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Background
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Well-functioning health commodity supply chains are paramount for effective health systems and equitable delivery of health services. They ensure regular access to critical medicines and vaccines, enabling health workers to treat patients on a timely basis. A critical success factor for a strong supply chain, and in turn, strong health care delivery, is the availability and effective use of accurate and timely data on health product inventory, distribution, utilization, and consumption, and on the performance of medical equipment. This information equips policy makers and supply chain handlers with a complete picture of the health system to enable efficient procurement decisions and logistics management operations for optimal health service delivery.
Malawi’s health system is affected by a lot of challenges that affect the drug supply in government-owned hospital pharmacies, often leading to drug stock-outs, such as inadequate funding allocated to the health sector, drug pilferage, under-utilization of pharmaceutical supply chain management data, uneven distribution of limited resources, and inadequate mechanisms for oversight and accountability.
While the government, with the support of numerous development partners, has made great strides in recent years to strengthen its logistics management information system (LMIS) for medicines, critical gaps remain. Currently, the health product LMIS in Malawi employs different software systems at various tiers of the supply chain, a situation that has created numerous parallel supply chains for different health programmes.
UNDP in India has supported the deployment of Electronic Vaccine Intelligence Network (eVIN) in over 21,000 health facilities in 521 districts of 21 states across the country, using the Logistimo software platform. The time taken to replenish stocks has been reduced from five days to two days on average, and vaccine availability has increased to over 99% since the introduction of eVIN.
The success of eVIN has stimulated demand for the system in other countries, including Malawi, where the Ministry of Health (MoH) wants to deploy it at health facilities to manage health commodities. By developing by tailored eVIN solution to meet Malawi’s needs, the Electronic Health Information Network (e-HIN) is planned to start in April 2020 with user testing of the configured system and training of MoH personnel and district health personnel in the three pilot districts of Rumphi, Ntchisi, and Blantyre. This phase includes 355 health facilities, including hospitals (9), health centers (51), stand-alone dispensaries (3), health posts (7) and village clinics (281). Initially, 117 priority health products for HIV, TB, malaria, immunization, and nutrition programs will be managed through E-HIN, and other essential medicines will be added once the system and users are ready to expand.
Under the direct supervision of the E-HIN Coordinator based in the Project Coordination Unit (PCU) and in collaboration with government partners, the IT Officer will work in close coordination with the district Logistics Supply and Cold Chain Officers, E-HIN technology solution providers, and district partners to ensure efficient and effective delivery of E-HIN.
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Duties and Responsibilities
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Summary of Key Functions:
- Responsible for coordinating with implementing partner for the development and deployment of the E-HIN technology solution (for JAVA based web application and android based mobile applications), including
- Technical support on E-HIN system in terms of tailoring the configuration of eVIN into a E-HIN system to be deployed at district level (upload of metadata related to Vaccine logistics /cold chain equipment/temperature loggers, user /dispensing point /material creation, setting up relationship between the dispensing points, etc.)
- Ensure tagging of users/stores for all type of users especially for the administrators of the respective domains so that the emails / SMS notifications related to inventory (abnormal stock, stock expiry etc.) and temperature loggers (low excursions, high excursions, no data transmission) are received by them.
- Follow-up with Vaccine Cold Chain Manager (VCCMs) and Project Officer- Operations in the districts for resolution of issues
- Tracking and facilitating upgradation of the IT solution as and when required
- Manage and track data and ensure data security
- Verify data integrity / accuracy of system developed reports from E-HIN software from mobile/ web-based solution / Temp Logger.
- Provide technical inputs to the training officers in the state for improvisation during Trainings (Train the Trainers)
- Support in district training programmes (CCH Training) with delivery / quality control of technical contents related to E-HIN software & temperature data loggers.
- Consolidation of the relevant feedback received from the Supply and Cold Chain Handlers, and all other users in the field
- Validate stock transactions and temperature records in Supply and Cold Chain Points during the field visits and get the discrepancies corrected.
