Assistant Public Health Officer (N)

November 16, 2025

E (most hardship)

Non Family with Residential LocationNon Family with Residential LocationDanger Pay

Nairobi (CO), Kenya

NOA

National Professional Officer

Reason

Regular > Regular Assignment

2026-01-01

Assistant Public Health Officer

Organizational Setting and Work Relationships

The Assistant Public Health Officer is a member of a multidisciplinary team and contributes to ensuring that UNHCR's public health programmes meet minimum UNHCR and global health standards in order to minimise avoidable morbidity and mortality among forcibly displaced and stateless persons and towards the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Public health programmes include primary health care, secondary health care, sexual and reproductive health (including HIV), nutrition, mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS).

The incumbent provides effective and guidance and support to partners on UNHCR’s responses in public health.

S/he advances the concepts found in UNHCR’s Global Public Health Strategy as well as the Global Compact on Refugees (GCR) and applies a humanitarian-development nexus lens to UNHCR public health programming and contributes to advancing the mainstreaming/inclusion of refugees into national health programmes, advocacy for refugees’ inclusion into national universal health coverage plans including health insurance and other social protection schemes.

The Assistant Public Health Officer is usually supervised by a more senior public health staff or in the absence thereof, by operations/programmes staff.

All UNHCR staff members are accountable to perform their duties as reflected in their job description. They do so within their delegated authorities, in line with the regulatory framework of UNHCR which includes the UN Charter, UN Staff Regulations and Rules, UNHCR Policies and Administrative Instructions as well as relevant accountability frameworks. In addition, staff members are required to discharge their responsibilities in a manner consistent with the core, functional, cross-functional and managerial competencies and UNHCR’s core values of professionalism, integrity and respect for diversity.

Duties

• Provide support for the implementation of public health programmes in a multi-sectoral and coordinated manner in cooperation with government, UN agencies, NGOs, and other humanitarian and development partners with due consideration to the approaches outlined in the Global Compact on Refugees, health-related pledges linked to the Global Refugee Forum and in support of the Sustainable Development Goals, including SDG3.

• Support a strategic approach to public health towards greater inclusion and access of refugees to national health systems including social health protection as applicable.

• Participate in relevant coordination and collaboration structures.

• Participate in emergency responses to new refugee influxes and disease outbreaks.

• Support gathering information for relevant assessments and identification of needs.

• Work closely with programme and other units as applicable in programme planning and monitoring.

• Support intersectoral collaboration throughout all stages of programme cycle between public health, and other sectoral areas to promote synergies and maximise impact.

• Assist with the implementation of relevant UNHCR Health Information System suite of tools and surveys to support in analysis, interpretation, reporting and use of public health data as well as linkage/integration with national data systems including disaggregation by nationality.

• Support capacity strengthening of UNHCR and its implementing partners to ensure the technical integrity of public health programmes in a coordinated, multi-sectoral way.

• Support the identification and management of risks and seek to seize opportunities impacting objectives in the area of responsibility. Ensure decision making is risk based in the functional area of work. Raise risks, issues and concerns to a supervisor or to relevant functional colleague(s).

• Perform other related duties as required.

For positions in country operations

• Support public health emergency preparedness and response planning.

• Support the technical integrity of health care services and that they are based on Ministry of Health, UNHCR and/or internationally recognized and most up-to-date standards and policies.

• Support the process for preparing and processing medicine and medical supply orders with partners.

• Ensure community engagement and community participation in health programming.

• Monitor and support compliance with, and integrity of, all UNHCR Public Health Administrative Instruction/standard operating procedures and alerting the manager of any issues.

For positions in regional bureaux

• Support the coordination of public health programmes across the regional bureau and with country operations including assimilation and documentation of better practice/lessons learnt for dissemination.

• Ensure appropriate technical advice and support (including missions) to country operations, in all aspects of public health service delivery, including in emergencies and in line with UNHCR’s policy and guidance.

• Assess, analyse public health data and provide relevant support on the technical quality of public health programming in the operations.

• Support effective collaborative approaches across the departments in the bureaux and with HQ.

Minimum Qualifications

Years of Experience / Degree Level

For P1/NOA - 1 year relevant experience with Undergraduate degree; or no experience with Graduate degree; or no experience with Doctorate degree

Field(s) of Education

Medicine              Medical Science                 Medical Doctor

Nursing                Public Health                      Epidemiology                     or other relevant field.

Certificates and/or Licenses

Not specified.

Relevant Job Experience

Essential

Experience in public health programming as well as understanding of health systems and health system building blocks. Experience with data collection and analysis in position(s) where the ability to draft clear, concise documentation was essential.

Desirable

Experience in public health emergency preparedness and response. Experience in humanitarian settings. Experience with coordination and stakeholder engagement to achieve public health goals. Experience with health information systems. Experience with the provision of quality-assured medicines and medical supplies. 

Functional Skills

PM-Project monitoring and evaluation

PH-Public Health Epidemiology

MD-HIV/AIDS situation management

MD-Reproductive Health

PH-Community Health - Health Data Collection/Analysis/Interpretation

(Functional Skills marked with an asterisk* are essential)

Language Requirements

For International Professional and Field Service jobs: Knowledge of English and UN working language of the duty station if not English.

