PAHO Consultant - Intercultural Health and Trachoma

OBJECTIVE OF THE OFFICE/DEPARTMENT

This is a requisition for employment at the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO)/Regional Office of the World Health Organization (WHO)

Contractual Agreement:

Non-Staff - International PAHO Consultant

Job Posting:

March 11, 2025

Closing Date:

March 20, 2025, 11:59 PM Eastern Time

Primary Location:

Off Site

Organization:

DHE Social and Environmental Determinants for Health Equity

Schedule:

Full time

PURPOSE OF CONSULTANCY

This consultancy aims to:
1) Provide technical support to the Organization and Member States in the implementation of the Policy on Ethnicity and Health and its Strategy and Plan of Action 2019-2025, specifically in the following lines of action: a) Generation of evidence; b) social participation and strategic partnerships; c) ancestral and traditional medicine; d) capacity building at all levels;
2) Contribute to the inter-programmatic initiatives on ethnicity and health with a focus on the elimination of trachoma among Indigenous populations, ensuring intercultural and gender approaches.
3) Provide technical cooperation in applying the knowledge dialogues methodology in the context of trachoma with the involvement of traditional healers to articulate ancestral and traditional knowledge with Western medicine.
The position involves conducting in-person and virtual meetings to address the elimination of trachoma among selected Indigenous communities in priority countries. The consultant will be instrumental in building capacity and training facilitators of knowledge dialogues and supervising/following up the sessions of knowledge dialogues.
Background
The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO/WHO) supports Member States in implementing the Policy of Ethnicity and Health, approved in 2017, and its Strategy and Plan of Action 2019-2025. PAHO continues to work with Member States to improve the health of the Region’s Indigenous and Afrodescendant communities, promotes the participation of these communities in decisions about their own health, and ensures the implementation of intercultural health services to improve access.
Trachoma is the leading infectious cause of blindness, affecting primarily rural, poor, and remote areas of countries in Africa, Asia, Australia, Central and South America, and the Middle East. It is considered a neglected tropical disease (NTD) and particularly affects people in vulnerable situations, disproportionately impacting women due to factors associated with its transmission and development. Women are twice as likely to go blind from trachoma compared to men and up to four times more likely to require eye surgery to prevent permanent blindness. Gender norms, social and cultural restrictions, lack of information, and lack of basic health services, including limited and prolonged access to health services, make women especially susceptible to this and other neglected and infectious diseases. In this context, it is essential to incorporate actions that, from a medical-anthropological perspective, include a gender approach, which is culturally appropriate, particularly for communities in vulnerable situations, including Indigenous populations and communities living in remote areas. Involving both men and women is essential to achieving sustainable change, emphasizing the importance of gender equity and community participation in all stages of planning and execution.
In this context, it is important to recognize the Knowledge Dialogues Methodology as a strategy that allows us to understand how the different roles can impact the health of the entire Indigenous community. It is essential to know, understand, and respect the dynamics of the roles of men and women within the cultural community structure and the processes of resolving conflicts or problems that affect the community's well-being. The methodology allows for exchanging knowledge from different worldviews, changing attitudes and practices, and defining activities that contribute to reducing cases of trachoma and other eye diseases in communities.

Successful interventions against NTD, including trachoma, can contribute to various SDGs, including good health and well-being, gender equality, appropriate work and economic growth, and reduced inequalities. At the same time, progress on other SDGs can help achieve the NTD targets, which include clean water and sanitation, sustainable cities and communities, industry, innovation and infrastructure, and climate change.

DESCRIPTION OF DUTIES:

Objectives

Support PAHO’s efforts to implement the Policy on Ethnicity and Health and its Strategy and Plan of Action 2019-2025. Support PAHO’s efforts to ensure an intercultural and gender approach in the elimination of tracho