National Consultancy - COVID-19 Vaccine Management Consultant (For Sierra Leone 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, protection.

Please access UNICEF Sierra Leone information here and here

How can you make a difference?

As part of the COVID-19 containment measures, Sierra Leone officially started the nationwide rollout of COVID-19 vaccine on 22 March 2021. To date, just over 23 percent of eligible persons have been fully vaccinated against the national goal of 70% to be fully vaccinated by the end of 2022. With recent increase of vaccine availability, the country is now significantly accelerating the COVID-19 vaccination efforts to ensure equitable access to all eligible population across the country.

In response to the slow COVID-19 vaccination progress, the country has implemented so far six vaccination surge campaigns to boost vaccination coverage. The last four campaigns conducted since December 2021 were mainly supported with funding from the French Government through UNICEF. Out of 2,513,671 cumulative doses administered to date, 62% have been administered through the “surge” strategy, including 47% through French-supported campaigns in the past four months. This is the high-profile emergency response initiative which involves the French government leadership and senior officials of Sierra Leone Ministry of Health and Sanitation (MoHS) with high expectation for UNICEF’s technical and operational assistance to deliver quick and significant results. Business as usual is not permitted. To ensure the success of the planned activities and timely availability of data to showcase the results, while strengthening routine immunisation services including polio and measles vaccination coverage, the extraordinary efforts are required.

Currently, the national EPI programme is severely over-stretched as COVID-19 vaccination is an additional workload to its core business of child health and routine immunization activities. The human resource capacity constraint has led to suboptimal and delay in implementation of both COVID-19 vaccine rollout and routine child immunization programme.

In this context, UNICEF Sierra Leone, as a leading supporter of the national EPI programme, is seeking for a national consultant who will be embedded within the Western Area Urban (WAU) District Health Management Team (DHMT), with monthly field visits to Western Area Rural (WAR), Port Loko and Kambia Districts to provide technical assistance and support to the effective planning, implementation and monitoring of COVID-19 vaccine deployment as well as strengthening routine immunisation services in these districts.

Purpose and objectives:

The purpose of this consultancy is to rapidly scale up COVID-19 vaccine deployment, while strengthening routine immunization service delivery in Sierra Leone. The objective of the assignment is to provide technical assistance to the planning, implementation and monitoring of current Covid-19 vaccination and routine immunization services in WAU, WAR, Port Loko and Kambia districts.

The consultant will be embedded/based in the WAU DHMT Office, serving as surge capacity. S/he will work closely with the national EPI programme manager and DHMTs as well as UNICEF EPI team which provides technical assistance to the national EPI programme.

Specific Tasks of the Consultant

Under the overall supervision of the UNICEF Immunization Specialist and direct guidance of the National EPI Manager, the national consultant will work closely with the District Health Management Teams (DHMTs) and in-country partners at different levels to help scale up COVID-19 vaccine deployment while strengthening routine immunization service delivery in WAU, WAR, Port Loko and Kambia Districts.

1. Build the capacity of health staff at all levels through training and supervision especially those at service delivery level and to monitor the overall implementation of the monthly COVID-19 vaccination campaigns at district level in all aspects including cold chain, logistics and vaccine management.
2. Undertake field visits to the DHMTs and health facilities to provide support towards the effective implementation of the campaigns and other activities of routine immunization services.
3. To support the planning, implementation, monitoring, and timely / quality reporting of the monthly COVID-19 surge vaccination campaigns.
4. To provide continuous on-the-job training, coaching, mentoring and supportive supervision for district staff on the use and reporting of monthly Stock Management Tool (SMT), including the newly introduced online version of the SMT (eSMT).
5. To coordinate the conduct of monthly physical count of Immunization supplies (vaccines and syringes) and sharing such data with central level – both for routine immunization services and for COVID-19 vaccination.
6. To support the updating of cold chain inventory to inform future installation of CCE countrywide.
7. To provide support to data management and timely reporting of quality data at district and health facility levels.
8. To perform other duties as may be assigned by national EPI programme manager and UNICEF EPI specialist.

Deliverables

1. Develop work plans and support its implementation
2. Conduct monthly supervisory visits to the districts and provide ‘hands-on’ trainings.
3. Support the conduct of weekly and monthly physical counts of both routine and COVID-19 vaccines
4. Support the vaccine management processes during the on-going monthly COVID-19 vaccination surge campaigns
5. Support the roll-out of electronic vaccine stock management tool (eSMT) at district level.
6. Support the updating of district cold chain inventory in WAU, WAR, Port Loko and Kambia
7. Support the timely liquidation of funds for activity implementation.
8. Develop final technical report with key recommendation (as per priority for short, medium, and long-term).

Please see attached ToR for detailed information. ToR_National Vaccine Management Specialist.docx

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

• University degree is required (Advanced degree an advantage), preferably in relevant field (e.g., public health, business planning, supply chain management, economics, international development studies, medicine, procurement, logistics, or other quantitative degree).
• Applicable work experience can substitute in cases where university degree is not aligned to a relevant field.
• Two (2) years progressively responsible field work experience in immunization and cold chain, supply chain management or other related field in primary health care
• Experience in similar assignment related to effective vaccine and cold chain management practices
• Experience in training, planning and delivery of technical assistance in similar exercises
• Proven track record in interfacing with national ministries of health is a distinct advantage.
• Previous experience in working with UN agencies or other Non-governmental organisations is an asset.
• Fluency in English is required.

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 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.

Consultants and Individual contractors are responsible for paying any taxes derived from the earnings received from UNICEF.

• Application to include an all-inclusive financial proposal that will detail your daily/monthly rate (in SLL).
• Payment of professional fees will be based on submission of agreed satisfactory deliverables. UNICEF reserves the right to withhold payment in case the deliverables submitted are not up to the required standard or in case of delays in submitting the deliverables on the part of the consultant.

Remarks:

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

UNICEF only considers higher educational qualifications obtained from an institution accredited/recognized in the World Higher Education Database (WHED), a list updated by the International Association of Universities (IAU) / United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The list can be accessed at http://www.whed.net/.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 (if applicable) and health insurance required to perform the duties of the contract are valid for the entire period of the contract. The candidate may also be subject to inoculation (vaccination) requirements, including against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid).