Call for Experts for the Vector Control Guideline Development Group

Deadline: 11 June 2026, 11:59pm CEST (UTC+2)

22 May 2026
Call for experts

The World Health Organization (WHO) is seeking experts to serve as members on the Malaria and Neglected Tropical Diseases Department’s Guidelines Development Group for Vector Control. This “call for experts” provides information about the advisory group in question, the expert profiles being sought, the process to express interest, and the process of selection.

Background

WHO develops evidence-based recommendations aimed at informing the implementation of effective vector-borne disease control strategies by WHO Member States. These recommendations, published in WHO guidelines, are essential to ensure the optimal use of scarce resources available for vector-borne disease control. 

The WHO Malaria and Neglected Tropical Disease department (MNT) will be developing a consolidated guideline for vector control, informed by a single overarching, cross-disease Guideline Development Group (GDG) for vector control, including those diseases with presumed or partial vector involvement, or intermediate reservoirs. The scope of the guidelines is expected to cover a range of mosquito-borne diseases, as well as leishmaniasis, Chagas disease, onchocerciasis, lymphatic filariasis, schistosomiasis, Guinea worm, and trachoma. 

The GDG will comprise external experts whose central task, together, is to develop evidence-based recommendations. The GDG also performs the important task of advising on the scope and key questions of the recommendations in PICO (Patient/Problem/Population, Intervention, Comparison/Control, Outcome) format. All recommendations are reviewed by an external review group, which may include members of the Malaria Policy Advisory Committee (MPAC), to comment on clarity, setting-specific issues and implications for implementation. WHO Guidelines are approved by the Guidelines Review Committee (GRC) before being published.

Functions of the Guidelines Development Group

In its capacity as an advisory body to MNT, the GDG will develop as well as review and update existing WHO recommendations on new vector control interventions. 

The GDG shall thus:

  • Support development and/or finalize the key guideline questions in PICO format;
  • Choose and rate priority outcomes that guide the evidence reviews and focus the recommendations;
  • Provide input into the protocols of systematic reviews to be conducted to develop summaries of evidence and Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) evidence profiles or other assessments of the quality of the evidence used to inform the recommendations, as well as the included and excluded studies as part of this process.
  • Formulate recommendations and accompanying supporting text to be published in the vector control guidelines, using transparent and explicit processes.

Operations of the Guidelines Development Group

1. The GDG shall normally meet as required to complete the scope of work described in the approved GDG planning proposal. GDG meetings may be held in person (at WHO headquarters in Geneva or another location, as determined by WHO) or virtually, via video or teleconference.

GDG meetings will normally be held in closed session.  

Additional ad hoc experts may be invited as technical advisors to GDG meetings, as deemed appropriate, to contribute to specific topics. Such ad hoc technical advisors are required to complete a DOI form and sign a confidentiality undertaking, will not participate in the formulation of recommendations, and will not be present in the room/on the call during the voting or recommendation development.

2. Based on the tabled agenda topics for a given meeting, the secretariat will decide the expertise required, and accordingly, extend invitations to individuals from within the broader pool of members. The quorum for GDG meetings shall be two thirds of the invited members to any meeting.

3. The GDG may decide to establish smaller working groups (sub-groups of the GDG) to work on specific issues. Their deliberations shall take place via teleconference or videoconference. For these sub-groups, no quorum requirement will apply; the outcome of their deliberations will be submitted to the GDG for review and decision as appropriate at one of its meetings. Sub-groups may be tasked with drafting specific sections of the recommendations to support development of the Guidelines. 

4. GDG members are expected to attend meetings and actively participate. If a member fails to attend two meetings to which they have been invited, WHO may choose to end his/her appointment as a member of the GDG.  

5. The GDG shall share its recommendations (with support from the WHO Secretariat) to WHO (Director, MNT). All recommendations from the GDG are advisory to WHO and publication of these recommendations in WHO guidelines remains within the purview of WHO. 

6. The GDG shall normally make recommendations by consensus and in line with agreed upon methodological approaches of the GDG. If, in exceptional circumstances, a consensus on a particular issue cannot be reached, the GDG may reach a decision by vote (in which the member co-chair has a decisive vote when necessary). 

7. Active participation is expected from all GDG members, including in working groups, teleconferences, and interaction over email. GDG members may, in advance of GDG meetings, be requested to review meeting documentation and to provide their views for consideration by the GDG. The views of individual members are not reported publicly. Please see the Code of Conduct.

8. GDG members shall not speak on behalf of, or represent, the GDG or WHO to any third party including through published media.

Who can express interest?

In the selection of the GDG members, consideration shall be given to attaining an adequate distribution of technical expertise depending on the scope of the recommendations; diversity of perspective; geographical representation and gender balance. 

