the Junior Professional Officer (JPO) Programme provides young talented professionals pursuing a career in development with the opportunity to gain hands-on experience in multilateral technical cooperation and international development within a UN agency.
Objective of the WHO Programme/Department: The vision of the United Nations Decade of Healthy Ageing 2021-2030 is a world in which everyone can live a long and healthy life. In order to enable the successful implementation of the Decade, the Department of Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health and Ageing (MCA) will facilitate the development of norms, standards, guidelines and policy guidance, and research on key components of clinical and integrated care for older people, and systems, to support long-term care. Work in this area will include the further development of WHO integrated care guidelines, as well as projects to identify evidence-based service delivery models for integrated health and long-term care in high, medium and low resource settings, and to identify assessment tools and measures of country implementation that can be used for accountability of progress during the UN Decade of Healthy Ageing 2021-2030. This includes strategies through health and social care to help people build and maintain capacity across the life-course, and to support people with declines in capacity to compensate or adapt to these losses.
Assignment Summary: The Junior Professional Officer (JPO) will support the Department in its work with governments, academia and civil society partners to advocate integrated continuum of long-term care through the development and implementation of relevant policies, guidance and tools, and the implementation of healthy ageing programmes and delivery of long-term care services at national and subnational level.
Duties, Responsibilities and Output expectations: Under the overall supervision of the Medical Officer (Long-term Care), the JPO shall perform the following duties and responsibilities:
- Support the Unit’s work to provide technical and coordination support to Regional and Country Offices in plans to integrate continuum of long-term care (both health and social sectors) towards the needs of older populations with declined intrinsic capacity, and the roll out of WHO long-term care framework and implementing tools.
- Support and contribute to the development of long-term care policies and service delivery guidance for expanding universal health coverage that addresses older people’s health and social care needs, focusing on service delivery with contributions to other system components in particular financing and human resources.
- Support the Unit’s communication and engagement activities with civil society partners, older persons and caregivers.
- Support the Department’s monitoring and measurement of the progress under the UN Decade of Healthy Ageing (2021-2030), linked to health ageing and long-term care.
- Carry out other related tasks in support of the Unit and the Department as required. During the period of assignment, the JPO would have contributed to the following key outputs:
- A report on the development and implementation of WHO guidance and tools to provide older people with long-term care.
- A progress report on the implementation of action areas and key enablers under the UN Decade of Healthy Ageing 2021-2030, which will be jointly prepared by the Decade Secretariat and reported to the 78th World Health Assembly in 2025.
Content and methodology of supervision:
As part of the UNDP JPO programme overall framework, the JPO will benefit from the following supervision modalities:
- Structured guidance provided by the supervisor, especially in the beginning of the assignment, with the purpose of gradually increasing the responsibilities of the JPO
- Establishment of a work plan, with clear key results
- Effective supervision through knowledge sharing and performance/development feedback throughout the assignment
- Easy access to the supervisor
Supervisor: Medical Officer (Long-term Care), Ageing and Health Unit, Department for Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health and Ageing
Learning objectives of the JPO during this assignment Upon completion of the assignment, the JPO will have:
- Knowledge and skills on how to work with Government to foster healthy ageing and integrate long-term care in health and social care systems
- Knowledge and skills on how to measure, track record and report the progress on the implementation of the global strategy and UN Decade
Achieving the learning objectives:
- Knowledge and skills on how to work with Government to foster healthy ageing and integrate long-term care in health and social care systems
- Knowledge and skills on how to measure, track record and report the progress on the implementation of the global strategy and UN Decade
The progress towards achieving the objectives will be evaluated annually by the JPO together with the first and second level supervisors. Achievement will be against WHO’s Performance Management and Development System (PMDS).
In addition to the above, a Duty-related Travel and Training Allocation (DTTA) will be provided by the sponsoring Partner Country for work-related learning activities, such as participation in seminars, workshops or other learning-related activities in the duty station or abroad, such as learning assignments.
WHO competencies required for the assignment:
- Communication
- Producing results
- Moving forward in a changing environment
- Respecting and promoting individual and cultural differences
- Teamwork
Education: Minimum: Advanced university degree in health-related subject (e.g. medicine; public health; international health or other related field) Work experience: Minimum: At least 2 years of experience in the health and/or development field at national or sub-national level Desirable: International experience in working with collaborators in low, middle and high income countries. Familiarity with WHO or other UN bodies and NGOs in a health area. Language Skills required for the assignment: Minimum: Fluent English Desirable: Beginners knowledge of French or another WHO language
Conditions of Eligibility required by the Republic of Korea: • Applicants must be a citizen of the Republic of Korea. • Applicants must be fluent in Korean and English. • Applicants must be no older than 32 years of age as of 31 December 2022 (Born after 1 Jan 1990). (The maximum age limit for those who served in the military will be extended accordingly). • Male applicants must meet one of the following conditions:
- completed national military service;
- exempt from national military service; or
- scheduled to be discharged from military service in the year of application.
How to apply
Mandatory Attachments:
In addition to the information required by WHO, applicants must submit the following documentation as part of their application: • A scanned copy of Republic of Korea’s Resident Register. • A scanned copy of the advanced university degree. • A certificate of English language proficiency examination as per the minimum requirements/scores outlined below:
- Applications should submit a minimum of (1) IBT TOEFL score of 100 (or PBT TOEFL 600 and above) or (2) NEW TEPS score of 430 or (3) IELTS 7 or (4) TOEIC 900 (TOEFL ‘MyBest Scores’ is not accepted).
• For male applicants who have completed national military service, a certificate of the Korean Military Service. The maximum age limit for those who served in the military will be extended* in accordance with the Support for Discharged Soldiers Act and the military service law. Those who are exempt from service or to be discharged from service in the year of application may apply. Age limit for male candidates who have completed national military service:
- Less than one year will be extended for one year;
- One year above and two years under will be extended for two years;
- Two years or more will be extended for three years.
• For low-income applicants, a scanned copy of the certificate of National Basic Livelihood Security Recipients in Korean and in its unofficial English translation. • For applicants with a disability, a scanned copy of the certificate of person with disability issued in Korean and English.
For general information on the Korean JPO program and additional conditions, please visit the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Korea IORC website at http://UNrecruit.mofa.go.kr