Vacancy Notice No: PAHO/10/FT457
Title: Advisor, Bioethics and Health
Grade: P4
Contract type: Fixed-term appointment
Duration of contract: Two years, first year probationary period.
Application Deadline: 4 November 2010
Duty Station: Washington, D.C. United States of America
Organization unit: AM Americas (AM)
Gender, Diversity and Human Rights Office (GDR)
OBJECTIVES OF THE PROGRAMME :
Gender, Diversity and Human Rights Office (GDR) provides technical cooperation and assistance to PAHO's technical entities, country offices, and Member States to promote gender and ethnic equality, human rights and ethics in the review/and or formulation of health policies, plans, laws and programs and research. GDR seeks to identify and reduce the inequities between women and men of all ethnic groups with regard to health status and its determinants and guarantee the right to health, including access to and quality of health care, participation in decision-making regarding policy agendas, definition of priorities and allocation of resources.
Description of duties:
Under the direct supervision of the Senior Advisor, Gender, Diversity and Human Rights (GDR), and the general supervision of the Assistant Director (AD), the incumbent is responsible for, but not necessarily limited to, the following duties:
a) Provide technical collaboration on the formulation/review of policies, strategies, plans, laws and objectives related to bioethics, taking into account the countries needs; collect this information as a baseline and gauge advances in the Region;
b) Support the establishment and functioning of national bioethics commissions to monitor adherence to ethical norms and human rights law in scientific research;
c) Organize and evaluating international and national initiatives on bioethics, to promote and build capacity for its application to scientific research and health interventions, and to disseminate recent knowledge and developments, as well as the basic international ethics principles (human dignity, rights and fundamental freedoms, protection from benefit and harm, informed consent, autonomy, personal integrity, privacy, non discrimination and respect for cultural diversity);
d) Develop relevant tools and guidelines for the application and monitoring of bioethics standards to research, medical interventions and procedures, in collaboration with national and international partners;
e) Coordinate with technical areas and offices of the Organization, such as the Office on Public Policies and Research, Ethics Review Committees of the Organization, relevant WHO Collaborating Centers, and the Pan American Health and Education Foundation (PAHEF), to advance relevant mandates and policy documents, such as the Policy on Research for Health;
f) Advise the Organization's Ethics Review Committee on the relevant ethical guidelines and principles, human rights instruments, scientific and social issues related to research projects involving human beings. Contributing towards the organization of the Velasco Suarez Award, in coordination with PAHEF;
g) Collaborate with partners in the field of bioethics among national and international organizations, non-governmental organizations, individuals, families, groups and communities, with especial regard for excluded and marginalized populations;
h) Coordinate with Collaborating Centers in regional countries, in the collection, analyses and dissemination of the medical, technical, and scientific knowledge and developments in the field of bioethics, with special attention to meeting the needs of Member States of the Organization, Representation Offices as well as national institutions, individuals, communities and groups;
i) Foster a multidisciplinary approach to problems that science and technology present for human kind and other bioethical issues related to medicine, life sciences and associated technologies as applied to human beings using international/regional human rights law instruments and other international/regional declarations, regulations, guidelines and principles applicable in the field of bioethics;
j) Develop implementation and monitoring the biannual workplan in coordination with GDR Senior Advisor and team members, as well as technical areas and country offices of the Organization. Promoting team work and inter-programmatic collaboration;
k) When called upon to directly supervise staff, establish clear work objectives, conduct timely and effective performance appraisals, provide coaching and feedback, and support staff development opportunities;
l) Perform other related duties, as assigned.
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
Education:
Essential: A university degree in one of the health or social sciences and a master's degree in public health or a field related to bioethics from a recognized university.
Desirable: A medical, doctorate, or law degree would be an asset.
Skills:
Key Behavioral Competencies
-- Intra-institutional Action: Leads team efforts toward full understanding of the policies the organization must operate within as well as the Standard of Conduct for the International Civil Service. Leads employees and co-workers toward operating in a fair, consistent and equitable manner, and displays such behavior by example. Behaves consistently in accordance with the Code of Ethics of the Organization.
