The World Health Organization (WHO) is seeking individual experts to serve as members of the WHO Technical Advisory Group on Occupational Burden of Disease Estimation. This “Call for experts” provides information about this Advisory Group (AG), the expert profiles being sought, the process to express interest, and the selection process.
Background
WHO has produced global, regional and national estimates of the occupational burden of disease for over 20 years. One recent example of these are the WHO/International Labour Organization Joint Estimates of the Work-related Burden of Disease and Injury1, which WHO recognizes as a Global Public Health Good.
These WHO health estimates are produced according to the Organization’s strict statistical standards, guidelines and procedures. These estimates are normally generated from global to national level and disaggregated by sex and age group. They are reported according to the GATHER Guidelines for Accurate and Transparent Health Estimates Reporting2.
WHO is convening an AG of individual experts, called the WHO Technical Advisory Group on Occupational Burden of Disease Estimation, to support the production, publication and dissemination of its estimates of exposure to occupational risk factors and occupational burden of disease.
Functions of the Technical Advisory Group on Occupational Burden of Disease Estimation
- To advise WHO on the evidence base and input parameters to produce estimates of exposure to occupational risk factors and occupational burden of disease;
- To review WHO estimates of exposure to occupational risk factors and occupational burden of disease and provide technical feedback on these estimates; and
- To contribute to the publication and dissemination of WHO estimates of exposure to occupational risk factors and occupational burden of disease.
Operations of the Technical Advisory Group on Occupational Burden of Disease Estimation
The Technical Advisory Group on Occupational Burden of Disease Estimation is expected to meet at least once a year. All AG meetings will be held virtually, but interim teleconferences with selected group members may also be required. The WHO Secretariat will share products (including estimates and publications) with the AG by email for the members to review and provide advice in a timely manner (to be specified for each task). The working language of the group will be English.
Who can express interest?
The Technical Advisory Group on Occupational Burden of Disease Estimation will be multidisciplinary, comprising members with a range of technical knowledge, skills and experience relevant to modelling occupational risk factor exposure and/or occupational burden of disease. WHO will select approximately five to ten individual experts to the AG. WHO welcomes expressions of interest from scientists, healthcare professionals and healthcare regulators with expertise in the following areas:
- Burden of disease modelling;
- Global health;
- Occupational cancer;
- Occupational epidemiology;
- Occupational exposure science; and
- Occupational medicine.
Submitting your expression of interest
To register your interest in being considered for the Technical Advisory Group on Occupational Burden of Disease Estimation, please submit the following documents by 22 August 2022 to pegaf@who.int using the subject line “Expression of interest for the WHO Technical Advisory Group on Occupational Burden of Disease Estimation”:
- 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 https://www.who.int/about/ethics/declarations-of-interest.
After submission, your expression of interest will be reviewed by WHO. Due to an expected high volume of interest, only selected individuals will be contacted.
Important information about the selection processes and conditions of appointment
Members of WHO 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 (https://www.who.int/about/ethics/declarations-of-interest). 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 AG 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 pegaf@who.int well before the applicable deadline.