Young Professionals Programme - Technical Officer (Adolescent and Young Adult Health)

The Young Professionals Programme

WHO Headquarters offers opportunities for young professionals from Least Developed Countries (LDCs) to engage in WHO’s work and build skills and competence in key public health areas. This is a structured programme which incorporates additional exposure and experience at country level and career support.

Young Professionals will be assigned to regular WHO positions and will be fully immersed in WHO’s technical work. Young Professionals will benefit from career support, networking, mentoring and tailored learning opportunities throughout this period to support them in achieving their personal career goals. To enhance their knowledge and widen their professional network, the YPP may be posted in a different WHO office on short term learning assignments.

Eligibility criteria

The following eligibility criteria in addition to the minimum requirements of the position will be used to shortlist candidates:

• To be no older than 35 years on 31 December of the year of application.
• To be a national of a country eligible for the Programme: List of Eligible Countries.
• To hold a relevant university degree obtained in your home country or other eligible country.

Exceptions will be considered where no institute of higher education exists offering the degrees required for eligibility to this Programme as per the World Higher Education Database.

We invite eligible candidates to register for our virtual Young Professionals Programme event taking place mid-November 2021. More information is available at: https://www.impactpool.org/campaigns/who_young_professionals_programme_campaign

Purpose of the Position

The incumbent will work in the Adolescent and Young Adult Health unit, with particular focus on programme implementation in adolescent health.

Objectives of the Programme and of the immediate Strategic Objective

The Department of Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health and Ageing supports a world where by 2030, every woman, newborn, child, adolescent and aging person in every setting realizes their rights to physical and mental health and well-being. This will be achieved by supporting WHO’s General Programme of Work and universal health coverage for all. The department provides support to countries with a focus on high burden countries to ensure evidence-based policies and strategies are in place to achieve universal access to high quality health services for maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health and ageing (MNCAH&A), and increase coverage and quality of effective MNCAH&A interventions among pregnant women, newborns, children, adolescents, young adults and older people, and to create mechanisms to measure the impact of those strategies.

Organizational context

The Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health and Ageing (MCA) Department sits within the Division of Universal Health Coverage-Life Course (UHL). The Universal Health Coverage across the Life course division brings together the building blocks for UHC – ensuring alignment between the systems, the financing and health workforce needed. The work is aimed at strengthening service delivery at the country level for more impact, with a people-centred focus which is built from strong primary health care, and emphasizes key areas around reproductive and sexual health and rights; maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health; and a strong focus on healthy ageing, with the aim to achieve that 1 billion more people benefit from universal health coverage. Within this Division, the specific purpose of the MCA department is to enable countries to strengthen their health systems to address population-specific health needs, reduce risk factors for ill health and address barriers to equity, across the life course and through multisectoral action.

The MCA department is made up of six units:

• Maternal Health unit
• Newborn Health unit
• Child Health and Development unit
• Adolescent and Young Adult Health unit
• Ageing and Health unit
• Epidemiology, Monitoring and Evaluation unit

The units work across four cross-cutting teams:

• Research and Guidelines
• Policies, Standards and Programmes
• Epidemiology, Monitoring and Evaluation
• Life-course trajectories

Under the supervision of the Unit Head, Adolescent and Young Adult Health (AYH), the incumbent will work across the three functions of the AYH unit, namely: providing input and support to strategic guidance to regions and countries in implementing evidence-based strategies and policies in the area of adolescent health; supporting the development of guidelines and conducting research to inform policies; monitoring and evaluation of programmes. It is expected that the time allocation will be 40% in strategic support on guidance to regions and countries; 30% in the assistance to development of guidelines and supporting research to inform policies; 30% in monitoring and evaluation.

Summary of Assigned Duties

Under the supervision of the Unit Head, the incumbent will support the AYH Unit Head and other professional staff to achieve its objectives by contributing to the following tasks:

• Assist with the coordination of intercountry projects in scaling up a standard-driven approach for quality health care services for adolescents;
• Support the Unit Head in coordinating, in close collaboration with UNESCO, the joint inter-department and interagency group on Making Every School a Health Promoting School initiative, and in coordinating activities related to the implementation of Global Standards for Health Promoting Schools;
• Support the unit in providing technical assistance to Regional Offices to build capacity in countries in implementing WHO recommendations on Accelerated Action for the Health of Adolescents (AA-HA), in promoting evidence-based approaches in school health/school health services, and in building institutional capacity for adolescent health pre-service training;
• Support the unit in developing guidelines to support integrated programmes and the delivery of comprehensive packages of evidence-based interventions;
• Support the unit in monitoring progress, and evaluating programmes and initiatives in line with the recommendations of GAMA advisory group;
• Support the Unit Head in liaising with, and mobilizing, partnerships with other UN Agencies, donors, research and academic institutions and other relevant partners to advance the work of the department in the area of adolescent and young adult health;
• Create monitoring and project evaluation tools providing team members with summaries of implementation against budget and delivery targets, evaluate technical progress against objectives, and compile data as per reporting requirements;
• Support internal and external information dissemination;
• Perform all other related duties, as assigned.

