Qualifications

PURPOSE OF THE POSITION:

To provide field epidemiology and public health support for preparedness, readiness, and possible response to Bundibugyo Virus Disease and other priority public health emergencies in the assigned high-risk county. The incumbent will strengthen surveillance, alert management, investigation, contact-tracing readiness, risk assessment, and use of epidemiological information for timely operational action

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES:

South Sudan faces a complex and protracted emergency characterized by conflict, displacement, cross-border population movement, flooding, food insecurity, weak health-service functionality, and recurrent outbreaks. WHO supports the Ministry of Health, the National Public Health Institute, State Ministries of Health, and County Health Departments in detecting, assessing, and responding to multiple hazards, including cholera, measles, mpox, hepatitis E, malaria, vaccine-preventable diseases, and other epidemic-prone conditions.

The current risk of importation of Bundibugyo Virus Disease requires intensified surveillance and rapid alert management in high-risk border counties and movement corridors. Priority areas include Yei, Morobo, including Kaya, Kajo-Keji, Yambio, Ezo, and Nzara, where porous borders, informal crossings, trade, returnee movements, and limited health-system capacity increase the risk of delayed detection and onward transmission.

The Field Epidemiologist/Public Health Officer will be embedded at the county level to support the County Health Department and partners in operationalizing national guidance, improving early warning, verifying alerts, preparing contact-tracing systems, monitoring readiness indicators, and ensuring that epidemiological information is translated into immediate public health action.

DESCRIPTION OF DUTIES:

Under the direct supervision of the EPR Team Lead/Incident Manager, with day-to-day technical guidance from the WHO Surveillance and Health Information leads, and in close collaboration with the County BVD Readiness and Response Coordinator, County Health Department, State Ministry of Health, National Public Health Institute, and partners, the incumbent will:

• Support the establishment and functioning of county-level surveillance, alert management, and event-based surveillance arrangements for Bundibugyo Virus Disease and other priority health threats.

• Ensure that health facilities, points of entry, community networks, hotlines, and partners use the approved case definitions, alert criteria, notification channels, and reporting tools.

• Receive, screen, verify, classify, and document alerts and ensure that high-risk alerts are immediately escalated for investigation, isolation, sampling, referral, and other required actions.

• Lead or support rapid epidemiological investigations of suspected cases, clusters, unexplained deaths, and other unusual public health events, including preparation of investigation reports and recommendations.

• Strengthen indicator-based surveillance, including completeness, timeliness, zero reporting, and data-quality review from priority health facilities and surveillance sites.

• Establish and maintain county alert line lists, case investigation databases, laboratory tracking lists, contact-tracing preparedness records, and other analysis-ready datasets.

• Support the design, training, and operational readiness of contact-tracing teams, including identification of supervisors, development of rosters, mapping of coverage areas, and testing of reporting arrangements.

• When activated, support contact listing, risk classification, daily follow-up, data review, escalation of symptomatic contacts, and monitoring of contact-tracing performance.

• Conduct routine descriptive analysis by person, place, and time and produce epidemic curves, spot maps, trend summaries, and other decision-support products.

• Contribute to rapid risk assessments, hotspot identification, corridor analysis, and prioritization of surveillance, readiness, and response activities.

• Prepare concise daily and weekly epidemiological updates, alert summaries, situation-report inputs, and briefing notes for county, state, and national coordination structures.

• Provide epidemiological input to county incident action plans, operational meetings, simulation exercises, after-action reviews, and readiness monitoring.

• Work with IPC/WASH, RCCE, laboratory, case management, points of entry, and logistics teams to ensure that surveillance findings trigger coordinated operational action.

• Support cross-border and cross-county surveillance information exchange, including follow-up of alerts and population movements along high-risk corridors.

• Train and mentor surveillance officers, health workers, rapid response teams, community-based surveillance personnel and partner staff on case detection, notification, investigation, data management, and basic analysis.

• Monitor availability and correct use of surveillance tools, investigation forms, contact-tracing materials, communication devices, and reporting platforms, and report gaps for corrective action.

• Ensure confidentiality, secure handling, and appropriate sharing of personal and public health information in line with WHO policies and national requirements.

