Immunization Supply chain/EVM Assessment Consultant

PURPOSE of ASSIGNMENT

To support MOH to improve the management, monitoring and supervision of immunization supply chains in a systematic manner through conducting an assessment of Effective Vaccine Management (EVM) and developing a comprehensive improvement plan (cIP) for effective vaccine management .

MAIN RESPONSIBILITIES AND TASKS

The key tasks of the consultant are listed below.

1. Conduct a desktop situational analysis on vaccine management

In collaboration with the MoH, country and regional partners, collect all available background documentation and information, such as prior assessments (EVM, EVSM, VMA), EVM IP, EPI reviews, PIE reports, Cold Chain Equipment Inventory (CCEI) data, population data (from MoH or Statistics office) and supply chain design information, such as the number of levels, the number of vaccine storage facilities at each level, and the modes of distribution.

Use this information to draft sections 2 (Country background), 3 (Supply chain overview), 4 (Previous assessments) and 5 (Supply chain development) of the EVM report prior to arrival in the country. In particular, in section 4, summarize the progress made on implementation of previous EVM IP and highlight the bottlenecks and successes.

1. Method of Effective Vaccine Management Assessment (EVMA)

The key elements of the Effective Vaccine Management Assessment (EVMA) are based upon nine criteria, all of which have been derived directly from those adopted by the WHO/UNICEF EVSM initiative. Grouped under each criterion is a set of specific requirements. Some of these requirements apply to the national level, some to the sub national level and some to the service-delivery level. Most, however, apply to all three levels. The nine criteria are:

1. Pre-shipment and arrival procedures
2. Storage within recommended temperature ranges
3. Cold-storage, dry storage and transport capacity
4. Buildings, cold-chain equipment and transport system
5. Maintenance
6. Stock management
7. Distribution
8. Appropriate vaccine management policies
9. Information systems and supportive management functions.

The EVM will cover all three levels of EPI service delivery including programme namely, national, and district levels. This is based on the criteria adopted under EVM where 80% confidence level for the selection and +/- 15% precision level is adopted using the EVM Tool aimed at minimizing bias in the selection process. All the districts are eligible for inclusion in the assessment; districts and health facilities are randomly selected to offer equal opportunity for participation. The list of selected districts and health facilities for EVM assessment will be finalized in consultation with MOH, UNICEF and WHO on 1st week of the assignment. Latest version of tools and documents for assessment are available in EVM website:www.who.int/immunization/programmes_systems/supply_chain/evm/en/index.html

Use the latest version of each resource from the website:

• EVM Assessment tool version 1.0.9
• EVM questionnaire version 2.1 (default version in version 1.0.9 of Assessment tool)
• EVM Site Selection tool version 1.7 ( Since site selection is done, no need to download)
• EVM Assistant tool version 2.0
• EVM report template version 2.0
• EVM field assessor training guide version 3.2
  3. Prepare for assessment of vaccine management

The activity will be conducted with participation EPI partners, UNICEF and WHO. WPI unit of MOH will coordinate operational tasks and the consultant will provide technical assistance to undertake each component of EVMA. It is estimated that both EVMA and development of CIP will cover a period of 10 weeks. Detail plan is attached in Annex 1.

1. Facilitate training in EVM and plan for field visit

Arrange and facilitate a 4 days’ workshop using field assessors’ training guide for a model programme and materials, and with technical support from UNICEF Regional office to:

• introduce the EVM continuous improvement process,
• build national capacity in vaccine management (the 9 EVM criteria),
• train field assessors to effectively administer the questionnaire, and,
• train assessment team supervisors to enter the field data into the Excel questionnaires and clean the data.

Two full days are to be dedicated to describing the EVM improvement process and to building national capacity in vaccine management. Use the EVM Criteria (E1-E9) presentations and exercises to familiarize field assessors with each section of the questionnaire and the charts (abacuses) used to calculate the required storage and transport capacities.

One day is to be allocated for practice field visits to nearby health facilities and/or lowest distribution level (LD) vaccine storage facilities. During the visits each facilitator is to be given the opportunity to administer at least part of the questionnaire.

The Assessment tool is to be used to create a mock assessment including all sites visited during the practice. Do not include the practice visit locations in the actual assessment.

A half day should be allocated to train the assessment supervisors how to enter data into the Excel questionnaires and clean the data.

The data from the mock assessment is to be imported into the assessment tool, cleaned and presented on the final day of training.

1. Plan field visits, questionnaire collection, data cleaning and data analysis:

At the end of the final day of training, allocate 1-2 hours to assist the MoH to finalize the logistics of the field visits, to distribute the printed questionnaires and other necessary resources, to arrange for the collection of the completed questionnaires, and to clarify the arrangements for the data cleaning, data analysis and report writing.

