Senior Public Health Associate

November 15, 2025

E (most hardship)

Non Family with Residential LocationNon Family with Residential LocationDanger Pay

Nairobi (CO), Kenya

GS7

General Service

Reason

Regular > Regular Assignment

2026-01-01

Senior Public Health Associate

Organizational Setting and Work Relationships

The Senior Public Health Associate 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 guidance and support to partners on UNHCR’s responses in public health.

S/he will contribute to advancing the concepts found in UNHCR’s Global Public Health Strategy as well as the Global Compact on Refugees (GCR) and the mainstreaming/inclusion of refugees into national health programmes and systems.

The Senior Public Health Associate 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

• Support the implementation of public health programmes with partners and health authorities in a multi-sectoral and coordinated manner.

• Contribute to public health programming towards greater inclusion and access of refugees to national health systems.

• Participate in relevant coordination and collaboration structures as requested.

• 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.

• Ensure implementation of relevant UNHCR Health Information System suite of tools and surveys to support in analysis, interpretation, reporting.

• Undertake and/or support capacity strengthening of partners to ensure the technical integrity of public health programmes.

• 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 UNHCR Public Health Administrative Instruction/standard operating procedures.

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.

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

Minimum Qualifications

Years of Experience / Degree Level

For G7 - 4 years relevant experience with High School Diploma; or 2 years relevant work experience with Bachelor or equivalent or higher

Field(s) of Education

Not applicable.

Certificates and/or Licenses

Medicine;                            Nursing;               Public Health;                     Epidemiology;

(Certificates and Licenses marked with an asterisk* are essential)

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

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.

Living and working conditions:

The climate in Port Sudan is hot desert with hot summers and moderately hot winters. The average annual rainfall is 76 mm. January, February and March are the coldest months with mean daily minimum temperature of 23ﹾC whereas June, July and August are the hottest months with daily mean temperature between 32 to 35ﹾ C. There is a UN clinic in Port Sudan. Subsequently, Port Sudan is classified as E duty station. Food stuffs are available in the local markets and one can eat/buy food in the local restaurants. Bottled water and water dispensers are recommended for drinking as the quality of the tap water is not adequate. The internet connectivity even though stable, can be erratic at times.
Desired candidate profile:
The very complex and diverse political and operational context in the overall country require ability to work collaboratively with different stakeholders including government, UN agencies, I/NNGOs, clusters and others in a highly evolving environment. The incumbent should have experience of working in emergencies. The incumbent is expected to have a pro-active mature attitude and be able to perform well under stress. The incumbent should have experience of working in emergencies including preparedness for and response to disease outbreaks. The incumbent should also have experience of designing, implementing and monitoring of health and nutrition response, coordination with health and nutrition and other sectors (most notably WASH), health data management, nutrition screening, needs and gap analysis in relation to medicines, medical supplies and health and nutrition services and capacity building of partner staff. Desired candidate profile tasks
- Prepare various reports including donor, progress and year end reports.
- Contribute to the development of public health related concept notes and proposals.
- Review the Project Work Plans.
- Actively participate in the national health and nutrition cluster meetings.

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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

Certifications

Epidemiology - Other, Medicine - Other, Nursing - Other, Public Health - Other

Competencies

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

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

Compendium

Additional Information

This position doesn't require a functional clearance