Gender-Based Violence in Emergencies – WHO jobs in South Sudan

• Location: Juba, South Sudan
• Vacancy No: N/A 
• Salary: N/A
• Organization: WHO
• Gender: Both
• Deadline: 2024-02-28

Background and Justification

The mission of WHO’s Emergency Response Division and WHO Health Emergencies Program (WHE) is to support countries, and coordinate international action to prevent, prepare for, detect, rapidly respond to, and recover from outbreaks and emergencies.  WHE has been collaborating with WHO’s Sexual and Reproductive Health and Research (SRH) to promote and operationalize GBV interventions within its broad mandate as authority on international health work within the United Nations system, and within its humanitarian mission to save lives and relieve suffering as Global Health Cluster (GHC), which provides strategic and technical support to 31 country-level Health Clusters/Sectors[1], engaging with 60 global strategic partners and over 900 operational partners at country level These partners include international organizations and UN agencies, nongovernmental organizations, national authorities, affected communities, specialized agencies, academic and training institutes and donor agencies.

2. Background

Support from the U.S. State Department’s Bureau for Population, Refugees and Migration for the past five years has allowed WHO to make considerable progress towards institutionalizing the response to GBV within its global, regional, and country-based emergency work.  Key accomplishments include:

• Strengthened institutional capacity to address GBV.
• Improved coverage and quality of health service delivery to GBV survivors in humanitarian settings.
• Improved capacity of the Health Cluster/Sector to respond to GBV in new emergencies.
• New and updated technical tools.
• Influencing the Health Cluster/Sector to take action to address GBV.
• Improving availability and quality of clinical care for GBV survivors.
• National adaptations of WHO guidelines and tools.

3. Purpose of the Consultancy

The aim of this consultancy is to provide appropriate and timely health interventions to respond to needs of survivors of Gender-Based Violence (GBV) in South Sudan.  Under the supervision of the Health Cluster Coordinator, the GBV Consultant will conduct scoping missions to identify gaps/needs, identify timely and appropriate GBV health interventions, and implement activities in-country to strengthen WHO’s and the Health Cluster’s interventions on GBV.

4. Work to be performed

WHO seeks a qualified Consultant with expert knowledge of gender-based violence (GBV) response and prevention, as well as demonstrated professional experience in humanitarian response and preparedness, to implement activities to strengthen GBV response in the WHO and the interagency health sector response to GBV.

Under the overall supervision of the national Health Cluster Coordinator, the Consultant will

1. a)Assess the needs to strengthen the health response to GBV in the context of WHO’s humanitarian response and that of the Health Cluster against existing capacity, and
2. b)Provide technical support and advice to strengthen Health Cluster coordination to address GBV.
3. c)Contribute to GBV thematic work in relevant departments and working groups, such as WHO’s PRSEAH activities and the South Sudan Protection Cluster.

The Consultant will work in close collaboration with the GBV Technical Advisors in the AFRO region and in HQ, as well as other country office staff and health partners in South Sudan.

Output 1: Conduct assessment of the Health Cluster response to GBV in the South Sudan humanitarian response.

Activity 1.1. Identify the needs and capacities to strengthen Health Cluster Coordination for health response to GBV at national and sub-national levels, including strengthening essential multi-sectoral linkages (MHPSS, Protection, Nutrition, etc.).

Activity 1.2. Submit assessment report outlining main needs, achievements, and challenges, and make recommendations for priority actions, including opportunities for strengthening multi-sectoral coordination to address GBV and resources and other supports needed for implementation.

Activity 1.3. Engage Health Cluster partners at national and sub-national level to develop and implement a GBViE action plan to address assessment recommendations, in close collaboration with Health Cluster Coordination team and key WHO staff.

Output 2: Provide technical support for implementation of assessment recommendations to strengthen Health Cluster coordination.

Activity 2.1. Ensure appropriate integration of GBV into Health Cluster tools, guidance documents, reporting mechanisms, and products in collaboration with Health Cluster Coordination team and key WHO staff.

Activity 2.2. Conduct rapid assessments, Health Facility Readiness exercises, and/or needs analyses, including on SEA risks (depending on the context) to support and monitor the implementation of recommendations to strengthen the health response to GBV at sub-national level.

Activity 2.3. Provide technical advice and support to WHO country office to conduct initial planning with WCO to produce GBViE Road Maps (action plans to integrate GBV into Health Cluster/Sector’s plans and WCO’s operations). strengthen alignment of health operational and strategic with Health Cluster action plan to address GBV.

Activity 2.4. Verbal debriefs with WR and key WCO staff in country, and scoping mission/rapid assessment and/or needs analysis reports outlining main successes, challenges, and recommendations for programming.

Activity 2.5. Monitoring of recommendations of scoping missions/rapid assessments/needs analyses and key performance indicators for GBViE.

