Pharmaceutical and Health Commodity Supply Chain Management Advisor

Job Description

Management Sciences for Health (MSH) seeks a Supply Chain Management Advisor for a 5 -year USAID-funded Accessible Continuum of Care and Essential Services Sustained (ACCESS) program in Madagascar. The purpose of the program is to build the capacity of Ministry of Public Health (MOPH) actors at the district level and below in all districts in the implementation regions, to design, develop, manage, deliver, monitor and evaluate health services and programs in their catchment areas. The activity will also engage with regional health authorities with limited interventions to ensure coordination, planning and effective management of health activities in their districts. Work at the national level will focus on informing policy, guideline development, as well as advocacy on key health service delivery issues. ACCESS will work to improve the clinical skills and health governance skills of primary health care providers to deliver high quality, accessible preventive and curative health services. To expand the reach of the public health system, the activity will work to improve the skills and motivation of community health volunteers to deliver quality health services and ensure they work under the supervision of their respective CSB. Finally, ACCESS will promote positive health behaviors, including care seeking behaviors in the target communities through a comprehensive and contextualized social and behavior change (SBC) approach and improve the capacity of the MOPH and local institutions to design, implement, and monitor and evaluate SBC activities.

The objective of the Supply Chain Management Advisor position is to provide technical leadership that will ensure the reliable availability of rapid diagnostic tests, family planning methods, and other essential commodities and other consumables among community health volunteers and at designated health facilities in each focus region.

The Supply Chain Management Advisor is responsible for the project’s key supply chain components, such as quantification, procurement, distribution, and information management, including but not limited to: assessment of national and/or district-level pharmaceutical management information systems and development of recommendations to optimize business processes to aggregate data from subnational levels to a central dashboard; assistance to integrate pharmaceutical management information into national eHealth; identification of priority areas of supply chain management and development of standard operating procedures (SOPs) in selected areas; and assistance to national/regional/and district-level stakeholders to properly quantify commodities.

The Advisor works closely with the Director of Health Systems Strengthening and key stakeholders—including other supply chain programs in Madagascar–and provides technical support for the development and implementation of supply chain policies and procedures for adequate medicine quantification, procurement, warehousing, inventory management, ordering/issuing and distribution to support the strengthening of supply management systems in Madagascar. The Supply Chain Management Advisor supports supply chain capacity building efforts and ensures that systems and processes are in place to assure the continuous availability of medicines. S/he will also coordinate and collaborate directly with the USAID IMPACT project and other partners.

Must be legally authorized to work in Madagascar.

Specific Responsibilities

1. Work collaboratively with the MOPH, USAID, and local partners to assure that effective and efficient warehousing and distribution systems are in place for medicines and other key commodities.
2. Participate in identifying and prioritizing capacity development activities for strengthening national, regional, district, and community pharmaceutical supply chains, and building expertise in monitoring and supervision.
3. Conduct a rapid district assessment of pharmaceutical supply management at CSB and district hospitals to establish a baseline for indicators of inventory management, commodity availability, storage, quantification, distribution practices to CHVs, and lead times for ordered items
4. Develop and implement appropriate training and supervision programs.
5. Provide technical assistance to develop SOPs for inventory management and other aspects of supply chain management that will assure the availability and quality of medicines and other commodities at community, CSB and hospital levels.
6. Along with country partners and other project staff, develop and implement a comprehensive approach for ensuring the quality of the commodities procured and used.
7. Monitor and document progress of activities toward achieving results of supply chain activities of the approved ACCESS work plan, by taking baseline and periodic measurements of indicators.
8. Utilize adapted tools, build the capacity of relevant health facility staff (doctors/nurses/health facility staff/community health volunteers/ pharmacists/laboratory scientists) on forecasting, inventory management and reporting.
9. Work with IMPACT to support innovative supply management and cost recovery models at the district and health center levels in the public sector to ensure availability of medicines in CSB and supply to CHVs
10. Assist CSB staff to train CHVs to use the MOPH’s Commodity Logistics and Site Management System
11. Coordinate closely with MEASURE and IMPACT to ensure timely and complete digital data transfer between CommCare, DHIS 2, and the Logistics Management Information System
12. Provide assistance to technical working groups (TWGs) to ensure the implementation of a harmonized logistic management system and framework.
13. Regularly visit the EMAR and EMAD counterparts to guide and provide support to health facility providers (approximately 25%)
14. Perform any other duties as may be assigned by the supervisor

