Purpose of consultancy

To contribute to the work of the Health and Migration Programme in WHO headquarters related to setting national and regional research agendas on health, migration and displacement.

Background

Human migration and displacement have reached unprecedented levels, with an estimated 1 billion people who have migrated or have been forcibly displaced owing to economic, environmental, political, conflict and other forces. By mid-2023, 110 million people were forcibly displaced ; 62.5 million people internally displaced, 36.4 million as refugees, and 6.1 million people as asylum seekers. Migration and displacement are key determinants of health and well-being, and people on the move experience poorer health outcomes than the communities who host them, often due to their living and transit conditions.

WHO provides global direction on the technical area of health and migration, in line with Global Action Plan on the Promotion of Health of Refugees and Migrants, GPW13, the SDGs, and other overarching frameworks in achieving significant health status gains for the refugee and migrant population.

The following are the five core functions of WHO’s work on health and migration:

1) Provide global leadership, high-level advocacy, and dialogue to raise awareness and political commitments and coordinate and policy development on health and migration.
2) Set norms and standards on health and migration, including co-development of guidance and tools and promoting a research agenda to generate evidence to support decision-making and global guidance for new tools and strategies on health and migration.
3) Monitor trends, strengthen health information systems, and develop an accountability framework and indicators for progress monitoring and reporting on the Global Action Plan implementation.
4) Provide specialized technical assistance, response, and capacity-building support to Member States, WHO technical departments, regional and country offices, and partners to address public health challenges associated with human mobility wherever needed nationally and transnationally.
5) Promote health and migration multilateral, inter-country, inter-regional, and global actions across United Nations systems, including the United Nations Network on Migration (UN Migration Network) and other intergovernmental and nongovernmental mechanisms.

Global research agenda on health, migration and displacement.
WHO’s first-ever Global research agenda on health, migration and displacement, published in October 2023, guides global research efforts to understand and address the health needs of migrants, refugees, and all forcibly displaced populations and shape responsive policies and practices worldwide. It is a framework and guide for prioritizing research on health, migration and displacement and catalysing integration of research findings into strategic plans, funding and investment, research activities, and planning at regional and national level. It serves as a tool to help WHO support Member States to identify context-specific knowledge gaps at the regional, national, subnational and organizational levels and can assist Member States and allied policy-makers in achieving key global policy objectives through the implementation and advancement of the global research priorities. It provides and implementation guide and toolkit for research agenda setting (in Annex 1) which is now being applied at national and regional contexts to set further contextually specific research priorities.

Deliverables

Deliverable 1: National research agenda setting in 3 to 4 countries following the six steps of the research agenda setting outlined in the Implementation Guide and Toolkit of the WHO Global research agenda on health, migration and displacement. In close collaboration with the three levels of WHO and relevant Ministries of Health:
- Conduct stakeholder mapping and rapid baseline literature reviews.
- Produce background documents for technical consultations (online/hybrid) or in person workshops.
- Outline the methodology and conduct the consensus-based prioritisation process for the final research themes/questions (using either adapted Delphi methods or nominal group technique).
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Deliverable 2: Regional research agenda setting in 2 regions following the six steps of the research agenda setting outlined in the Implementation Guide and Toolkit of the WHO Global research agenda on health, migration and displacement. In close collaboration with WHO HQ and the relevant regional offices:
- Conduct stakeholder mapping and rapid baseline literature reviews.
- Produce background documents for technical consultations (online/hybrid) or in person workshops.
- Outline the methodology and conduct the consensus based prioritisation process for the final research themes/questions (using either adapted Delphi methods or nominal group technique).
Deliverable 3: WHO publications associated with research agenda setting:
- Produce the final research agenda report write ups based on the synthesis of the evidence reviews, technical consultation findings of the national research agenda settings (one report per country).
- Produce the final research agenda report write ups based on the synthesis of the evidence reviews, technical consultation findings (one report per region).
- Produce one policy brief per research agenda setting (at national and regional level).
- Produce one academic article per research agenda setting (at national and regional level).
Deliverable 4: Global research prioritization exercises on 2 topics, following the six steps of the research agenda setting outlined in the Implementation Guide and Toolkit of the WHO Global research agenda on health, migration and displacement. In close collaboration with WHO Health and Migration and other relevant WHO departments:
- Plan and write all technical documents for these global consensus based consultation processes which convene global experts to further define research priorities on key topics in health, migration and displacement.
- Produce the final Global research prioritization exercise reports based on a synthesis of the technical consultations.

Qualifications, experience, skills and languages

Educational Qualifications:

Essential:

University degree in medicine, epidemiology, social science, environmental science or related field.
Master's degree in public health or equivalent.

Desirable:

PhD in public health, epidemiology, or related field.

Experience:

Essential:

At least 8 years’ relevant experience in implementation research and research at global and field level in public health and the development and implementation of health programmes and/or health system strengthening.
Previous experience in research agenda setting, research capacity building at country level and expertise in migration and health.
Experience of planning, conducting, and writing up research to peer-reviewed publications.
Experience working with academic institutions, member states, NGOs and UN agencies.
Field experience in country level research.

Desirable:

At least 4 years' experience working in conducting implementation research or research agenda setting in developing countries, related to the health of migrants and displaced populations.
Experience of analysis of operational research and research priority setting.
Experience of having planned and conducted consultations, workshops, focus groups, roundtables, or equivalent.
Experience of having worked with WHO or another UN organization.

Skills:

Essential:

Strong report-writing skills (in English).
Ability to write, synthesize and communicate information in a clear and concise manner.
Excellent presentation skills.
Excellent organizational and analytical skills combined with the ability to multi-task and produce accurate results under pressure.
Excellent interpersonal skills, including respecting and promoting individual and cultural differences.
Computer literacy.

Languages required:

Essential:

Expert knowledge of English.

Desirable:

Intermediate knowledge of other UN official languages.

Location

Off site: Home-based

Travel

The consultant is expected to travel.

Remuneration and budget (travel costs are excluded):

Remuneration:

Band level B - USD 7,000 - 9,980 per month.

Living expenses (A living expense is payable to on-site consultants who are internationally recruited):

N/A

Expected duration of contract:

11 Months.

Additional Information

This vacancy notice may be used to identify candidates for other similar consultancies at the same level.
Only candidates under serious consideration will be contacted.
A written test may be used as a form of screening.
If your candidature is retained for interview, you will be required to provide, in advance, a scanned copy of the degree(s)/diploma(s)/certificate(s) required for this position. WHO only considers higher educational qualifications obtained from an institution accredited/recognized in the World Higher Education Database (WHED), a list updated by the International Association of Universities (IAU)/United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The list can be accessed through the link: http://www.whed.net/. Some professional certificates may not appear in the WHED and will require individual review.
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Consultants shall perform the work as independent contractors in a personal capacity, and not as a representative of any entity or authority. The execution of the work under a consultant contract does not create an employer/employee relationship between WHO and the Consultant.
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