• Identify operational bottlenecks and recommend practical corrective actions to improve timeliness, quality and coverage of surveillance and response.

• Maintain readiness for immediate deployment within the assigned county or neighboring priority locations when a suspected or confirmed case is reported.

• Perform other incident-specific public health duties assigned by the supervisor.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

Education:

Essential: First university degree in epidemiology, public health, medicine, nursing, environmental health, health sciences, or another relevant discipline from a recognized institution.

Desirable:  Advanced university degree or postgraduate training in field epidemiology, public health, infectious disease epidemiology, outbreak investigation, surveillance or emergency response. Completion of a Field Epidemiology Training Programme or equivalent training is an asset

Experience:

Essential: At least two years of relevant professional experience in public health surveillance, epidemiology, outbreak investigation, emergency response, or communicable disease control.

• Practical experience in alert verification, case investigation, line listing, data analysis, and production of epidemiological reports.

• Experience working with health authorities, health facilities, communities, and partners at the state or county level.

• Experience using routine surveillance data to identify gaps and recommend operational actions.

Desirable: 

·       Experience with WHO, a Ministry of Health, a national public health institute, UN agencies, or humanitarian organizations.

·       Experience in South Sudan or another fragile, conflict-affected or access-constrained setting.

·       Experience supporting viral haemorrhagic fever preparedness or response, contact tracing, cross-border surveillance or point-of-entry monitoring.

·       Experience with IDSR, EWARS, DHIS2, mobile data-collection tools, GIS or dashboard platforms.

·       Experience in training and mentoring surveillance officers, health workers, rapid response teams, or community-based surveillance personnel.

Functional Skills and Knowledge (Describe skills and knowledge specific to the post):

• Strong knowledge of disease surveillance, event-based surveillance, outbreak investigation, contact tracing, and basic emergency risk assessment.

• Ability to analyse and interpret incomplete or rapidly changing epidemiological information and translate findings into practical recommendations.

• Ability to prepare clear line lists, charts, maps, summaries, and operational reports under short timelines.

• Strong planning, coordination, problem-solving, and communication skills.

• Ability to work independently in field locations while maintaining effective technical supervision and reporting lines.

• Ability to work respectfully with national authorities, communities, partners, and multidisciplinary emergency teams.

• Sound judgement, confidentiality, and ability to work under pressure in a changing environment.

Information technology skills

• Good knowledge of Microsoft Office applications, especially Excel, Word, PowerPoint, and Outlook.

• Practical experience with electronic data collection, line-list management, and routine data-quality checks.

• Experience with DHIS2, EWARS, GIS software, KoboToolbox, Open Data Kit, Power BI, or similar platforms is desirable.

• Basic knowledge of statistical software such as Epi Info, R, Stata, SPSS, or equivalent is an asset.

COMPETENCIES:

• Teamwork

• Communication

• Producing results

• Respecting and promoting individual and cultural differences

Languages:

Required: Excellent knowledge of written and spoken English and good working knowledge of Arabic will be an asset.

Desirable: Working knowledge of Arabic and relevant local languages used in the assigned duty station is an asset.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

• 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 may be used as a form of screening.
• In the event that your candidature is retained for an 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.
• Any appointment/extension of appointment is subject to WHO Staff Regulations, Staff Rules and Manual.
• Staff members in other duty stations are encouraged to apply.
• For information on WHO's operations please visit: http://www.who.int.
• WHO is committed to workforce diversity.
• WHO also offers a wide range of benefits to staff, including parental leave and attractive flexible work arrangements to help promote a healthy work-life balance and to allow all staff members to express and develop their talents fully. 
• The statutory retirement age for staff appointments is 65. For external applicants, only those who are expected to complete the term of appointment will normally be considered.
• WHO's workforce adheres to the WHO Values Charter and is committed to put the WHO Values into practice.
• WHO has a smoke-free environment and does not recruit smokers or users of any form of tobacco.
• This is a National Professional Officer position. Therefore, only applications from nationals of the country where the duty station is located will be accepted. Applicants who are not nationals of this country will not be considered.