Health Officer (Cold Chain, Logistics & Vaccine Information Management)

Contract

This is a UNV National Specialist contract. This kind of contract is known as National UN Volunteer. It is normally only for nationals. More about UNV National Specialist contracts.

UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvan-taged children, to save their lives, to defend their rights and to help them fulfill their potential. Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone.

UNICEF has a footprint in Angola since 1976 when it first opened its office in Luanda. Today, UNICEF Angola implements an integrated country programme, structured around a life-cycle approach to provide comprehensive packages of quality social services to Angola’s most vulnerable children. Immunization programme activities are spread across the country to reach the most vulnerable people in need.

The Child Survival & Development Section of UNICEF Angola is hiring a National UN Volun-teer to support the UNICEF Angola Country Programme. The UNV Health Officer will pro-vide critical support for the implementation, monitoring, systematization, and evaluation of Cold Chain, Logistics & Vaccine Information Management activities. This will contribute to the Child Survival & Development Section’s integrated work to support the delivery of high-coverage, evidence-driven Immunization programmes. Vaccines save lives. The goal of the vaccination programmes is to prevent vaccine-preventable diseases and reduce morbidity and mortality rates among children under five years of age. The UNV Health Officer will sup-port essential work with Cold Chain management, Logistics and Vaccine Information man-agement in close partnership with the National Directorate of Public Health. The goal is to support the achievement of planned objectives in the work plan with government, aligned with the country programme goals and strategy in line with Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) while adhering to organizational rules, regulations, and procedures.

Under the direct supervision of Immunization Manager, Medard Folefack Temfack, the national UN Volunteer will be based in the central vaccine store and will undertake the following tasks:

1. Support to programme development and planning • Contribute to the development and establishment of sectoral programme goals, objec-tives, strategies, and results-based planning through analysis of health needs and areas for intervention and submission of recommendations for priority and goal setting. • Provide technical and operational support throughout all stages of programming process-es by executing and administering a variety of technical programme transactions, prepar-ing materials and documentations, and complying with organizational processes and management systems, to support programme planning, results based planning (RBM), and monitoring and evaluation of results.

2. Programme management, monitoring and delivery of results • Work closely and collaboratively with colleagues and partners to discuss operational and implementation issues, provide solutions, recommendations, and/or to alert appropriate of-ficials and stakeholders for higher-level intervention and decisions. Keep record of reports and assessments for easy reference and to capture and institutionalize lessons learned. • Participate in monitoring and evaluation exercises, programme reviews and annual sec-toral reviews with government and other counterparts to assess programmes and to re-port on required action/interventions at the higher level of programme management. • Monitor and report on the use of sectoral programme resources (financial, administrative and other assets), and verify compliance with approved allocation and goals, organiza-tional rules, regulations, procedures, as well as donor commitments, standards of ac-countability, and integrity. Report on issues identified to ensure timely resolution by man-agement and stakeholders. Follow up on unresolved issues to ensure resolution. • Prepare regular and mandated sectoral programme/project reports for management, do-nors and partners to keep them informed of programme progress.

3. Technical and operational support to programme implementation • Conduct regular programme field visits and surveys and share information with partners and stakeholders to assess progress and provide technical support and/or refer to relevant officials for resolution. Report on critical issues, bottlenecks and potential problems for timely action to achieve results. • Provide technical and operational support to government counterparts, NGO partners, UN system partners, and other country office partners/donors on the application and under-standing of UNICEF policies, strategies, processes, and best practices on health-related issues to support programme implementation, operations and delivery of results.

4. Networking and partnership building • Build and sustain effective close working partnerships with health sector government counterparts and national stakeholders through active sharing of information and knowledge to enhance programme implementation and build capacity of stakeholders to deliver concrete and sustainable results. • Draft communication and information materials for CO programme advocacy to promote awareness, establish partnerships/alliances, and support fund raising for health pro-grammes. • Participate in appropriate inter-agency (UNCT) on health programmes to collaborate with inter-agency partners/colleagues on UNDAF operational planning and preparation of health programmes/projects, and to integrate and harmonize UNICEF’s position and strat-egies with the UNDAF development and planning process. • Research information on potential donors and prepare resource mobilization materials and briefs for fund raising and partnership development purposes.

5. Innovation, knowledge management and capacity building • Identify, capture, synthesize, and share lessons learned for knowledge development and to build the capacity of stakeholders. • Apply innovative approaches and promote good practices to support the implementation and delivery of concrete and sustainable programme results. • Assist with oversight of research and ensure results are available for use in knowledge products. • Participate as a resource person in capacity building initiatives to enhance the competen-cies of clients and stakeholders.

Furthermore, UN Volunteers are required to: • Strengthen their knowledge and understanding of the concept of volunteerism by read-ing relevant UNV and external publications and take active part in UNV activities (for in-stance in events that mark IVD); • Be acquainted with and build on traditional and/or local forms of volunteerism in the host country; • Reflect on the type and quality of voluntary action that they are undertaking, including participation in ongoing reflection activities; • Contribute articles/write-ups on field experiences and submit them for UNV publica-tions/websites, newsletters, press releases, etc.; • Assist with the UNV Buddy Programme for newly-arrived UN Volunteers; • Promote or advise local groups in the use of online volunteering, or encourage relevant local individuals and organizations to use the UNV Online Volunteering service whenever technically possible.

Results/Expected Output:

• Support provincial and national level logistics management of the vaccine supply chain in close partnership with the Ministry of Health • Support the provincial and national level logistics management of the cold chain for vaccines in close partnership with the Ministry of Health • Prepare weekly immunisation data analysis reports on vaccination supply chain pipe-line, distribution, coverage and end-user administration • Prepare monthly summary reports on immunisation data analysis reports on vaccina-tion supply chain pipeline, distribution, coverage and end-user administration • Prepare support resources and guides required for immunization and nutrition officers in the Ministry of Healt at national and provincial level to serve as reference tool • Participate in and document action points from key meetings and technical working group activities • Support national stakeholders, implementing partners and senior management with vaccine information management needs in a timely fashion • Document bottlenecks and solutions in the management of vaccination logistics, cold chain and data management • Prepare a final report on key achievements of appointment • A final statement of achievements towards volunteerism for development during the as-signment, such as reporting on the number of volunteers mobilized, activities participated in and capacities developed.

Core Values • Care • Respect • Integrity • Trust • Accountability Core Competencies (For Staff without Supervisory Responsibilities) • Demonstrates Self Awareness and Ethical Awareness • Works Collaboratively with others • Builds and Maintains Partnerships • Innovates and Embraces Change • Thinks and Acts Strategically • Drive to achieve impactful results • Manages ambiguity and complexity

one or more of the following areas is required: logistics, supply chain management, cold chain management, medicine, public health/nutrition planning and management, maternal and neonatal health care, vaccination programmes and campaigns, health emergen-cy/humanitarian preparedness, data analysis or programme management.

Advantageous Experience: • Specialized trainings in Immunization, Maternal and Child Health, Nutrition, DHIS2, Stock Management Tools (SMT), IOTA, Visibility for Vaccines (ViVa) and the RediV platform will be an asset. • Experience working with NGOs is considered as an asset. • Relevant experience in a UN system agency or organization is considered as an as-set.

Language Requirements: • Fluency in Portuguese is required.
• Knowledge of English is considered as an asset.

The incumbent will be based in Luanda, Angola. The UNV Volunteer will be provided with the applicable allowances, covering living expenses. As a tropical country the climate is mostly hot throughout the year with a cold season from around May to August. Angola is in level 2-low of the security and risk level.