Consultancy to draft guidance on Early Warning, Alert and Response (EWAR) to acute public health events

1.Purpose of the Consultancy

Develop consolidated guidance on Early Warning and Response (EWAR) and present the draft document at a technical consultation meeting on EWAR, from 3-5 October 2018 in Cairo, Egypt.

2.Background

The International Health Regulations (2005) emphasize the need for countries to develop surveillance and response systems that aim to rapidly detect and respond to any health event, and therefore, country need to have an efficient Early warning, alert and response (EWAR) function in place.

The WHO Emergency response framework (WHO-ERF) that aims at improving the WHO’s response to emergencies highlights the implementation of EWAR as one of the priority emergency interventions to be implemented within the first two weeks of an emergency response operation;

There are currently two key guides on EWAR developed by WHO. One focuses on humanitarian emergencies (“Outbreak surveillance and response in humanitarian emergencies: WHO guidelines for EWARN implementation”), the other on “normal” situations (“Early detection, assessment and response to acute public health events: implementation of early warning and response with a focus on event-based surveillance”).

In December 2017, 40 experts from UN agencies, academic institutions, NGO partners and donors met to align concepts, and terminology of EWAR in routine and in emergencies, to identify challenges in implementation of EWAR, and to map existing electronic tools to support implementation of EWAR.

A recommendation of the technical consultation meeting was to develop a consolidated guidance document on EWAR that could apply in all contexts (in humanitarian emergencies or not). This new guidance would align concepts and terminology for EWAR in emergencies and routine, as described in the two WHO guidance documents.

A group of experts was established. It was proposed to hire a consultant to develop the consolidated guidance and to reconvene a meeting with the group of experts to amend and validate the new guidance.

3. Content of the EWAR consolidated guidance document:

The consolidated guidance document on EWAR will have the following content:

· Definition of concepts and terms used for EWAR

· Guidance for implementing EWAR in different contexts

· Recommendations for the choice of IT tools for EWAR

4. Planned timelines

Start date: July 16^th 2018

End date: October 31^st 2018

5.Work to be performed

i. Develop first working draft of consolidated guidance document.

ii. Support preliminary review process with EWAR Guidance WG.

iii. Present the consolidated guidance document at the Cairo meeting.

iv. Lead the updating and revision of the guidance document based on feedback from Cairo meeting.

v. Develop further materials to support operationalisation of the consolidated guidance document in the field (e.g. key annexes and checklists).

6.Specific requirements

Essential:

Master degree in either Public Health or Epidemiology.

At least 7 years of working experience and research in areas of Public Health

Very good understanding on the objectives, methods and tools for Early Warning, Alert and Response.

Proven expertise in applied field epidemiology with UN agencies, international NGOs, and/or Ministries of Health.

Desirable:

Good skills in writing and communicating with internal and external partners of WHO.

Skills in reports writing or articles demonstrated by published articles.

Good knowledge on epidemiological methods and review of technical documents.

Good expertise in the area of conducting and writing technical documents based on review of existing guidance.

7. Language requirements

Expert language and written skills in English.

8.Place of assignment

The consultant is expected to perform tasks from home with regular contact with supervisors in Geneva and Cairo. The consultant will be expected to travel to Cairo for the EWAR meeting from 3-5 October. 2018.

Applications should be submitted to alexandref@who.int before close of business on: 9 July 2018.

Evaluation process

Qualified candidates are requested to submit:

1. Cover letter/application.

2. Financial quote at a daily rate in US Dollars, excluding all taxes.

3. Curriculum Vitae

4. At least 2 References

Please indicate your availability and monthly rate to undertake the terms of reference above. Applications submitted without a monthly rate will not be considered.