The WHO European Centre for Environment and Health, WHO/ECEH, is the centre of technical and scientific excellence of the WHO Regional Office for Europe for addressing environmental and work-related impacts on health. It provides Member States with state-of-the-art evidence on existing and emerging environmental health risks, and assists them in identifying and implementing policies to protect and promote health. It develops policy advice and international guidelines, methods and tools to inform and support decision-making by governments, health professionals, citizens and other stakeholders. These activities are contributing to the development of healthy environments and strengthened community resilience to environmental impacts on health. By that, WHO/ECEH is ensuring improved and more equitable health for all people of the WHO European Region and contributing to a global environment and health agenda.

The Living and Working Environments (LWE) programme covers a diverse portfolio, including air quality and climate change mitigation, noise, chemical safety, workers health, and environmentally sustainable health systems. In its technical areas of work, LWE aims to provide technical leadership and guidance and to assist Member States, through the normative work, including the work on WHO guidelines, development of tools and methods to support decision-making, strengthening national capacities, and advocacy. The LWE programme is chairing the Joint WHO/UNECE LRTAP Convention Task Force on Health Aspects of Air Pollution.

Under the supervision of Programme Manager, the Junior Professional Officer (JPO) will support WHO ECEH activities in the area of air quality and health and climate change mitigation

Duties, Responsibilities and Output expectations

Support the process of updating WHO Global Air Quality Guidelines (AQG)

• Assist in different stages of the guideline development process;
• Assist in maintaining communication with the experts involved in the update WHO Global AQG, through teleconferences, and support organization of the physical meeting of the Guideline Development Group;

Support the regional and global activities in the technical area of air quality and health and climate change mitigation

• Support the WHO efforts in implementing relevant World Health Assembly Resolutions and international agreements and processes, including the Sustainable Development Goals;
• support divisional efforts to implement the commitments of the Ministerial Conferences on Environment and Health, in particular the Ostrava Ministerial Declaration, in the areas of air quality, climate change, and environmentally sustainable health systems;
• Assist in the implementation of the workplan of the Joint WHO/UNECE LRTAP Convention Task Force on Health Aspects of Air Pollution;
• Assist in synthesizing knowledge on air quality and climate-related health risks and approaches to assess health benefits from air pollution reductions and climate mitigation and adaptation strategies, including in the context of environmentally sustainable health systems (ESHS).

Support technical assistance to Member State in the areas of air quality and health and climate change mitigation, including:

• Support the development and implementation of approaches for an integrated assessment of health impacts of air pollution and of potential health benefits of climate change mitigation measures;
• Support dissemination and implementation of WHO tools to assess health risk of air pollution, health benefits of climate change mitigation, and the related capacity building activities;

Prepares reports and documents, and assists in other activities related to the technical areas, as required by Programme Manager and Head of Office

• WHA 61.19 Climate Change and Health (2008); the Global climate change and health action plan (2014);
• WHA68.8 Health and the environment: addressing the health impact of air pollution (2015); road map for an enhanced global response to the adverse health effects of air pollution (2016);
• WHA69.11 Health in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development; and, related RC Resolutions.

Learning objectives of the JPO during this assignment

Upon completion of the assignment, the JPO will have / be able to:

• Gain the knowledge of the WHO activities in the area of air quality and health and climate change mitigation, in particular: on the normative work on the update of WHO global AQG; development and implementation of methods and tools to assess the health impacts of air pollution and impacts of carbon mitigation measures. Within 5 months after start of duty,JPO will be provided with related WHO materials and induction by supervisor.
• Gain experience in certain steps in the WHO guideline development process, for example: retrieval of scientific evidence; application of GRADE to develop recommendations, etc.Overall period of duty JPO will participate in expert or working group meetings in each step of the WHO guideline development process.
• Understand relevant regional and global policies and processes, such as WHA resolutions, Health 2020, European Environment and Health Process, the UNECE Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution, health aspects of the 2030 SD agenda, etc.Overall period of duty JPO will be provided with opportunities to understand regional and global processes for the overall period of his/her duty, such as at the annual Task Force on Health Aspect On Air Pollution under the UNECE Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution.
• Get skills in applying WHO tools to assess the health impacts of air pollution and health benefits of climate change mitigation, etc.Overall period of duty JPO will be given the opportunity to get familiar with WHO tools (e.g., AirQ+) through the organization of and attendance in a WHO capacity building project. 

• Communication
• Producing results
• Respecting and promoting individual and cultural differences
• Teamwork

Education

• Minimum: Master’s degree or equivalent in environmental health, public health, environmental sciences or related areas relevant to the post;

Work experience:

• Minimum: At least 2 years work experience related to public health or environmental health, preferably related to the field of air quality and/or climate change mitigation;
• Desirable: Work experience in an international context, in WHO or another international public health organization; experience in developing and leading international networks of experts.
• Basic: IT skills (MS Word, Excel, Power Point). 

Language

• A very good command of spoken and written English.