Background
In November 2009, the three Save the Children offices in Southern Sudan; Sweden, USA, and UK, combined managerial systems to provide a Unified Presence in Southern Sudan. This structure was registered with the Government of Southern Sudan, the Ministry of Legal Affairs and the SSRRC as Save the Children in South Sudan (SC), and programs are managed by Save the Children Fund (SCUK).
The integration is the International Save the Children Alliance’s global strategy to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of Save the Children programs thereby magnifying the impact on the lives of children, mothers and their caregivers. Save the Children in South Sudan draws on the experience of each of the three Save the Children members – which together have a combined operational experience of over 40 years in southern Sudan.
Save the Children in South Sudan currently operates across nine of the ten states of southern Sudan.
Areas of intervention include: emergency response, nutrition, maternal, newborn and child health, child protection, education and HIV prevention.
Save the Children has been engaged in health service provision, working with and for children, their families and communities, in the Central and Eastern Upper Nile region, the Nuba Mountains, and Western Equatoria Regions since 2000. Under Save the Children, US (SC/US), SC has worked in Upper Nile, Jonglei, Lakes and Western Equatoria States since 2005 and Eastern Equatoria State since 2008.
In addition to these health services, SC currently operates nutrition programming in Nyirol and Akobo County, Jonglei State. Programs and interventions consist of capacity building and institutional development (including training and community mobilization), awareness raising, advocacy, and networking for improved access to, demand for and quality of primary health care services, including nutrition, as well as HIV prevention.
In particular, the SC health program is focused on strengthening primary health care services through the Basic Package of Health Services. As of May 2011 SC primary health care programming supports 58 health facilities in 11 counties, in five states: 48 Primary Health Care Units (PHCU), and 10 Primary Health Care Centers (PHCC). Pharmaceuticals are supplied by the MoH, however, the supplies often do not reach the facilities for months at a time, leading to stock-outs of essential medicines.
A central component of this primary health care programming benefits from a tradition of partnering with indigenous NGOs. Currently, SC works with ten local partners in WES, Lakes, Upper Nile and Jonglei States.
In addition to primary health care programming, SC is implementing a three-year Community Case Management (CCM) program seeking to increase access to health services for a target population of approximately 650,000 people in the health programming areas listed above. Treatments for malaria, diarrhea and pneumonia are procured by SC and provided to trained volunteers who administer them to children under five at the community level.
Save the Children’s nutrition program focuses both on the prevention and treatment of under-nutrition through the MoH/GoSS Integrated Management of Acute Malnutrition (IMAM) policies and guidelines. We manage the pipeline of nutrition commodities and medications for nutrition programming to our field sites.
Pharmaceutical management is a growing component of our health and nutrition programs, as we are increasing the amount of pharmaceuticals and medical supplies that are provided as buffer supplies to facilities and supplies for our CCM and nutrition programming. There is a need to review our pharmaceutical management systems, and provide capacity building opportunities for SC staff and local partners to appropriately manage supplies.
Job Purpose
To conduct an assessment of SC internal operating procedures for the management of pharmaceuticals and medical supplies, and subsequently, in collaboration with operations team, ensure that strong systems are in place for ordering, receiving, storing, distributing and reporting pharmaceuticals and medical supplies to SC field sites and partner agencies.
Key Outputs
- Assess the existing SC mechanisms and staff capacities for management of pharmaceuticals, medical equipment and consumables in Juba office and field sites.
- Develop a system for estimating annual supply needs and possible sources for buffer stocks of medications and supplies for emergency health response
- Ensure adequate systems for :
- Reception of pharmaceuticals and medical supplies
- Physical organization of the stores, including security management
- Stores management
- Preparation of outbound supplies
- Record keeping a filing systems
- Inventory Taking and stock reconciliation
- Develop computerized and user friendly stock-management system for pharmaceutical supplies in central store in Juba
- Introduce standard and consistent monthly, quarterly and yearly reporting systems on pharmaceutical as well as related supplies
- Develop plan, procedures, and a brief guideline and for appropriate disposal of expired pharmaceuticals
- Develop brief guidelines detailing the internal systems for making requests from Juba stores, management and monitoring of pharmaceuticals including all other logistics related to pharmaceuticals and medical equipment in line with SCiSS’s exsiting logistics guidelines. The guidelines should be user friendly, practical and for day to day use by all staff
- Provide training and capacity building to current Medical Logistician to ensure he can take over management of pharmaceutical and medical supplies within the operations department
- Visit at least two field sites to assess pharmaceutical and medical supply management systems
- Provide ToT to key health and operations staff on pharmaceutical and medical supplies management systems
- Identify suppliers who can be pre-qualified for the purchase of non-pharmaceutical medical supplies locally and liaise with SCUK to identify possible regional suppliers for pharmaceuticals and supplies
- Develop standard specifications for frequently ordered pharmaceuticals and medical supplies
Requirement for consultant
- Post-graduate degree in pharmaceutical science or equivalent in public health or medical logistics
- At least 3 years experience in managing drug supply systems and consumables in humanitarian settings, preferably with NGOs
- Proven experience developing guidelines on pharmaceutical supply management
- Experience working with health systems development in fragile states
Interested candidates should submit a concept note regarding this consultancy which includes the following:
- Description of company/organization/consultant profile
- Previous relevant experience – listing previous relevant projects and role
- CVs of professionals which will be carrying out the study
- Contact details
- Current contact details of three referees
- Proposed work plan
- Activity budget including all costs related to the consultancy, including travel costs
- Writing sample from lead consultant
Send your application to the following email address d.mgabonihela@savethechildren.or.tz
This post is for 45 days.
Application Closing Date: 3rd September 2011
Please note that our recruitment and selection procedures and checks reflect our commitment to the protection of children from abuse. Selected candidates will need to be available to start as soon as possible. We promote equal opportunities and strive to be fully representational to all groups. Save the Children actively encourages diversity. Only short listed candidates will be contacted.
