Individual Consultancy: Improving national capacity in immunization supply chain management (iSCM) systems in Lebanon - EVM Assessment and Comprehensive Improvement Plan, 120 working days

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UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. 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.

And we never give up.

For every child, Health

The overall purpose of the assignment is to assist the Ministry of Public Health MoPH to adequately plan for and implement EVMA, development of and implementation of Improvement plan (IPs) for the Effective Vaccine management Assessment that will be conducted, including; ensuring availability and implementation of the standard operating procedures (SOPs) for iSCM and good vaccine management practices, comprehensive assessment of immunisation supply chain system and building an integrated iSCM system, identify needs for improvement, integration and future development, facilitate the development of a costed plan designing and developing temperature monitoring systems, identifying gaps in cold chain storage capacity (cold chain inventories) and developing replenishment plans to ensure adequate cold chain capacity at all levels to accommodate new vaccine introduction in years to come, conducing training and workshops on immunization supply chain and logistics (iSCL, design and establishment of E-logistic Management Information System (eLMIS), web-based vaccine supply stock management. New EVM assessments using the new tool EVMA2.0 have been planned in several countries and regional office and HQ support is sought.

How can you make a difference?

****Work Assignment Expected Results******Tasks/Milestone:** Deliverables / Outputs Timeline1. Develop a workplan for the EVMA 2.0 implementation in Lebanon; in addition to weekly summary report and final report1. Workplan available including breakdown of activities, timeline, roles and responsibilities and resources required; Reviewed with the Country Management Team (CMT) and updated weekly.The overall timeline for the full consultancy is to be proposed by the consultant in his/her submission.2. Submit weekly summary reports; trip report after each visit (within 7 days after completion); monthly reports including progress and deliverables achieved against deliverables.2. Reports submitted on time and debriefing call done with CMT after each country’s visit. 3. Country setup: Units (administrative regions, districts, etc.) alignment with locations (vaccine stores and health facilities, and the supply hierarchy), Vaccines (vaccines used in country), the accounts that will be involved in the assessment (assessors, managers, observers, etc.).3. Country setup completed. CMT members briefed and prepared on their roles & responsibilities during EVM assessment and improvement plan implementation. 4. Tailor EVMA 2.0 tool to Lebanon’s context; ensure all IT and logistics preparation are completed4. Pilot of the tool completed and functional for implementation. 5. Conduct ‘Learning by doing’ ToT for CMT5. Report of training done with attendance sheet annexed. 6. Monitor and supervise country self assessment6. Self assessment completed and initial findings documented. 7. Conduct EVM assessment -Assign locations to assessors, -Data collection and cleaning, - Results analysis, -Data analysis, interpretation and report finalisation workshop.7. EVM Assessment, data collated. and analysis conducted, report of data analysis and findings available and disseminated for review. 8. Train the EVM technical team members to enable them to understand and interpret EVM assessment findings to identify critical elements/attributes to scoring so that their improvement will lead to EVM improvement. - Train national and sub-national managers on how to translate the results into the improvement plan and support the development of costed EVM improvement plans including workshop.8. Report on training/capacity building completed for the EVM technical team; Comprehensive Improvement Planning (CIP) Workshop/Consultation conducted and EVM Improvement Plan developed and endorsed by MOPH. 9. Assess the latest progress against EVM IP , identify gaps remained and associated barriers, and advise technical solutions and practical steps forward; -Assess the current situation of the immunization supply chain management systems (iSCM) by collecting and reviewing evidence with a focus on identifying strengths, weaknesses, bottlenecks, and opportunities including overview of the different supply chain management systems (electronic and manual information systems) in place -Review of co-existing tools, modules, and systems of iSCM information systems that are being used by different departments of the Ministry of Health.9. Report on technical solutions and practical steps forward. 10. Assess the existing level of implementation of iSCM systems including the different platforms, tools, the reporting forms, and reporting mechanisms at different levels such as MOPH, ), and District Health Office (DHO). - Develop an improvement plan with special emphasis on integration of multiple iSCM tools and linkage with DHIS2/PHENICS/MERA. - Work with the UNICEF, MOPH and other stakeholders to review the contents of the integrated tools of iSCM and provide recommendations for integration if iSCM tools as necessary10. IT assessment report completed with recommendations for improvement. 11. Review and suggest Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for the Immunization Supply Chain and Logistics (iSCL)11. Recommendations for strengthening SOPs documented in the reports. 12. Improve/ build on existing web-based vaccine stock management tool and web-based cold chain inventory tools in collaboration with MoPH IT department.12. Recommendations for enhancing web-based stock and inventory management systems documented in the reports. 13. Design a customized training with supporting materials on strengthening immunization and essential health commodities supply chain. At the minimum level, training materials should cover demand planning (forecasting), inventory management, immunization logistics, effective vaccine management, cold chain management, information flow, systems design, temperature monitoring study and supportive supervision. The content should be customized to Lebanon13. Contextualized training package developed. 14. Follow up on country progress against EVM IP, through country visits or remote communications (skype or emailing).14. Summary report after each call with CO on progress, main challenges and recommendations (at least 3 calls). 15. While conducting the EVM Assessment, ensure alignment and and complementarity with the World Bank Readiness Assessment in preparation for COVID Vaccine introduction.15. World Bank documented correspondence and number of meetings held To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…

• Post graduate degree in public health, pharmaceutical sciences, engineering or related sciences.
• At least eight-years' experience in public health and six-years' experience with immunization programme, and demonstrated experience in resource-limited environments.
• Demonstrated knowledge and expertise in developing capacity in the area of iSCM systems (particularly iSC system assessment and improvement, iSC HR and data assessment, comprehensive EVMA, 30 DTRs, web-based stock management, electronic inventory systems, writing iSCM SOPs, experience in conducting training and workshops).
• Detailed knowledge of WHO/UNCIEF recommended vaccine management practices and vaccine management assessment tools;
• Strong interpersonal communication and writing skills, with ability to lead/train a group of individuals and impart knowledge. Skills in adult training methodology are strongly preferred.
• Experience in the MENA region and familiarity with MENA context is an asset.
• Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) or a local language is an asset.

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF's values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, and Accountability (CRITA) and core competencies in Communication, Working with People and Drive for Results.

View our competency framework at

http://www.unicef.org/about/employ/files/UNICEF_Competencies.pdf

UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages all candidates, irrespective of gender, nationality, religious and ethnic backgrounds, including persons living with disabilities, to apply to become a part of the organization.

UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. UNICEF also adheres to strict child safeguarding principles. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.

Remarks:

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.

Individuals engaged under a consultancy or individual contract will not be considered “staff members” under the Staff Regulations and Rules of the United Nations and UNICEF’s policies and procedures, and will not be entitled to benefits provided therein (such as leave entitlements and medical insurance coverage). Their conditions of service will be governed by their contract and the General Conditions of Contracts for the Services of Consultants and Individual Contractors. Consultants and individual contractors are responsible for determining their tax liabilities and for the payment of any taxes and/or duties, in accordance with local or other applicable laws.

The application will be reviewed under the best value for money principle, thus only applications with financial proposal will be considered (total fees to be quoted in USD per each deliverable including timeline). Please provide an overall budget/timeline for the project in your application.