Procurement and Supply Chain Specialist - Pharmacist

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.

UNITAR hosts The Defeat-NCD Partnership (DNCD) and other relevant strategic initiatives working in the field of noncommunicable diseases and addressing related risk factors - such as road crashes, deaths and injuries, and assisted technologies for improved health outcomes.

The Government of Ecuador is part of the Governance Mechanism of The Defeat-NCD Partnership. Specifically, the Minister of Health is a member of the High-Level Council, and the NCD Focal Point, Ministry of Health, is a member of the Consultative Group.

This assignment will enable populations in the portfolio priority countries to access a range of interconnected essential services and resources across the four pillars of work of the Defeat-NCD Partnership.

● NCD National Capacity Building (Pillar 1): Work with Governments and other in-country stakeholders to assess gaps in their NCD capabilities. Through technical support develop a multi-year NCD National Costed Action Plan. Facilitate engagement of relevant partners to ensure expansion of NCD services in line with national targets. The overall objective is to ensure that countries have institutional capacities, structures, systems, and financing in place to tackle NCDs.

● Community Scale-Up of NCD Services (Pillar 2): Aim to demystify, democratise, decentralise, and where safely possible, demedicalise NCD service provision. Enable the earlier screening and management of risk factors as well as the mitigation of established disease. at the community level. By increasing the use of self-care interventions, improve patient compliance, resulting in better treatment and health outcomes. The overall objective is to bring more of the necessary prevention and management of NCD services directly to the communities and people who need them most.

● Affordability and Accessibility of Essential NCD Supplies (Pillar 3): To make the provision of NCD supplies simpler and more cost-effective by designing a Marketplace to create a fair, competitive environment that serves the interests of both buyers and suppliers. Using market-sizing and price-tracking studies, the Marketplace’s methodology will correct current market failures due to information imbalances. It will also help address regulatory bottlenecks in an appropriate manner. The overall objective is to enable the consistent provision of affordable essential NCD medicines, diagnostics, and equipment in low-resource countries.

● Sustainable NCD Financing (Pillar 4): Governments need to invest more in health, with a greater share allocated to finance their national costed action plans for NCDs. While cost savings can be achieved by linking NCD programming with other conditions and improving service delivery and by reducing the cost of NCD supplies, additional and innovative financing will be needed outside of the ongoing aid support and expanding fiscal allocations. The overall objective is to establish a long-term sustainable financing model for NCD programming in low-resource countries

The purpose of this assignment is to provide technical assistance and support to The Ministry of Health of Ecuador and other countries in the region to strengthen the management of their supply chain systems, provide training and capacity building to personnel across ministries of health, and improve their forecasting of NCD medicines, diagnostics, medical equipment and supplies.

Within the delegated authority and under the direct supervision of the Technical Specialist (Country Support) at The Defeat-NCD Partnership, the Supply Chain Specialist will carry out the following tasks:

• Support the quantification of the annual requirements of NCD medicines and NCD medical commodities required for the 2022-2023 fiscal year using morbidity and consumption data and other nationally agreed data points. • Establish and manage a system for supporting the Ministry of Health in Ecuador and other institutions forecast and manage their annual demand of NCD medicines and diagnostics by: a. Designing and conducting desktop searches, or direct assessments of the annual needs for medicines, and diagnostic products.
b. Developing country specific annual and longer-term procurement and stock management plans by interacting with national health programmes, donor projects in the field, private health care institutions, and key stakeholders in the country. c. Establishing and maintaining a system for quarterly collection and reporting of data on NCD medicines, diagnostics, and other such NCD medical products as may be needed to build a pipeline through regular consultation with national health programmes, and field projects of relevant donors. d. Identifying emerging trends in the supply chain of NCD medicines and diagnostics and using this data to provide technical assistance and support to Ecuador. • Mobilise partnerships to conduct a national supply chain assessment for NCDs across the country. • Develop relevant research and policy briefs required for the establishment of a specialised NCD unit within the Ministry of Health. • Develop up to date situation analysis report on the non-communicable disease programme of Ecuador showcasing the contribution of all public and private sector actors with stakeholder mapping in terms of activities, contributions, and funding. • Provide support to the daily run of The Defeat-NCD Partnership programme across all 4 pillars in Ecuador. • Other activities related to forecasting the demand for general use medicines.

• Ability to work and adapt professionally and effectively in a challenging environment; ability to work effectively in a multicultural team of international and national personnel. • Solid overall computer literacy, including proficiency in various MS Office applications (Excel, Word, etc.) and email/internet; familiarity with database management; and office technology equipment; • Self-motivated, ability to work with minimum supervision; ability to work with tight deadlines. • Have affinity with or interest in public health, volunteerism as a mechanism for durable development, and the UN System.

• procuring pharma supplies for governmental hospitals or private pharmaceutical enterprise (minimum of 3-5 years). Or a minimum of 5-7 years working in the pharmaceutical sector, specifically in ordering and managing pharmaceutical supplies. • relevant experience at progressively higher level of responsibility within the Procurement and Supply Chain field • Relevant experience in procurement & supply planning; in identifying clients’ procurement & supply-related needs and in providing support and guidance from clients’ point of view is required. · Knowledge of the UN Financial and Procurement Rules, Regulations and working practices pertaining to UNOPS is advantageous. · Customer service experience is desired.

Skills required: · Excellent understanding of the pharmaceutical procurement and supply practices. · Attention to details, tact, discretion, and diplomacy. · Excellent interpersonal skills with ability to promote consensus and to promote innovations. · Computer literacy with emphasis on databases and data management and Excel proficiency

The UN Volunteer will serve at the Ministry of Public Health in Quito, Ecuador.

Quito, the capital of Ecuador, has a population of near two million people. Sitting high in the Andean mountains, its climate alternates between the rainy season and the dry season. It is often called the city of “perpetual spring.” Although its elevation is 2800 meter, it receives no snow due to its location on the equator.

Quito has an international airport as well as extensive bus transportation to all parts of the country. Good medical and dental cares are available. The country is noted for its geographic diversity, progressing from the Galápagos Islands in the east, to the coastal plain (The Costa Region) and inter-Andean central highlands (The Sierra Region) and finally to the rolling eastern jungles (The Orient Region).