Infection Prevention and Control Officer - SSA at World Health Organization

job Description

In the context of the WHO Health Emergencies Incident Management System (IMS), for Cholera outbreak in Zimbabwe, the incumbent will provide technical support to the incident management teams, Ministry of Health and Child Care and other partners in the area of Infection prevention and control through promoting health sector leadership, multistakeholder coordination and advancing implementation of WHO standards at the CTCs/ CTUs and in the community.

The mission of WHO's Health Emergencies Programme (The Programme) is to help countries, and to coordinator international action, to prevent, prepare for, detect, rapidly respond to, and recover from outbreaks and emergencies.

Based on priorities set by the WHO Head of Country Office and the Incident Manager, the incumbent will act as the focal point for Infection prevention and Control. S/he will provide support to the WHO Country Office (WCO), the Ministry of Health and partners to oversee the provision of technical assistance at provincial level to strengthen infection prevention and control (IPC) interventions for cholera control.

Duties and Responsibilities

The incumbent will perform all, or part of the following, and other related responsibilities as required by the needs of the office:
-Work under the incident management team and coordinate the effective implementation of IPC response plan in compliance with the national standard operating procedures and the WHO IPC guidelines.
-Support IMS team and MOHCC to assess IPC capacities and practices in Cholera Treatment Centers or Units (CTCs CTUs), ORPs and health care facilities and provide technical recommendations to partners and key players to achieve improvement actions and monitor implementation.
-Collaborate with relevant stakeholders, including the Ministry of Health, local health authorities, international organizations, and non-governmental organizations, to ensure coordination of IPC activities in the response.
-Support infection prevention and control (IPC) pillar activities including conducting IPC assessments, development, implementation, and monitoring of pillar IPC strategy and plan; support the convening of regular meetings; participating in the overall cholera IMT coordination meetings.
-Conduct assessment of training needs, develop training plans and provide onsite training for staff at CTCs, CTUs, hospitals, and health facilities.
-Liaise with the logistics team in the specification and quantity estimations of IPC supplies, and PPE etc.
-Regularly report to the Incident Manager, MOH/WHO incident management team on assessments and improvement plans and other IPC activities.
-Provide technical support to strengthening of isolation facilities based on standard guidelines and principles for infection prevention and control, as and when required
-Provide guidance on immediate IPC policies and resources, needed in the CTCs/CTUs and healthcare facilities.
-Support emergency rapid assessment of infection prevention and control inventory and needs in the Cholera treatment facilities and for the health activities required in response to cholera.
-Support the development, revision and dissemination of normative guidance and good practice tools on IPC in health care facilities (CTCs/CTU), health care waste management and hand hygiene in community settings.
-Support training, follow-up and learning to build up local competences and facilitate the compliance with the IPC and WASH standards for CTCs/CTUs within the districts
-Provide technical support to provinces to conduct relevant operational research to inform IPC interventions
-Perform any other related incident-specific duties, as required by the functional supervisor.

Qualifications and Experience

-First university degree (bachelor's level) in a relevant field (such as medicine, nursing, health-related field, public health, environmental health). Candidates with an extensive experience in emergency health coordination but without a first degree qualification may be considered on an ad hoc basis)
-Advanced degree (Masters' level) in epidemiology, public health, or health related field.
-Specialized training in emergency and outbreak management; specific training in Infection Prevention and Control, Advanced university degree in Public Health, or Environmental health.
-At least two years' practical experience, at the national and/or international levels, in the development, advocacy, planning, implementation of IPC, activities for infectious diseases in outbreak, disaster or humanitarian emergency.