- Work on issues related to temperature breaches and non-working of cold chain equipment’s or temperature data loggers, issues to be either resolved or directed to the appropriate authority for resolution.
- Software Documentation as and when required
Programme Planning and Implementation
Provides advice and support to
- The enhancement and implementation of the Electronic Health Intelligence Network (eHIN) into tailored products and services for Malawi under E-HIN, including vaccine logistics and cold chain management on one single information system platform based on user feedback
- Systematic and phased scale up of the E-HIN system for SMS-enabled real time Management Information system (MIS) for cold chain and vaccine logistics management at the respective district level.
- Inputs related to Software user manuals based on the field experiences;
- Ensure that all users at district level are aware of the software upgrades and latest version of E-HIN mobile application is used by the users
Capacity Building and technical assistance to
- Partners at the state and district level health vaccine structures to assess and understand the capacity needs and support required for the effective and timely implementation of the E-HIN
- Regularly check functional status of E-HIN software & Temperature Loggers for resolution, and escalate to operationalize dysfunctional equipment, mobiles or software with Senior Program Officer of the state if local level resolution not possible.
- Software and Temperature Logger operations / minor troubleshooting and provide hands-on support.
Monitoring and Evaluation
- Undertake extensive field visits to monitor the implementation of the system and providing technical inputs to address gaps and bottlenecks.
- Assist, support and monitor the identified implementing agency in the implementation of the system at the state, district and sub district level
- Document to the E-HIN implementation process and analytical learnings from the implementation
- Support state/ district staff in development and production of MIS reports from the system as and when required for monitoring purpose.
- Undertake field visits prioritizing districts which are lagging behind in implementation of project activities.
- Facilitate knowledge exchange visits in consultation with the Logistics Supply and Cold Chain officer and Project Coordinator
- Regular analysis of consumption patterns and wastage rates at state level for vaccines and supplies to help develop monthly reports to support Sate Immunization Officer in taking corrective actions.
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Competencies
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Functional Competencies:
Innovation
- Generates new ideas and approaches, researches best practices and proposes new, more effective ways of doing things
- Makes the case for innovative ideas from the team with own supervisor
Results Focus
- Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude
- Contributes to work planning, manages time and resources efficiently
- Takes accountability for delivery of agreed targets
- Ability to prioritize assignments and requirements, and multitask as needed
- Identifies problems and proposes solutions
Knowledge sharing and continuous improvement
- Maintains awareness of new developments in own area of expertise and promotes this knowledge with others who may benefit
- Develops an understanding of own strengths and development needs
- Demonstrates openness to change and ability to manage complexities
Building and managing partnerships
- Ability to manage stakeholder relationships. Builds positive work relationships of mutual trust and empathy
Team Working
- Contributes to a sense of team spirit and works collaboratively with others by seeking to understand and make best of team members’ diverse ideas, working styles, skills and backgrounds
- Demonstrates care and concern for other team members, proactively offering support.
- Ability to work independently with limited instruction
- Aptitude for technical innovations and data analytics
Core Competencies:
- Demonstrating/safeguarding ethics and integrity
- Demonstrate corporate knowledge and sound judgment
- Self-development, initiative-taking
- Acting as a team player and facilitating team work
- Facilitating and encouraging open communication in the team, communicating effectively
- Creating synergies through self-control
- Managing conflict
- Learning and sharing knowledge and encourage the learning of others. Promoting learning and knowledge management/sharing is the responsibility of each staff member.
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Required Skills and Experience
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- A minimum of graduate degree in Computer Sciences / IT / from a reputed university / institution.
- Minimum 3-5 years of professional work experience in managing information technology driven projects;
- Should have analytical, negotiating, communication and advocacy skills.
- Experience in troubleshooting Java and android based applications
- Experience of working in the State Government or other international development organization will be an asset.
- English proficiency is required; working knowledge of other UN official language or other language at the duty station is an asset.
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Disclaimer
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Important applicant information
All posts in the SC categories are subject to local recruitment.
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