Head of the World Animal Health Information Department

The World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH – founded as OIE) is a leading intergovernmental organisation representing 183 Members worldwide. Through its activities, WOAH makes a decisive contribution to improving animal health, protecting animal welfare and strengthening Veterinary Services. The Organisation provides transparent information on world's animal health situation, and promotes international standards, particularly in terms of the safety of trade in live animals and animal products. More information can be found on WOAH’s website.

WOAH's headquarters are based in Paris. The Organisation is present on every continent through 13 Regional or Sub-regional Representations. WOAH has 250 staff members, two-thirds of whom are based at headquarters.

Job Description

Positioning and reporting

Under the authority of the Director General and the supervision of the Deputy Director General (Standard Setting and Implementation), and in close coordination with the Heads of other Departments.

Job purpose

The Head of the World Animal Health Information Department contributes to the leadership brought by our organisation to the transparency of the animal health situation worldwide. They ensure the performance of WAHID activities, leading the team in the collection, verification and dissemination of animal health information provided by Member and non-Member of our organisation through the World Animal Health Information System (WAHIS). They provide strategic guidance on the development of WAHIS.

Missions and activities

Guide the work of the Department in delivering its tasks:

• Animal health data gathering and interpretation
• Active search of animal disease information
• Internal/external coordination and collaboration

To do so, the Head of Department is expected to:

• define the Department’s roadmap in alignment with organisational goals
• design and implement strategic initiatives, propose innovative solutions to identified problems
• report to the General Directorate and World Assembly on the implementation of activities
• promote WOAH’s mandate and represent the Organisation
• manage relationships with and coordinate/interact with a range of resource partners, WOAH Members, other organisations and external parties
• manage, lead or participate in the creation of various projects including those related to disease reporting, early warning response, data standards, and data management
• supervise, monitor and coordinate the publication of relevant scientific papers or articles and information requested by Members
• represent WOAH at international epidemiological conferences and technical meetings.

Provide leadership and management of the World Animal Health Information Department team by:

• translating strategic goals into team objectives and monitor collective performance
• managing, improving and (where necessary) identifying and formalising the different procedures of the Department
• fostering a positive and productive work environment through the provision of clear and constructive feedback.
• motivating the team and communicating with the team and others to convey information continually up, down, and around the Organisation
• organising and overseeing tasks to ensure delivery of the team’s missions
• participating in the recruitment process of staff members as well as staff competency development and annual performance appraisal

Participate in ensuring the management and delivery of the team’s missions such as:

Monitoring of official notifications and reports:

• Coordinate the application of a standard verification process to all reports submitted to WAHID in the three languages of the Organisation (i.e. immediate notifications, follow-up reports and final reports (submitted through the animal disease events module); and six-monthly and annual reports).
• Ensure the updating and publication of disease notification procedures (external and internal).
• Guide the development and/or improvement of working databases and relevant tools to facilitate the standard verification process and follow-up processes.
• Develop and establish performance indicators for the teams’ processes.

Intelligence activity:

• Supervise the active search of non-official information, its evaluation, verification, and, when relevant, the communication with the Delegate of the Member concerned to confirm the information.
• Coordinate the activities on early detection with other organisations (e.g. GLEWS) and within WOAH.
• Represent the WOAH in different forums and participate in different projects to improve WOAH’s capacity for early detection (e.g. EIOS).
• Prepare and design material for basic a