduce TB deaths and prevent new TB cases. Further, Member States have reiterated their commitment through the first UN Political Declaration on TB to work towards universal health access and ensure sustainable financing for TB care, research and innovation and accountability across all sectors.
As part of its mandate, WHO, through its Global TB Programme, continues to work with stakeholders to ensure that its priorities are relevant and aligned to meet the needs of individuals and communities at risk of or affected by TB. One of the means to do so is through the support of the Strategic and Technical Advisory Group on Tuberculosis (STAG-TB). STAG-TB was established in 2000 to help guide priorities and provide strategic recommendations to WHO, based on independent reviews of progress made and challenges faced by Member States, with the aim of facilitating the achievement of global targets and milestones.
Functions
of the Strategic and Technical Advisory Group on Tuberculosis
In its capacity as an advisory body to WHO, the AG shall have the following functions:
- To advise WHO on the prioritization of WHO’s strategies and activities in TB prevention and care;
- To review, from a scientific and technical viewpoint, progress and challenges in WHO's TB-related core functions, including:
2.1. The content, scope and dimension of WHO's development of TB policies, strategies and standards in TB prevention and care;
2.2. The content, scope and dimension of WHO's collaboration, and support of, countries’ efforts to end TB, including the WHO provision of guidance, technical assistance and capacity-building on policies, strategies and standards;
2.3. The content, scope and dimensions of WHO's TB epidemiological surveillance, monitoring, evaluation and research activities, their relevance to countries’ efforts to end the TB epidemic, and approaches to be adopted;
2.4. The content, scope and dimensions of WHO's promotion and support of partnerships, advocacy and communications towards ending TB worldwide.
- To review and make recommendations on the establishment of committees, working groups, and other means through which scientific and technical matters are addressed; and
- To advise on priorities for potential areas of collaboration within WHO, on activities related to TB prevention and care.
Operations of the Strategic and Technical Advisory Group on Tuberculosis
Members of the STAG-TB serve in their personal capacity, representing a broad range of disciplines and technical areas relevant to TB prevention, diagnosis, treatment, care and innovation. Members are appointed by the WHO Director-General ensuring adequate distribution of technical expertise and geographical representation and gender balance. Each member shall be appointed to serve for a period of three years and shall be eligible for reappointment.
Members of the STAG-TB are normally convened at least once each year. However, WHO may convene additional meetings. Meetings may be held in person (at WHO headquarters in Geneva or another location, as determined by WHO) or virtually, via video or teleconference. Open sessions shall be convened for the sole purpose of the exchange of non-confidential information and views, and may be attended by Observers. Sessions dealing with advice to WHO shall be restricted to STAG-TB members and essential WHO Secretariat staff.
Active participation is expected from all STAG-TB members, including in teleconferences, and interaction over email. Members may, in advance of meetings, be requested to review meeting documentation and to provide their views for consideration by the AG.
STAG-TB members are expected to attend meetings. If a member misses two consecutive meetings, WHO may end their appointment as a member of the AG.
Meetings will be conducted in English. All STAG-TB documentation, including reports and working documents, will be provided in English.
For additional information about the operations of STAG-TB, please see the Terms of Reference.
Who can express interest?
STAG-TB is multidisciplinary, with members who have a range of technical knowledge, skills and experience relevant to public health, health policy development, health systems strengthening and other key areas necessary to properly advise on critical aspects of WHO's work towards ending TB.
Approximately, up to 20 experts may be selected. WHO welcomes expressions of interest from public health professionals, clinicians and researchers with expertise in at least one of the following areas:
- Health economics and finance
- Epidemiology and infectious disease control
- TB-related technical areas (management & care; diagnostics; vaccines; research; etc)
- Implementation of policies related to the care and provisions of TB services
- International health policy
- Public health strategy development
- Health policy analysis
- Multisectoral action
- Ethics, equity, human rights and gender considerations in regulation to protect public health
- Advocacy and community engagement
Submitting your expression of interest
To register your interest in being considered for STAG-TB, please submit the following documents through the below link by 31 March 2023, 24:00h (midnight) Geneva time:
- A cover letter, indicating your motivation to apply and how you satisfy the selection criteria. Please note that, if selected, membership will be in a personal capacity. Therefore do not use the letterhead or other identification of your employer);
- Your curriculum vitae; and
- A signed and completed Declaration of Interests (DOI) form for WHO Experts, available at here.
After submission, your expression of interest will be reviewed by WHO. Due to an expected high volume of interest, only selected individuals will be informed by no later than 31 July 2023.
Important information about the selection processes and conditions of appointment
Members of WHO advisory groups (AGs) must be free of any real, potential or apparent conflicts of interest. To this end, applicants are required to complete the WHO Declaration of Interests for WHO Experts, and the selection as a member of an AG is, amongst other things, dependent on WHO determining that there is no conflict of interest or that any identified conflicts could be appropriately managed (in addition to WHO’s evaluation of an applicant’s experience, expertise and motivation and other criteria).
All AG members will serve in their individual expert capacity and shall not represent any governments, any commercial industries or entities, any research, academic or civil society organizations, or any other bodies, entities, institutions or organizations. They are expected to fully comply with the Code of Conduct for WHO Experts. AG members will be expected to sign and return a completed confidentiality undertaking prior to the beginning of the first meeting.
At any point during the selection process, telephone interviews may be scheduled between an applicant and the WHO Secretariat to enable WHO to ask questions relating to the applicant’s experience and expertise and/or to assess whether the applicant meets the criteria for membership in the relevant AG.
The selection of members of the AGs will be made by WHO in its sole discretion, taking into account the following (non-exclusive) criteria: relevant technical expertise; experience in international and country policy work; communication skills; and ability to work constructively with people from different cultural backgrounds and orientations. The selection of AG members will also take account of the need for diverse perspectives from different regions, especially from low and middle-income countries, and for gender balance.
If selected by WHO, proposed members will be sent an invitation letter and a Memorandum of Agreement. Appointment as a member of an AG will be subject to the proposed member returning to WHO the countersigned copy of these two documents.
WHO reserves the right to accept or reject any expression of interest, to annul the open call process and reject all expressions of interest at any time without incurring any liability to the affected applicant or applicants and without any obligation to inform the affected applicant or applicants of the grounds for WHO's action. WHO may also decide, at any time, not to proceed with the establishment of the AG, disband an existing TAG or modify the work of the AG.
WHO shall not in any way be obliged to reveal, or discuss with any applicant, how an expression of interest was assessed, or to provide any other information relating to the evaluation/selection process or to state the reasons for not choosing a member.
WHO may publish the names and a short biography of the selected individuals on the WHO internet.
AG members will not be remunerated for their services in relation to the AG or otherwise. Travel and accommodation expenses of AG members to participate in AG meetings will be covered by WHO in accordance with its applicable policies, rules and procedures.
The appointment will be limited in time as indicated in the letter of appointment.
If you have any questions about this “Call for experts”, please write to gtbprogramme@who.int well before the applicable deadline.