VN059 A Short-term Consultant to provide the General Department of Preventive Medicine of the Viet Nam Ministry of Health with expertise support pertaining to non-communicable diseases in the development of the proposal dossier for the

Background

The Law on Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases (ID Law) was approved by the National Assembly on November 21st, 2007 and came into effect on July 1st, 2008. The ID Law focuses on prevention and control of communicable diseases, including communication and education, hygiene, surveillance, biosafety in laboratory testing, use of vaccine and biomedicals, infection prevention and control (IPC) in hospitals, border health quarantine, outbreak control measures, and other relevant regulations.

During the period 2016-2018, the World Health Organization (WHO) Country Office in Viet Nam supported GDPM in the development of the proposal dossier for the development of the revised ID Law, which was appraised by the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) and submitted to the Standing Committee of the National Assembly for consideration in 2018. However, the revised ID Law Project was not included in the 14th National Assembly agenda because priority was given to the revised Medical Examination and Treatment Law Project. This delay, though seemed unfortunate at the time, has presented us with a better opportunity to strengthen the legal framework for prevention and control of communicable diseases, taking into account the lessons identified from the COVID-19 pandemic response during which many shortcomings of the ID Law were revealed in the application of preventive and control measures. The Government and MOH have now given this task a high priority, with the approval of Decision No. 2215/QD-BYT dated 17/5/2023 of the Minister of Health promulgating the Plan for formulation of application for the Law on Disease Prevention Project (the Law Project), which sets the target for the Law Project to be included in the 15th National Assembly law development agenda for 2025.

The objective of this short-term consultant position is to provide expertise inputs in the areas of non- communicable diseases to support GDPM in the development of the proposal dossier for the development of the new Law on Disease Prevention as described below.

Planned timelines (subject to confirmation): 45 working days, intermittent until 31 Dec 2023.

Address for applications:

Administrative Officer

World Health Organization

UN Building, 304 Kim Ma Street, Hanoi, Viet Nam

Or by email at: wpvnmapplicants@who.int

Note: applicants should indicate vacancy notice number and title of position in the email subject