Expected achievements include:

• Successful scaling up in countries of Global Standards for quality health care services for adolescents
• Successful scaling up in countries of Global Standards for Health Promoting Schools
• Successful uptake in countries of the AA-HA recommendations
• Timely production of integrated guidelines for adolescent health care
• Countries use data and information to inform policies

Competencies

Teamwork
Respecting and promoting individual and cultural differences
Communication
Producing results
Moving forward in a changing environment

Functional Knowledge and Skills

Essential

Ability to think strategically; to express ideas clearly; to work independently and in teams.

• A strong commitment to international public health; an interest in adapting to varied physical and professional environments; and a desire to work with people with different language, national and cultural backgrounds.
• Basic knowledge of epidemiology and public health, with a more detailed understanding of interpreting data in the context of policy development
• An ability to identify priority issues for effective adolescent health and development, in particular in the context of national strategies for maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health.
• An ability and interest to maintain close contact with internal and external partners, Member States and associated funding agencies on all matters related to policy dialogue and implementation, research, development, planning, coordination and monitoring of activities in the field of adolescent health.
• Ability to establish and maintain effective working relationships with international and national staff at all levels.
• An ability to provide evidence-based guidance to colleagues.
• Ability to produce scientific documents and reports for dissemination to a high standard in clear scientific English.
• Excellent writing skills documented by publications in scientific journals, commensurate with level of training and experience.
• Ability to present information clearly, both orally and in writing.
• Ability to work in an organized, efficient manner, demonstrated by past productivity.

Desirable

• Basic knowledge of the field of adolescent health and development, including its position within the life course, the epidemiology of adolescent health and development and of interventions to improve it.
• An emerging ability and interest to manage complex, multi-country projects.

Education Qualifications

Essential

An advanced university degree in one of the health or social sciences, with an emphasis in International Development or Public Health. A university degree in a relevant subject must have been obtained in your home country or other eligible country.

Desirable

Training in project management, adolescent/youth health or evidence-based medicine.

Experience

Essential

A minimum of two years relevant, public health-related work experience, including at least one year working in public health based in a low- or middle-income country. Demonstrated experience in project management in the fields of public health and/or international development, and in public health policy dialogue and policy implementation.

Desirable

Experience in:

Management of large projects involving multiple stakeholders.
Maintaining communication within large networks of stakeholders.
Management and analysis of large data sets.
Teaching and training.
Developing norms and standards related to adolescents or other population groups.
Design and evaluation of programme interventions.
Supporting intervention or implementation research studies.
Writing documents and reports.

Use of Language Skills

Essential

Intermediate knowledge of English.

Desirable

Expert knowledge of English. Knowledge of other(s) WHO official language(s): Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish.

Other Skills

Computer literacy: Proficiency in common database and statistical packages, word processing, spreadsheet and presentation software.

Additional Information

Candidates may apply to one or more vacancies advertised under the YPP; candidates should ensure they meet the vacancy and programme eligibility criteria.

The selection process may include asynchronous video assessment, technical evaluation and interview.

If your candidature is retained for interview, you will be required to provide, in advance, a scanned copy of the degree(s)/diploma(s)/certificate(s) required for this position. WHO only considers higher educational qualifications obtained from an institution accredited/recognized in the World Higher Education Database (WHED), a list updated by the International Association of Universities (IAU)/United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The list can be accessed through the link: http://www.whed.net/. Some professional certificates may not appear in the WHED and will require individual review.

Should you have any questions, please check our FAQs available at https://www.who.int/careers. If your question is not listed, please contact us at YPP@who.int.

For information on WHO's operations, please visit: http://www.who.int.

WHO is committed to workforce diversity.

WHO has a smoke-free environment and does not recruit smokers or users of any form of tobacco.

Applications from women and from nationals of non and underrepresented Member States are particularly encouraged.

WHO prides itself on a workforce that adheres to the highest ethical and professional standards and that is committed to put the WHO Values Charter into practice.

WHO has zero tolerance towards sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA), sexual harassment and other types of abusive conduct (i.e., discrimination, abuse of authority and harassment). All members of the WHO workforce have a role to play in promoting a safe and respectful workplace and should report to WHO any actual or suspected cases of SEA, sexual harassment and other types of abusive conduct. To ensure that individuals with a substantiated history of SEA, sexual harassment or other types of abusive conduct are not hired by the Organization, WHO will conduct a background verification of final candidates.