Qualifications and Experience

1. Advanced degree in commodity logistics, pharmaceutical management or related field.
2. At least six (6) years of experience in pharmaceutical management and/or public health
3. Experience in pharmaceutical management with an emphasis on supply chain warehousing, logistics and/or forecasting preferred.
4. Advanced knowledge of the Madagascar pharmaceutical and health commodity supply chain system required.
5. Experience working in Madagascar with the MOPH
6. Experience working with USAID-funded programs desirable
7. Knowledge in supply chain areas, preferably in warehousing, logistics and quantification;
8. Previous experience in developing training materials and the delivery of training sessions.
9. Excellent written and oral communications skills.
10. Fluency in spoken and written French, Demonstrated computer skills in Microsoft Office Suite applications, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint; knowledge of appropriate methods for data analysis and reporting.
11. Highly motivated, resourceful, and results driven. Ability to gather and analyse information in order to make appropriate decisions. Strong interpersonal and communication skills

About the Organization

Management Sciences for Health, an international nonprofit organization, is dedicated to closing the gap between what is known and what is done about public health problems. MSH saves lives and improves health by helping public and private organizations throughout the world to effectively manage people, medicines, money, and information. Working from more than 30 country offices and our US headquarters, our staff from 65 nations is highly regarded for its technical expertise, integrity, and commitment to making a lasting difference in health.

Management Sciences for Health (MSH) is a nonprofit international health organization composed of more than 2,000 people from 73 nations. Their mission is to save lives and improve the health of the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people by closing the gap between knowledge and action in public health. Together with their partners, they are helping managers and leaders in developing countries to create stronger management systems that improve health services for the greatest health impact.

EXPERTISE

MSH takes an integrated approach to building high-impact sustainable programs that address critical challenges in leadership, health systems management, human resources, and medicines. Simply put, they support stronger health systems for greater health impact.

Their expertise in these areas falls into the broad categories of management functions—for example, leadership and governance or pharmaceutical management—and health areas like tuberculosis or maternal, newborn, and child health. They apply their expertise by

• Partnering with governments, local organizations, and communities in developing nations to build their own capacity for long-term health impact;
• Providing global leadership in critical areas of health management and health care delivery;
• Bringing the best of MSH from around the globe to the people we serve, working as One MSH with a focus on lasting health system improvements.

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Leadership, Governance, & Management

They work with in-country partners to build stronger health systems to improve:

• the management and leadership of priority health programs, health organizations, and multisectoral partnerships such as The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, developing a critical mass of managers at all levels of the health system who can lead and inspire teams to achieve results;
  
• the management systems of health organizations in the public and private sector, transferring practical approaches and skills to ensure that management structures contribute to sustainable organizational success;
  
• the governance and management of health organizations and multisectoral partnerships, facilitating change and transferring knowledge to enable organizations to administer their resources efficiently and scale up their services.

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Health Service Delivery

MSH combines extensive public health expertise, proven service delivery approaches, and evidence-based interventions in five critical areas:

• HIV & AIDS
• Tuberculosis
• Maternal, newborn, and child health
• Family planning and reproductive health
• Other communicable diseases, including malaria and pandemic and avian influenza

Human Resources for Health

MSH helps governments develop multisectoral strategies and policies to plan and manage their health workforces. We use a comprehensive approach that addresses all the facets of human resources for health needed to achieve an adequate supply of well-trained and motivated health workers. MSH offers capabilities in leadership, human resource management, education, partnerships, policy, and finance to achieve these goals.

Pharmaceutical Management

Vital to our success is a participatory approach to project design and implementation, which cultivates broad-based support from all stakeholders. We also build and improve infrastructure and local capacity to effectively purchase, store, deliver, and use quality essential medicines.

Health Care Financing

MSH helps governments and NGOs assess their current financial situation and systems, understand service costs, and develop initiatives to use existing funds more effectively and generate additional revenue—all with the goal of supporting a nation’s health priorities.

Health Information

MSH has developed proven methods for rapidly strengthening the analysis and use of existing health data—normally at the province, district, and facility levels—without revising existing recording and reporting requirements. With an emphasis on learning through action, district teams undertake assessments of health services, identify gaps in performance, and design solutions to support better decision-making and, therefore, better management of improved services.

MSH has worked closely with the Health Metrics Network of the WHO to develop a comprehensive approach for enhancing the performance of health information systems and data by employing a practical, strategic planning process that can be carried out by national working groups.