Health AI Governance and Regulatory Specialist - SAHI Secretariat (WHO SEARO), New Delhi, India

## Health AI Governance and Regulatory Specialist - SAHI Secretariat (WHO SEARO), New Delhi, India - Organization:WHO - World Health Organization - Office:WHO New Delhi, India Description of assignment title:Health AI Governance and Regulatory Specialist - SAHI Secretariat (WHO SEARO) Assignment country:India Duty stations:New Delhi Work location:On UN premises Expected start date:10/01/2026 Duration:18 months(with possibility of extension)Long-term benefits and allowances Sustainable Development Goal:3. Good health and well-being Volunteer category:Expert UCoS from Apr2026 Work schedule:Full-time Number of Assignments:1 Mission and objectives: - The World Health Organization (WHO) is the specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for directing and coordinating international health work. The WHO Regional Office for South-East Asia (WHO-SEARO), based in New Delhi, serves eleven Member States and supports them to strengthen health systems, advance universal health coverage, and protect populations from health emergencies. - Within WHO-SEARO, the Department of Health Systems Development supports Member States on digital health and artificial intelligence (AI) for health, in line with the Global Strategy on Digital Health, the Global Initiative on Digital Health (GIDH), and WHO guidance on the Ethics and Governance of Artificial Intelligence for Health. WHO-SEARO provides normative, technical, and coordination support to Member States seeking to adopt AI in health systems safely, equitably, and accountably. - In India, WHO-SEARO is a designated partner agency supporting the implementation of the Strategy for Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare for India (SAHI), led by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) and the National Health Authority (NHA). - The Strategy for Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare for India (SAHI) sets out India's national framework for the safe, accountable, holistic, and inclusive adoption of AI across the health system. Developed under the stewardship of the MoHFW and the NHA, SAHI is organised around five strategic pillars, fourteen thematic areas, and thirty-two recommendations spanning 2026-2030. - SAHI's implementation phase is guided by the SAHI Implementation Roadmap Committee (Chair: CEO, NHA), a drafting Sub-Committee, and five pillar-level Working Groups. To provide the dedicated coordination, technical depth, and continuity that implementation demands, a SAHI Secretariat is being established, anchored at and hosted by the NHA in New Delhi. The Secretariat comprises a Manager and pillar-aligned teams recruited and deputed by designated partner agencies — including WHO-SEARO — but co-located and based at the NHA. - WHO-SEARO is the designated partner agency for Pillar I (Governance, Regulation, and Trust) and Pillar III (Workforce, Institutional Capacity, and Change Management). This assignment is one of two UN Volunteer positions through which WHO-SEARO will provide this dedicated technical capacity to the SAHI Secretariat. - Role of this assignment. To provide dedicated technical support to Pillar I of the SAHI Secretariat on governance and regulation for health AI, embedding trust through a risk-based, graded approach across the AI lifecycle, and to support the drafting, validation, and monitoring of the Pillar I implementation roadmap. - Reporting lines. The UN Volunteer will report technically to the Regional Adviser, Digital Health and AI, WHO-SEARO, and will work under the day-to-day direction of the SAHI Secretariat Manager at the NHA, in close support of the Pillar I — Governance, Regulation, and Trust Working Group and its lead - Under the direct supervision of the Regional Adviser, Digital Health and AI, WHO-SEARO, and the day-to-day direction of the SAHI Secretariat Manager, the UN Volunteer will undertake the following tasks: - Support the drafting, refinement, and finalisation of the Pillar I implementation roadmap actions on risk classification and tiering, regulatory pathways, accountability, and liability allocation for AI in healthcare, using the common NHA implementation template (LogFrame, Theory of Change, RACI, SMART, and Adaptive Management logic). - Analyse and adapt relevant global normative instruments — including WHO guidance on Ethics and Governance of AI for Health, WHO guidance on Large Multi-Modal Models, IMDRF Software as a Medical Device (SaMD) guidance, the EU AI Act, and ISO/IEC 42001 — to the Indian regulatory and health-system context. - Support the development of risk-classification guidance for health AI tools, together with the associated regulatory, oversight, and operational obligations at each risk tier. - Coordinate technical inputs with and between the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO), the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), MeitY / IndiaAI, the NHA, legal institutions, and State health departments on regulatory, accountability, and cross-sector governance mechanisms. - Prepare technical notes, decision briefs, comparative analyses, and background papers for the Pillar I Working Group, the drafting Sub-Committee, and the SAHI Implementation Roadmap Committee. - Contribute the Pillar I inputs to the Secretariat's cross-cutting technical products, including the State SAHI Readiness Implementation Index and the lifecycle cost-and-value model for health AI. - Support the planning, technical preparation, and documentation of the regional validation consultations (North, South, East, and West) for the Pillar I roadmap, and consolidate the resulting feedback. - Track and report progress of Pillar I lead and supporting agencies against agreed roadmap milestones, and flag risks, delays, and cross-pillar dependencies to the Secretariat Manager. - Support WHO-SEARO in linking the SAHI Pillar I work to regional and global normative processes on AI governance for health, including documentation of India's experience for regional knowledge exchange. - Perform any other related duties as required by the Secretariat Manager and the WHO-SEARO supervisor. - Results / expected outputs - Pillar roadmap actions drafted, validated, and finalised to the standard of the common NHA implementation template and endorsed through the Working Group, Sub-Committee, and Committee process. - Technical notes, decision briefs, and background papers delivered on time and to professional quality. - Regional validation consultations technically supported and documented. - Periodic progress reporting against roadmap milestones maintained and provided to the Secretariat Manager and WHO-SEARO. - Age, gender, and diversity (AGD) perspective systematically applied, integrated, and documented in all activities and reports. - A final statement of achievements towards volunteerism for peace and development during the assignment, such as reporting on the number of volunteers mobilised, activities participated in, and capacities developed. Required experience:7 years Nationality:Candidate must be a national, legal resident or hold refugee status in the country of assignment. Assignment requirements - English, Level: Fluent, Required - Hindi, Level: Working knowledge, Desirable Required education level: - Master's degree in Law, public policy, regulatory affairs, public health, health policy, bioethics, or a closely related discipline. A legal qualification, or a doctoral qualification in a relevant discipline, is an advantage Competencies and values: - Adaptability and flexibility - Judgement and decision-making - Planning and organising - Respect for diversity Skills and experience: - At least seven (7) years of professional work experience at the national and/or international level in AI or digital-health governance, medical-device or SaMD regulation, health-technology policy, or health law and regulatory affairs; experience with the UN system or other international development organizations is an asset. - Demonstrated working familiarity with Indian regulatory and res