Third-Party Monitor (TPM)

LonAdd HR Consultancy Plc (www.lonadd.com) is a Recruitment & Outsourcing Company based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, with branch offices in Dukem and Hawassa. We are looking to recruit a qualified candidate on behalf of our client.

Purpose: Third-Party Monitor (TPM) will be deployed to emergency zones/woredas to monitor and strengthen Nutrition supply chain management in at zonal, woreda and health facility level.

Background

Over the last decade, Ethiopia has shown impressive progress in improving the nutritional status of children and tackling the main causes of morbidity and mortality. Part of the success is attributed to support being provided in improving the quality of care, especially at the service delivery point level and through the health extension program (HEP).

The HEP as the Government's flagship program providing preventative and curative health and nutrition services at the community level throughout the country, therefore, warrants continued support. As one of the main interventions, the community-based management of acute malnutrition (CMAM) programmer to treat and manage severe acute malnutrition, is embedded within the HEP and is delivered through more than 18,000 health facilities nationwide. Again, the government has recently approved the acute malnutrition guidelines to align with the international standards that have been proven locally and elsewhere to improve the quality care and survival of children. The CMAM approach includes four components: Community Mobilization, outpatient therapeutic feeding program (OTP) where 90-95 % of all cases are managed through health posts or health centers at Keble and woreda level; inpatient care for children with severe acute malnutrition suffering from complications, treated at stabilization centers (SC) at health centers or referral hospitals; and Targeted Supplementary Feeding Program (TSFP) to manage and treat moderate acute malnutrition among children under five years and pregnant and lactating women. While service expansion is impressive across the country, in Developing Regional States (DRS) ensuring the quality of CMAM services remains a challenge, largely due to high staff turnover especially in remote/ hard to reach areas and requires continued attention and support. Also, service delivery challenges have been placed on the program due to climate change-induced displacements and displacements due to insecurity caused by inter-community strife. The internally displaced persons placed a burden on the already fragile service delivery program through the HEP across many areas in the regions. These circumstances provide a big challenge for the human resource needs for an optimal nutrition response to vulnerable children.

Methodology

• The TPM Coordinator consultant will be recruited, in consultation with the client Ethiopian country office, and He/ She will work closely with the client county office.
• The client country office will assign the consultant to different regions every month to support the Emergency Nutrition Officers based on identified priorities.
• Monitoring visits, on-the-job training, and other monthly activities should adhere to the agreed standard operating procedures (SOP).
• The TPM coordinator will be responsible to ensure close liaison with the Client Nutrition team in country office and Field office to enable a healthy emergency nutrition response.

Specific Tasks:

Monitoring and field visit:

• Conduct regular monitoring visits and assess the quality of nutrition supply management and gaps at HPs, HCs, Hospitals, and distribution sites. The TPM would use a variety of tools for the regular monitoring visits including:

• Direct observations
• Distribution Site visits
• In-depth interviews
• Group discussions
• Survey for data collection
• Conducting data quality assurance

• Each TPM is expected to visit on average, 15 site (health facility, community groups, warehouse, and markets) per month and report on this using the ODK based tools.

• Each TPM is expected to Closely monitor supply needs, gaps, leakages, misuse, and spoilage at the site level (health facility, community groups, warehouse, and markets), and alert the Client field and Country offices immediately if there are any supply issues.

• Each TPM is expected to ensure proper supply management system is in place (request, distribution, storage, and utilization) and misuse/abuse is not practiced at all level.

• Each TPM is expected to Ensure bin cards are kept for nutrition supplies, RUTF, routine drugs and therapeutic milk.

• The TPM should prioritize collecting feedback from beneficiaries.

• Proper sampling methods for quantitative surveys and qualitative methods will be applied.

• Reports should incorporate findings related to supply management to guide measures that the Client and partners including the Regional Health Bureaus and NGOs will prioritize to address gaps or risks identified through the TPM mechanism.

• Each TPM is expected to monitor and report to the Client on distribution/ requests and appropriate utilization of therapeutic supplies (Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food, Therapeutic milks, and essential drugs), and materials, to ensure robust supply pipeline is maintained to and within target Regions.

Expected Deliverables

• Submission and acceptance of monthly travel plans with clear objectives, methods, and indicators in line with USAID and other donor-funded activities, (last week of each month for the next month).
• Submission of monthly reports via ODK and Narrative report incorporating findings about supply issues including misuse, leakages, gaps, and spoilages. The report must guide mitigation measures to address issues or risks identified through the monitoring mechanism.
• Submission and acceptance of monthly activity and progress reports including updated ODK and narrative reports (format to be provided by the Client) (first day of each month)
• Submission and acceptance of monthly stock status in areas visited by the TPMs.
• Submission and acceptance of monthly meetings with the Client (last week of each month)
• Final report with key recommendations to the Client

Reporting

• Each TPM is expected to submit monitoring reports through the ODK ensuring completeness and accuracy. Details must include the locations visited by TPM and indicate whether observed activities are implemented through the Client s sub-recipients. Reports must also indicate how data was collected, from whom, and recommended actions for improvement. Additionally, the TPM reports should highlight:
• Short Title of Issue Identified (e.g., late start of distribution, presence of RUTF in markets, poor organization of distribution, inventory missing X boxes of RUTF, health facility missing X medicines, poor screening practices, no community mobilization, discrepancy in cross check between RUTF dispatched and beneficiary records)

• Implementing Partner
• Location (Region, Zone, Woreda, Site Name)
• Date of Visit
• Description of the Issue
• Recommended Follow-Up Action(s)

No. required : 1

Expected background and Experience.

Third-Party Monitors will meet the following qualifications and experience:

• A University degree in Supply Chain Management/engineering/Nutrition/Social Science.
• A proven track record of at least 3 years work experience in nutrition supply chain management or relevant
• Proven ability to work in a team in close collaboration with counterparts.
• Strong planning and analytical skills, data management skills, high degree of self-motivation and a task and output oriented work ethic.
• Excellent spoken and written English.
• Fluency in the local languages of the deployed region