Technical Officer (Border & Migrant Health)

The World Health Organization (WHO) is the United Nations specialized agency responsible for directing and coordinating international health within the UN system. WHO’s mission is to promote health, keep the world safe, and serve the vulnerable, with a strong emphasis on equity, universal health coverage (UHC), and health security. In Thailand, WHO supports the Royal Thai Government in advancing national health priorities under the Country Cooperation Strategy (2022–2026), including strengthening health systems, improving access to essential services for migrants and displaced populations, and enhancing preparedness and response to public health threats. WHO works in close collaboration with national and subnational authorities, UN agencies, and development partners to strengthen resilient and inclusive health systems, particularly in border areas where public health risks and service delivery challenges intersect.

Thailand’s border areas continue to experience increasing pressure on health systems due to dynamic population movements, evolving humanitarian needs, and changes in external support mechanisms. As service delivery models transition, there is a critical need for strengthened coordination, system coherence, and real-time situational awareness among stakeholders operating in border areas. WHO is supporting national counterparts through a JICA-funded initiative focused on strengthening health system capacity in border areas. While this project delivers core technical and operational outputs, there remains a clear need for complementary support functions that enhance coordination, knowledge management, stakeholder alignment, and system-level visibility—without duplicating project implementation roles. In parallel, evolving operational modalities in the region—including increased reliance on Thailand-based logistics, coordination hubs, and supply chain staging (e.g., Mae Sot as a key operational node)—require strengthened Thailand-side coordination, information flow, and partner engagement mechanisms to ensure efficiency, accountability, and alignment across actors. The UN Volunteer assignment is therefore designed to provide added-value, non-implementation support through : - Strengthening multi-stakeholder coordination and operational coherence. - Enhancing knowledge management, documentation, and learning. - Supporting Thailand-based coordination of logistics and supply-related information flows. - Facilitating linkages across UN agencies and partners operating in border contexts. - Improving situational awareness and communication between field and national levels. The UN Volunteer will be based in Bangkok, with regular missions to Tak Province (Mae Sot and surrounding areas), working closely with WHO’s responsible officer, national counterparts, and field coordination structures.

Under the direct supervision Programme Officer and National Professional Officer, the UN Volunteer will undertake the following tasks : 1. Multi-stakeholder coordination and partnership support. - Facilitate structured coordination and communication among stakeholders involved in border health, including provincial health authorities, health facilities, UN agencies, NGOs, and development partners. - Support the organization of coordination platforms, meetings, and joint briefings, including preparation of agendas, documentation, and follow-up tracking. - Strengthen functional linkages between health and protection actors through structured information exchange (including coordination with UNHCR and other UN entities present in Mae Sot). - Maintain stakeholder mapping and support alignment of roles and engagement mechanisms across partners. 2. Knowledge management, documentation, and learning. - Document good practices, lessons learned, and operational insights from border health system strengthening efforts. - Develop knowledge products, briefs, and summaries to inform WHO, partners, and donors. - Support knowledge exchange between national and subnational levels, including capturing field-level innovations and challenges. - Contribute to institutional learning that can inform future programming and policy dialogue. 3. Field liaison and contextual analysis - Conduct regular field missions to Tak Province to gather insights on coordination dynamics, service access challenges, and stakeholder needs. - Facilitate two-way communication between field actors and Bangkok-based stakeholders. - Provide structured analytical inputs on trends affecting health service access and system performance in border areas. - Support alignment of field-level perspectives with strategic discussions at national level. 4.Support to communication, visibility, and reporting - Assist in developing coordination briefs, donor updates, and communication materials highlighting multi-agency collaboration. - Strengthen visibility of collective efforts in border health through documentation of coordination outcomes and joint initiatives. - Support clear articulation of complementarities between different partner contributions, including JICA-supported efforts. 5. Facilitation of UN system collaboration and volunteer engagement - Promote collaboration between WHO and other UN entities operating in border areas through structured coordination and information-sharing. - Strengthen practical linkages with UN Volunteers deployed by other agencies to enhance coherence across UN-supported efforts. - Contribute to promoting volunteerism as a mechanism for strengthening community engagement and multi-sectoral collaboration. 6. Strategic support to Thailand-based logistics coordination and situational awareness (added value function) - Support the consolidation and sharing of non-sensitive, aggregated information on health supply flows, operational bottlenecks, and partner needs from a Thailand-based perspective (e.g., Mae Sot as a logistics and coordination hub). - Facilitate coordination between relevant stakeholders involved in supply chain staging, distribution planning, and health commodity management on the Thailand side. - Contribute to improving situational awareness of supply gaps, coordination challenges, and operational constraints, in line with established coordination mechanisms and protocols. - Support documentation of processes and coordination practices that enhance transparency, efficiency, and accountability of Thailand-based operations. 7. Other duties - Perform any other related duties as assigned by the supervisor to support WHO’s programme objectives and strengthen collaboration and coordination in border health contexts. Furthermore, UN Volunteers are required to : - Strengthen their knowledge and understanding of the concept of volunteerism by reading relevant UNV and external publications and take active part in UNV activities (for instance in events that mark International Volunteer Day). - Be acquainted with and build on traditional and/or local forms of volunteerism in the host country. - Reflect on the type and quality of voluntary action that they are undertaking, including participation in ongoing reflection activities. - Contribute articles/write-ups on field experiences and submit them for UNV publications/websites, newsletters, press releases, etc. - Assist with the UNV Buddy Programme for newly-arrived UN Volunteers. - Promote or advise local groups in the use of online volunteering, or encourage relevant local individuals and organizations to use the UNV Online Volunteering service whenever technically possible.