National Consultancy : COVID 19 Vaccination Delivery Partnership (CoVDP) Contractor (Open to Malawian Nationals Only)

Contract

This is a Consultancy contract. More about Consultancy contracts.

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, Care...

As part of the COVID-19 containment measures, Malawi officially started the nationwide rollout of COVID-19 vaccine on 11 March 2021. With less than 6 percent of eligible adults fully vaccinated to date and the recent increase of vaccine availability in the country, the country is now significantly accelerating the vaccination efforts to ensure equitable access to all eligible population across the country. Due to simultaneous rollout of multiple vaccines (AstraZeneca, J&J and Pfizer) often donated / shipped in a short notice and typically with short shelf-life, COVID-19 vaccine management has been a complex exercise in Malawi. Given that the vaccine supply volumes has improved dramatically in Q4 2021 onward and the country is expected to receive an increasing number/type of vaccines in the coming months, there is an urgent need to improve vaccine absorption rates through intensified deployment efforts.

A number of partners / donors have stepped in to offer financial, technical, and operational support to scale up such efforts, which requires high level of leadership and coordination from the national EPI programme, a lead agency for COVID-19 vaccine deployment to date in Malawi. Similarly, stronger coordination between vaccine service delivery and demand creation is critical, as two main strategies for scaling up absorption capacity are: i) addressing misinformation and rumours; and ii) bringing vaccinations close to the communities via outreach, mobile vaccinations and mass vaccination sites.

However, currently the National Immunization Programme is severely over-stretched as COVID-19 vaccination (along with Cholera vaccination and polio campaign as outbreak response) is an additional workload to its core business of child health and routine immunization activities. The human resource capacity constraint has led to suboptimal coordination and delay in implementation of both COVID-19 vaccine rollout and routine child immunization programme.

In this context, UNICEF Malawi Country Office with support of USAID, as a leading supporter of the Immunization programme, is seeking for a national contractor who will be closely working with the National EPI office in Ministry of Health (MOH), Lilongwe to provide technical assistance and coordination support to the effective planning, budgeting, coordination, implementation and monitoring of COVID-19 vaccine deployment in Malawi.

How can you make a difference?

Under the overall supervision of the UNICEF Health Specialist, the national CoVDP Contractor will work closely with the EPI team and in-country partners at different levels to help scale up COVID-19 vaccine deployment while sustaining routine immunization service delivery in Malawi.

The CoVDP Contractor’s responsibilities include, but are not limited to:

1) Provide ongoing support to the national EPI Manager towards COVID-19 vaccination harmonization and integration with routine immunization, when feasible, and to ensure complementarities across the multiple COVID-19 vaccine deployment efforts supported by multiple partners. 2) Work closely with the National EPI team to further extend relationships with donors and other strategic partners.

3) Facilitate the functioning of Immunization Technical Working Group (TWG), Malawi Immunization Technical Advisory Group (MITAG), National Task Force (NTF) COVAX, and other structures currently in place for oversight and coordination of immunization and COVID-19 vaccine deployment activities.

4) Support the EPI office to plan and coordinate key priorities and deliverables among the strategic programme partners.

5) Support the national EPI programme and other teams where necessary in the development of appropriate workplans and budgets for donor funded activities for COVID-19 vaccine deployment.

6) Support the national EPI Office to enhance implementation and effective follow up of programme activities and ensure relevant action points are followed up. Provide critical technical support as may be required on all interventions related to COVID-19 vaccine deployment.

7) Support the development and implementation of the long-term capacity building strategy for the national EPI programme. In addition, mentoring and on the job trainings of relevant team members.

8) Strengthening cross communication and collaboration among partners.

9) Support MOH/ EPI to ensure knowledge management, ensuring availability of systems and data bases to support the programme.

10) Ensure all the financial and programmatic reporting requirements for donors are timely met and with sufficient quality.

11) Support resource mobilization for COVID-19 vaccine deployment, including through coordinating the in-country partners’ technical inputs to the develop funding proposals / applications to the donors such as Gavi, WB and other donors.

12) Undertake any other activities/tasks as may be assigned by national EPI Programme Manager and supervisor.

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…

Academic qualification:

• A first university degree from a recognized academic institution in one or more of the following areas is preferred: Engineering, Cold Chain or related to cold chain operations in UNICEF programme areas, or technical qualification in cold chain maintenance.

  Work experience:

• Minimum five years progressively responsible professional work experience at the national level in cold chain maintenance, vaccine and logistics management, EPI programming.

• Work experience managing large-scale projects, working with governments, working in resource-limited settings, monitoring and evaluating supply chains, and risk management, mitigation will be an asset.

Technical skills and knowledge:

• Product knowledge on cold chain equipment, new cold chain technologies and understanding of the principles of vaccine management, knowledge and experience with data collection, data management analysis and reporting are essential.
• Knowledge of procurement processes and good distribution practices could be beneficial.

Technical Competencies:

• Strong analytical, negotiation, oral and written communication skills.
• Effective presenter including the ability to adapt the message and visual aids for multiple audiences to deliver concise, impactful presentations of primary health care interventions.
• Effective facilitator with proven ability to engage and train a group of individuals at the national level and for front line health workers as well.

• Ability to work in a multi-cultural environment.

  Languages:

• Written and spoken fluency in both the local language and English.

Please refer to the attached full Terms of Reference TOR for National CoVDP Contractor.pdf for more details on the consultancy and requirements.

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF's values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, and Accountability (CRITA).

To view our competency framework, please visit here.

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 offers reasonable accommodation for consultants/individual contractors with disabilities. This may include, for example, accessible software, travel assistance for missions or personal attendants. We encourage you to disclose your disability during your application in case you need reasonable accommodation during the selection process and afterwards in your assignment.

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.

HOW TO APPLY...

Interested consultants should provide the following:

1. Curriculum Vitae
2. Brief technical proposal (no longer than five pages) demonstrating the consultant’s understanding of the assignment and approach/methodology to the assignment
3. Financial proposal including a breakdown of their all-inclusive fees (including professional fees, travel, living cost, visa and other costs). Financial Proposal for Consultancy.xlsx Complete the attached form.
4. References details

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 selected candidate is solely responsible to ensure that the visa (applicable) and health insurance required to perform the duties of the contract are valid for the entire period of the contract. Selected candidates are subject to confirmation of fully-vaccinated status against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) with a World Health Organization (WHO)-endorsed vaccine, which must be met prior to taking up the assignment. It does not apply to consultants who will work remotely and are not expected to work on or visit UNICEF premises, programme delivery locations or directly interact with communities UNICEF works with, nor to travel to perform functions for UNICEF for the duration of their consultancy contracts.