MID/SENIOR LEVEL NATIONAL STTA – AMR Surveillance and Evidence-Use Expert

Expanded IHR and AMR Institutionalisation, Surveillance and Portfolio Coordination Support – Workstream 2: Strengthening NIH AMR Secretariat-level Functions (Governance, Surveillance, Laboratory Quality and Evidence-to-Action), National Institute of Health, Islamabad

Programme Overview

Evidence for Health (E4H) is a Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO)-funded programme aimed at strengthening Pakistan's healthcare system, thereby decreasing the burden of illness and saving lives. E4H provides technical assistance (TA) to the Federal, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), and Punjab governments, and is being implemented by Palladium along with Oxford Policy Management (OPM).

Through its flexible, embedded, and demand-driven model, E4H supports the government to achieve a resilient health system that is prepared for health emergencies, responsive to the latest evidence, and delivers equitable, quality, and efficient healthcare services. Specifically, E4H delivers TA across three outputs:

Output 1: Strengthened integrated health security, with a focus on preparing and responding to health emergencies, including pandemics.

Output 2: Strengthened evidence-based decision-making to drive health sector performance and accountability.

Output 3: Improved implementation of Universal Health Coverage, with a focus on ending preventable deaths.

Background

Since May 2026, E4H has provided Technical Support to the IHR Coordination Secretariat at the National Institute of Health (NIH), Islamabad, helping NIH institutionalise the broader IHR/JEE health-security coordination agenda, including NAPHS monitoring, multisectoral governance, routine IHR reporting and progressive government ownership. Following FCDO’s steer, this support has been expanded into one consolidated package running to March 2027, with three complementary but distinct workstreams: (1) the ongoing IHR Secretariat TA; (2) a specialist NIH AMR workstream; and (3) an E4H-level AMR portfolio coordination function across Federal, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab.

NIH also hosts an AMR Secretariat with a focused mandate for national AMR governance, surveillance and related technical functions. The Federal AMR support (Workstream 2) will work primarily through the AMR Secretariat and relevant NIH technical functions, while maintaining structured coordination with the IHR Secretariat so that AMR priorities remain aligned with the National Action Plan on AMR (NAP-AMR 2.0) and the wider IHR/NAPHS architecture, and parallel governance, reporting or partner arrangements are avoided.

Workstream 2 will be delivered through a lean four-person Federal AMR team comprising an AMR Strategic Lead/Political Economy Expert, an AMR Surveillance and Evidence-Use Expert, a One Health, AMR and Laboratory Quality Specialist, and an AMR Data Analyst. The Strategic Lead will provide overall Workstream 2 leadership and senior-level engagement; the technical specialists will lead their respective domains; and the Data Analyst will provide dedicated analytical and research support. The team will work through existing NIH structures and draw on available NIH/IHR capacity where appropriate to avoid duplication.

Problem Statement

The Federal AMR agenda requires a complementary mix of strategic, institutional and specialist technical expertise that goes beyond the broad IHR skill set, including senior government and partner engagement, political economy and institutional navigation, AMR surveillance/GLASS, national antibiogram development, laboratory quality, One Health linkages, evidence interpretation and evidence-to-action.

Priority AMR functions, including those previously supported through the Fleming Fund, need clear institutional ownership, accountability and recurrent resourcing arrangements. At the same time, the quality, completeness, timeliness and use of sentinel-site AMR surveillance data, follow-up of laboratory quality (NEQAS and QA/QC) findings, and the routine use of AMR evidence for stewardship, treatment guidance and policy decisions all require dedicated support that is not already covered by the IHR Secretariat TA.

Goal and Objective(s)

The overall goal of Workstream 2 is to strengthen and institutionalise priority AMR governance, surveillance, laboratory-quality and evidence-use functions through the NIH AMR Secretariat and relevant NIH counterparts, with clear ownership, transition and sustainability arrangements, and systematic coordination with the IHR Secretariat so that the specialist AMR work complements the broader IHR/NAPHS health-security architecture.