-- Analysis, Synthesis, and Forecasting: After analyzing situations on the basis of the available evidence and knowledge, leads one's area of responsibility toward individual and collective actions. Encourages the importance of continual analysis. Verifies and promotes that action is taken in situations that will require future intervention, based on ongoing analysis. Leads others in decisions needed to implement required actions. Is capable of anticipating the implications of analyzed situations between one and two years ahead.
-- Knowledge Management: Supports and develops networked and community working. Identifies, develops and nurtures networks and communities. Identifies and builds on working networks that enable knowledge and information flow. Designs and implements knowledge and information services. Enables utilization of knowledge and information sources. Delivers relevant knowledge and information in most appropriate form. Participates in and learns from networked and community approaches.
-- Devising the budget for interventions and cost optimization: Demonstrates initiative and managerial capacity in obtaining alternative sources of financing and in mobilizing extrabudgetary resources for interventions. Acquires adequate funding, based upon the resources allocated in intervention plans.
-- Thinking, planning and the strategic management of technical cooperation interventions: Selects priority ideas for executing the interventions after anticipating their potential problems and solutions. Participates in the preparation of strategic plans, providing input about their impact, quality, critical points and risks.
-- Evaluation of technical cooperation interventions: Evaluates criteria for the interventions at the process, management, and outcome level, in addition to technical cooperation evaluation plans, in keeping with the PAHO's strategic direction.
-- Resource Mobilization: Works in an objective manner to obtain and apportion resources (financial and non-financial) according to need. Supports and advises technical areas to enable best use of resources are aligned with the mission and vision of the Organization. Is able to work in a multicultural environment. Is flexible and has the ability to work well under pressure. Is able to give feedback to partners within and outside the organization about the use of the resources and the results acquired.
Technical Expertise
-- Excellent knowledge and skills in providing technical cooperation in bioethics research and biomedical ethics.
-- Technical cooperation expertise in coordinating inter-country bioethical and biomedical issues.
-- Managerial expertise in human rights, public health and bioethics/biomedical issues.
-- Technical expertise in bioethics through publications, academic pursuits, peer recognition and the understanding and application of international/regional human rights treaties, standards and other norms and guidelines on medical research involving human subjects.
-- Knowledge of project implementation principles and practices including resource mobilization.
-- Knowledge and skills for the development, implementation and analysis of technical cooperation programs and activities, including budget programming and control.
-- Strong professional oral and writing skills, including the development of reports, oral presentations, and technical/persuasive documents for consideration at the highest levels of the Organization.
IT Skills
-- Demonstrated ability to effectively use a computer and utilize software programs such as Microsoft Office Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook. Demonstrated understanding of and experience with scientific, web-based and open source information systems. Other IT skills and knowledge of other software programs such as Visio, Microsoft SharePoint and Project would be an asset.
Experience:
Essential: Nine years of combined national and international progressively responsible experience in technical cooperation, including the planning, design, implementation and evaluation of programs, products and services concerned with bioethics. Of these at least five years of experience at a senior, scientific or technical level in major programs or activities related to bioethics, with four years of managerial experience in the identification, definition and application of broad technical cooperation policies and strategies in bioethics at the international level.
Desirable: Experience in the application of international law instruments to research in human subjects and the field of bioethics would be an asset.
Languages:
Very good knowledge of Spanish or English with a working knowledge of the other language. Knowledge of French and/or Portuguese would be an asset.
Additional Information:
Please submit with your application a list of relevant publications following ICMJE formatting standards (http://www.icmje.org/). Where appropriate, please include hyperlinks to indexed publications or websites featuring your contributions including electronic records, books, thesis reports and similarly relevant outputs.
Annual salary: (Net of tax)
US $66,482.00 at single rate
US $71,393.00 with primary dependants Post Adjustment: 42.6 % of the above figure(s). This percentage is to be considered as indicative since variations may occur each month either upwards or downwards due to currency exchange rate fluctuations or inflation.
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