Supply Chain IT Systems Consultant

  • Posted on 29 September 2023

Job Description

GH-TAMS is seeking candidates for an Supply Chain IT Systems Consultant for a six-month assignment with USAID/Uganda. The consultancy will be in-country and will include several site visits around Uganda, at approximately 134 days. Start date is approximately October 16, 2023.


Background:

The Supply Chain IT Systems Consultant position is in the Office of Health and HIV (OHH) at USAID/Uganda. Uganda is a priority country across all global health initiatives, including the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), the Global Tuberculosis (TB) Accelerator, the U.S. President’s Malaria Initiative, Family Planning 2020, and Preventing Child and Maternal Deaths. Uganda has been an intensive support country for Global Health Security since 2014. OHH is USAID/Uganda’s largest technical office with seventy staff positions and a FY 2021 budget of approximately $315 million. Accordingly, OHH is responsible for one of USAID’s largest and most complex bilateral assistance health programs. The global health security portion is valued at approximately $20 million.
OHH is organized into six technical units: HIV and TB, Family Health, Malaria, Health Systems Strengthening (HSS), GHS and Emerging Pandemic Threats, and Strategic Information (SI). The Supply Chain IT Systems Consultant supports the Health and HIV Office with program, project, and activity management; technical guidance and program planning; and representation and coordination with the Government of Uganda (GOU) and other stakeholders.

Role and Responsibilities:

USAID Uganda is a major actor in the Uganda national supply chain ecosystem. One concern in the national supply chain is the visibility, traceability, and accountability of commodities. In an effort to address this concern, USAID Uganda funded the procurement and implementation of an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system at the National Medical Stores (NMS). The ERP system is currently operational and over 1600 HFs are ordering their supplies online through the system. Scale up efforts are ongoing, and the plan is to have all public health facilities with digital capacity utilize the system. The NMS ERP implementation is not fully completed, and some solutions developed towards the end of the project could not be deployed in time. USAID Uganda intends to continue providing technical assistance to NMS through MSH/SSCS. USAID is involved in other digitization efforts with GOU/MOH which include integration of supply chain systems from national to health facility level. USAID and MSH/SSCS are participating in the development and roll out of the National Product registry and implementation of GS1 standards. The consultant will be responsible to provide technical expertise, and coordination of activities related to Supply Chain IT systems in Uganda. Successful completion of this objective will require working with a wide array of USG partners, local government ministries, other donor partners, and international organizations.

Supply Chain systems support at National level:
National Medical Stores ERP System

  • Provide advisory/liaison to SSCS and USAID on the planned NMS ERP technical assistance (TA) to ensure sustainability of the NMS ERP.
  • Coordinate Support the USAID technical team supporting NMS to provide satisfactory ongoing user support, finish the incomplete work, and implement the unimplemented modules and new user requests.
  • Work closely with NMS and training providers to identify the ERP knowledge gap and develop a training plan for the USAID funded systems and tools which include Oracle E-Business Suite, Oracle Database Management System, Dell/EMC Hyper-converged Solutions, HP Aruba switching, and VMWare Virtual Environment.
  • Work closely with NMS to develop the ERP upgrade plan as per industry standards. The key implemented systems (Oracle E-Business Suite and Oracle Database Management System) are not the latest versions and would require an upgrade.
  • Ensure that all activities are compliant with USAID regulations including payment of allowances, reporting and other requirements.