We will achieve this by pursuing four objectives:

Objective 1: Strengthen AMR governance and institutionalisation for NAP-AMR 2.0 implementation through the AMR Secretariat and existing steering/coordination mechanisms, including clear ownership, accountability, transition and recurrent-resource arrangements for priority AMR functions.

Objective 2: Strengthen AMR surveillance, GLASS-AMR reporting, the national antibiogram, microbiology laboratory quality and One Health linkages across the sentinel-site network.

Objective 3: Establish practical mechanisms for routine review and use of AMR evidence, linking surveillance and antibiogram findings with antimicrobial stewardship, treatment guidance and policy decisions.

Objective 4: Co-develop tools, analyses and workflows with NIH counterparts and progressively transfer supported AMR functions to designated government staff, concluding with an agreed handover package.

Scope of Work and Methodology

This is a distinct specialist AMR workstream delivered primarily through the existing NIH AMR Secretariat, with structured coordination with the IHR Secretariat where mandates intersect. The IHR Secretariat TA already provides broad multisectoral coordination, NAPHS monitoring and AMR/GLASS progress tracking; Workstream 2 will not duplicate these functions and will focus on the deeper AMR technical and institutional gaps that require dedicated support. It will not create a parallel AMR institutional platform.

Inception and minimum viable package: Review NAP-AMR 2.0, NAPHS/JEE linkages relevant to AMR, current AMR Secretariat arrangements, Fleming Fund transition documentation, surveillance/GLASS processes, laboratory quality arrangements, partner activities and financing information.

Confirm with the NIH AMR Secretariat and relevant counterparts the priority functions to be strengthened, institutional owners, minimum functional requirements, sequencing, dependencies, data access, partner boundaries and capacity-transfer arrangements.

Governance and institutionalisation: Strategic and political economy analysis of institutional incentives, decision points, implementation bottlenecks and opportunities for advancing priority AMR actions. Targeted senior-level engagement and advocacy with NIH/M/o NHSR&C, relevant government/One Health institutions and development partners to secure decisions and approvals and maintain implementation momentum. Strengthen AMR governance and NAP-AMR 2.0 follow-up through the AMR Secretariat and existing steering/coordination mechanisms; clarify roles, responsibilities, SOPs/workflows and escalation arrangements for transition-critical functions. Document recurrent resource and sustainability arrangements (such as PC-1/PC-4) and maintain a partner division-of-labour matrix covering the AMR Secretariat, IHR Secretariat, E4H, UKHSA/IHRSP, WHO and other actors.

Surveillance, laboratory quality and One Health linkages: Strengthen quality, completeness, timeliness, validation, analysis and interpretation of AMR data across the sentinel-site network to improve GLASS-AMR reporting and national surveillance outputs. Support independent NIH GLASS-AMR coordination/submission and production and dissemination of the national antibiogram using validated data and consistent methodology. Strengthen sustainable follow-up of NEQAS and microbiology laboratory QA/QC findings, with clear responsibility and escalation, and provide specialist One Health input through existing government coordination mechanisms.

Antimicrobial evidence-to-action and stewardship linkages: Produce concise AMR surveillance/evidence snapshots for policy, programme and clinical audiences, including stewardship-oriented interpretation of antibiogram findings. Establish routine review mechanisms within NIH linking surveillance data, antibiogram findings, stewardship, treatment guidance and policy decisions. Any clinical guidance will be validated and issued through the appropriate NIH/government technical mechanism. Document examples of AMR evidence informing action and incorporate them into routine review, learning and transition processes.

