Roster for Vaccine Management Specialist Consultants, Country/Regional office, HQ (Remote)

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, immunization 

Strong and resilient health supply chains save lives. They are the cornerstone of efficient healthcare systems and a driving force for improving equity, quality and access to essential services and products. Effective stock management is a critical link in this chain, ensuring access to life-saving products when required. However, in many low-and middle-income countries (LMICs), service disruptions due to stockouts have increased in the past ten years (eJRF).

The knock-on effects of the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated existing strains on immunization supply chains, reversed hard-earned gains and further highlighted the need for effective stock management practices, capacities and systems across all supply chain levels. Thrive360 indicates a declining trend in stockouts across supply chain levels over the past two years, however significant challenges remain at lowest distribution (LD) and service delivery points, where a third of stores have consistently found to have one or more stockouts.
In-country issues (distribution, transportation, cold chain storage capacity), delayed funding, insufficient human resources, monitoring and supportive supervision and inability to utilize the latest data and evidence for planning and decision-making have been found to be some of the major reasons of stockouts and service disruptions.
UNICEF is working in close coordination with national counterparts and global partners to address these challenges. As part of these efforts, UNICEF is deploying Vaccine Management Specialists (VMS) in high impact countries. The VMS are expected to support country capacity development initiatives, improve in-country distribution planning, expand subnational stock visibility, promote the use of data in planning and decision making and transfer skills especially at subnational levels.
This call for applications is to expand the existing pool of experts and enable rapid deployment when and where required.

How can you make a difference? 

Under the direct supervision of the chief of health/Supply or their designate, and in close coordination with the HQ and regional immunization supply chain (iSC) teams, the Vaccine Management Specialist (VMS) will work with the NLWGs/EPIs/MOPH and their sub-national counterparts to

1. Expand subnational stock visibility to at least the lowest distribution (LD) points.
2. Ensure issues in vaccine management are identified and actively addressed at local levels. Review the Min-Max-Reorder/Push-Pull protocols, document compliance and identify bottlenecks in its implementation.
3. Support NLWG/EPI to effectively manage the arrival, cold chain storage, temperature monitoring, distribution and redistribution, expiry and waste management across all supply chain levels.
4. Review and update stock management SOPs, guidelines, job aids, manuals and vaccine accountability frameworks.
5. Identify, address and share causes of stock risky situations and their mitigation.
6. Ensure NLWG/EPI has access to the latest supply chain data (forecasted demand, pipeline, allocations, stock movement, wastage, adjustments) at all times.
7. Support countries with targeted assessment and monitoring of iSC performance, especially with stock management, per EVM2.0 guidelines and iterative development and implementation of improvement plans within a cycle of continuous improvement.
8. Institutionalize Thrive360 at the NLWGs, provide regular orientations on its use and demonstrate how it could improve distribution, reduce stock risky situations and enhance vaccine availability. Ensure monthly vaccine stock reports (antigens in EPI routine schedule, SIA, BCU and new vaccine introduction) are collected, quality assured, signed by NLWGs/EPI and submitted to regional offices and HQ.
9. Develop, review transition and sustainability plans and get it agreed by UNICEF and government counterparts.

    The VMS will also contribute to supportive supervision and monitoring, and document best practices and lessons learned. S/he must be embedded with the NLWGs or subnational levels or invest at least 60% of his/her time there. This is a mandatory requirement

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

• An advanced university degree (Master’s or higher) in  Medicine, Public health, Epidemiology, supply chain management procurement, logistics, international development studies.
• Applicable work experience can substitute in