UNDP Jobs - 57653- Project Associate, GAVI Health System Strengthenin

Project Associate, GAVI Health System Strengthening Project - (Open to Indian Nationals Only)

Location :

New Delhi, INDIA

Type of Contract :

Service Contract

Starting Date :

Application Deadline :

12-Jul-15 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

SB-3

Duration of Initial Contract :

One Year initially

Languages Required :

English

Expected Duration of Assignment :

UNDP is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence. UNDP does not tolerate sexual exploitation and abuse, any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment, and discrimination. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks.

Background

Routine immunisation (RI) against vaccine preventable diseases (e.g. measles, polio, TB, tetanus, diphtheria, and whooping cough) is one of the most cost effective interventions for reducing childhood illness and mortality. Universal Immunization Programme (UIP) is an ambitious programme of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) that aims to reduce morbidity and mortality due to vaccine preventable diseases (VPD). Joint Review Missions and Common Review Missions organized by Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on a regular basis) have noted that whilst UIP performance in India has improved overtime, there still remain a number of key constraints impacting immunization coverage in the country. Further, there are significant inequities in vaccination coverage in different states based on various factors related to individual (gender, birth order), family area (area of residence, wealth, and parental education), demography (religion, caste) and the society (access to health care, community literacy level) characteristics.

The GAVI Alliance-funded Health System Strengthening (HSS) programme is one of the efforts of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) to improve the quality and level of immunization coverage in India.

Some of the main constraints currently preventing India from achieving a quality immunization programme with universally high coverage rates relate to Cold Chain and Vaccine Logistics Management. There is limited cold chain infrastructure and capacity in many states – even for routine UIP vaccines. Systematic efforts to identify gaps and address issues in cold chain and VLM have been conducted in recent years. Key constraints identified include: inadequate and poor infrastructure, HR issues including technical capacities; weak monitoring and MIS issues; and Vaccine management. These constraints have led to high breakdown rate of equipment, overstocking and stock outs, inadequate monitoring and supervision, poor management thus hampering improved vaccine coverage.

UNDP under the GAVI HSS grant 2014-2016 will address some of the above mentioned issues by the development of an integrated and innovative solution that aims to provide real time information of vaccines stocks at the various level of the Routine Immunization Programme as well as have real time information on the temperature at the various levels of storage in three state of the country namely Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. Moreover, UNDP will strengthen the evidence base for improved policy-making on programmatic areas through a well developed and implemented national M&E plan and research framework.

For the specific purpose above UNDP intends to recruit the Project Associate to be based at New Delhi. The position will require extensive travel to the designated districts. The Project Associate will work under the direct supervision of Senior National Project Manager and will support Project Officer (Monitoring and Evaluation) and Project Officer (Vaccine Logistics and Cold Chain Management).

Duties and Responsibilities

The Project Associate will be responsible for the following tasks:

Programme Implementation:

Support the Project Officer (Vaccine Logistics and Cold Chain Management) in guiding implementation of the Electronic Vaccine Intelligence Network (eVIN) that includes vaccine logistics and cold chain management.

Assist to monitor implementation of the eVIN system to:

Alert designated authorities on exceptions and variations;
Facilitate provision of technical inputs to address gaps and bottlenecks.

Monitoring and Evaluation:

Support the Project Officer (Monitoring and Evaluation) to:

Monthly review activities undertaken by UNDP POs;
Collate and analyse data from monthly/ quarterly updates for sharing with stakeholders;
Formation of the Immunization Research Network;
Prepare concept notes, terms of reference and proposals to commission research;
Prepare and execute the road map for the roll out of the National M&E plan.

Report Writing

Assist the Project Officer (Monitoring and Evaluation) to:

Document the routine progress, prepare periodic status reports and annual reports;
Document the implementation process and analytical learnings from the implementation to feedback into the effective scale up in other the districts;
Document success and prepare case studies, etc. in a qualitative and timely manner.

Perform any other tasks assigned from time to time by Senior National Project Manager.

Competencies

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;
Aptitude for technical innovations and data analytics.

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.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

A minimum of Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration/Public Health/ Engineering/ Demography/ Hospital Management/Supply Chain Management from a reputed University / Institution.

Experience:

A minimum of 3 Years of professional work in programme management, monitoring, research and of this period, at least 1 year should be in Routine Immunization programme including the vaccine logistics and cold chain mechanisms;
Experience in managing information technology driven projects will be an asset;
Should have analytical, negotiating, communication and advocacy skills;
Should have computer knowledge in MS Office and other applications;
Experience in managing and scaling large technology driven projects preferably in health sector will be an asset;
Experience of working in the State Government or other international development organization will be an asset.

Language:

Excellent knowledge of written and spoken English is required.

Travel:

The position will require some travel to the designated districts.

Remuneration package is Rs. 75,456/per month (taxable). UNDP also offers additional benefits which include medical insurance coverage and limited pension reimbursement for contract holder and encourages work life balance to its employees.