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.

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.

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.

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 Officer (Vaccine Logistic and Cold Chain Management) to be based at Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh). The Project Officer will be responsible for approximately 6-9 districts. The position will require extensive travel to the designated districts. The Project Officers will work under the direct supervision of Senior Project Officer in the respective state.

Duties and Responsibilities

Summary of Responsibilities:

Programme Planning and Implementation:

  • Provides advice and support to the development and phased implementation of the Electronic Vaccine Intelligence Network (eVIN) that includes vaccine logistics and cold chain management on one single information system platform in the states of Madhya Pradesh. This activity will involve a systematic and phased scale up of a system for SMS-enabled real timeManagement Information system (MIS) for cold chain and vaccine logistics management at the respective district level.

Building Partnerships:

  • Partners with 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 eVIN in select states. This activity will involve working closely State Level Health officials, coordinating with the GAVI- HSS partners namely UNICEF and WHO and other development partners working on immunization.

Capacity Building and Technical Assistance for Government: 

  • Assists the Senior Project Officer to identify capacity-building needs on eVIN and undertake capacity-building activities at the district level.

Monitoring and Evaluation:

Facilitates the review of the system and capacities relating to the delivery of eVIN in conjunction with State Rural Health Mission.This will include:

  • Undertake extensive field visits to monitor the implementation of the system and providing technical inputs to address gaps and bottlenecks;
  • The Project Officer will be required to carefully monitor the eVIN system and alert designated authorities the district level with regards to vaccine inventory and cold chain management;
  • The Project Officer will assist, support and monitor the identified implementing agency in the implementation of the system at the district and sub district level. This includes the capacity building initiatives at the district level;
  • Document to the implementation process and analytical learnings from the implementation to feedback into the effective scale up in all the districts of Madhya Pradesh.

Report Writing:

  • Prepares periodic status reports, annual reports, case studies, etc. in a qualitative and timely manner.

Perform any other tasks assigned from time to time by the Senior Project Officer.

Competencies

Corporate Competencies:

Building and Managing Strategic Partnerships:

  • Identifies common interest and goals and carries out join initiatives with partners;
  • Makes effective use of resources and comparative advantage to strengthen partnerships.

Advocacy :

  • Brings visibility, promotes ideas and develops partnerships to advance the organisation’s work;
  • Recognises key players in decision making, engaging them and building consensus for final decisions.

Client Orientation:

  • Demonstrates an understanding of client / partner / donor perspective and strives for high quality client oriented services;
  • Establishes smooth relationship and enabling environment between clients and service providers.

Leadership and Management :

  • Is results driven and solution oriented, is able to work under pressure;
  • Uses fair and transparent decision making and calculated risk taking;
  • Ability to identify problems, propose solutions and take immediate corrective measures.

Functional Competencies:

Job knowledge and Technical  Expertise:

  • Has strong knowledge of project area and keeps abreast with new developments in areas of professional discipline and seeks to develop herself/himself professionally;
  • Has sound knowledge of project management tools and utilises these regularly in work and assignments;
  • Should have analytical, negotiating, communication and advocacy skills.

Results Based Management :

  • Leads and facilitates work planning, alerting those involved of potential obstacles and helping to identify suitable alternatives as needed;
  • Takes accountability for the delivery of agreed results;
  • Ability to work independently and with minimum supervision.

Required Skills and Experience

Education: 

  • Minimum Post graduation in Business Administration/Public Health/ Hospital Management/Material Management/Supply Chain Management from a reputed University / Institution.

Experience:

  • Minimum of 5 Years of professional work experience at the State level in policy-cum-programme development, monitoring & implementation and of this period, 2-3 years should be in Routine Immunization programme including the vaccine logistics and cold chain mechanisms;
  • Experience in managing information technology driven projects;
  • Should have computer knowledge in MS Office and other applications;
  • Demonstrated experience in Health Policy analysis and influencing is mandatory;
  • Demonstrated experience in managing and scaling large technology driven projects preferably in health sector;
  • 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;
  • A good working knowledge of local language of the duty station will be an asset.

Travel:

  • The position will require extensive travel to the designated districts.

Remuneration:

  • Remuneration package is Rs. 96,008/- 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.