Activity 2.5. Submit progress report on activities and propose follow up actions.

Output 3: Strengthen capacity of WHO staff, Health Cluster/Sectors and partners on the health response to GBV in priority countries.

Activity 3.1: Provide training packages to WCO as requested, adapting case studies and scenarios as needed. 

Activity 3.2: Conduct and/or co-facilitate in-country trainings of health providers on WHO’s standards on First-Line Support and Clinical Management of Rape and Intimate Partner Violence.

5. Work effort

The Consultant will be paid at Band Level B monthly rate ranging from 7,000 to 9,980 USD over a 6-month period, for a total of 45,500 USD to 64,870 USD.

6. Specific requirements

Qualifications required:

Master’s degree in one of the following fields: social work, nursing, medicine, public health, women’s or gender and development studies.

Experience required:

• At least 5 years of work experience in health-related interventions in emergencies, including violence against women/gender-based violence, ideally with some of this in humanitarian settings, and experience in training health organizations and health providers.
• Proven knowledge of health and gender-based violence issues, a good understanding of gender quality and survivor-centred perspectives and a good understanding of the humanitarian organizational structure.
• Ability to deliver key mandate-specific advocacy messages on GBV in emergencies.
• Demonstrated ability to work in multicultural settings and excellent inter-personal skills.
• Demonstrated capacity to work in challenging circumstances, administer projects and build partnerships involving technical and political elements.
• Sexual and Reproductive Health, Mental Health and Psychosocial Support experience with Internally Displaced Populations and/or refugees an asset.
• Experience in high security risk environments desirable.

Skills / Technical skills and knowledge:

• Technical knowledge of gender-based violence in humanitarian settings and strong training skills required.
• Knowledge of the IASC, UN agency mandates, and role of Cluster Leads, and practical experience as Health Cluster or GBV Sub-Cluster Coordinator.
• Ability to deliver key mandate-specific advocacy messages on GBV in emergencies.
• Experience assessing health services and coordinating support to GBV survivors preferred.
• Excellent spoken and written English required and preferably some knowledge of Swahili.
• Experience providing mental health services and/or psychosocial support an asset.

Competencies: Generic

1. Producing results
2. Moving forward in a changing environment
3. Fostering integration and teamwork
4. Creating an empowering and motivating environment
5. Promoting innovation and organizational learning 

Language proficiency

Fluency in written and spoken English.

Additional Information (For HR use only):

• 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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The WHO is committed to achieving gender parity and geographical diversity in its workforce. Women, persons with disabilities, and nationals of unrepresented and underrepresented Member States (https://www.who.int/careers/diversity-equity-and-inclusion) are strongly encouraged to apply for WHO jobs.

Persons with disabilities can request reasonable accommodations to enable participation in the recruitment process. Requests for reasonable accommodation should be sent through an email to  reasonableaccommodation@who.int

• An impeccable record for integrity and professional ethical standards is essential. WHO prides itself on a workforce that adheres to the highest ethical and professional standards and that is committed to put the WHO Values Charter (https://www.who.int/about/who-we-are/our-values) into practice.

• WHO has zero tolerance towards sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA), sexual harassment and other types of abusive conduct (i.e., discrimination, abuse of authority and harassment). All members of the WHO workforce have a role to play in promoting a safe and respectful workplace and should report to WHO any actual or suspected cases of SEA, sexual harassment and other types of abusive conduct. To ensure that individuals with a substantiated history of SEA, sexual harassment or other types of abusive conduct are not hired by the Organization, WHO will conduct a background verification of short-listed candidates.
• WHO has a smoke-free environment and does not recruit smokers or users of any form of tobacco.
• Consultants shall perform the work as independent contractors in a personal capacity, and not as a representative of any entity or authority.
• WHO shall have no responsibility for any taxes, duties, social security contributions or other contributions payable by the Consultant. The Consultant shall be solely responsible for withholding and paying any taxes, duties, social security contributions and any other contributions which are applicable to the Consultant in each location/jurisdiction in which the work hereunder is performed, and the Consultant shall not be entitled to any reimbursement thereof by WHO.
• Please note that WHO’s contracts are conditional on members of the workforce confirming that they are vaccinated as required by WHO before undertaking a WHO assignment, except where a medical condition does not allow such vaccination, as certified by the WHO Staff Health and Wellbeing Services (SHW). The successful candidate will be asked to provide relevant evidence related to this condition. A copy of the updated vaccination card must be shared with WHO medical service in the medical clearance process. Please note that certain countries require proof of specific vaccinations for entry or exit. For example, official proof /certification of yellow fever vaccination is required to enter many countries. Country-specific vaccine recommendations can be found on the WHO international travel and Staff Health and Wellbeing website. For vaccination-related queries please directly contact SHW directly at shws@who.int.
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