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. We are 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 our wide range of partners that can bring about results.
UNDP’s partnership with the Global Fund is a powerful contributor to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development including SDG 3 and UNDP’s Strategic Plan (2018-2021); through this partnership, UNDP plays a key role in supporting countries facing challenging circumstances to deliver the SDGs, to strengthen institutions to progressively deliver universal access to basic services (Outcome 3) and a return to sustainable development pathways in post conflict and post-disaster settings (Outcome 6). In strategic terms, in 2016 and 2017 the partnership between UNDP and the Global Fund was marked by increased convergence among implementation support, capacity development/systems strengthening and policy.
First, UNDP continued to strengthen its status as a key implementer of Global Fund grants in crisis and early recovery environments. Second, UNDP responded to increasing demand for capacity development from national entities and the Global Fund to strengthen resilient systems for health through a new generation of capacity development plans.  And third, as UNDP’s policy and implementation roles increasingly converge and reinforce each other, UNDP is supporting the Global Fund to increase engagement on human rights, key populations, and gender aspects of disease responses at a strategic, policy and program level (as priority objectives in the Global Fund Strategy, “Investing to End Epidemics” (2017-2022). As of January 2017, UNDP served as the interim Principal Recipient (PR) for 34 Global Fund grants covering 19 countries and 3 regional grants.  Given the importance of the partnership with the Global Fund, UNDP continues to provide high value-added services both in its PR role, increasingly as a significant technical partner to governments, and to civil society organizations (CSOs) who implement Global Fund grants. This is overseen by the BBPS/HHD Global Fund/Health Implementation Support Team (GF/HIST) in close coordination with Country Offices, Regional Bureaus, the Legal Office and the Bureau of Management.
UNDP’s Support to COVID-19 response
COVID-19 is the worst global pandemic in one hundred years, affecting all countries. It is having a disastrous socio-economic impact, especially on poor and vulnerable populations, as well as causing major disruptions to health systems, and essential services more broadly. The achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030 is now severely threatened and time is not on our side to control and eradicate this pandemic.
The world is waiting for the development, regulatory approval, and production of safe and effective vaccines against COVID-19, anticipated to be potentially available in 2021. The WHO’s Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator is leading global collaboration to accelerate development, production, and equitable access to COVID-19 tests, treatments, and vaccines. COVAX, the vaccines pillar of ACT, coordinated by GAVI, will play a pivotal role as a risk-sharing mechanism for pooled procurement and equitable distribution of eventual COVID-19 vaccines to developing countries.  Digital solutions, adapted to country-contexts, will therefore be crucial to ensure that the vaccines are distributed rapidly, efficiently, equitably, and safely to nearly entire populations. It will require not only strong regulatory frameworks and reliable supply chains, but also intelligent track-and-trace systems which eLMIS can provide.
The national and international health landscapes are rapidly changing: new health initiatives are emerging and bring to light pressing challenges connected with health systems strengthening including, health procurement and supply management that require a new modus operandi to optimize UNDP’s investments into global health. These opportunities go beyond UNDP’s partnership with the Global Fund.  In addition, there is a need for UNDP to continue to expand opportunities for partnerships with key stakeholders on the support to be provided to national health supply chain including GAVI, World Bank, WHO, UNICEF, UNFPA, USAID, BMGF.
In order to provide effective support to our partners worldwide, UNDP seeks for individual consultants specialized in E-LMIS to submit their applications for inclusion in the pre-approved Health PSM Roster of Experts and Senior Experts, who are ready to provide consultancy services for sustainable development in the area of Procurement and Supply Chain Management (PSM), specifically pertaining the health sector. The qualified individual consultants based on competencies and value for money principle may be called upon to be contracted and deployed to provide specific technical advice and short-term consultancies for periods, normally not to exceed 12 months.
To this effect, UNDP invites eligible and interested E-LMIS experts to submit their application in response to this Expression of Interest.
Applicants should demonstrate the number of working years in E-LMIS in their CV.
Successful candidates with relevant minimum 5 to 7 years of experience will be included in the “Expert” band and those with relevant minimum 10 years of experience will be included in the “Senior Expert”.
Only qualified CVs shall be considered in the Roster. Applicants admitted in the roster and matching the specific TORs for each respective assignment, will be engaged by UNDP through the Individual Contract (IC) modality and deployed to work in any of UNDP Country Offices, HQ locations, or if/when needed work from their own respective locations through remote support modality.

Objective:
The objective of this assignment is to support the deployment of digital solutions and technologies to strengthen in-country supply chains and enabling product track and trace capabilities, thereby ensuring visibility of chain of custody, assuring quality and equity, and preventing stockouts, wastage and diversion. Under the overall supervision of the GF HIST Senior Health PSM Advisor, the Consultant will provide technical assistance and advice to UNDP Country Offices on selection, procurement and implementation of electronic Logistics Management Information Systems (eLMIS) solutions for health products, according to needs.
 

The selected consultants are expected to provide consultancy services in a range of levels of responsibilities and functions relevant to one or more requested categories. The following is a generic and non-exhaustive list of tasks and functions, however a context-specific Terms of Reference (TORs) will be issued for each assignment.

