Senior National Consultant at Malaria Consortium

Established in 2003, Malaria Consortium is one of the world’s leading non-profit organisations specialising in the prevention, control and treatment of malaria and other communicable diseases among vulnerable populations. Our mission is to save lives and improve health in Africa and Asia, through evidence-based programmes that combat targeted diseases and promote universal health coverage.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: Senior National Consultant

Location: Abuja (FCT)
Employment Type: Temporary

Description

• It is important to demonstrate accountability in the management of all SPAQ used during the 2024 round of SMC implementation. Each blister of SPAQ provides the opportunity to prevent malaria and safe the life of a child.
• A good commodity management system should therefore minimise losses/wastages and ensure an uninterrupted availability of SPAQ to ensure maximum number of children are reached to prevent them from coming down with malaria.
• Also, commodities should also not filter into the private sectors to be sold. In 2024 SMC campaign, management of SPAQ was done through the state supply chain system and handled by Government staff with support from a supply chain officer from Malaria Consortium.
• There is need to audit the commodity management to ascertain that the commodities were managed well. The audit is also necessary to determine the strengths and weaknesses of the supply chain system for the purpose of providing feedback for subsequent interventions.
• It is also the responsibility of Malaria Consortium to demonstrate judicious use and accountability for the commodities. These auditors are expected to provide objective and professional opinion on level of accountability demonstrated in the management of SPAQ during 2024 SMC intervention

Objective of the Assignment
Specific Objectives:

• Review and finalize Malaria Health Product Management Audit protocol and Tools
• To determine the availability and use of relevant tools for proper tracking and control of the distribution at every point in the supply chain
• To determine accuracy of record keeping for key activities such as receiving, warehousing and distribution at each point in the supply chain.
• Ascertain the quantities of individual malaria health products and other commodities that passed through every holding and transit point in the supply chain, including quantities ordered from manufacturer, received at Nigeria port, delivered to State CMS and distributed to health facilities.
• Determine from the service database, quantities of SPAQ used for treatments, including main dosing, re-dosing, after-referral-dosing, wasted and damaged
• Do physical count and document the quantities, conditions and expiry dates of commodity at each state central and LGA stores currently holding SPAQ.
• From 3 - 5 above and annex 1 (page 5), determine loss and wastage rate for the product of interest
• Assess the capacity of the health workers at the facility levels to manage malaria commodities
• Assess the knowledge of health workers involved in the SMC campaign on pharmacovigilance
• Assess the distribution strategy for the commodities to determine compliance with state malaria supply chain management strategy, national policies and procedures as well as best practices for management of malaria commodities.
• Do a rapid assessment of the stock (bad, good or expired)
• Do assessment of the storage conditions for SMC commodities at the state central medical stores and selected health facilities (capacity, environmental conditions, safety and security) and at holding or transient points
• Do an assessment of the availability and compliance with pharmacovigilance process for drug safety during SMC implementation?
• Carry out a survey to private outlets across the states to identify the type and cost of antimalaria sold in the outlets (This will allow for the identification of diverted SPAQ)
• Submit report with appropriate recommendations on key findings.

Expected Output/deliverables for the Lead Consultant:

• Revised protocol for the commodity management audit
• Consolidated Assignment report for all the survey states to include:
• Availability and use of commodity logistic tools
• The results of the physical count and reconciliation of SPAQ in the selected locations
• The result of assessment of Malaria Health Product stock and store conditions
• Result of the assessment of compliance with the laid down policies and procedures
• Report with recommendations for improvement (as appropriate) and next steps.
• Determine the number of data reviewers that will be required for the audit.

Profile requirements of Lead Consultant

• The lead consultant will be a health system expert with experience in commodity and project auditing.
• S/he should have bachelor’s degree in pharmacy or health related discipline with a postgraduate degree in Pharmacy or medical sciences or public health.
• S/he will provide oversight and coordinate activities of other consultants engaged for this assignment.

Other requirements include:

• Candidates should possess a B.Pharm Degree
• Minimum of 8-year experience in drug supplies and management systems in Nigeria especially in the Public Health Sector.
• Have experience in developing protocol for health commodity audit or assessment of supply chain systems in Nigeria
• Demonstrable experience in systems assessment/evaluation.
• Experience in report writing and communicating with stakeholders.
• Good understanding of what is feasible in highly resource-constrained environments.

Application Closing Date
Thursday, 28th November, 2024. (5:00pm)