WHO’s first-ever Global research agenda on health, migration and displacement, published in October 2023, guides global research efforts to understand and address the health needs of migrants, refugees, and all forcibly displaced populations and shape responsive policies and practices worldwide. It is a framework and guide for prioritizing research on health, migration and displacement and catalysing integration of research findings into strategic plans, funding and investment, research activities, and planning at regional and national level. It serves as a tool to help WHO support Member States to identify context-specific knowledge gaps at the regional, national, subnational and organizational levels and can assist Member States and allied policy-makers in achieving key global policy objectives through the implementation and advancement of the global research priorities.  It provides and implementation guide and toolkit for research agenda setting (in Annex 1) which is now being applied at national and regional contexts to set further contextually specific research priorities.

Deliverables

• Deliverable 1: National research agenda setting in 3 to 4 countries following the six steps of the research agenda setting outlined in the Implementation Guide and Toolkit of the WHO Global research agenda on health, migration and displacement. In close collaboration with the three levels of WHO and relevant Ministries of Health:
  • Conduct stakeholder mapping and rapid baseline literature reviews.
  • Produce background documents for technical consultations (online/hybrid) or in person workshops.
  • Outline the methodology and conduct the consensus-based prioritisation process for the final research themes/questions (using either adapted Delphi methods or nominal group technique).
• Deliverable 2: Regional research agenda setting in 2 regions following the six steps of the research agenda setting outlined in the Implementation Guide and Toolkit of the WHO Global research agenda on health, migration and displacement. In close collaboration with WHO HQ and the relevant regional offices:
  • Conduct stakeholder mapping and rapid baseline literature reviews.
  • Produce background documents for technical consultations (online/hybrid) or in person workshops.
  • Outline the methodology and conduct the consensus based prioritisation process for the final research themes/questions (using either adapted Delphi methods or nominal group technique).
• Deliverable 3: WHO publications associated with research agenda setting:
  • Produce the final research agenda report write ups based on the synthesis of the evidence reviews, technical consultation findings of the national research agenda settings (one report per country).
  • Produce the final research agenda report write ups based on the synthesis of the evidence reviews, technical consultation findings (one report per region).
  • Produce one policy brief per research agenda setting (at national and regional level).
  • Produce one academic article per research agenda setting (at national and regional level).
• Deliverable 4: Global research prioritization exercises on 2 topics, following the six steps of the research agenda setting outlined in the Implementation Guide and Toolkit of the WHO Global research agenda on health, migration and displacement. In close collaboration with WHO Health and Migration and other relevant WHO departments:
  • Plan and write all technical documents for these global consensus based consultation processes which convene global experts to further define research priorities on key topics in health, migration and displacement.
  • Produce the final Global research prioritization exercise reports based on a synthesis of the technical consultations.

Qualifications, experience, skills and languages

Educational Qualifications:

Essential:

• University degree in medicine, epidemiology, social science, environmental science or related field.
• Master’s degree in public health or equivalent.

Desirable:

• PhD in public health, epidemiology, or related field.

Experience:

Essential:

• At least 8 years’ relevant experience in implementation research and research at global and field level in public health and the development and implementation of health programmes and/or health system strengthening.
• Previous experience in research agenda setting, research capacity building at country level and expertise in migration and health.
• Experience of planning, conducting, and writing up research to peer-reviewed publications.
• Experience working with academic institutions, member states, NGOs and UN agencies.
• Field experience in country level research.

Desirable:

• At least 4 years’ experience working in conducting implementation research or research agenda setting in developing countries, related to the health of migrants and displaced populations.
• Experience of analysis of operational research and research priority setting.
• Experience of having planned and conducted consultations, workshops, focus groups, roundtables, or equivalent.
• Experience of having worked with WHO or another UN organization.

Skills: 

Essential:

• Strong report-writing skills (in English).
• Ability to write, synthesize and communicate information in a clear and concise manner.
• Excellent presentation skills.
• Excellent organizational and analytical skills combined with the ability to multi-task and produce accurate results under pressure.
• Excellent interpersonal skills, including respecting and promoting individual and cultural differences.
• Computer literacy