A Pharmaceutical pricing policy is a set of written principles or requirements for managing the prices of pharmaceutical products, agreed or adopted by a public institution, a group of       purchasing organizations or individual health services.. The importance of attaining affordable access to pharmaceutical products in the global efforts towards universal health coverage has long been recognized. Most recently, the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) has set SDG Target 3.8 as “financial risk protection, access to quality essential health-care services and access to safe, effective, quality and affordable essential medicines and vaccines for all”. By extension, achieving this SDG is the responsibility of all levels of governments of Member States and the global community.

Currently, there are various options of policy interventions that could be applied for setting, managing or influencing prices of pharmaceutical products that countries can choose from based on their local contexts. Therefore, countries are expected to choose the most suitable pricing intervention(s) that fits its local context before commencing the development of national pricing policy. The Ministry of Health and Social Services (MoHSS) through financial and technical support from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) would, therefore, like to recruit a consultant to conduct a situation analysis on pricing strategies and medicines prices in the private and public sector, and makes evidence-based recommendations on the most suitable pricing strategy(s) for Namibia.  

• Inception Meeting with MOHSS and project steering committee to confirm project scope, governance, and administration and to detail out work plan for the consultancy
• Conduct a grey literature review of documents on pricing interventions/policies and impacts of such interventions in low- and middle-income countries with particular emphasis to experiences from Africa.
• Analyze prescribing practices, volumes and reimbursement prices using private sector claims data
• Collect availability and price, revenue/expenditure data of a basket of medicines (Health products) from public (health facilities, Medical stores, NGOs, Mission Hospitals) and private sectors (Wholesalers, retailers, manufacturers etc.)  for the past 3-5 years This could be done with either the WHO/HAI method or the WHO MedMon tool. Funding will be provided to reimburse proven costs of data collection.
• Analyze and compare price and revenue/expenditure
• Identify price components (Taxes, mark-ups etc.) and how they affect the final price to the consumer and the subsequent impact on health outcomes
• The results should be compared with prices in the region particularly South Africa
• Make evidence-based recommendations on the most suitable pricing strategy(s) appropriate for Namibia’s local context.  
• Regular meetings with project steering committee for progress update and guidance
• Organize dissemination and consensus building workshop to present preliminary findings to stakeholders and recommend suitable policy options

• Capacity to conduct small field studies and surveys
• Technical expertise and experience in performing data collection and analysis to inform pharmaceutical pricing policies.
• Proven track record of delivering projects of similar scope and complexity within constrained timeframes; and
• Demonstrated ability to work in partnership with various ministries of Health and other health related and relevant organizations/ institutions

Education

• Master of Public health / Master of Health Economics/ Master of Business Administration/ comparable Master’s in medical sciences Degrees

Experiences

• At least 7 years of experience in the field of Pharmaceutical Policy Development, of which at least 5 years working in the pharmaceutical sector in the SADC/ African Region. Preferably national consultants or organization’s external consultants are encouraged to identify internal (Namibian) consultants or organizations to work with.
• Extensive experience working with medicine pricing policies
• Extensive knowledge in Pharmaceutical Systems in the WHO African Region will be an added advantage.
• Adequate knowledge and experience in Health Systems Strengthening and the development and implementation of policies, strategies and projects.
• Project Management experience is an added advantage

Language Proficiency:

• English excellent
• Able to demonstrate communication in writing, speaking, reading and synthesize information.

How to apply:

To apply please access UNDP Jobs site http://jobs.undp.org.

Recommended Presentation of Offer;

• Completed Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability using the template provided by UNDP;
• Personal CV or a P11 Personal History form, indicating all past experience from similar projects, as well as the contact details (email and telephone number) of the candidate and at least three (3) professional references;
• Brief description of approach to work/technical proposal of why the individual considers him/herself as the most suitable for the assignment, and a proposed methodology on how they will approach and complete the assignment (max 1 page).
• Financial Proposal that indicates the all-inclusive fixed total contract price, supported by a breakdown of costs, as per template provided (based on the number of working days mentioned ToR.

Note:

• Please group all your documents into one (1) single PDF document as the system only allows uploading maximum one document.
• Qualified women and members of minorities are encouraged to apply;
• Incomplete applications will not be considered. Please make sure you have provided all requested materials.

Incomplete applications will be excluded from further consideration.

To download the full Terms of Reference (TOR), P11 History Form and The Financial Proposal Template,  please access the UNDP Procurement Notice site on the below link: UNDP | Procurement Notices - 87427 - Consultant to undertake a situat