Background
Since 27 January 2020 when Cambodia confirmed the first case of COVID-19, the Royal Government of Cambodia (RGC) has implemented numerous measures to prevent its possible spread with technical support from the World Health Organization (WHO). As of 1 February 2021, Cambodia has a total of 466 confirmed cases of COVID-19.
The Cambodian Ministry of Health (MoH) has played a central role in overseeing and containing the response to COVID-19 and providing medical advice and training to hospitals and health workers. The MoH has authorized three hospitals in Phnom Penh and 25 Provincial Referral Hospitals to order tests for and treat cases of COVID-19.
Governmental efforts with extensive aid support from China and other countries have significantly improved the country’s overall capacity to handle the COVID 19 pandemic. However, proper and safe treatment of medical waste infected by COVID-19, areas in which Cambodia has limited resources, expertise, and experience are one of the remaining, critical challenges. Particular challenges which the COVID response designated hospitals experience include:
- Lack of a full set of equipment and operational guidelines for a full treatment of infectious waste (solid waste)
- Lack of equipment and guidelines for treating wastewater
- Lack of guidelines to ensure proper operation of incinerators to minimize health and environmental hazards
- An insufficient amount of Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs).
- The prevalent mix of waste types, which heighten the risk of infections among waste collectors
This project aims to overcome these challenges and to support the RGC to strengthen its ongoing efforts to manage infectious medical waste and protect Phnom Penh’s population and the urban environment against the threat of COVID-19. Within the 12 month timeline, the project aims to achieve the following three outputs.
- The increasing volume of medical waste and wastewater in the three hospitals in Phnom Penh working with COVID-19 patients, as well as in the city’s communities properly managed
- The technical capacities of health care workers and service providers to treat solid waste and wastewater developed and strengthened
- Project results and best practices on medical waste management timely and widely disseminated
UNDP will work closely with the WHO and MoH as well as the target three hospitals for the successful implementation of the project.
Duties and Responsibilities
The objective of the assignment is to conduct a needs assessment with three targeted healthcare facilities in Phnom Penh that are designated to provide medical treatment to COVID-19 patients, including Khmer-Soviet Friendship Hospital, National Pediatric Hospital, and Chakangre Health center. UNDP Cambodia in collaboration with UNDP China has developed two sets of questionnaires (Annex) to assess the following needs from the aforementioned health facilities: 1) to assess the capacity and needs of the three target health facilities in handling medical waste management ; and 2) to assess the condition and needs of the local disease control departments, healthcare professionals and relevant administration staffs to inform the development the training curriculum materials relevant to medical waste management.
The Individual Contractor will need to design data collection methods and define sample size based on the aforementioned project objectives and provided questionnaires with taking into consideration of the above timeframe (the suggested timeframe above is relatively fixed). The assessment should also include the literature review to see if the provided questionnaires could be answered using second data or any study that may already available in Cambodia. The result of the individual consultant’s work is to produce an assessment report which responds to the above three objectives. The report shall include the following outlines: A brief executive summary and methodogy, findings classified by each set of questionnaires and health facility sides, and conclusion/recommendation. The report should be maximum 10 pages excluding Annexes (if any).
The assessments will be conducted with a sample of intended target groups which include Ministry of Health, WHO, and relevant healthcare and non-healthcare workers who directly engage in response to COVID-19 responses and medical waste management in three targeted healthcare facilities which are estimiated to be between 30-70 personnels per each healthcare facility.
Interested offeror must read the Individual Consultant (IC) Procurement Notice, which can be viewed at https://procurement-notices.undp.org/view_notice.cfm?notice_id=74959 for more detail information about term of references, instructions to offeror, and to download the documents to be submitted in the offer through online
Competencies
- Excellent communication skills (spoken, written, and presentational);
- Independent and initiative working
- Good report writing skills
Required Skills and Experience
Education:
Master’s degree (or equivalent) in public health, environmental health, development studies, social science, or other relevant fields.
Experience:
- Minimum 3 years of relevant experiences in designing and conducting research or survey;
- Demonstrate strong knowledge of solid waste/water waste management system;
- Familiarity with Cambodia healthcare system;
- Experience in working with government institutions particularly health facilities is an asset.
Language Requirement:
- Fluency in English and Khmer language (spoken and written)
UNDP reserves right to reject any applications that is incomplete.
Please be informed that we don’t accept application submitted via email.
Interested individual offeror must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications:
1. Explaining why they are the most suitable for the work
2. Financial proposal
3. Personal CV including experience in similar projects, list of publication written by Candidate and at least 3 references.
Interested Offerors are required to submit application via UNDP jobsite system as the application screening and evaluation will be done through UNDP jobsite system. Please note that UNDP jobsite system allows only one uploading of application document, so please make sure that you merge all your documents into a single file. Your on-line applications submission will be acknowledged where an email address has been provided. If you do not receive an e-mail acknowledgement within 24 hours of submission, your application may not have been received. In such cases, please resubmit the application, if necessary. Please combine all your documents into one (1) single PDF document as the system only allows to upload maximum one document.
Any request for clarification/additional information on this procurement notice shall be communicated in writing to UNDP office or send to email aphikovith.phin@undp.org and cc procurement.kh@undp.org . While the Procurement Unit would endeavor to provide information expeditiously, only requests receiving at least 5 working days prior to the submission deadline will be entertained. Any delay in providing such information will not be considered as a reason for extending the submission deadline. The UNDP's response (including an explanation of the query but without identifying the source of inquiry) will be posted in Individual Consultant (IC) Procurement Notice page as provided above. Therefore, all prospective Offerors are advised to visit the page regularly to make obtain update related to this Individual Consultant (IC) Procurement Notice