Country: Switzerland
Closing date: 16 Mar 2017
Request for expression of interest:
Environmental Health Specialist
Geneva Switzerland,
World Health Organization
The Interventions for Healthy Environments (IHE) unit’s, of the Department of Public Health, Environmental and Social Determinants of Health, objective is to promote health sector interventions, as well as interventions in economic sectors (e.g., housing, transport, energy) that reduce environmental health risks, promote better health, and optimize the health co-benefits of sustainable development /climate change mitigation policies.
As part of its Household Air Pollution and Health programme, IHE activities aim to build the capacity of the health and other relevant sectors to protect public health from household air pollution caused by the use of inefficient and polluting fuels and technologies in the home. Accordingly, WHO is currently developing a number of tools and resources to support country partners and other stakeholders to implement the WHO Guidelines of indoor air quality: household fuel combustion. Some related activities include:
The development of the “Clean Household Energy Solutions Toolkit (CHEST)” which provides guidance on the tools and resources needed to develop and implement policies on household energy that protect public health;
Monitoring the household energy access situation and its health impacts through the WHO databases on household energy use and its health impacts;
The development of a policy database that captures both historical and current policies on household energy and/or household air pollution, and, when available, measures its impacts on health.
WHO is seeking an international expert in environmental health policies to work in cooperation with the IHE team and other experts to design a set of assessment tools for the development of country profiles. Each country profile aims to be a rapid assessment which describes a country’s experiences and readiness to address household energy and its health risks. Each country profile will:
summarize the energy needs of households, the types of fuels and technologies accessible and/or used by households, and map out the local resources, markets and infrastructure for household energy;
estimate the population exposure to household air pollution and its associated disease burden at the national level and/or state level;
evaluate the social, economic and behavioural factors (e.g. knowledge, attitudes, risk perception, household income, gender differences, cultural practices, etc.) contributing the choices of different fuels and technologies used by households;
document the historical and current policies for and/or related to household energy use, household air pollution and/or its health impacts, and outline national and/or local government strategies/policy frameworks related to household energy use, if any.
The selected candidate will be responsible for developing a set of tools, and templates to be used in a country to research the environmental health policies and their impacts/effectiveness; outline the resources and infrastructure to address the health impacts of household energy use; and map out the relevant stakeholders in a country, particularly in relation to the dissemination and monitoring of the adoption and impacts of clean household energy fuels and technologies.
Upon completion of the tools, the selected candidate will support remote trainings for national professionals on how to use the tool, as well as make in-country visits to help finalize a draft country profile and participate in a stakeholders visit to the country.
Expected deliverables will include:
(a) a finalized set of tools and templates needed to gather and synthesize the information to draft a country profile on household energy and health;
(b) conducting remote webinar trainings and provide support to national consultants on the tools and steps needed to complete a country profile;
(c) completion of 2 in-country field visits to support the national consultants with the development of the respective country profile and plan for in-country stakeholder visits to review the draft report and meet relevant stakeholders.
Duration of Work and Required Travel:
The selected candidate will be expected to complete a total of 32 days of work between March 2017 and November 2017. To complete the work, the candidate will be expected to:
Work 2 to 3 weeks in Geneva at WHO HQ* (during end of March and April 2017);
Work 1 week in 2 different countries (a total of 2 weeks in field) *, later in the year, dates TBD;
* Travel costs including flights and per diem will be covered by WHO
Qualifications and Skills required:
- Sound understanding and experience developing or evaluating environmental or public health policies related to household energy use, particularly in low and middle income country settings;
- Understanding of policy decision-making processes and engaging/advising governments or other stakeholders on policies;
- Understanding of the challenges and intricacies of multi-sectoral policies decisions;
- Understanding of the socioeconomic, behavioural and cultural factors influencing household decision-making, particularly related to household energy use and how this can be harnessed to enhance the effectiveness of policies and programmes;
- Strong communication skills in English, both written and oral;
- Desirable: Working knowledge of Spanish.
Experience:
- Working on the development and/or implementation of environmental or public health policies related to household energy use, particularly in low and middle income country settings;
- Evaluating the strengths, and weaknesses of policies and programmes in a country, particularly from a public health and/or environmental lens;
- Conducting a “needs assessment” and/or stakeholder mapping in a low or middle-income country;
- Modelling of policy scenarios to estimate environmental and/or public health impacts;
- Developing tools and/or templates to evaluate or assess policies;
- Desirable: Preparing tools and/or information resources for extracting and analysing information on environmental and/or public health policies and providing related trainings.
How to apply:
The World Health Organization Headquarters in Geneva invites eligible individuals to indicate their interest in undertaking this work to develop tools and support the development of health and household energy country profiles. Interested individuals must provide information indicating that they are qualified to perform the above tasks: curriculum vitae, description of similar completed assignments, experience in similar conditions, examples of relevant reports or publications, etc. The final candidate will be selected through a competitive process in accordance with WHO’s operating policies and procedures.
Contact:
Expression of interest must be received no later than 16:00 (CET) on Thursday 16 March 2017. The expressions of interest are to be delivered electronically to Heather Adair-Rohani (adairrohanih@who.int) and Michael Hinsch (hinschm@who.int) with the mention “Expression of Interest – Environmental Health Specialist ” in the email subject.