National Professional Officer

Job Posting Organization:
The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for international public health. Established on April 7, 1948, WHO's mission is to promote health, keep the world safe, and serve vulnerable populations. The organization operates in over 150 countries and has a workforce of more than 7,000 employees. WHO aims to achieve universal health coverage, protect people from health emergencies, and promote healthier populations.

Job Overview:
The National Professional Officer position is crucial for leading the humanitarian health response in Yemen, particularly in Al Hudaydah. The role involves ensuring effective coordination among various stakeholders, including the Ministry of Health, NGOs, and international agencies, to address health-related issues arising from emergencies and protracted crises. The officer will be responsible for mobilizing resources, facilitating emergency and resilience programs, and ensuring that health needs are met in alignment with the United Nations country teams. The position requires a proactive approach to monitoring health responses, conducting situational analyses, and providing technical input for humanitarian response plans and proposals. The officer will also support disease surveillance and health needs assessments to identify gaps and needs in targeted areas, ensuring that the health cluster partners adhere to quality standards and best practices.

Duties and Responsibilities:

• Undertake close follow-up with the Ministry of Health and other partners on the proper and timely implementation of program activities.
• Maintain regular contact with all stakeholders in the health cluster and existing coordination mechanisms, including governmental agencies, NGOs, Community-based Organizations (CBOs), and international agencies.
• Maintain records of requests, correspondences, and activities taking place in the targeted areas and submit regular reports. Conduct situational analysis and make recommendations on actions to be taken.
• Support in collecting information from all partners to develop a regularly updated 4W (Who/Where/What/When) to ensure appropriate response monitoring. Share relevant information with stakeholders as appropriate.
• Work with Information Management Officers to prepare various maps, tools, and dashboards to visualize and analyze cluster response, health needs, and gaps.
• Support the disease surveillance team in outbreak investigation and response activities in the designated area.
• Compile national and sub-national level preparedness needs and facilitate distribution of supplies from WHO and partners in response to specific scenarios.
• Undertake basic health needs assessments and support HeRAMS assessment to identify gaps and needs in target areas.
• Provide technical input in the development of situation reports (sit-reps), humanitarian response plans, FLASH Appeals, CERF, HF, or similar proposals. 1
• Support in promoting adherence to quality standards and best practices by all health cluster partners, taking into account the need for local adaptation. 1
• Perform other duties as assigned by supervisors.

Required Qualifications:
Essential: A university degree in medicine or public health. Desirable: A study in health systems would be an asset or an advanced degree in public health. Skills required include a good knowledge of health cluster, health system, and policy processes, knowledge of WHO mandate and goals, ability to summarize and prepare clear and precise papers and documents, ability to work independently and under pressure, and excellent ability to work and deliver quality results in pressing and conflicting priorities.

Educational Background:
Candidates must possess a university degree in medicine or public health. An advanced degree in public health or a study in health systems is considered an asset and may enhance the candidate's profile for this position.

Experience:
Candidates should have at least 1 year of experience at the national level in health systems coordination. Experience working within the UN system is desirable and may provide additional insights into the operational frameworks and expectations of the role.

Languages:
Essential: Expert knowledge of English and Arabic is required for effective communication and documentation. Desirable: Additional language skills may be beneficial but are not mandatory for this position.

Additional Notes:
This vacancy notice may be used to fill other similar positions at the same grade level. Only candidates under serious consideration will be contacted. A written test and/or an asynchronous video assessment may be used as a form of screening. Candidates selected for an interview will need to provide scanned copies of their educational qualifications. WHO considers only higher educational qualifications obtained from accredited institutions recognized in the World Higher Education Database (WHED). The organization is committed to diversity and inclusion, encouraging applications from women, persons with disabilities, and nationals of underrepresented Member States. The position is a National Professional Officer role, meaning only applications from nationals of Yemen will be accepted. The WHO has a smoke-free environment and does not recruit smokers or users of any form of tobacco. The statutory retirement age for staff appointments is 65 years. WHO's contracts are conditional on confirming vaccination status as required by the organization.