1. Participate in the assessment and facilitate review meeting with MOH
2. Assess the national vaccine store, three zonal vaccine stores, one regional vaccine store, one district store and one health facility
   Personally assess the national vaccine store, one district vaccine store and one immunization service facility. It is essential that the lead assessor gain first-hand experience of different levels of the immunization supply chain to better relate to the results of the assessment.
3. Facilitate a three days review meeting to clean and analyse data, identify key finding and recommendations with the assessment teams and develop comprehensive EVM Improvement Plan
   Arrange and facilitate a three full day (depending on assessment size) workshop to clean the data, generate graph, identify key findings and recommendations, and plan the improvement plan. One person from each assessment team and all assessment supervisors should participate in person.
   Prior to the start of the workshop, import all questionnaires into the assessment tool, noting and correcting any data problems encountered, and populate the assistant tool using the capacity data collected using the E3 data collection sheets. Data validation process is mentioned in Annex 2
4. Facilitate development of Comprehensive Improvement Plan (cIP) for effective vaccine management

Facilitate a 4 days workshop to develop a comprehensive improvement plan (cIP) for effective vaccine management through a participatory approach. Use the findings of assessment of vaccine management to analyze the bottlenecks of vaccine management.

1. Writing the EVM report and Comprehensive Improvement Plan

Write the EVM report and improvement plan using the guideline for writing the report and the plan. The draft report should be shared with the MoH, UNICEF and involved partners so that feedback is incorporated. Writing part of the report starts the first day the consultant arrives to the country. Before leaving the country, the draft report should be submitted. The final report can be submitted one week after departures.

1. De-brief MoH and involved partners

De-brief the management of MOH on the key findings and recommendations of the EVM assessment, and on the next steps of the improvement process.

If the pre-assessment briefing did not take place, brief the MoH on the key aspects of the EVM assessment process as described above.

Emphasize that the assessment is the first step in a three step iterative process, the other two steps being the improvement planning and implementation steps. Emphasize that the planning step is critical, that it should be driven by the MoH, and that WHO and UNICEF will provide technical support where necessary.

Below as a guide for suggested contents:

• The holistic EVM process,
• The findings, recommendations and improvement plan implementation status of the previous EVM assessment if relevant, including bottlenecks and successes,
• Findings from other assessments (e.g. PIEs, EPI review)
• The current EVM assessment findings (strengths and weaknesses) and recommendations,
• The critical next step – the improvement planning process.

Before departure, submit the preliminary report, the preliminary dataset, the preliminary Assistant tool, and the final Site Selection tool, to MoH and partners for review.

1. Post departure from country

Based on the feedback from the reviews, work with the MoH to make any necessary changes and finalise the reports (assessment report and comprehensive improvement plan), the dataset and the Assistant tool, before resubmitting all to UNICEF, MoH and partners no more than two weeks after departure.

DELIVERABLES and TIME LINE

1. Identify the sites to be visited using the EVM assistant tool - Final version of Site Selection and EVM assistant tools with data.
2. Train data collector from all the three zones (SCZ, NEZ & NWZ) - Short report on the EVM field assessors training
3. Enter data entry into the EVM assistant tool - Draft cleaned raw dataset for review
4. Write up Initial EVM report for review - Draft EVM report with recommendations and improvement plan for review
5. Write up Initial EVM improvement plan - Draft comprehensive improvement plan for vaccine management
6. Write up final EVM report with a comprehensive improvement plan - Final EVM report with recommendations and the EVM Comprehensive Improvement Plan

MANAGEMENT OF ASSIGNMENT:

The consultant will report to Immunization Specialist who is the supervisor of this assignment and will work closely with the cold chain specialist. A technical management team comprising of the UNICEF Somalia country office staff focal for CCL and UNICEF Regional ISCM Specialist will oversee and provide regular guidance on the EVM assessment process and technical report of EVMA and the Improvement plan development. The UNICEF CO will provide required administrative and logistical support, avail required documents and other relevant supports.

