Consultant - Coordinating Research for Healthy Ageing, Manila, Philippines

at  World Health Organization

Contractual Arrangement: External consultant
Contract Duration (Years, Months, Days): 11 months
Job Posting: Jun 28, 2024, 5:12:37 AM
Closing Date: Jul 12, 2024, 4:59:00 PM
Primary Location: Philippines-Manila
Organization: WP/DHP Division of Healthy Environments and Populations
Schedule: Full-time
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BACKGROUND

The Western Pacific Region (WPR) is rapidly aging. The number of people aged 65 and above is expected to double by 2050, reaching 480 million. To prepare for this demographic shift, WHO WPR Member States adopted the Regional Action Plan (RAP) on Healthy Ageing in 2020. The RAP is a multisectoral, future-oriented, and lifelong approach to healthy ageing. It emphasizes the importance of early preparation for countries and the need for health and social transformation. With five objectives of health and social transformation, community-based integrated care, social and technology innovations and monitoring and evaluation, RAP outlines recommendations for actions under each of these objectives.
Older people are often more vulnerable to infectious diseases. As proven by the evidence , older people experienced worse outcomes from COVID-19 and other infectious diseases. Public health measures, including physical distancing, often also had a negative impact on their mental health. The COVID-19 pandemic has raised awareness of the need to better support older people which requires different sectors to work together to improve health and livelihoods in the post-COVID-19 era.
The Healthy Ageing unit (AGE) at WHO WPRO is seeking a consultant to support AGE with building evidence for policies and programmes focused on healthy ageing. The objective is to assist Member States with enhancing their resilience to health emergencies and create an environment that’s age-friendly, taking a life course approach. The consultant will collaborate closely with focal points from WHO country offices as well as external partners.

EDUCATIONAL QUALIFICATIONS:

Essential: University degree in public health, nursing, medicine, relevant health, or social sciences.
Desirable: Advanced university degree (PhD) in public health, nursing, medicine, relevant health, or social sciences.

EXPERIENCE

Essential: At least 5 years of work experience in public health and/or academic research in relevant public health topic or population ageing.
Desirable: International experience within WHO or other UN Organizations at multiple geographical locations; demonstrated experience in evidence generation and knowledge sharing for public health (e.g. academic articles, presentation at international conferences, field projects); experience in producing technical reports, frameworks, action plans at WHO or other UN organizations; led and conducted research studies and published at least three academic articles in peer-reviewed journals as a first author; experience in editing academic publications.

SKILLS/KNOWLEDGE:

Outstanding ability to understand and support population ageing case studies or research

• Demonstrated project management skills
• Good knowledge of the dynamics of the international public health work
• Ability to plan, design and implement a systematic approach to problem solving
• Ability to provide technical support to countries

The consultant will support the implementation of the Regional Action Plan on Healthy Ageing in the Western Pacific, by focusing on evidence building for Member States’ use in policy making and programme designing in the “new normal” society, recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic.