Background

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is the UN’s global development network, advocating for change and connecting countries to knowledge, experience and resources to help people build a better life, as envisaged by 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. UNDP is on the ground in more than 170 countries and territories, working with governments and people on their own solutions to global and national development challenges. As they develop local capacity, they draw on the people of UNDP and a wide range of partners that can bring about results.

Starting from 2015, the UNDP Health and Transparency Programme (H&T Programme) is partnered with the Ministry of Health (MoH) of Ukraine to support the procurement of medicines and medical products. Recognizing UNDP’s unique capacity as a health development partner and its proven track record of supporting public health institutions, the H&T Programme is fully committed to support the MoH of Ukraine in its mid- and long-term efforts to reform its procurement and supply management system by bringing its extensive expertise in establishing a procurement system that corresponds to the highest standards of transparency, accountability, cost-effectiveness, equity and sustainability. The support provided by UNDP to the MoH is also aimed to: (i) assist MOH with the cost-effective, transparent and timely procurement of medicines and other medical products; (ii) build the structural and human resource capacity for supply, planning, forecasting, and monitoring and evaluation for transparent and cost-effective procurement at MoH; (iii) progressively hand over procurement activities while supporting the procurement processes and procurement unit of MoH; (iv) support MoH to further reform the national procurement and quality assurance system and capacity development processes; (v) with the technical expertise of WHO, support the capacity building of the procurement and supply chain management in the context of the wider initiative aimed at strengthening the Ukrainian healthcare system and creating a coherent pharmaceutical industry.

One of the components of the Project “Procurement Support Services to the Ministry of Health of Ukraine” focuses on strengthening public procurement in Ukraine's healthcare system, in order to ensure all citizens’ access to essential medicines and other medical products throughout the country. Thus, in 2017 and 2018 in order to understand whether the life-saving medicines procured for the public funds reached the respective patients, the project provided grants to regional non-governmental organizations in four regions to monitor supply and distribution of drugs procured with support of UNDP at the central level. The results showed a need to assess the local health procurement capacity on the regional level in relation to the ongoing decentralization reform.

For this reason, UNDP seeks the services of a National Consultant on health procurement capacity assessment to provide an overview of the health procurement structure and processes on regional level in selected regions of Ukraine and identify the gaps and opportunities for further potential collaboration.

Duties and Responsibilities

MAIN OBJECTIVES OF THE ASSIGNMENT

This assignment aims to conduct health procurement capacity assessment on regional level to review current legal framework, administrative and management functions and processes related to the medical procurement in selected pilot regions.

The incumbent is responsible for supporting the health procurement capacity assessment. Specifically, the capacity assessment will: 

• Assess the current legal environment of the health procurement on regional level;
• Identify current strength and weaknesses of the regional health procurement structure and processes to formulate evidence-based recommendations for improvement and further development;
• Identify opportunities for further potential collaboration with the local authorities and key stakeholders based on UNDP Ukraine experience in decentralisation, democratic governance and public procurement of medicines and medical products.

DESCRIPTION OF RESPONSIBILITIES / SCOPE OF WORK

The National consultant for the health procurement capacity assessment will evaluate managerial, programmatic and legal aspects of the health procurement in the selected regions, including but not limited to the following responsibilities:

•             Review relevant national policies, guidelines and operational practices for public procurement of medicines and medical products on regional level in Ukraine;

•             Propose a methodology for assessment of the local capacity for health procurement at regional and sub-regional (e.g. municipal) levels;

•             Pilot the approved methodology in one selected region;

•             Provide overall support to information collection in other selected regions;

•             Analyse the collected information and identify opportunities for further potential collaboration with the local authorities and key stakeholders based on UNDP Ukraine experience in decentralization, democratic governance and public procurement of medicines and medical products;

•             Consolidate the findings and recommendations and prepare a report (up to 30 pages without annexes) based on the review of national guidelines, policies and results from the assessment of the regional health procurement structure and processes;

•             Validate the draft report with national and international experts;

•             Prepare a presentation on findings and recommendations from the health procurement capacity assessment results for UNDP Ukraine.

DELIVERABLES

monitoring/REPORTING requirements

The National Consultant will work under the overall guidance of Health Programme Specialist and Chief Technical Advisor.

The incumbent must consult with UNDP on all steps of the process and proceed to the next step only upon obtaining approval for the accomplished step by either the Health Programme Specialist or the Chief Technical Advisor.

The incumbent should arrange his/her activities based on the principle of constructive co-operation. It is mandatory to take into account all proposals of the UNDP Ukraine team.

The electronic version of the final report should be prepared and submitted for clearance to the Health Programme Specialist not later than above-mentioned fixed dates.

UNDP requirements to analytical reports

It is mandatory for the report structure to include: a cover page, table of contents, glossary of terms, introduction, and executive summary, scope and methodology, assessment findings, conclusions, recommendations, lessons learned and annexes.

The conclusions should be comprehensive and balanced, be well substantiated by the evidence and logically linked to the assessment findings. The recommendations need to be supported by an evidential basis, be credible, practical, action-oriented, and define who is responsible for the action - to have potential to be used in decision-making.

The annexes should be duly numbered; all tables and figures should contain references to sources and be numbered; there should be references to them in the text of the report. The report should contain a bibliography and list of Web-resources, if relevant.

The final report should take into account UNDP analytical standards and standards for writing reports. The report format (layout, text borders, format of charts and tables, format of titles, subtitles and main text, etc.) should provide for a convenient reading of the document and be in line with basic requirements to design of such kind of documents.

The report should be logical and understandable and have a limited number of specialized terms. It should also have a clear structure and be broken into sections (subsections).

The assessment shall be carried out objectively without consideration of interests of any parties. All points of view as regards the events and processes shall be provided and compared.

The National consultant shall provide the report in the electronic form (.doc format, initial materials and annexes .doc, *.xls formats).

Payment schedule

Payments will be made in 2 tranches according to the following payment schedule:

First payment - upon satisfactory submission of deliverables # 1 and #2 - 50%

Second payment- upon satisfactory submission of deliverables #3 and #4 - 50 %

Competencies

• Commitment to the principles set forth in the UN High Level Declarations.
• Excellent organizational skills, ability to work independently, strict adherence to completing assigned tasks in a timely manner.
• Quality-orientated professional, constructive approach to obstacles and delays in planned performance.
• Excellent communication skills, oral and written.
• Advanced user of virtual communication tools.

Required Skills and Experience

Minimum qualifications and experience:

Education:

University degree (at least Master’s level) in Public Administration, Healthcare, Law, Economics, Management or other relevant areas;

A specialization in Health Procurement or long-term experience will be an asset.

Experience:

• At least 3 years of experience in the area of institutional capacity assessment, public administration and/or policy analysis;
• Proven experience of analytical research work directly related to public/healthcare procurement, decentralization reform, transformation of healthcare system or related topics;
• Prior experience of work with UNDP or other international organizations is considered as an asset;
• Prior experience of work on health-related projects is considered as an asset.

Language Requirements:

• Fluency in Ukrainian and Russian, working knowledge of English

DOCUMENTS TO BE INCLUDED WHEN SUBMITTING THE PROPOSALS

Applicants shall submit the following documents:

Letter of interest/proposal;

Personal CV/P11, including information about past experience in similar projects / assignments and contact details for referees;

List of the candidate’s analytical research works in relevant areas;

Financial proposal.

FINANCIAL PROPOSAL

The financial proposal shall specify the cost of professional services of Consultant on grants coordination (local oversight initiatives). Payments are made in tranches based on Deliverables.

EVALUATION CRITERIA

Education:

• University degree (at least Master’s level) in Public Administration, Healthcare, Law, Economics, Management or other relevant areas - pass/fail;

Experience:

• At least 3 years of experience in the area of institutional capacity assessment, public administration and/or policy analysis - pass/fail;
• Proven experience of analytical research work directly related to public/healthcare procurement, decentralisation reform, transformation of healthcare system or related topics – pass/fail

Language Requirements: Fluency in Ukrainian and Russian, working knowledge of English - pass/fail.

EVALUATION METHOD:

Lowest price and technically compliant offer

Contract award shall be made to the incumbent whose offer has been evaluated and determined as both:

a) responsive/compliant/acceptable (fully meeting the TOR provided), and

b) offering the lowest price/cost