Senior Animal Health Officer (Infectious Diseases)

1H011H01

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Organizational Setting

The Animal Production and Health Division (AGA) promotes and facilitates the sustainable development of the livestock sector, integrating scientific and technical expertise and policy advice. It hosts technical networks in area of animal health, genetics, feed and animal husbandry and provides analysis, policy dialogue (incl. intergovernmental bodies) and technical assistance. It also supports emergency responses, mostly in animal health.

The post is located in the Animal Health Service (AGAH). The FAO Animal Health Service (AGAH) is primarily concerned with aspects related to the prevention, detection and timely response to health threats of animal origin (zoonotic diseases, transboundary animal diseases, production diseases, diseases of wildlife, arthropod-borne diseases, food safety, antimicrobial resistance) that affect public health or efficiencies, sustainable livestock production and conservation efforts. AGAH capacity development work ensures the strengthening of veterinary systems at national and regional level and bridges agriculture development, public health and ecosystem health.

• Plans, manages, or leads highly specialized or multi-disciplinary teams, leads, coordinates, and/or participates on Organization-wide, cross-Departmental committees, project teams, and working groups, and/or provides technical leadership/secretariat services on technical networks and/or international technical policy and standard setting bodies;
• Analyzes global and country specific requirements and relevant technical issues to provide critical input into the FAO Strategic Objectives, Programme of Work, work plans and the supporting budgets and/or resourcing strategies;
• Implements and monitors programmes of work involving the development of the approach, evidence based strategies, and related tools, methodologies and the supporting system/database, monitoring and reporting frameworks;
• Conducts, designs and oversees research and analysis activities to support the development of technical standards, international instruments, innovation, technical reports, publications and/or on-going programme development as well as the provision of technical and/or policy advisory services.
• Provides technical and policy advice to Member countries and technical support to decentralized offices in the development and implementation of their programmes;
• Leads and/or collaborates in, provides technical backstopping to and ensures the quality / effectiveness of capacity development and knowledge sharing activities within member countries such as policy support, organizational development and individual learning events including preparation of related information, learning, on-line tools;
• Represents the Organization at international meetings and conferences, identifies and implements strategic partnerships, advocates best practices and increased policy dialogue and develops and negotiates effective working relationships/consensus and agreements with international and national stakeholders;
• Leads and/or participates in resource mobilization activities in accordance with the FAO Corporate strategy.

• Provides conceptual and strategic orientation to and leadership of FAO's programme on prevention and control of infectious animal diseases including Transboundary Animal Diseases (TADs) and priority zoonoses;
• Supervises and/or provides guidance to different units and programmes within the infectious disease group, such as surveillance and laboratory teams, in-service training, global infectious diseases programmes, disease intelligence and early warning promoting the ' One Health' concept field implementation;
• Provides advice on FAO's corporate framework for the management of emergencies along the food chain including the Emergency Centre for Transboundary Animal Diseases (ECTAD) and the Emergency Management Centre-Animal Health (EMC-AH)
  • Oversees disease intelligence activities of the inter-agency (FAO/OIE/WHO) and FAO-hosted Global Early Warning System for Transboundary Animal Diseases (GLEWS) and its analytical outputs;
• Oversees and provides inputs from FAO into workplans of relevant FAO Reference Centres and high impact disease / animal health aspects to relevant FAO-based Commissions (i.e, EU-FMD, APHCA, CONDEGALAC) or other agreements;
• Acts as the Secretary of the FAO/OIE Global Framework for the Progressive Control of Transboundary Animal Disease (GF-TADs), participate in its Management Committee, and oversee priority actions of working groups (i.e., animal influenza, rinderpest, Rift Valley fever, foot-and-mouth disease, African/classical swine fever, contagious bovine/caprine pleuropneumonia, and peste des petits ruminants, where required);
• Leads studies and reviews on technical, policy and programme issues related to infectious animal diseases and their impacts on social, economic, environmental and public health parameters of livestock sector development, and biodiversity;
• Designs and implements programmes and projects; participates in appraisal of field projects and provides supervision and technical backstopping;
• Oversees and provides clearance of EMPRES publications and other technical documents;
• Perform other related duties as required.

• Advanced university degree in veterinary medicine in veterinary epidemiology, veterinary microbiology, or related field
• Ten years of relevant experience in animal health, infectious disease management, including regulatory aspects, standard setting, epidemiology and/or animal production
• Working knowledge of English and limited knowledge of another FAO official language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish)

Competencies

• Results Focus
• Leading, Engaging and Empowering
• Communication
• Partnering and Advocating
• Knowledge Sharing and Continuous Improvement
• Strategic Thinking

• Work experience in more than one location or area of work, particularly in field positions is essential
• Extent and relevance of knowledge or experience in infectious diseases management at an international and regional level, in multidisciplinary approaches (theoretical and practical) to disease prevention and management
• Extent and relevance of experience in planning and implementation of programmes related to animal health in development organizations
• Demonstrated ability to develop project proposals and mobilize resources
• Extent and relevance of experience in organizing international meetings, seminars and training courses