Purpose of the Consultancy

This consultancy is designed to lead the development of Health Emergency Communication Center (CC), by Strengthening governance arrangements and set up of the national call centre

Background and rationale:

The Directorate General of Emergency & Epidemic Control (DGEEC) is responsible of strengthening the country's health emergency and disaster management system, by raising the health system capacities and strengthening its infrastructure-which enables it to deal effectively with risks and prevent/reduce the occurrence of negative health impact. The Emergency Operation Centre (EOC) is responsible to improve communication and coordination between different actors and stakeholders in emergency response, and to ensure rapid & effective flow of information to facilitate evidence-based timely decision.COVID19 pandemic has imposed a serious need for effective communication at federal and state levels. Data flow needs to be charted and monitored effectively. Call centres -at federal and state levels- provide a rich source of data, which could potentially be a very accurate and sensitive reflection of the situation on the ground. The ministry of health is currently working to maximise the utilization of these call centres.

There is an urgent need for open, accessible and permanent communication channels between DGHEEC and all stakeholders especially affected communities, as Communication in health emergency is not well organized. Although recently the decision in the risk communication plan was towards unification of the communication channels to avoid unnecessary confusion or contradiction between the different messages. Therefore, DGHEEC communication center will works to fill this gap and provide a two-way communication channel collecting concerns, complains and notification from the affected communities and stakeholders and provides them with the relevant response and direction they need to know. The center will have various communication channels to suites every stakeholders and assuring everybody is hooked in the loop.”

Work to Be Performed:

Output (1): Develop the Initial draft of the health emergency communication centre policy, and plan.

• Deliverable (1):  Review and asses the institutional capacities and competencies of the available national call centre and states’ call centre initiative to formulate insights.
  • Conduct desk review for the available documents and procedures
  • Assess the capacities and performance of the current call centers
• Deliverable (2): Lead and chair a dialogue with relevant directorate within Federal Ministry of Health (FMOH) their counterparts, policy and decision makers, experts & academics, relevant key staff and beneficiaries including communities, health care providers, and regulators to agree on the policy and guidelines needed to establish the health emergency communication centre
• Deliverable (3): Design Communication Centre core purpose and structures, including identification of roles and their interrelated relations. with other departments and the federal and state CC
• Deliverable (4):  Develop of a national CC plan in alignment with the health emergency and epidemic control policies and strategies to address the ongoing health risks, emergencies, and outbreaks. plan should include clear timelines 

Output (2): Develop the Standard Operating Procedure (SOPs) and needed technical guidelines

• Deliverable (1): Develop and establish technical manual and operating protocol for the national CC

Output (3): Support the national communication center functionality:

• Deliverable (1): Design a tool for data collection  and  data storage and retrieval..
• Deliverable (2): Develop training modules and capacity building plan for staff based on national CC
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• Deliverable (3): Provide guidance to FMoH to develop a plan for states CC expansion.
• Deliverable (4): Create an advocacy plan for creating linkages at state level and cooperation with the Isolation Centres Command (ICC) to enable utilizing the information they gather for guidance of beneficiaries on service delivery points.

• Specific requirements
• Qualifications required:
  • Advanced university degree (Master’s Degree) in Public Health with interest in Health Information, Health Policy & Planning, Health Emergencies, Global Health or any other relevant field. Or background on Information technology with experience in the public health field
  • With good knowledge in health communication, Call-centres, and policy development

• Experience required:
  •  From 5 to 10 years of relevant professional experience in a similar working environment, especially working on communication or call-centres.
  • Related experience with call centre software’s.
  • Have a previous experience in call centre operation.
  • Experiences in VoIP.

• Skills / Technical skills and knowledge:

• Well understanding and demonstrated knowledge of public health, Health Management Planning and policy.
• Good analytic skills
• Proven Previous experience in TOR, SOP’s writing.: “preferable for call centre”

• Language requirements:
  • Excellent knowledge of Arabic

• Place of assignment

• The assignment will take place in Khartoum State at the FMoH, Khartoum state Ministry of Health.

• Medical clearance

• The selected Consultant will be expected to provide a medical certificate of fitness for work.

  All travel arrangements will be made by WHO – WHO will not be responsible for tickets purchased by the Consultant without the express, prior authorization of WHO. While on mission under the terms of this consultancy, the Consultant will receive subsistence allowance.

  Visas requirements: it is the consultant’s responsibility to fulfil visa requirements and ask for visa support letter(s) if needed.

How to apply:

Applications are made throug WHO career portal who.int\careers, to access this consultancy please go to: https://careers.who.int/careersection/in/jobdetail.ftl?job=2101456&tz=GMT%2B02%3A00&tzname=Africa%2FCairo