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Qualifications

Area of expertise

Conducting climate change, health vulnerability, adaptation assessment and, drafting an adaptation plan for Iraq

Purpose of consultancy

The purpose of this consultancy is to conduct a national climate change and health vulnerability and adaptation assessment in Iraq, and to use the outcome of this assessment in compiling and developing health adaptation plan using WHO tool and guideline[1]. This will be executed through the formulation of the project team led by the Ministry of Health including representatives from different related ministries and departments, planning the process of assessment and identifying the main risks or hazards, outcomes and geographical region and time frame to be assessed and then perform the vulnerability, capacity, future risk, and adaptation assessment to eventually have the final assessment report that should provide the required information by decision makers for the effective management of the health risks of climate change, and on which the health national adaptation plan will be developed. (Detailed description is below)

Background  

Climate variability and change are affecting human health and health systems, increasing climate-sensitive diseases and health outcomes, and damaging health care facilities from sea-level rise, storm surges, and extreme weather events such as flooding, drought, dust storms and heatwaves.

Climate change over the next few decades is projected to alter the geographical range and numbers of cases of injuries, illnesses and deaths from climate-sensitive health outcomes, and to affect the functioning of public health and health care systems. If no additional actions are taken, substantial increases in morbidity and mortality are projected for a wide range of health outcomes over the coming decades.

A key driver of population health will be the degree of success or failure of current policies and programmes to reduce climate-sensitive diseases and health outcomes. Understanding the strengths and weaknesses of the health system and specific programmes to manage climate change impacts and surprises is of critical importance to plan modifications needed to increase the resilience of health systems.

Therefore, building climate-resilient health systems to explicitly take climate change into account should enable reductions in most of the projected increases in morbidity and mortality. Policies and programmes designed to address the health risks of climate change should be incorporated into existing programmes within and outside health systems to ensure the efficient use of financial and human resources.

The first step towards building a climate resilient and environmentally sustainable health system is conducting a comprehensive and inclusive climate change and health vulnerability and adaptation assessment at the national or subnational level. Next is to analyze and implement the results of the vulnerability and adaptation assessment and develop a detailed evidence-informed plan of action based the vulnerability and adaptation assessment results known as the health national adaptation plan.

Vulnerability and adaptation assessment is a participatory process. It is a tool that allows countries to evaluate which populations and specific geographies are most vulnerable to different kinds of health effects from climate change; to identify weaknesses in the systems that should protect them; and to specify interventions to respond and it builds on the core principles of risk assessments, taking into consideration the unique challenges presented by climate variability and change, to provide policy-relevant information for maintaining and improving health systems in a changing climate.

The last three years has been historic for climate change and health work and recognition at UNFCCC COPs, starting with COP26 at Glasgow where the UK COP26 Presidency announced the Health Programme where countries were called to announce their commitments to build climate resilient and environmentally sustainable low carbon health systems and the year after at COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh where the Alliance for Transformative Action on Climate Change and Health (ATACH) was launched to support countries in implementing their commitments and finally with the first ever Health Day at COP28 in Dubai, Health Ministerial, and the COP28 Presidency Health Declaration stressing the need to accelerate work on climate change and health.

Therefore, WHO has published different tools and guidelines to guide the countries at different levels in their efforts to build a climate resilient and environmentally sustainable health systems including WHO guidance on climate change and health vulnerability and adaptation assessment. Including a stepwise guideline on conducting climate change and health vulnerability and adaptation assessment.

Deliverables

Output 1: Planning the Assessment

Whether the work will be conducting the assessment for the first time or updating a previous one, a core team of experts from the leading organization (ministry of health and other…) will be responsible of planning the assessment, deciding the need to initiate/update the assessment, conducting a stakeholder analysis for such project, Identifying information and data resources relevant to the objectives and questions of the assessment, this will be mostly through reviewing literature, health data, climate data, community reports, and stakeholders’ inputs including the vulnerable populations.

Establish national project team of experts led by the Ministry of Health through collaborating and coordinating with different health departments within the Ministry in addition to representatives from other relevant Ministries and authorities outside of the Ministry of Health (based on the results of the stakeholder analysis). Such team could include: representatives from different departments within Ministry of Health, Ministry of Environment, Ministry of Finance, Water sector, Food authorities, Academia and Research, community leaders, non-governmental organizations or any other related entity.

Identify the objectives of the assessment by addressing different question regarding national priorities and needs, the existing policies and health system resiliency or others.

Defining and choosing which climate change health risks and outcomes to be included in the assessment in addition to the geographical scale and time period.

Planning for communicating the assessment process to reach out to decision makers and other potential audience.

Deliverable 1: Draft a full proposal with clear timeline on the assessment including the project team and stakeholders, objectives of the assessment, a list of the climate change health risks to be assessed on what geographical scale and time period the assessment will cover.

