Senior bio-statistician

Required Number: One (1)

Duty station: Addis Ababa with frequent field travel

Employment Type: Contractual for 1 year with possibility of extension

Background

Public Health Emergency Management is the process or a system of anticipating, preventing, preparing for, detecting, responding to, controlling and recovering from consequences of public health threats in order that health and economic impacts are minimized. PHEM is designed to ensure rapid detection of any public health threats, preparedness related to logistic and fund administration, and prompt response to and recovery from various public health emergencies. It is a fully integrated, adaptable, all-hazards and all health approach of national early warning, preparedness, response and recovery.

Purpose: Ethiopia is experiencing different public health emergencies. An effective and efficient emergency forecast, communication, preparedness and response attributes to reduce mortality, morbidity and associated impact on the affected population. Hence in order to achieve this, the Public Health Emergency Management (PHEM) need competitive and experienced candidate for anticipating/forecasting public health emergencies by developing, customizing and utilizing public health emergencies occurrence forecasting model for early warning and public health management.

Responsibilities

Collect, analyze and interpret surveillance, meteorological, WASH, environmental and other health related data to identify/forecast any public health emergencies and related risks.

Develop, customize, update and use statistical /mathematical models that integrate public health surveillance, metrological, WASH, environmental and other health related data for identifying/forecasting public health emergencies and associated risks.

Apply develop/customize statistical/mathematical modeling to visualize and produce information for public health decision making

Regular assessment of the tools prediction power (post prediction assessment) and advantage of using of the tool at lower level

Predict/forecast extent of damage, magnitude of impact and the likelihood occurrence of public health emergencies and disasters

Closely analyze and follow the trend of emergencies occurrence (occurred annually and at longer intervals)

Support the enhancement of information and knowledge management undertakings

Collaborate with relevant stakeholders to elevate key findings to inform prevention and preparedness activities

Producing high-quality reports and documentation of research findings

Publishing research outcomes in reputable journals for widespread dissemination within the scientific and public health communities

Work closely with other department, sectors and partners to develop our capacity in forecasting public health risks.

Identify challenges faced in the EWRAS+ forecasting tool application including for actions taken from the forecast finding

Continuously revise the identified/forecasted/predicted public health emergencies/risks by monitoring public health surveillance, metrological, WASH and environmental data and based on vulnerability risk assessment finding.

Collaborate in developing strategies and provide for responsible bodies to prevent, mitigate and manage identified/forecasted/predicted public health emergencies and associated risks.

Collaborate with other directorates, partners and sectors to avoid or reduce the consequence of identified/forecasted public health emergencies and associated risks.

Support and capacitate regions to develop and utilize public health emergency occurrence forecasting models

Support and capacitate regions to identify/forecast public health emergencies and risks by integrating climate and other health related data with the public health surveillance data.

Participate in planning and conducting supervisions and assessments conducted by the team

Collaborate with the respective directorate in developing surveillance indicators to monitor surveillance performance.

Collaborate in the development of outbreak thresholds for prioritized diseases and events under surveillance for those without a threshold.

Develop guidelines, training manuals, training materials and provide capacity building trainings for experts at national and sub national

Work with GIS expert to map public health emergency risky areas

Prepare and submit cumulative and progress implementation report of assigned tasks

Regularly produce supervision, assessment and other technical reports timely

Use the EWARS+ dashboard output to complement the STAR tool and have quality VRAM exercise and EPRP preparation

Identify the type of data needed in advance of an outbreak, for public health interventions, and design ways to incorporate such information into planning

Ensure the availability of identified data variables and identify how to access the data

Optimize seasonal calendars for priority hazards at national and sub-national levels, including through the utilization of climate data

With relevant stakeholders, identify readiness activities to be conducted for the forecasted priority hazards.

Share experience from countries with better implementation experience through in-person visit, virtual meeting and online scanning

Carryout task assigned by the immediate supervisor

Required Skills and Expertise:

Ability to write high quality reports, public health researches, working ability in a team and emergency situations

Ability to provide hands-on training on data management/analysis software to capacitate national/sub-national PHEM officers

Training on PHEM and health related emergency field mission experience has added value

Desired skills and experiences

• Hands-on experience on climate change related and public health related data analysis, modeling and forecasting for early warning system

Ability to develop, customize, update, train and utilize public health emergency/outbreak occurrence prediction models

Knowledge and understanding of disease surveillance, epidemiology and public health practice

• Good experience in producing/publishing scientific reports
• Ability to meet task deadlines; work independently and cooperatively with teams

Deliverables

Deployment and implementation of the early warning, alert and response system (EWARS+) modeling & forecasting tool on available server/database.

Synthesize PHEM data to produce data products for decision making and actions

High-quality research reports and documentation as well as manuscripts for submission to reputable peer-reviewed journals.

Capacitate national/sub-national officers/end users to utilize and customize the modeling tool and other emergency management tools

Developed automated risk assessment tool

Integrating the EWARS+ modeling tool and visualization with Power BI, GIS and DHIS2

Early warning brief for each forecasted outbreak, focusing on recommended actions for prevention and preparedness.

Publication of completed forecasting/modeling for respective outbreaks