National Consultant - Health Service Availability and Readiness Assessment at Border Entry Points

About the role

IOM, in cooperation with the Asian Development Bank and the governments of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, is implementing a cross-border health security partnership project focused on the Fotehobod entry point in Tajikistan and the Oybek entry point in Uzbekistan. As National Consultant, you will lead the assessment of health service availability and readiness in border regions and mobility corridors, so that the findings can shape cross-border cooperation, surveillance and control measures and standard operating procedures for data exchange.

Key responsibilities

• Conduct the health service availability and readiness assessment in selected border regions and along mobility corridors around the Fotehobod and Oybek points of entry.
• Use the findings to help define responses to community health risk reduction and improved service availability.
• Support the development of cross-border surveillance and control measures, including recognition, reporting, referral and management of suspected cases.
• Help establish cross-border communication and coordination protocols for timely data sharing, and contribute to developing and testing SOPs on case management, disease surveillance, infection prevention and control and outbreak coordination.

Required profile

• University degree in Health Sciences or Social Sciences, including public health, epidemiology or related fields.
• At least 5 years of professional experience in public health research, preferably on epidemiology, communicable diseases, IHR and border health.
• Demonstrated experience in health service availability and readiness assessments, health facility assessments or similar public health assessments.
• Experience with WHO health facility assessment tools and with collecting and analysing quantitative and qualitative health data.
• Fluency in written and spoken English and Uzbek/Tajik; Russian is an asset.
• Experience working with international organisations, government institutions and stakeholders; cross-border, migration or mobility health experience is an asset.

Required skills

• Quantitative and qualitative research methods, data collection, data management and analysis.
• Knowledge of WHO health facility assessment tools and methodologies.
• Experience with KoboToolbox or similar digital data collection platforms is an asset.
• Strong analytical and report-writing skills.