Output 2: Conducting the Assessment

Should possess the necessary expertise to recognize risks and analyze assessment objectives. The consultant will be in charge of completing the assessment procedures by following these guidelines. This will include several steps:

·       Conducting vulnerability assessment: to describe the current burden of climate-sensitive health outcomes and vulnerabilities to climate change. This will include defining, describing, and prioritizing climate-sensitive health outcomes to be assessed and the relationship between current and past climate conditions and the outcomes in addition to identifying vulnerable populations and geographical regions affected and finally document these as a baseline report for future comparisons.

·       Conducting capacity assessment: to assess the capacity of health and health-relevant systems. This will include identifying and determining whether the existing policies and programmes are managing climate-related health risks effectively or not in addition to assessing the current capacity of the health system to address the risks of climate-sensitive health outcomes and if there are any actions of any other sectors relevant to this.

·       Conducting future risk assessment: to qualitatively or quantitatively project the health risks of climate change. This will include describing how current health risks could change under diverse scenarios of climate change and development and estimating the possible additional burden of adverse health outcomes due to climate change.

·       Conducting adaptation assessment: to identify and prioritize policies, programmes and actions to address current and projected health risks. This will include identifying and prioritizing potential modifications needed to current and planned, or proposes new, policies and programmes within the building blocks of health systems to prevent, prepare for and respond to current and emerging health risks associated with possibly more severe climate change.

Deliverable 2.1: provide report on the vulnerability and capacity assessment.

Deliverable 2.2: Provide report on future risks and adaptation assessment.

Output 3: Synthesizing and finalizing the assessment

Gathering all the information resulted from the previous steps to develop a final and presentable technical report, executive summary, and key messages from the whole process to reach out for decision makers.

Deliverable 3: Submit final report, including executive summary and key messages on the results of climate change and health vulnerability and adaptation assessment.

Output 4: Developing Iraq’s Health National Adaptation Plan (HNAP)

Through this output, the health national adaptation plan will be drafted based on the results of the assessment highly inspired and based on the outcomes of the adaptation assessment part of the the overall process. An initial draft containing the overall adaptation options and activities is to be developed at the first stage that will be used to guide a wide scale national consultation to prioritize the adaptation activities.

The prioritized plan shall then be shaped into an action plan the will clearly identify the national health adaptation measures and activities. the plan will include details regarding the level and duration of implementation, roughly stating the required human and financial resources, the responsible sectors along the implementation, suggested indicators to help in monitoring and evaluating the progress made and effectiveness of the activity. If applicable, the consultant might be asked to prepare draft proposals for a selected number of the most priority adaption activities.

Deliverable 4: Submit Health national adaptation plan that include a list of prioritized activities and adaptation measures and project draft proposals.

Educational Qualifications

Essential: First university degree in Environmental health studies or climate change

Desirable: Master’s degree in environmental health studies, or equivalent

Experience

Essential: Five years of experience working in environmental health studies, climate change or relevant field.

Desirable: Previous work with WHO, other international organizations and/or major institutions in the field of environmental assessments.

Skills/Knowledge

·       Excellent presentation and communication skills.

·       Excellent leadership and coordination skills

Languages and level required

Fluent in Arabic and English (Read-Write-Speak)

Location

Iraq country office

Medical clearance

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

Travel

The Consultant is expected to travel 3 times during his/her contract to conduct 3 trainings.

Remuneration and Expected duration of the contract (Maximum contract duration is 11 months per calendar year)

·       Remuneration: National pay NOC level

·       Expected duration of the contract: 108 days starting from: 20 Oct 2024

WHO Competencies

Enhanced WHO Global Competency Model: https://www.who.int/employment/WHO_competencies_EN.pdf?ua=

Interested candidates are strongly encouraged to apply on-line through Stellis. For assessment of your application, please ensure that:

a)     Your profile on Stellis is properly completed and updated.

b)     All required details regarding your qualifications, education and training are provided.

c)     Your experience records are entered with elaboration on tasks performed at the time.

Additional information

• 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 an 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. 
• For information on WHO’s operations please visit: http://www.who.int. 
• WHO is committed to workforce diversity. 
• WHO has a smoke-free environment and does not recruit smokers or users of any form of tobacco. 
• Applications from women and from nationals of non and underrepresented Member States are particularly encouraged. 
• WHO prides itself on a workforce that adheres to the highest ethical and professional standards and is committed to putting the WHO Values Charter 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 final candidates. 
• Consultants shall perform the work as independent contractors in a personal capacity, and not as a representative of any entity or authority. The execution of the work under a consultant contract does not create an employer/employee relationship between WHO and the Consultant. 
• WHO shall have no responsibility whatsoever 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.