WHO Data Liaison Consultancy At World Health Organization

1. Purpose of the Consultancy

The main objectives of the WHO Health Service Functionality (HSF) Data Liaison consultancy are: 1) to produce useful information to improve health service delivery in South Sudan; and 2) to liaise with MOH, donors, and other partners to drive improved use of data and information in health system planning and decision-making. The consultant will be responsible for routinely engaging partners and stakeholders to assess analysis needs, share relevant analyses and information, and support use of this information for decision-making. He/she will also be responsible for data tasks and analysis, such as identifying and gathering relevant data from partners, managing the HSF master database, and producing analytical tools and outputs to inform health programs.

2. Background

Objective of the Project: TheWHO HSF project’s main objective is to provide comprehensive, definitive, and routine information on health service availability throughout South Sudan, in support of the South Sudan Ministry of Health (MOH). This entails collection, harmonization, verification, analysis, and visualization of data points using service delivery data collected by various partners in South Sudan. The Health Service Functionality project has operated since 2018 and pulls together over 30 different datasets from partners to generate a master database. This HSF master database holds over 40,000 health facility service availability reports and is used to produce an interactive dashboard and routine bulletins that combine health service availability data with population, disease surveillance, and other relevant data to produce a rich picture of the health context in South Sudan. With quality information products routinely produced, the HSF would like to expand the availability, visibility, and use of this information in health system decision-making by key stakeholders, including MOH, donors, and implementing partners.

As this is a complex project with numerous partners, WHO requires a strong, experienced Data Liaison consultant with demonstrated coordination ability and impressive information management skills to move this effort forward.

3. Work to be performed

The list of consultant responsibilities includes:

• Collaborate with MOH colleagues to facilitate monthly Data Review and Action meetings, chaired by MOH, to improve use of data and information in health system and humanitarian response planning. This may include preparing data summaries, presentations, talking points, etc. and presenting some content as requested in partnership with MOH.
• Work with MOH colleagues to develop capacity around data use for decision-making and driving action to improve health service availability.
• Liaise with key stakeholders to better understand data needs and timing for key periods where specific information could be particularly useful to influence health planning and decision-making.
• Represent the HSF team in data- and information-related coordination meetings, such as the Information Management Working Group, UN GIS Experts Meeting in South Sudan, Health Cluster, Nutrition Cluster, etc..
• Liaise with partners to collect and clean using R routine datasets that flow into the HSF master database.
• Collaborate with HSF team in the production and maintenance of key bulletins, dashboards, and analyses in R using RMarkdown, Quarto, and/or Shiny.
• Lead own analyses of interest in consultation with the HSF Team and partners.
• Support MOH with other data-related activities as time and resources allow (activities listed above are clear priority).
• Other responsibilities that may be required as the project evolves.

4. Arrangements

The consultant will be based in Juba, South Sudan for a period of six (6) months with extensions to 12 or 18 months strongly preferred.

5. Qualifications

5.1 Education:

Required

• Bachelor’s degree (or equivalent) in epidemiology, public health, health information management, global health, biostatistics, computer science, or related discipline.

Desired

• Masters degree in public health, health information management, epidemiology, biostatistics, computer science, data science, or a similar field.

5.2 Experience:

Required

• At least 5 years of experience managing information for complex health projects in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).
• Demonstrated experience liaising and working closely with government agencies and partners on health information use in decision-making.
• Demonstrated experience translating complex data from multiple sources into useful analyses, information, dashboards, presentations, tools, etc. using R.
• Experience acting as organizational representative in inter-agency coordination meetings.
• Extensive information management experience.

Desired

• Prior experience at field level with WHO/UN agencies, health cluster partners, or international nongovernmental organization.
• Strong understanding of humanitarian health service delivery systems
• Strong knowledge of health systems, disease surveillance, and epidemiology.
• Experience of health information management and data systems in severely resource-constrained settings.

5.3 Language

Required

• Fluent in English.

5.4 Skills

Required

• Strong command of R software and associated packages.
• Excellent project management skills.
• Exceptional interpersonal, coordination and collaboration skills.
• Excellent presentation and communication skills, including oral, analytical, and written.
• Proficiency in MS Office suite.
• Proficiency with GitHub.
• Proven ability to interact in a multi-disciplinarily environment involving technical, cultural and political elements.
• Ability to work in stressful environments while maintaining quality work.

Desired

• Proficiency in database and code management

6. Place of assignment

The consultancy is based in Juba, South Sudan. This assignment is eligible for daily subsistence allowance as per WHO rules and regulation for international consultants. Remote work arrangements are not possible for this consultancy.