Upon request, the Consultant will support UNDP Country Offices in the implementation of eLMIS development projects in coordination with Ministries of Health, including the following activities:

1. Assess the maturity level of the existing LMIS and provide optimization recommendations.
2. Design the electronic Logistic Management Information Systems in the country context and provide support for the assessment of needs and the definition of technical requirements for a national electronic LMIS (e-LMIS).
3. Select and procure, electronic Logistic Management Information Systems, including contract negotiation. and support national partners in the right selection of the e-LMIS fitting their needs.
4. Implement eLMIS software and hardware solutions from system setup, configuration, testing, phased deployment of eLMIS for the data management of medicines, diagnostics, and other health products information in the supply chain eLMIS which shall be inclusive of:
• Design and implementation of eLMIS pilot projects;
• Support the country partners in the design and operationalization of eLMIS activities (pilot project and scaling up).
5. Design the user training and onboarding process, including curricula development and training strategy, super-user network, and ongoing mentoring and user feedback mechanisms.
6. Establish, staff and train an eLMIS systems administration and user support (help-desk and super-user) infrastructure and team.
7. Create and/or coordinate partnerships to ensure harmonization of digital health and digital supply chain interventions.
8. Build capacity in the area of supply chain management, eLMIS deployment and use, and monitoring and evaluation of health supply chains.
9. Promote a culture of supply chain data use for operational and strategic decision making at all levels of the in-country supply chain.
10. Share knowledge and best practices both in-country and across countries on eLMIS and digital supply chain systems deployment and use.
11. Work closely with UNDP Supply Chain and procurement sections towards effective monitoring, timely development of reports (quarterly, annual, ad-hoc, etc.) and analysis of results of supply chain to incorporate lessons learnt into recommendations for improvement to be implemented by partners.
12. Provide project management support: hold routine team meetings to review tasks, timeframes, priorities, challenges, etc.
13. Provide coaching, mentoring and support to supervisees.
14. Advocate for UNDP eLMIS team members with Country Office senior management.
15. Represent the eLMIS project at various technical meetings with other cooperating agencies, collaborating partners, senior government officials and/or donor agencies. Participate in various working groups, as required.
16. Work with UNDP CO management staff to determine and implement specific technical needs and priorities of the organization to ensure the success of the eLMIS project.
17. Support road map development for implementation of traceability in the pharmaceutical supply chain system, with a costed implementation plan
18. Develop a national GS1-based product catalogue.

Technical Competencies:
• Assessing supply chain systems, including mapping and optimizing business processes that can or will be supported through digital applications.
• Developing information system requirements, user profiles, and identifying and collecting metadata.
• Identifying, selecting, and helping UNDP to acquire appropriate digital technology including software and hardware.
• Supporting project management for system set-up, testing, deployment, and handover, including helping to recruit the project team.
• Advising on change management to establish a data-use culture at every level of the supply chain.
Functional Competencies:
• Strong communication skills, including ability to produce high quality practical advisory reports and knowledge products,

Project and Resource Management:
• Ability to work independently, produce high quality outputs. 

Partnership building and team work:
• Demonstrated flexibility to excel in a multi-cultural environment.
• Provides constructive coaching and feedback.

Communications and Advocacy:
• Strong ability to write clearly, adapting style and content to different audiences and speak clearly and convincingly.
• Strong presentation skills in meetings with the ability to adapt for different audiences.
• Strong capacity to communicate clearly and quickly.
• Strong inter-personal, negotiation and liaison skills

Education, professional qualifications and Experience:

• Master’s degree in supply chain management, computer science, international development or related field with at least 5 years’ experience, or bachelor’s degree with at least seven years’ experience in health products supply chain management in developing countries;
• Specific training, certificate or diploma will be positively assessed.
• Demonstrated experience in health products “digital supply chain” project management at the international level;
• Demonstrated experience in preparing and reviewing funding proposals for digital supply chain, an advantage.
• Three years of supervisory experience or equivalent leadership/management experience;
• Ability to guide strategy development, manage implementation of projects and lead a team;
• Experience with UN, Other International Agencies and other donor agencies is an asset such as Global Fund as well as National Health Authorities ;
• Experience in logistics/supply chain management and/or public health commodities, especially HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, immunization, and diagnostic commodities;
• Ability to travel for extended periods of time in-country to support technical activities;
• Willingness and ability to travel internationally.

Language Requirements:
• Knowledge of language (oral and written) in English is required. Knowledge (speak and understand) of other languages such as Spanish, French, Russian, Arabic, and Portuguese will be positively assessed.

Procedures for submission of applications

Interested individuals must submit the following documents to demonstrate their qualifications:
• Brief statement explaining the merits of the candidacy (1000 characters or less, to be uploaded directly to the system).
• Filled in Form A “the Application Form together with the P11 ”details of CV” which can be DOWNLOADED from the following link: 

https://procurement-notices.undp.org/view_notice.cfm?notice_id=73125

Please fill in the whole Application Form and P11 Form and mention the daily profession fees as applicable. Note that the daily rate specified in the submission will be considered as a ceiling amount / maximum daily rate.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Please note that ONLY ONE FILE CAN BE UPLOADED to the UNDP JOBS SYSTEM. Therefore, please upload the requested documents as "One File Document" into the system.

