Contract Duration: 10 months (from the 15th March 2021)
Work Effort: Part time (20 hours per week)
Closing Date/Time for applications: 4th March 2021
The World Health Organization (WHO) has made substantive contributions to the field of disability globally, removing barriers and improving access to health services and programs for people with disabilities; extending rehabilitation, habilitation, assistive
technology, assistance and support services, and community-based rehabilitation; strengthening the collection of relevant and internationally comparable data on disability; and supporting research on disability and related services.
WHO developed the Model Disability Survey (MDS) in response to calls from Member States to strengthen the collection, analysis and use of disability data. The MDS is a survey questionnaire used to collect data about disability in a country or country
region. The MDS is grounded in the WHO International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health bio-psychosocial model of disability, thereby acknowledging disability needs to be truly understood in terms of what happens when a health condition
plays out in an individual’s real-life environment and cannot simply be inferred from the presence of the health condition or an impairment. The MDS also conceives of disability as a ‘quantity’, where every individual lies somewhere
on a continuum between no disability and severe or complete disability. In this way, the MDS enables a more robust understanding of disability, that is independent of the health condition and enables disaggregation to compare groups that experience
different degrees of disability. Through also including environmental factors, it provides all necessary information for Member States to develop and monitor evidence-informed policies and programs. The MDS has been implemented in more than 15 countries
and country regions since its development.
The WHO Sensory Functions, Disability and Rehabilitation Unit is seeking an individual to undertake a 10-month part-time consultancy to support WHO in the analysis of data gathered by the MDS and to support countries in the implementation of the survey.
The selected consultant will work in close collaboration with the Unit Head and Disability Technical Leads at headquarters and regional levels.
The scope of work for this contract consists of the following tasks:
- Perform statistical analyses to compare datasets from 15 countries where MDS has been implemented.
- Provide technical support to Member States in the implementation of the MDS.
- Provide technical training to Member States in analyzing and interpreting the MDS data and in preparing a final report with the results of the study.
- Finalize the children module of the MDS.
- Support the team in the analysis of data through the WHO Functioning and Disability Disaggregation Tool (FDD11), which is based on the capacity module of the Brief MDS.
The WHO Headquarters Office in Geneva is now inviting eligible individuals to indicate their interest in undertaking this work. Interested parties must provide information indicating why they are qualified to perform the described tasks, including CV,
description of similar assignments, and examples of relevant reports or publications. The contracting party will be selected through a competitive process in accordance with WHO’s operating policies and procedures on procurement of services.
The expected start date is 15th March 2021. The work under this consultant contract does not need to be undertaken at WHO Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. The contractual party will be remunerated at a monthly rate that is commensurate
with their experience and based on the UN common salary scale.
Work effort: Part time (20 hours per week) for 10 months.
Qualifications and experiences required:
- Advanced university degree in statistics, public health, or a health-related field.
- Demonstrated experience in conducting analyses with large data bases proceeding from populations-based studies.
- Proven knowledge of technical aspects in disability.
- Ability to conduct research and integrate evidence in advocacy documents.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English.
- Excellent interpersonal skills.
Expressions of interest must be received no later than 4th March 2021. Please include a copy of your CV as well as a description of similar work undertaken. The expressions of interest are to be delivered electronically to Dr Kaloyan Kamenov at the following email address: kamenovk@who.int.