Project coordinator / senior bio-statistician /

Required Number: One (1)  

Location: Addis Ababa with frequent field travel

Minimum base Salary: As per the institution scale

Employment Type: Contractual for 1 year with possibility of extension

Purpose: Ethiopia is experiencing different public health emergencies. An effective and efficient emergency forecast, communication, preparedness and response will 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.

Job description: 

• 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 tool’s 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.

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

• 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 best options to disseminate the forecast finding to the respective team both at national and regional level and ensure the forecast finding is reached to the target audience 

• Follow and remind actions taken from the forecast finding by the respective team

• 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 national, regional, zonal, woreda and health facility level health workers 

• 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+), EPIDEMIA and other modeling & forecasting tools 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 

• Integrating the EWARS+ modeling tool and visualization with Power BI 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 

• Optimized seasonal calendars for high-risk hazards identified through the STAR toolkit  

Post prediction assessment report with improvement recommendation  

• PhD in biostatistics/statistics, Epidemiology, public health, or related fields with minimum of 6 years’ experience in managing and modeling large scale public health data and research publication in high IF journals  

• M.Sc./MPH.  in biostatistics/statistics, Epidemiology, public health, or related fields with minimum of 8 years’ experience in managing and modeling large scale public health data
• Proficiency with data analysis and visualization software such as R/python, Power BI, SQL, Advanced Excel, GIS, ODK/kobo toolbox, and related data management software 
• Solid understanding & experience of public health research and analytic techniques with at least three publications in reputable journals as a first author       

How To Apply