OBJECTIVE
To enhance monitoring and response to travel-related illnesses by identifying disease trends, clusters, and outbreaks to safeguard public health. The consultant will support the expansion and integration visitor-based surveillance into national systems.
BACKGROUND
CARPHA's regional project, titled "Reducing the Public Health Impact of Pandemics in the Caribbean through Strengthened Integrated Early Warning Surveillance, Laboratory Systems, and Workforce Development," for the first round of financing was successful in securing Pandemic Fund financing to implement the activities. CARPHA is the Executing Agency for the PF Project, with funding from The Pandemic Fund and implementing support by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). The goal of this Project, which spans from 2024 to 2026, is to Reduce the Public Health Impact of Pandemics in the Caribbean through Prevention, Preparedness, and Response (PPR). The objective is to support the reduction of the public health impact of pandemics in the Caribbean by building pandemic PPR surveillance and early warning systems, laboratory systems and workforce capacity, regionally at CARPHA and at country levels. This will reduce the transboundary spread of infectious diseases and improve regional and global health security. CARPHA is the beneficiary of the Pandemic Fund project and CARPHA Member States are the participants.
The Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA), as the lead regional public health agency and an expression of Caribbean Cooperation in Health, is mandated by its Inter-governmental Agreement (IGA) to support its 26 Member States in bolstering national systems and coordinating regional response to public health threats. CARPHA has established programs for pandemic PPR and coordination (Communicable Diseases, Emergency Response, Tourism and Health, Foodborne, Vector-borne, and Field Epidemiology) and serves as the Regional Reference Laboratory. The Agency works closely with regional and international agencies and uses regional mechanisms, surveillance systems, and networks for coordinating its public health response work. CARPHA is competent in all three areas of PPR and has a successful track record of the same, as demonstrated by its regional COVID-19 response. The Agency is uniquely positioned for successfully implementing PPR capacities in the region, and to leverage its coordinating ability to encourage complementarity.
The Pandemic Fund (PF), established in September 2022, is the first multilateral financing mechanism dedicated to providing multiyear grants to help low- and middle-income countries become better prepared for future pandemics. The PF’s first Call for Proposals provides additional financing to strengthen PPR capabilities and address critical gaps in low- and middle-income countries through investments and technical support at the national, regional, and global levels. It is expected to support and reinforce capacity building and implementation of pandemic prevention, preparedness and response (PPR) under the IHR (2005) and other legal frameworks, consistent with the One Health approach. The three high-priority areas are:
- Comprehensive disease surveillance and early warning systems (EWS)
- Laboratory systems
- Human resources and public health and community workforce capacity.
In August 2023, the PF Governing Board announced that CARPHA’s regional entity proposal, entitled ‘Reducing the Public Health Impact of Pandemics in the Caribbean through Strengthened Integrated Early Warning Surveillance, Laboratory Systems and Workforce Development’ was successfully selected for the first round of financing. CARPHA is the Executing Agency with funding from The Pandemic Fund and implementing support by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).
The Goal of this Project is to Reduce the Public Health Impact of Pandemics in the Caribbean through Prevention, Preparedness, and Response. The Objective is to support CARPHA in reducing the public health impact of pandemics in the Caribbean Region will serve to build PPR surveillance & EWS, laboratory systems and workforce capacity regionally at CARPHA and at country levels.
The Project comprises the following five components:
- Component 1: Strengthening and Expanding Integrated EWS
- Component 2: Expansion of Laboratory Systems
- Component 3: Workforce Development
- Component 4: Regional Strategic Coordination, Collaboration & Commitment to Pandemic Response
- Other: Monitoring, Evaluation, and Project Management
The Consultancy is concerned with Component 1 and seeks an individual to function as the Epidemiologist (Visitor-based Surveillance) in the Project Execution Unit of the Project
The deadline for the positions 4th September 2025, at 4pm.
Kindly refer to the attached Terms of Reference for more information!
Applicants must complete the Eligibility and Integrity Certification Form, CARPHA Job Form, Cover Letter and Curriculum Vitae and produce copies of relevant documents to E-mail: careers@carpha.org . Please address the subject of the email to "Pandemic Fund"
CARPHA reserves all rights in accordance with its policies related to conditions of employment.