Proposed Joint Medical Stores ERP System

  • Provide advisory to the USAID & JMS teams during the procurement process (pre-award, and post award period) of the proposed JMS ERP.
  • Participate as a subject matter expert during the ERP requirements verification, solution design, and development stages to ensure alignment with the award scope.
  • Participate collaboratively with stakeholders to review and refine the business needs and provide recommendations for improvements where possible after the initial pilot of the
  • Work with the JMS ERP team, and vendor to implement the minimum viable product (MVP) within 6 months of the award.
  • Work with the USAID IP responsible and the IP AOR/COR to ensure that the ERP implementation is proceeding according to scope, schedule, budget, and quality standards – report on project success criteria results, metrics, test, and deployment management activities.
  • Communicate in a timely manner to the IP and AOR/COR on any issues, risks and project change requests that may impact the success and on-time project delivery.
  • Conduct regular site visits and participate in project activities meetings.
  • Ensure that projects are compliant with USAID regulations including payment of allowances, reporting and other requirements.


Technical and Advisory Support (eLMIS, GS1, National Product Registry)

  • Support the integration of Government of Uganda (GoU)/Ministry of Health (MoH) mandated eLMIS at Health Facilities with the National Product registry, ERPs and stock status dashboards to enable visibility, traceability and accountability of commodities.
  • Support GOU adoption of implementation of GS1 global standards to facilitate the tracking, tracing, and visibility of commodities across the various levels of the health supply chain.
  • Work with MOH (QPPU, DHI) and NMS to ensure seamless integration of SC digital systems.
  • Participate in various TWGs to support in developing and implementing standards, policies, and procedures.
  • Make recommendations to the HSS/SC team regarding the selection, evaluation, or implementation of information systems and technologies for use with health systems strengthening solutions in Uganda.
  • Participate and develop common strategies with other professionals/agencies, stakeholders in Uganda on all aspects related to supply chain IT health systems policies, strategies, and plans.
  • Provide guidance/coordination on health systems/tools interface/interoperability, maintenance, development, and implementation along with providing integration support across multiple IT systems.
  • Keep abreast of new technical developments and emerging issues that affect USAID’s priorities via literature review and participation in technical meetings, workshops, and training events. Share relevant technical information and recommendations with USAID and other USG colleagues.


Program Monitoring and Reporting

  • Work with the USAID IP (SSCS) and the AOR/COR to monitor USAID IT/ERP implementation processes to ensure compliance and completion.
  • Document and track lessons learned in Uganda, which will help guide the implementation of the health strengthening solutions/supply chain.
  • Communicate regularly, and work jointly, with other members of USAID Uganda and other USG agencies at post.
  • Communicate on supply chain IT systems matters including responding to taskers and inquiries from stakeholders.
  • Monitor implementation progress, ensuring that actions are completed on schedule or adjusted to meet changing conditions and identifying constraints to activity implementation as well as proposing solutions for their resolution.
  • Support and/or conduct site visits and attend relevant meetings and events where USAID Supply chain presence is required to ensure programmatic quality is maintained.



Qualifications:

  • Minimum: Master’s degree, relevant professional industry certifications.
  • Demonstrated experience working on Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems, and digital/IT solutions.
  • Good working knowledge of development agencies such as USAID and the US government’s programming, and implementation activities
  • Able to work effectively with mid- and senior-level public and civil society officials, development partners and IPs.
  • Able to work effectively in a team environment and coordinate well with others.
  • Strong communication and presentation skills.

About the Organization

International Business & Technical Consultants, Inc. (IBTCI), is the prime contractor implementing the $125 million USAID-funded Global Health Technical Assistance and Mission Support Project (GH-TAMS) activity. Along with its subcontractor, Dexis Consulting Group (Dexis), IBTCI provides the Bureau for Global Health (GH) and USAID field missions with high quality technical expertise to achieve the Agency's foreign assistance global health mission (October 2019-October 2024). GH-TAMS technical assistance supports over 65 Missions and 19 GH Offices and other Bureaus covering a broad range of technical areas and cross-cutting issues such as HIV/AIDS, family planning, MNCH, infectious disease, TB, health finance, reproductive health, organizational development, OVC, project design, facilitation, M&E and strategic planning.

Project assignments are located in Washington D.C. and worldwide in Africa, Asia and elsewhere. Assignments typically range from two weeks to six months in duration.

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