For National Professional jobs: Knowledge of English and UN working language of the duty station if not English and local language.

For General Service jobs: Knowledge of English and/or UN working language of the duty station if not English.

Competency Requirements

All jobs at UNHCR require six core competencies and may also require managerial competencies and/or cross-functional competencies. The six core competencies are listed below.

Core Competencies

Accountability

Communication

Organizational Awareness

Teamwork & Collaboration

Commitment to Continuous Learning

Client & Result Orientation

Managerial Competencies

Managing Resources

Cross-Functional Competencies

Planning and Organizing

Stakeholder Management

Technological Awareness

All UNHCR workforce members must individually and collectively, contribute towards a working environment where each person feels safe, and empowered to perform their duties. This includes by demonstrating no tolerance for sexual exploitation and abuse, harassment including sexual harassment, sexism, gender inequality, discrimination, and abuse of power.

As individuals and as managers, all must be proactive in preventing and responding to inappropriate conduct, support ongoing dialogue on these matters and speaking up and seeking guidance and support from relevant UNHCR resources when these issues arise.

This is a Standard Job Description for all UNHCR jobs with this job title and grade level. The Operational Context may contain additional essential and/or desirable qualifications relating to the specific operation and/or position. Any such requirements are incorporated by reference in this Job Description and will be considered for the screening, shortlisting and selection of candidates.

1. Nature of the position.
The public health environment in Sudan, including Kassala and Gedaref States at the Eastern Corridor, is characterized by a complex, heterogeneous, and high-risk operation due to the ongoing challenges in health infrastructure and the ongoing global funding crisis. Under joint UNHCR and the government of Sudan inclusion agenda, the current situation imposes a strategic imperative to maintain lifesaving, equitable, and integrated health services for Forcibly Displaced Populations (refugees, IDPs) and host communities, amongst resource constraints and regional instability. The Minimal Level Service Provision (MLSP) precisely focuses on mitigating key epidemiological drivers of morbidity and mortality, specifically high-burden communicable diseases in the Eastern Corridor (e.g., cholera, malaria, dengue), severe acute malnutrition (SAM) requiring Community Management of Acute Malnutrition (CMAM) services, and essential Maternal, Neonatal, and Child Health (MNCH) interventions (including routine immunization and skilled birth attendance). UNHCR operational strategy in the country and in eastern Corridor is fundamentally governed by, but not limited to, the Essential Health First pillar, which is part of global UNHCR public health strategy, ensuring that the highest-impact clinical interventions are prioritized to preserve core population health outcomes.
The UNHCR public health strategy in Sudan and in Eastern corridor is anchored in the principles of inclusion and progressive localization, aligning FDPs health services with the State Ministry of Health (SMoH) to ensure long-term sustainability as well as national and local ownership. This way Kassala emphasizes deepening functional integration and promoting SMoH leadership in technical coordination, health governance, and harmonization of health data. To this end, Eastern Corridor (Kassala and Gedaref States) is embarked on a staged "soft localization" model via a transition process for systematic capacity transfer to the SmoH to facilitate gradual administrative and technical alignment before envisaged full inclusion.
Under direct supervision of the Head of Sub Office, the incumbent will join the team in Kassala to ensure that UNHCR's public health programs meet minimum UNHCR and global health standards in order to minimize avoidable morbidity and mortality among persons we work with. Public health programs include primary health care, secondary health care, sexual and reproductive health (including HIV), nutrition, mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS).

2. Desirable candidate’s profile.

Give the scope and the operational context of the Corridor within which the incumbent will operate the following is the desirable candidate’s profile:
• Extensive experience in public health in humanitarian settings: emergency preparedness and response.
• Experience in coordination and stakeholder engagement to achieve public health goals.
• Experience in the provision of quality-assured medicines and medical supplies
• Extensive field work experience in the provision of support for the planning and implementation of public health programs in a multi-sectoral in cooperation with government, UN agencies, NGOs, and other humanitarian and development partners
• Proven ability to advance localization agenda closely working with forcibly displaced persons (FDP)-led organizations, with consideration to the approaches outlined in the Global Compact on Refugees and Sudan health-related pledges linked to the Global Refugee Forum (GRF)
• Support UNHCR strategic approach to public health towards greater inclusion and access of forcibly displaced persons to national

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Operational context

Occupational Safety and Health Considerations:

To view occupational safety and health considerations for this duty station, please visit this link:

 https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel

Nature of Position:

Living and Working Conditions:

 

Additional Qualifications

Skills

MD-HIV/AIDS situation management, MD-Reproductive Health, PH-Community Health-Health Data Collection/Analysis/Interpretation, PH- Public Health Epidemiology, PM-Project monitoring and evaluation

Bachelor of Arts: Epidemiology, Bachelor of Arts: Medical Doctor, Bachelor of Arts: Medical Science, Bachelor of Arts: Medicine, Bachelor of Arts: Nursing, Bachelor of Arts: Public Health

Certifications

Competencies

Accountability, Client & results orientation, Commitment to continuous learning, Communication, Managing resource, Organizational awareness, Planning & organizing, Stakeholder management, Teamwork & collaboration, Technological awareness

https://icsc.un.org/Home/SalaryScales

Compendium

Additional Information

This is a national position

This position requires Functional Clearance