WHO welcomes expressions of interest from relevant demographics, as follows:
  • disease-specific technical experts – GDGs should include members with a range of technical expertise across the various vector-borne diseases, with diverse perspectives and experiences, institutional and professional affiliations, and geographic diversity. 
  • cross-cutting technical experts – other expertise relating to vector control, including but not limited to epidemiology, health economic evaluations, equity, gender and human rights, climate/OneHealth, modelling, social sciences, and medicine, ensure that recommendations developed consider the holistic impact of the intervention once implemented;
  • end-users – individuals such as programme managers, with responsibility to adopt, adapt, and implement the recommendation are needed to ensure that the final guideline document is useful to its end-users, readily understood by them, and that interventions are likely to be implementable; 
  • service users – individuals from affected populations that can provide their perspectives based on lived experience, and/or individuals who have experience to help ensure that the guideline reflects the needs of its intended beneficiaries or service users. 

Submitting your application 

There are two components to the submission. Please follow the instructions carefully and precisely to ensure both elements of your application are received and processed. 

To register your interest in being considered for the integrated vector control guideline development group, please: 
  1. Complete and submit this form online
  2. submit your CV (in PDF or DOC format only) to MNTinfo@who.int
Your CV should be sent at the same time as you submit the online form. Both the email subject heading and the file name should follow the same naming structure: 
“MNT VC GDG – open call submission – [YOUR SURNAME]”. 

Both the form and your CV should be received before 11 June 2026, 23:59pm CEST (UTC+1). Incomplete applications (those that do not comprise the two components) will not be considered. 

Within the form, you will be asked for: 
  • Personal details (e.g. your name, contact details nationality and gender)
  • The experience and expertise you may bring to the group, as well as to provide justification (e.g. relevant publications, positions held, personal experience to that aspect).
  • Your motivation to apply for the advisory group. There is a limit of 4,000 characters for this response; it is recommended that you prepare your motivation in advance, as the form cannot be saved once begun. 
After submission, your expression of interest will be reviewed by WHO. Due to an expected high volume of interest, please note that only selected individuals will be contacted, and no updates will be given as to the progress of the selections. A short interview may be requested to support selection of candidates. 

Data collected in this indicated form will be used for the purpose of reviewing and shortlisting potential members of the Guidelines Development Group for vector control, and potentially other advisory groups within the Organization. Data will not be shared with any party external to WHO.

Important information about the selection processes and conditions of appointment

Members of WHO advisory groups must be free of any real, potential or apparent conflicts of interest. To this end, applicants are required to complete the WHO Declaration of Interests for WHO Experts, and the selection as a member of an advisory group is, amongst other things, dependent on WHO determining that there is no conflict of interest or that any identified conflicts could be appropriately managed (in addition to WHO’s evaluation of an applicant’s experience, expertise and motivation and other criteria). 

All advisory group members will serve in their individual expert capacity and shall not represent any governments, any commercial industries or entities, any research, academic or civil society organizations, or any other bodies, entities, institutions or organizations. They are expected to fully comply with the Code of Conduct for WHO Experts (https://www.who.int/about/ethics/declarations-of-interest). Advisory group members will be expected to sign and return a completed confidentiality undertaking, and their declaration of interests prior to the beginning of the first meeting, and future meetings thereafter.

The selection of members of the advisory groups will be made by WHO in its sole discretion, taking into account the following (non-exclusive) criteria: relevant technical expertise; experience in international and country policy work; communication skills; and ability to work constructively with people from different cultural backgrounds and orientations. The selection of advisory group members will also take account of the need for diverse perspectives from different regions, especially from low and middle-income countries, and for gender balance.

At any point during the selection process, telephone interviews/video calls may be scheduled between an applicant and the staff from the Malaria and Neglected Tropical Diseases Department to enable WHO to ask questions relating to the applicant’s experience and expertise and/or to assess whether the applicant meets the criteria for membership in the relevant AG.

If selected by WHO, proposed members will be sent an invitation letter and a Memorandum of Agreement. Appointment as a member of an advisory group will be subject to the proposed member returning to WHO the countersigned copy of these two documents.

WHO reserves the right to accept or reject any expression of interest, to annul the open call process and reject all expressions of interest at any time without incurring any liability to the affected applicant or applicants and without any obligation to inform the affected applicant or applicants of the grounds for WHO's action. WHO may also decide, at any time, not to proceed with the establishment of a planned guideline development group, to disband an existing group or to modify the scope of work of the group. 

WHO shall not in any way be obliged to reveal, or discuss with any applicant, how an expression of interest was assessed, or to provide any other information relating to the evaluation/selection process or to state the reasons for not choosing a member.

Prior to the first meeting of the group, the “public notice and comment” process will be conducted for each new GDG member, as per WHO procedures. The process consists of the online publication of the names and a short biography for all new GDG members, which the prospective members will be requested to provide, in accordance with a standard template.

Group members will not be remunerated for their services in relation to the guideline development group or otherwise. Travel and accommodation expenses of advisory group members to participate in face-to-face meetings will be covered by WHO in accordance with its applicable policies, rules and procedures. 

Appointment to the guideline development group as a member will be limited in time to the duration of a specific guidelines planning proposal. Membership will nevertheless be reviewed regularly. Membership may be extended at the discretion of WHO to cover the duration of additional guidelines planning proposals if the skillset provided by the GDG member remains relevant to the topic(s) under discussion. Membership may also be terminated at any time by WHO if WHO’s interest requires so, or as otherwise specified in the terms of reference or letters of appointment.