The application shall contain and include all information & documentation detailed above and will be evaluated as indicated below.

 Evaluation, selection criteria and process:

Step One: Screening:
The received applications shall be screened against the following criteria:
• Master’s degree in supply chain management, computer science, international development or related field with at least 5 years’ experience, or bachelor’s degree with at least seven years’ experience in health products supply chain management in developing countries;
• Relevancy of the experience.
• Submission of filled in and signed application Form including the P11 Form.
• Fluency in English.
Only applicants passing the screening stage shall be considered for further evaluation.
Step Two: Evaluation:
The evaluation of each application will be based on a set of selection criteria as listed in the below table and on the basis of the information submitted by each candidate. Only candidates fulfilling the minimum expertise, experience and qualifications required will be considered. Applicants who score 65 or more points will be considered as technically qualified and eligible to be included in the roster. Applicants scoring 75 points or more will be eligible to be considered as “senior experts”.

    Applicable Evaluation Criteria 

• Education & Professional Qualification : up to 14 points
• Relevant Experience: Up to 80 points
• Language Requirement: Up to 6 points

UNDP may conduct an interview round with applicants, prior to issuance of a final recommendation to include the applicant in the roster, for purpose of determining fulfilment of language and competencies related requirements.
A review of the daily fees proposed by technically qualified experts will follow, to determine adherence to maximum allowed UNDP daily fees for experts and senior experts. In cases where daily fees submitted by consultants exceed maximum allowed UNDP daily fees for each band, the consultant will be invited to review his/her quoted daily fee downwards accordingly. Qualified pre-selected consultants will be notified by UNDP of their inclusion in the resulting roster.

Requests for engagement and deployment of experts will be channelled through the roster in the following manner:
1. UNDP Requesting Business Units will develop a set of TORs.
2. Country Office will screen the roster to identify at least 3 consultants that match the ToRs for the corresponding assignment in close collaboration with the Procurement and Supply Management (PSM) Specialist.
3. Matching consultants will be contacted by the Roster Manager and will be asked to confirm interest and availability in the assignment. Matching consultants will also be asked to submit a financial proposal for the specific assignment, including proposed daily fee, travel costs, subsistence allowances, etc.
4. The daily fees proposed by each consultant shall at all times be lower than or equal to the agreed ceiling daily fee.
5. The Requesting Business Unit will give the final confirmation and contact the selected consultant for purpose of establishing an IC contract.

Monitoring and reporting arrangements upon assignment:
• The consultant shall be supervised by an assigned BPPS/HHD/GF HIST Team PSM focal point and/or UNDP Business Unit representative and s/he will report progress on a periodical basis for inputs and guidance.
• The consultant, upon award of contract, should deliver a detailed work plan for the project, which will govern the reporting and monitoring aspects. The review and approval of payments will be made by the assigned supervisor(s) where the last tranche of payment can be only processed upon issuance of a performance evaluation.

Travel:
When travel is required to be undertaken to a UNDP location for a specific assignment, payment of travel costs including tickets (lowest economy class only), lodging and terminal expenses shall be reimbursed by UNDP. The consultant may work from home and may be requested to travel to Geneva, Copenhagen and Country Offices, whenever required. The latter will be determined based upon a common agreement between UNDP and the Individual consultant. All travel costs will be covered by UNDP according to its rules and regulations.
The fare will always be “most direct, most economical” and any difference in price with the preferred route will be paid for by the expert.
Payment Methods:
Payment will be processed as agreed either as a lumps sum amount based on deliverables or based on the number of days worked.

Other Information:
Security: Individual Consultants must obtain a security clearance to travel to locations in Security Level I or above. Business unit must ensure that this requirement is being adhered to before signature of contract. When travel is required to a country with a designated Security Level 1 or above, the Individual Consultant should also undertake the Basic Security in the Field training and the Advanced Security in the Field training, following the procedure for access by non-staff. When travel to a country with no designated security level is required, only the basic training must be completed. CD-ROMs of the trainings must be made available where access to other forms of technology poses a challenge.
Inoculation/Vaccinations: Individual Consultants are responsible for ensuring that they have vaccinations/inoculations when travelling to certain countries, as designated by the UN Medical Director. Consultants are also required to comply with the UN security directives set forth under https://trip.dss.un.org
Statement of medical fitness for work: Individual contractors whose assignments require travel and who are over 65 years of age are required, at their own expense, to undergo a full medical examination, including x-rays, and obtain medical clearance from a UN-approved doctor prior to taking up their assignment. This does not apply to individuals engaged through a reimbursable loan agreement. The medial clearance is valid only for 12 months from date of issuance.

ANNEX 1- INDIVIDUAL CONSULTANT GENERAL TERMS AND CONDITIONS is provided here: http://www.undp.org/content/dam/undp/documents/procurement/documents/IC%20-%20General%20Conditions.pdf