Infodemic Management Consultant at World Health Organization (WHO)

World Health Organization (WHO) is the directing and coordinating authority for health within the United Nations system. It is responsible for providing leadership on global health matters, shaping the health research agenda, setting norms and standards, articulating evidence-based policy options, providing technical support to countries and monitoring and assessing health trends.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: Infodemic Management Consultant

Location: Abuja
Schedule: Full-time
Contractual Arrangement: External consultant
Contract Duration (Years, Months, Days): 6 Months

Objectives of the Role

• Based on the identified trends, the deployment of a infodemic management consultant is required to support the World Health Organization in Nigeria and its partners to strengthen the infodemic management mechanisms, enhance coordination between infodemic and RCCE partners, strengthen capacity and provide high-quality and timely technical support. 

Key responsibilities
Under the overall supervision of the EPR team lead, and with close collaboration with the AIRA Country Support Lead, the infodemic management consultant shall undertake the following tasks:

• Lead an information ecosystem analysis, with contributions from partners
• Map out the existing coordination mechanisms, and mobilize partners to adapt them to current infodemic needs
• Help draft strategic documents, SOPs, tools to support an efficient workflow between IM stakeholders
• Establish a community-based, mass and social media surveillance on discussions around perceptions, vaccines and issues around health emergency and non-emergency topics.
• Monitor and analyze the discourse on key health topics, including vaccinations in the country from online and offline sources.
• Prepare routine infodemic analysis reports, with key recommendations.
• Contribute to research activities linked to infodemic and RCCE
• Build a dissemination network including linkage with media influencers (Guild of Professional Bloggers of Nigeria (GPBN), Borno Social Media Forum, Nigerian Union of Journalists, institutional WhatsApp groups, Instagram groups, Facebook etc) to amplify content developed to counter the infodemic
• Ensure infodemic management activities and lessons learned are well documented
• Contribute to reporting duties for the WHO Nigeria Country office and AFRO WHO regional office.
• Attend any other requests from the supervisor related to risk communication and community engagement

Reporting lines:

• The Infodemic Management Consultant will report to the EPR Cluster Lead in WHO Nigeria Country Office while closely liaising with the Africa Infodemic Response Alliance team as well the Nigeria Federal Ministry of Health, NCDC and NPHCDA.

Education qualifications

• Advanced University Degree in Communication, Public Health, Health Sciences or a related field an accredited/recognized institute.

Essential qualifications:

• At least five years of experience in public health communication, risk communication, social behavior change or any related field.  
• Experience in an emergency response including risk communication, community engagement and infodemics is a strong plus.
• Demonstrated experience in multistakeholder coordination
• Demonstrated experience in designing and delivering training sessions, especially in infodemic management
• Excellent English writing and editing skills, knowledge of another Nigerian national language is a plus

Commitment to WHO’s values and objectives including:

• Ability to work flexibly within short deadlines in a changing environment with competing priorities
• Ability to communicate with respect, tact and diplomacy
• Share a results-oriented work ethic
• Fostering integration and teamwork
• Thorough knowledge of the principles, techniques and practices of online dissemination of information, via social media mechanisms and the web and.
• Thorough understanding of the impact of communications on the reputation, image, and success of an organization, as well as the role the web and social media has in this regard. 
• Fluency in using Outlook, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint

Desirable qualifications:

• Work experience with WHO or a Governmental agency in Nigeria is a plus.

Application Closing Date
17th April, 2024.