Programme Officer (Border and Migrant Health)
Organizational Context
The World Health Organization (WHO) is the UN's specialized agency for health, dedicated to promoting health, ensuring safety, and serving vulnerable populations with a focus on equity and universal health coverage. In Thailand, WHO collaborates with the government to strengthen health systems, improve access for migrants, and enhance public health threat preparedness. The organization works with national and international partners to build resilient health systems, particularly in border regions facing complex health challenges due to population movements and evolving humanitarian needs.
Job Purpose
This UN Volunteer assignment aims to provide crucial added-value support to WHO's health system strengthening initiatives in Thailand's border areas. The role focuses on enhancing multi-stakeholder coordination, operational coherence, and system-level visibility without duplicating project implementation. The volunteer will support improved knowledge management, documentation, and learning, and facilitate better information flow and partner engagement, especially concerning logistics and supply chain coordination from a Thailand-based perspective. The position requires regular missions to border provinces, contributing to improved situational awareness and communication between field operations and national-level strategic discussions.
Responsibilities
The UN Volunteer will facilitate multi-stakeholder coordination and partnership support by organizing meetings, preparing documentation, and strengthening linkages between health and protection actors. Responsibilities include maintaining stakeholder mapping and aligning engagement mechanisms. The role involves knowledge management, documenting best practices, developing knowledge products, and supporting knowledge exchange between national and subnational levels. Field liaison and contextual analysis will be conducted through regular missions to gather insights on coordination dynamics and service access challenges, facilitating two-way communication between field actors and Bangkok stakeholders. Support will be provided for communication, visibility, and reporting, including developing coordination briefs and highlighting multi-agency collaboration. The volunteer will also promote UN system collaboration, strengthen practical linkages with other UN Volunteers, and contribute to promoting volunteerism. A key function includes strategic support for Thailand-based logistics coordination and situational awareness, consolidating and sharing information on health supply flows and operational bottlenecks.
Work Experience
A minimum of 3 years of relevant professional experience is required in areas such as public health, international development, humanitarian coordination, health systems strengthening, or programme coordination. Demonstrated experience in multi-stakeholder coordination, partnership engagement, or project support involving government, UN agencies, NGOs, or development partners is essential. Experience in complex or resource-constrained settings, particularly in border areas, migrant/refugee health, or humanitarian contexts, is highly desirable. Familiarity with health systems and public health programmes in low- and middle-income countries is expected.
Skills
Key competencies include adaptability, flexibility, building trust, commitment, motivation, communication, ethics, values, integrity, planning, organizing, and self-management. Expertise areas include community development, emergency preparedness, crisis response, project management, programme development, and strategy. Strong skills in documentation, reporting, and knowledge management are essential, along with the ability to engage diverse stakeholders and work effectively in multicultural environments.