CONTEXT FOR THIS CONSULTANCY
The IPC T&C Hub was established within the Integrated Health Services (HIS) department to provide coordination, leadership and comprehensive technical expertise on IPC in health care and to strengthen the support to Member States. The Hub
leads networking, advocacy and global campaigning activities to promote IPC policies and best practices and develops evidence-based guidelines, implementation strategies and tools, training resources as well as monitoring tools and systems. In collaboration
with other partners and WHO colleagues, the team also directly provides technical expertise and support to countries to strengthen or establish effective IPC programmes and adopt, adapt and implement IPC guidelines and other resources. The work of
the Hub also includes coordination of the WHO work on sepsis prevention, diagnosis and clinical management as well as providing IPC technical support to other key WHO programmes such as neonatal and maternal services, reducing the spread of AMR in
health care and health emergencies. For all these areas of work, the Hub team works across three divisions (UHL/LC, Antimicrobial Resistance and WHO Health Emergencies) through joint work plans and in close collaboration with other teams.
In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, IPC work (Pillar 6 of the Strategic preparedness and Response Plan (SPRP II)) including guidance and training development, risk communications and research, is co-led by the Hub team and the IPC team within the WHO Health Emergencies (WHE) division.
There is a need for technical expertise on IPC and implementation science to understand and monitor implementation of IPC guidance and other resources in health care facilities around the world, in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic preparedness, readiness and response and also as a fundamental pillar of quality care across health systems.
This eight-month consultancy will be established by the IPC Hub and the incumbent will work within the joint WHE and Hub team, remotely with no requirement to be based in Geneva.
SUMMARY OF DUTIES:
The focus of the incumbent's work is to develop a web platform as a learning lab for dissemination of IPC guidance and tools and for understanding country and health facility level achievements and challenges in implementation of IPC practices to protect HWs and patients during the COVID-19 pandemic, with a focus on transition to recovery, sustainability, health systems, preparedness and readiness strengthening through best IPC practices.
This will include:
- Providing technical input for the development of the platform functions and domains
- Actively participating in team meetings
- Developing questionnaires for gathering information about users
- Developing protocols and instruments for cross-sectional surveys to assess implementation
- Developing protocols and instruments for qualitative studies assessing implementation challenges and success factors
- Contributing to study analyses and results’ interpretation and writing technical reports and/or scientific articles
- Facilitating discussions among users and documenting it through reports
- Reviewing and assessing adapted IPC materials shared by the users considering implementation results
- Performing other duties related to the project as assigned
EDUCATION
Essential: An advanced level university degree (masters level or above) in Medicine, Medical Sciences or Nursing with specialization in IPC or infectious diseases and documented expertise in implementation science and/or quality
improvement.
Desirable: Postgraduate qualifications in epidemiology, statistics and/or clinical research including qualitative studies.
EXPERIENCE
Essential: A minimum seven years of progressive responsibility and experience of implementing IPC, ideally at facility, national and international levels. This should include experience of IPC implementation in a range of countries
at all levels of income (high, low and middle-income countries) and during both outbreak response and regular IPC programme/project implementation. Experience of IPC health facility assessments and subsequent development and implementation of appropriate
IPC intervention plans. Experience of IPC programme data collection and interpretation as part of quality improvement of IPC programs. Demonstrated experience in writing practical, field level IPC documentation as well scientific articles.
Desirable: Experience
in data analysis.
FUNCTIONAL/TECHNICAL SKILLS
Advanced expertise in IPC and proven experience of implementing IPC as part of outbreak response in health emergencies in low resource settings. This includes technical expertise in application of implementation science and quality improvement approaches, assessing IPC programmes at national and facility level and development and implementation of strategies and tools to reduce the spread of infection within healthcare settings. Knowledge of the WHO IPC guidance for COVID-19 and other resources, WHO IPC Core components and minimum requirements, facility assessment tools, strategies and implementation tools is essential. The incumbent must have excellent interpersonal and communication skills and be comfortable operating within a multicultural team (an English-French bilingual setting) and the ability to function in a rapidly changing and sometimes high pressure environment. The incumbent needs to be robust in the defense of ensuring that the principles of good IPC practice are applied IPC yet diplomatic and sensitive to local conditions. A practical, hands-on and results oriented approach is also required. Excellent writing skills to enable translation of technical concepts into understandable and usable documents at field level is also essential. At the same time, excellent scientific writing skills are necessary to enable contribution to publications/reports and scientific articles.
LANGUAGE SKILLS
Essential: Very high standards in written and spoken English.
Desirable: Written and spoken French and/or any other UN languages to a medium-high standard level.
COMPETENCIES:
- *Technical expertise;
- *Respecting and promoting individual and cultural differences;
- *Communication;
- Producing results;
- Teamwork
SALARY RATE: 400-480 USD per day for 20 days per month (100% FTE); lower FTE could be discussed.
CONTRACT PERIOD: August 2021-March 2022.