Contract

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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, The unfolding COVID-19 pandemic has caused unprecedented disruptions of international, regional and local supply chains, undermining national response efforts and putting a strain on other critical and routine health services. This multi-faceted crisis has critically exposed the structural and operational limitations of existing health systems and underlying supply chain models, and calls for increasing the investments aimed at supporting governments in their efforts to build and manage stronger supply chain systems that are able to leave no child behind, operate at minimum capacity and meet surging needs.

The COVAX Facility (COVID-19 vaccine) forms a key part of the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator, a global collaboration established to accelerate the development, production, and equitable access to COVID-19 tests, treatments, and vaccines. COVAX facility aims to accelerate the development and manufacture of COVID-19 vaccines and to guarantee fair and equitable access for every country.

A national COVID-19 vaccine logistics coordination mechanism has been established and will work with the national stakeholders in line with the national deployment and vaccination plan (NDVP) to facilitate the introduction and management of the COVID-19 vaccine in Comoros.

Under the supervision of the Immunization Specialist, the incumbent of this position will work in the Supply chain, logistics and vaccine forecasting working group of Comoros, which main responsibility is to ensure the rapid delivery of vaccine and ancillary supplies/equipment.

OBJECTIVE

Under the supervision of the Immunization Specialist, the incumbent will:

1. Coordinate COVAX cold chain / logistics and in-country supply chain readiness and support the implementation of COVAX supply chain related activities in Comoros as an active member of the Supply chain, logistics and vaccine forecasting working group and through national immunization logistics working group.
2. Coordinate the UNICEF Supply / Cold Chain Logistics, in coordination with all relevant internal and external stakeholders.
3. Share regular supply & logistics activities updates with the UNICEF CO team.
4. Ensure that all supply chain challenges and risks are identified and mitigating measures established and implemented.

Key Deliverables

• Responsible for facilitating the rapid delivery of vaccines and associated supplies/equipment to Comoros, their deployment to vaccination centres / target groups and adequate implementation of COVID-19 vaccination logistics components
• The incumbent is expected to submit:
  • Weekly workplans and updates
  • Monthly interim reports
  • A final mission report including lessons learnt from the deployment process and recommendations
  • A PowerPoint presentation of the final report to debrief the UNICEF CO and in-country immunization and health partners

Coordination

• Strengthen the national logistics working group and elaborate appropriate terms of reference and standard operating procedures to coordinate COVID-19 vaccines and ancillary products deployment
• Develop an implementation & monitoring framework to guide the country on supply chain / cold chain and logistics matters and ensure close monitoring of the planning and implementation phases

Cold chain and storage capacity

• Map the potential port(s) of entry, points of storage (warehouses), and fallback facilities in the country with their respective cold chain storage (2-8C, -20C, -60/70C) and transportation capacity for vaccines and ancillary products
• Assess dry storage and cold chain capacity at all levels (national, regional and district) with regards to the COVID-19 vaccines characteristics and assist the country in addressing the identified supply and logistics gaps
• Establish contractual agreements to prepare for vaccine introduction (e.g. vaccine warehousing, transport, waste management, cold chain capacity, etc.) where applicable
• Enhance country awareness and readiness on the COVID-19 vaccine deployment and the required supply chain & logistics interventions
• Prepare the country for the arrival of COVID-19 vaccines, cold-chain equipment and devices and rapid delivery to the central vaccine storage facility/Hub and further deployment to subnational levels
• Support the modeling / conception of deployment strategy from central level to the periphery, identify and address the supply chain gaps

• Conduct a supply chain assessment to identify the strengths and weaknesses to adequately store and deploy the vaccines, and ensure waste disposal

  Monitoring and Supervision

• Update EVM SOPs, vaccine stock management tools and framework to support the adequate implementation of the COVID-19 vaccination strategy

• Assist the country in developing, implementing and monitoring a waste management strategy for COVID-19 vaccination
• Support close supervision & monitoring of supply chain & logistics interventions
• Identify and document enabling factors, challenges and lessons learnt from the vaccine deployment activities

How can you make a difference and how to qualify as an advocate for every child you will have:

• An Advanced University Degree in one or more of the following areas: Supply Chain Management, Cold chain / logistics or equivalent.
• Minimum of five years of progressively responsible relevant work experience in Immunization logistics and Supply Chain Management in a developing country is required.
• Familiarity with emergency response is an asset.
• Fluency in French and English is required

• Developing country work experience and/or familiarity with emergency is considered an asset.

• Fluency in French and 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.

The UNICEF competencies required for this post are...

The functional competencies required for this post are:

• Leading and supervising
• Formulating strategies/concepts
• Analyzing
• Relating and networking
• Deciding and initiating action
• Persuading and influencing

To view our competency framework, please visit here.

Click here to learn more about UNICEF’s values and competencies.

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:

Mobility is a condition of international professional employment with UNICEF and an underlying premise of the international civil service.

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.