Tobacco Surveillance Officer

The Health Promotion, Social Determinants, Equity, Tobacco Control, Risk Communication and Community Engagement, Behavioural Science, and Urban Health (HPD) Programme is part of the Disease Prevention and Control (DPC) Cluster. The Programme supports Member States in integrating health promotion, social determinants of health, risk communication, community engagement, behavioural science, and tobacco control into national policies and strategies. Its work aligns with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC), the Fourteenth General Programme of Work (GPW14), and the DPC strategic agenda.

The DPC Cluster drives the attainment of relevant SDG targets in the WHO African Region by supporting Member States through integrated, multisectoral, equity-based, and people-centred approaches to disease prevention, health promotion, and health system strengthening. Its strategic priorities include: (i) generating and disseminating evidence to inform health priorities and investments; (ii) facilitating the development, adoption, and use of WHO normative guidance and technical products; (iii) promoting the integration of innovative technologies into health systems, including point-of-care technologies within primary health care; and (iv) strengthening institutional capacity to deliver sustainable technical support.

The overall objective of the HPD Programme is to provide leadership and technical support to Member States to promote health and well-being, improve equitable access to quality health services, address the social, economic, commercial, political, and cultural determinants of health, reduce stigma and discrimination affecting vulnerable populations, and strengthen tobacco control to reduce tobacco-related morbidity, mortality, and disability. This is achieved through the implementation of the Health in All Policies (HiAP) approach, using whole-of-government and whole-of-society strategies to advance Universal Health Coverage and the SDGs.

Within the DPC Cluster and the HPD Unit, the International UN Volunteer Specialist supports the coordination and implementation of regional initiatives related to tobacco control, health promotion, and disease prevention. The incumbent provides technical and operational support to the HPD Unit, including the Tobacco Control Project Team and Team Leader, with a particular focus on coordinating the Global Tobacco Surveillance System (GTSS), alcohol and sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) surveys, monitoring key health promotion and tobacco control indicators, analysing trends, and assessing programme performance.

Under the overall supervision of the Team Leader, HPD, and the direct supervision of the Senior Project Officer, Africa Tobacco Control Project, the incumbent collaborates with technical clusters and programmes to coordinate tobacco surveillance and related activities, support planning, implementation, monitoring, and reporting of regional work programmes, strengthen knowledge generation and evidence-informed decision-making, and monitor programme progress across Member States.

The incumbent will be expected to perform the following duties:

• Provide technical support to Member States in the planning and implementation, including the design of tools and protocols of youth and adult tobacco-related surveys, and in building efficient, systematic surveillance mechanisms to monitor the tobacco epidemic, including new and emerging tobacco and nicotine products.
• Support Member States in the collection of alcohol and sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs ) data for the global reports
• Support Member States in the analysis of survey data and the development, implementation, and evaluation of effective data dissemination mechanisms related to tobacco surveillance.
• Support the collection and validation of data and other related information for the World Health Organization (WHO ) global report on the tobacco epidemic and the WHO global report on trends in prevalence of tobacco use 2000-2030.
• Support the Tobacco Control team in regional tobacco control policy and data analysis including development of technical materials such as project progress reports, documents, factsheets, presentations, guides, tools, and advocacy materials on tobacco control and emerging tobacco and nicotine products and assist with their dissemination and use in the Region.
• Support development of manuscript to publish project lessons
• Actively participate in relevant working groups, technical meetings, and forums, and contribute to the preparation of technical and administrative reports and analyses on tobacco-related issues.
• Perform any other related duties as assigned.