Deliverables

• Inception, Workplan and Minimum Viable Transition Package: NIH-agreed AMR workplan, notified coordination mechanism and documented division-of-labour matrix.
• AMR Governance, Institutional Strengthening and Transition Package: NIH-approved minutes and records, with a NAP-AMR 2.0 action tracker and documented follow-up on governance decisions.
• AMR Surveillance, GLASS, National Antibiogram, Laboratory Quality and Evidence-to-Action Package: GLASS-AMR submission record with ≥90% sentinel-site data completeness and timeliness against agreed thresholds; the latest national antibiogram; and two national AMR snapshot reports with stewardship guidance for clinicians (a quarter apart), shared with NIH for approval.
• AMR Institutionalisation and Handover Report: NIH-approved handover package and transition matrix with agreed post-TA actions.

Role and key responsibilities of the AMR Surveillance and Evidence-Use Expert

The Expert will lead the surveillance, GLASS-AMR, national antibiogram and evidence-to-action domain of Workstream 2, working under the overall leadership of the AMR Strategic Lead. Key responsibilities include:

• Strengthen the quality, completeness, timeliness, validation, analysis and interpretation of AMR data across the sentinel-site network, using agreed standards and existing systems.
• Support independent NIH GLASS-AMR coordination and submission, working towards ≥90% sentinel-site data completeness and timeliness against agreed thresholds.
• Support the AMR Secretariat and NIH technical teams to produce and disseminate the national antibiogram using validated data and consistent methodology.
• Lead the synthesis and dissemination of concise AMR surveillance/evidence snapshots for policy, programme and clinical audiences, including two national snapshot reports with stewardship-oriented guidance (a quarter apart).
• Establish practical mechanisms within NIH for routine review and use of AMR evidence, linking surveillance and antibiogram findings with stewardship, treatment guidance and policy decisions.
• Document examples of AMR evidence informing action and incorporate them into routine review and transition processes.
• Provide technical mentoring and QA to AMR Secretariat and sentinel-site personnel, and guide the analytical work of the AMR Data Analyst.
• Lead the surveillance, GLASS, antibiogram and evidence-to-action components of the Workstream 2 deliverables and contribute to the handover package.

Sustainability: Capacity Building, Institutionalisation, and/or Transition Planning

Specialist AMR tools, analyses, workflows and functions will be co-developed with the NIH AMR Secretariat and relevant NIH technical counterparts and progressively transferred to the appropriate NIH owners, rather than being handed over only at the end of the assistance. Targeted mentoring and practical capacity transfer will be provided to AMR Secretariat and associated sentinel-site personnel.

Coordination between the AMR and IHR Secretariats will be strengthened where required for IHR/NAPHS alignment, multisectoral governance, reporting and partner interfaces. By completion, the AMR Secretariat/relevant NIH functions should be able to sustain the agreed priority AMR functions, with a practical transition and handover record covering functions transferred, remaining gaps, institutional owners, AMR/IHR coordination arrangements, partner responsibilities, recurrent resource requirements and next actions.

Timeline and Days

The proposed LOE is 65 days from October 2026 to March 2027, subject to final mobilisation, contracting and confirmation from client. The position is based in Islamabad, working primarily with the NIH AMR Secretariat.

Requirement

Technical Expertise

• Master’s degree in epidemiology, microbiology, public health, biostatistics, infectious diseases or a related field.
• Minimum 8 years of relevant experience, including at least 5 years in AMR, laboratory-based or communicable-disease surveillance.
• Hands-on experience with GLASS-AMR reporting, AMR surveillance data management (e.g., WHONET) and cumulative antibiogram development.
• Demonstrated experience producing evidence products for policy, programme and clinical audiences and supporting antimicrobial stewardship.
• Experience working with NIH, sentinel laboratories or national surveillance systems in Pakistan is highly desirable.
• Female candidates are strongly encouraged to apply.

Competencies

• Strong analytical skills and ability to interpret surveillance data for decision-making;
• Ability to translate technical findings into concise, actionable evidence products;
• Mentoring and capacity-building skills with government and laboratory staff;
• Attention to data quality, validation and consistent methodology; and
• Ability to work independently and collaboratively within a multidisciplinary team.