National Consultant: Immunization Supply Chain & Logistics (ISCL) based in Jakarta, 1 year

UNICEF Jakarta is looking for national consultant provide support and technical assistance to the Government on Routine Immunization program at national level. The aim is to strengthen the immunization supply chain logistic system in EPI and Pharmacy Directorate of the Ministry of Health.

UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfill their potential. 

Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone. 

And we never give up. 

For every child, Immunization 

UNICEF Jakarta is looking for national consultant provide support and technical assistance to the Government on Routine Immunization program at national level. The aim is to strengthen the immunization supply chain logistic system in EPI and Pharmacy Directorate of the Ministry of Health. The duration of contract is one year.

Immunization is one of the key priority areas globally as well as in Indonesia.  UNICEF continues its technical support to the Government of Indonesia (GoI) at national and sub-national levels to reach the immunization programme goals and targets in the comprehensive multi-year plan (cMYP) 2020-2024 and National Medium Term Development Plan (RPJMN) 2020-2024 goals through strengthening the national and local health systems. This also aligns with the Immunization Agenda 2030 (IA 2030).

Indonesia’s health system reaches most children in their birth cohort of 4.3 million children a year with vaccines and other health services. However, Indonesia is one of the countries globally which had encountered stagnated vaccination coverage during the COVID-19 pandemic. The service interruption and reluctance among the parents and caregivers due to the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a significant number of eligible children being unvaccinated. Many health workers reported high workloads with poor motivation due to various reasons.  The pulse survey highlighted that health facilities reduced the frequency of vaccination sessions to cope with their high workload and other priorities. On the other hand, most health facilities and vaccine storage points at various supply chain levels experienced significant stock out of several routine vaccines.^[1]  Many children could not receive vaccines due to the closure of schools. All these issues unveiled the reasons for the high number of zero-dose children in Indonesia.

To support the implementation of COVID-19 vaccination, Indonesia conducted a cold chain (CC) capacity and gap assessment in early 2021, which showed that introducing massive number of COVID-19 vaccines had significantly impact the immunization supply chain (iSC) and cold chain storage capacity.  Following the assessment, UNICEF supported the Government of Indonesia on the deliveries and installation of 85 walk-in cold rooms, 31 generators set and 300 refrigerators with the related spare parts across the country funded by Japan, JICA, and COVAX in 2022 and 2023.

Effective vaccine management (EVM) and immunization supply chain (iSC) management are becoming more challenging. The EVM assessment conducted in 2023 resulted highlighted several key areas for improvement both in vaccine management and immunization supply chain. The UNDP-supported SMILE tool has been rolled out to all levels of the supply chain; however, suboptimal utilization of tool and HR capacity have been highlighted during the review meeting with UNICEF’s field offices. The Gavi audit recommended improvement in key performing indicators to understand the supply chain performance better.

As per the Ministry of Health’s comprehensive plan 2020-2025, GoI has recently introduced several new vaccines for pneumonia (pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV-13) in 2022, and in 2023 such as rotavirus vaccine for diarrhoea, human papilloma virus to prevent cervical cancer, inactivated polio vaccine 2^nd dose (IPVs) and expanded the use of underutilized vaccines such as Japanese Encephalitis vaccine. All of these vaccines will have significant impacts on the immunization supply chain.

Therefore, MOH needs a competent consultant to provide hands-on and strategic technical assistance to strengthen the immunization supply chain.

This TOR is part of UNICEF support to provide technical assistance by appointing an individual consultant based in Jakarta, to support the strengthening of immunization supply chain logistic as part of the routine immunization program improvement. The assignment will focus on the temperature mapping, digitalization of the vaccine and cold chain management training for health workers, facilitate the follow up actions for the continuous improvement plan. Knowing the challenges, the GoI has requested UNICEF to continue its technical assistance to strengthen the immunization supply chain.

How can you make a difference? 

The supply chain consultant will provide technical support, advocacy and facilitate the required support at national and sub-national levels, including provision of technical assistance in assessing, analyzing and optimizing the immunization supply chain process for efficiency, effectiveness, and resilience. The consultant will be responsible for identifying bottlenecks, gaps, and areas for improvement within the supply chain to ensure the timely delivery and distribution of vaccines while maintaining quality standards, monitor the progress and provide feedback for improvement.