DESIRED COMPETENCIES, TECHNICAL BACKGROUND AND EXPERIENCE:

• Advanced university degree in public health, supply chain management or relevant field to implement the tasks of this TOR
• A minimum of 8 years of progressively responsible experience in assessment of Immunization Supply Chain Management, training facilitation and developing comprehensive improvement plan of effective vaccine management
• Have good skill on database to analyse vaccine cold chain and logistics management
• Excellent management and coordination skills and an ability to communicate effectively with diverse partners at country levels
• Willingness to travel inside Somalia for training and field assessment
• Fluency in English (verbal and written). Have good written and communication skill to develop standard technical report on effective vaccine management with improvement plan

Annex 1: Prepare for assessment of vaccine management

In collaboration with the MoH, UNICEF (both country office and regional office) and partners:

• Schedule the MoH pre-assessment briefing and post-assessment de-briefing
• Schedule the presentation of assessment findings to the ICC (or equivalent) and communicate the dates to all.
• Choose a suitable venue for the field assessor training. See the field assessor training guide.
• Review the list of resources required for the training and the field visits, and arrange that all resources are available upon arrival. In particular, determine how many copies of each questionnaire (PR, SN, LD, and SP) are required and arrange for printing. Copies are required for training, for the actual assessment, and for back-up. See the field assessor training guide.
• Determine how many field assessors are required, given the selected number of sites and distances to travel, and given that there are 1-2 assessors per team, and that each team should assess no more than 3 to 4 sites per week depending on distance and accessibility.
• Identify suitable assessment supervisors. Each supervisor is expected to:
• supervise 3-4 assessment teams,
• collect the completed paper questionnaires,
• enter the data into the Excel questionnaires, and,
• Attend a 3 days full day workshop (after the field visits) during which all assessment data are reviewed, cleaned, findings summarized, recommendations agreed and key tasks for improvement plan identified.

The training will include pre-testing and finalizing data collection instruments. Following this, the group will split into about six teams with 3 additional members to support the teams. These will visit various sites including national level, regional and district levels as well as health facilities (MCH).

Data will be collected using specially designed tools; each service delivery level will have its own type. This tool will generate summary tables and web graphs showing performance for each criterion of the assessment. Each assessor will have sound knowledge of EPI. Each team will be expected to assess one district per day and will have its own transport.

Findings of the assessment are critical to inform relevant officials in the Ministry of Health and Implementing partners regarding strengths and challenges in vaccine management and are expected to stimulate systematic programme change at appropriate levels. The results and recommendations will be communicated to the EPI Manager and other relevant officials soon after data analysis using graphical presentations generated by the assessment tool.

Annex 2: Data validation and development of cIP

Using a projector, the Raw Data Results worksheet of the assessment tool reporting workbook should be projected for all to see. Level by level, criterion by criterion, sub-indicator by sub-indicator, use the filter function to step through the data to identify missing or anomalous data, and correct immediately in the source questionnaires.

To clean the E3 data, project the completed Assistant tool for all to see, and use the filter function to review the data level by level. Once the assistant tool has been cleaned, use the results to review and clean the E3 section of the questionnaire.

Facilitate a group discussion to identify key find in terms of strengths, weaknesses and to propose key recommendations that leads for development comprehensive improvement plan (cIP).

Key list of tasks, responsibility, budget and the time line need to be identified as a first draft input for the comprehensive improvement plan.

General Conditions

• The consultant will have the rights to stay in UNICEF property and he/ she has to pay his/her cost were need be.
• The consultant has to provide his/ her laptop UNICEF shall provide office working space
• He/she is authorized to access UNICEF transport
• Under the consultancy agreements, a month is defined as 21 working days, and fees are prorated accordingly. Consultants are not paid for weekends or public holidays.
• Consultants are not entitled to payment of overtime. All remuneration must be within the contract agreement.
• No contract may commence unless the contract is signed by both UNICEF and the consultant or Contractor
• For international consultants outside the duty station, signed contracts must be sent by fax or e-mail. Signed contract copy or written agreement must be received by the office before Travel Authorization is issued.
• No consultant may travel without a signed travel authorization prior to the commencement of the journey to the duty station.
• Unless authorized, UNICEF will buy the tickets of the consultant. In exceptional cases, the consultant may be authorized to buy their travel tickets and shall be reimbursed at the most economical and direct route, but this must be agreed to beforehand.
• The consultant will cover his/her medical coverage in the entire consultancy period
• Notes: Consultants will not have supervisory responsibilities or authority on UNICEF budget.
• The consultant is expected to attend the SSAFE training before entry into Somalia
• 50% of Nairobi DSA will apply for the consultant.

EXIT AND PENALTY PROVISION

The organization and UNICEF may agree to reschedule deadlines if unforeseen circumstances arise. In the event that such rescheduling has not been agreed in advance by exchange of letters, and submission of scheduled drafts should not occur within the deadlines indicated within these ToR and the implementation framework, a fine of two percent of the total value of the contract may be deducted. In the event UNICEF are unhappy with the work produced by the organization, they may opt to terminate the contract or mutually agreeable terms. Likewise, if the organization is unhappy with new conditions given by its client it may opt to withdraw on mutually agreeable terms.

HOW TO APPLY:

kindly use below link to apply: http://www.unicef.org/about/employ/?job=498994