Vaccine Management Officer

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.

Background and Justification

Immunization is one of the key result areas for Ethiopia. Achieving high immunization coverage and introducing new vaccines require effective vaccine and cold chain management. Ethiopia will be introducing the new Covid-19 vaccine soon to address the acute phase of Covid-19 pandemic by vaccinating priority 20% of the total population. CLIENT is a lead agency in supporting vaccine management and cold chain pillar within immunization. Efficient management of supply chain and reliable cold chain equipment are important in keeping vaccines potent and lifesaving.

As COVID-19 vaccine introduction is an additional task, temporary surge capacity is required to fill the gap and improve the capacity of Government staff at national and sub-national level. Core GAVI partners including CLIENT has secured funds from GAVI to provide TA support on COVID-19 vaccine introduction. The national COVID-19 deployment and vaccination plan (NDVP) has provided clear coordination mechanism, responsibilities and roles of different partners for successful implementation of the vaccination. Based on the areas of expertise and comparative advantage, CLIENT s will provide support on the cold chain and vaccine management at national and sub-national level. Part of the fund to support this is already received from GAVI in line with while additional amount of fund has been included in COVID-19 NDVP and the proposal of funding was submitted to World Bank (WB) with expectation of approval by end of March. As part of partners engagement framework (PEF) CLIENT is supposed to provide technical assistance to the Government. With funds secured from Gavi, CLIENT - Ethiopia will provide technical assistance to MoH and five Regional Health Bureaus/EPSA hubs on Cold Chain and Vaccine Logistic Management to support successful introduction of Covid-19 vaccine through the COVAX AMC facility support. This includes support for the distribution of COVID 19 vaccines and associated supplies, Monitoring the proper utilization and retrieval of COVID 19 vaccines (if applicable), cold chain maintenance and strengthening capacity of providers for managing CCVL systems. Building national and subnational capacity for equipment management including operationalization of maintenance manuals, training modules, SOPs and guidelines for cold chain logistics and, COVID 19 vaccine management (CCL&VM). This ToR is therefore to recruit five consultants for six months in six regions. The consultants will be stationed at RHB/PFSA hubs and work closely with RHBs, and EPSA

• Facilitate timely distribution of COVID 19 and associated supplies properly bundled to woreda and health facilities based on the national logistics micro plan.
• Review the Cold chain inventory documents and establish cold chain functionality and failure report tracking method and coordinate the maintenance activities at the regional and sub-regional level.
• Tracking new equipment in country shipment, distribution, installation and commissioning process.
• Review the distribution plan, route, transport and organize the distribution of the COVID19 vaccine supply and logistics regional, woreda and HF levels/.
• Support the capacity building activities facilitate training to immunization supply chain work force coordinators, warehouse managers, fleet managers and immunization workforce at regional, Woreda and HFs levels on COVAX vaccine management.
• Support RHB/EPSA Zones, woreda health offices and HFs in the management of COVID19 vaccine during the implementation period, using appropriate stock monitoring tools such as COVID -19 Vaccine Stock Recording and Reporting Format - for distribution and retrieval at Woreda & HF Level including retrieval/redistribution and proper health waste management.
• Gather information of immunization supply chain in assessing strength and weakness and provide recommendations to managers for reinforcement.
• Monitoring of implementation of immunization services during COVID-19 vaccine delivery.
• Supervise use of COVAX vaccination teams during implementation and participate in the EPSA hubs, and regional/district coordination meetings and receive and analyses daily performance and provide feedbacks.
• Review and analyze COVID 19 vaccine logistics and coverage data, exercise data triangulations accordingly.
• Assess dry storage and cold chain capacity at all levels with regards to the COVID-19 vaccines characteristics and fill the identified supply and logistics gaps
• Establish security arrangements to ensure the integrity of COVID-19 vaccines and ancillary products throughout the supply chain
• Conduct any other task related to immunization/the job under request.

Expected results.

• Develop a template to follow-up and provide update information on the degree of planning and RHBs readiness for roll out of a COVD-19 vaccine.
• Coordinate with RHM/EPSA in planning and preparation and provide update information to CLIENT country office.
• Comprehensive Evaluation Vaccine Management with document sharing.
• Produce short reports on outcomes of key meetings in which the consultant participates, as agreed with supervisors.
• Support the office in other immunization-related tasks as needs arise

Deliverables

• Report on progress made and level of implementation of a COVID-19 vaccine deployment.
• Regional readiness assessment status reports.
• Report on action plan for vaccine implementation and analysis and recommendation to CLIENT Office.
• Monthly Performance report on completed actions and tasks
• Final report and recommendations on CLIENT s role on cold chain and vaccine management in the specific regions.

Policy both parties should be aware of:

• HR firm will manage all the administrative issues and aspects based on HR policies and procedures.
• All remuneration must be within the contract agreement through the HR firm
• No contract may commence unless the contract is signed by both HR firm and the consultant.
• Travel will be facilitated and managed by the HR firm in agreement with CLIENT .
• Consultants will not have supervisory responsibilities or authority on CLIENT budget.

No. required:5

• Advanced University degree or first degree with more than four years of relevant experience in immunization supply chain, pharmacy, public health or related fields.
• Professional experience with CLIENT or other organizations working with EPI or immunization.
• Fluency in English and local languages.

Technical knowledge

• Demonstrated oral and written communication skills, including report writing and presentations on vaccine-preventable diseases.
• Technical knowledge and expertise in the field of health supply chain and public health experience on planning, coordination, analyzing data and fully aware of the specifics of vaccines and cold chain/immunization supply chain.
• Demonstrated ability to work in a multi-cultural environment.
• Fluency of English language both speaking and written is a requirement. Fluency and Working knowledge of local language will be an asset.