The MOH has requested UNICEF’s support in strengthening the immunization supply chain logistic system across several critical areas.
1) Provide technical assistance at national and sub-national level focusing on immunization supply chain system to ensure good quality vaccines use in routine immunization program.
2) Support and facilitate the implementation of continuous improvement plan following the EVM assessment recommendation.
3) Support the development of relevant iSC standard protocols related to the immunization supply chain.
4) Support the capacity development initiatives on the effective vaccine and waste management for MOH.
5) Support routine analysis of cold chain capacity adequacy as well as cold chain management training.
6) Support and facilitate the temperature mapping, including training the relevant cold chain focal person at province and district level.
7) Facilitate the implementation of national logistic working group.
8) Provide strategic advice and course corrective actions, including adaptation of national routine immunization tools/guidelines to ensure the quality of immunization supply chain.
9) Collaborate with other health officer/health specialist in UNICEF Field Offices to ensure smooth program implementation.
10) Provide appropriate technical support on advocacy and socio mobilization coordination activities.
11) Final report (in narrative and ppt) with recommendation and lessons learned. Summarize the best practice, strategies and methods to strengthen the immunization supply chain of the routine immunization programme.
The consultant will be based in Jakarta (home-based) with frequent field travels to sub-national levels.

Please refer to the Term of Reference attached for the detailed breakdowns of tasks and deliverables/outputs.

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have… 

1. Master’s degree* in medical, Nurse, Medical Doctor, Midwife and Public Health Science, and or Health related subjects.
2. Minimum 5 years of experience in Health, 3 of which is experience in Immunization programme
3. Public Health Expert with immunization, advocacy/communications, and data/information management experience.
4. High technical knowledge on immunization programs is preferred—good analytical, advocacy and conflict resolution skills.
5. Familiarity with country, government structures and public health system especially immunization stock management.
6. Able to work independently with minimal supervision
7. Self-motivated and results oriented.
8. Proven ability to deliver under tight deadlines.
9. Good report writing, fluency in Bahasa Indonesia (is necessary), and English, with computer skills.

(*First level of relevant university degree in combination with 7 years of relevant health experience with 5 years in Immunization programme may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree)

 TOR - ISCL Consultant_Jakarta TMS.pdf

For every Child, you demonstrate… 

UNICEF's values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, Accountability, and Sustainability (CRITAS) and core competencies:

• Builds and Maintains Partnerships
• Demonstrates self-awareness and ethical awareness
• Drive to achieve results for impact
• Innovates and embraces change
• Manages ambiguity and complexity
• Thinks and acts strategically
• Works collaboratively with others

To view our competency framework, please visit here. 

UNICEF is here to serve the world’s most disadvantaged children and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to include everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, age, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, or any other personal characteristic.

UNICEF offers reasonable accommodation for consultants/individual contractors with disabilities. This may include, for example, accessible software, travel assistance for missions or personal attendants. We encourage you to disclose your disability during your application in case you need reasonable accommodation during the selection process and afterwards in your assignment. 

UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. UNICEF also adheres to strict child safeguarding principles. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check. 

Remarks:  

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process. 

Individuals engaged under a consultancy or individual contract will not be considered “staff members” under the Staff Regulations and Rules of the United Nations and UNICEF’s policies and procedures, and will not be entitled to benefits provided therein (such as leave entitlements and medical insurance coverage). Their conditions of service will be governed by their contract and the General Conditions of Contracts for the Services of Consultants and Individual Contractors. Consultants and individual contractors are responsible for determining their tax liabilities and for the payment of any taxes and/or duties, in accordance with local or other applicable laws. 

The selected candidate is solely responsible to ensure that the visa (applicable) and health insurance required to perform the duties of the contract are valid for the entire period of the contract. Selected candidates are subject to confirmation of fully-vaccinated status against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) with a World Health Organization (WHO)-endorsed vaccine, which must be met prior to taking up the assignment. It does not apply to consultants who will work remotely and are not expected to work on or visit UNICEF premises, programme delivery locations or directly interact with communities UNICEF works with, nor to travel to perform functions for UNICEF for the duration of their consultancy contracts. This vacancy is open for Indonesians only.