Support the development AI tool for Risk Communication and Community Engagement

Host entity: WHO PHL

Application deadline: 24/09/2026

Mission and objectives

WHO in the Western Pacific

Together with 37 Member States and areas, we fight infectious diseases like dengue and malaria, and noncommunicable diseases like diabetes and heart disease. Through immunization campaigns and initiatives such as First Embrace, we help mothers and children survive and thrive. We ensure the safety of our environment, our air, our water and our food – all of which impact our health every day. We prepare for and rapidly respond to disasters and emergencies, never losing sight of the fact that we are dealing with issues of life and death. With the stakes so high, we strive for excellence in working to bring better health and well-being to the nearly 1.9 billion people of the Western Pacific Region.

Assignment context

During public health emergencies, responders need to rapidly understand what communities know, believe, experience and need, and to translate these insights into timely communication and engagement decisions. WHO’s RCCE work supports countries to systematically generate, analyse and use social and behavioural evidence for emergency preparedness and response.

The WHO Western Pacific Regional Office is further developing BRIDGE, an operational approach that brings together tools for social listening, risk prioritization, exposure assessment, rapid qualitative and quantitative insights, message testing, measurement and evaluation, and related evidence-informed RCCE functions.

As part of this work, the team is exploring how artificial intelligence can help users navigate these tools, synthesize evidence and support timely decision-making while maintaining appropriate technical oversight and safeguards. The Online Volunteer will contribute to this work by helping connect RCCE and health communication expertise with the technical development of the AI tool.

The assignment will support the creation of a practical, user-centred decision-support solution that can strengthen preparedness and response capacities in the Western Pacific Region.

The Online Volunteer’s contribution through this task will support the World Health Organization's work towards Sustainable Development Goal 3 - Good Health and Well-being.

Task description

We are looking for one Online Volunteer who, under the guidance of the Technical Officer, Risk Communication and Community Engagement, in close collaboration with the information technology (IT) team, will support the development of an AI-enabled tool for evidence-informed health emergency decision-making.

The assignment will focus on translating public health and RCCE needs into practical AI-enabled workflows, organizing the evidence and decision logic that should underpin the tool, and supporting iterative testing and refinement.

In particular, the Online Volunteer will:

• Review BRIDGE/RCCE tools, guidance, and operational workflows, and translate them into structured user requirements, use cases, decision pathways and content specifications for the AI tool to support the operationalization of BRIDGE/RCCE approaches within the AI tool.

• Work with RCCE team to define how evidence and community insights should be interpreted and converted into practical response options, including appropriate safeguards, limitations and escalation points.

• Bridge the RCCE technical area and the IT and AI technical area by clarifying technical requirements, documenting functional specifications, resolving terminology or workflow gaps, and supporting prioritization of features.

• Support the development and testing of AI-driven decision-support functions, including prompt structures, knowledge organization, retrieval logic, response formats and user journeys for real-time or rapid crisis-response use cases.

• Support the development of representative test scenarios and evaluation criteria to assess the relevance, accuracy, usability, consistency and safety of AI-generated outputs against the RCCE technical areas, and document findings for iterative improvement.

• Prepare concise technical notes, workflow diagrams, meeting summaries required to ensure continuity between the public health and IT workstreams.

The specific deliverables and outputs will be agreed with the Online Volunteer at the start of the assignment, based on the above priorities and needs of the RCCE and IT teams.

Skills and experience

Candidates should have a combination of experience or strong demonstrated interest in public health/RCCE/health communication and applied artificial intelligence or digital product development. The ideal candidate does not need to be a software engineer, but should understand both the technical public health requirements and the logic of AI-enabled systems, and translate effectively between subject-matter experts and developers.

• Strong understanding of Risk Communication and Community Engagement (RCCE), health communication, behavioural or social science, public health emergency management, or a closely related field.

• Familiarity with applied AI concepts, particularly large language models (LLMs), generative AI, prompt design, knowledge retrieval/organization, AI-assisted decision support, or evaluation of AI outputs.

• Experience translating technical or operational needs into clear requirements, workflows, use cases, user stories, specifications, or product documentation is highly desirable.

• Strong research and analytical skills, including the ability to synthesize evidence, structure complex information and translate findings into actionable recommendations.

• Ability to work across multidisciplinary teams and communicate effectively with both public health specialists and IT/development colleagues.

• Experience with user testing, quality assurance, evaluation frameworks, digital health tools, knowledge management systems or human-centred design is considered an asset.

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to explain complex public health and technical concepts clearly and concisely.

• A degree in public health, communication, behavioural or social sciences, information science, data science, computer science, artificial intelligence, digital health, or a related field is considered an asset.

Full eligibility requirements, conditions of service and application instructions are available on the official UNV platform.