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Purpose of consultancy  

The purpose of this consultancy will be to conduct a comprehensive national assessment of the paediatric medicines landscape, including needs estimation, bottleneck analysis, and identification of priority paediatric formulations. The consultant will also support national stakeholder engagement and contribute to the development of a national roadmap to improve access to paediatric medicines.

Background  

Despite global progress in reducing child mortality, nearly 5 million children under the age of five still die each year, the majority in low- and middle-income countries, including those in Asia. These deaths are often preventable, yet children continue to lack access to medicines that are safe, effective, affordable, and designed specifically for their needs. Many medicines used for children are either unavailable in suitable formulations, not quality-assured, or prescribed without a strong evidence base. This gap in appropriate paediatric medicines undermines progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and universal health coverage (UHC) targets.
Recognizing these challenges, the World Health Assembly in 2016 and then in 2024 reaffirmed the global commitment to improve children’s health. Member States called for urgent action to accelerate the development, registration, and supply of child-friendly formulations and to strengthen the national and regional systems needed to deliver them.

To meet this call, WHO launched the Global Accelerator for Paediatric Formulations (GAP-f) in 2020, a unique global platform to coordinate stakeholders across the medicine lifecycle — from research and development to regulatory approval and access. GAP-f has already mobilized 33 partner organizations working across multiple therapeutic areas. As GAP-f enters its next strategic phase (2025–2030), the focus is shifting to an expanded set of therapeutic areas— included diseases of high burden in Asia such as dengue, malaria, respiratory infections, epilepsy, and bacterial/fungal infections — where unmet paediatric needs are particularly acute.

A new partnership between WHO and the Temasek Foundation represents a critical opportunity to translate global commitments into regional action in Asia. This collaboration will leverage WHO’s convening role and GAP-f’s technical expertise to support countries in the region to:

• Update the regional portfolio of priority paediatric formulations, ensuring that the medicines most needed for children in Asia are prioritized for registration, and introduction.
• Strengthen national paediatric medicines ecosystems, supporting countries to establish the regulatory, clinical, and policy frameworks needed to accelerate access to child-friendly medicines.
• Pilot a harmonised paediatric data hub across ASEAN countries to improve monitoring of safety and effectiveness and guide regulatory and policy decision-making.
• Scale up successful models of paediatric medicine introduction and access, ensuring lessons learned can be adapted and applied across the region.
• As part of this effort, WHO will support selected countries to conduct national paediatric medicines landscape assessments, identify gaps and bottlenecks as well as best practices, and develop evidence-based national action plans/roadmaps. This consultancy will contribute directly to this process.

Deliverables

Under the direct supervision of National Professional Officer (Essential Drugs and Medicines) and Team Lead (Health Systems), the Consultant will undertake the following tasks:

Output 1: Inception Report (Month 1)
Deliverable 1.1: Conduct a desk review of national policies, guidelines, regulatory documents, disease burden data, quantification reports, and relevant literature.
Deliverable 1.2: Prepare inception report detailing methodology, tools, workplan, and timeline.

Output 2: National paediatric medicines landscape mapping report, including documentation of identified best practices (if any).
Deliverable 2.1: Assess availability and registration status of key paediatric formulations.
Deliverable 2.2: Review procurement systems, supply chain performance, clinical guidelines, and financing mechanisms.
Deliverable 2.3: Identify gaps, challenges, and document any best practices, promising models, or successful country experiences relevant to paediatric medicines access.

Output 3: Paediatric medicines needs estimation and priority medicines list
Deliverable 3.1: Identify high-burden paediatric diseases.
Deliverable 3.2: Estimate national needs for paediatric formulations based on disease burden and standard treatment guidelines.
Deliverable 3.3: Identify priority paediatric formulations required.
Deliverable 3.4: Identify medicines with largest mismatch between need and current supply

Output 4: Bottleneck analysis report covering policy, regulatory, procurement, market dynamics, supply chain, and clinical use barriers, including notable best practices if identified.
Deliverable 4.1: Assess barriers across the paediatric medicines access pathway (policy, regulation, R&D, market entry, procurement, supply chain, clinical use, data systems).
Deliverable 4.2: Summarize key bottlenecks and opportunities for action, highlighting where best practices or successful approaches have addressed similar issues in the country or comparable settings.

Output 5: Summary of key informant interviews and stakeholder mapping, with documented best practices where applicable.
Deliverable 5.1: Conduct interviews with MoH, regulatory authorities, procurement agencies, clinicians, academic institutions, professional bodies, manufacturers/importers, NGOs, and development partners.
Deliverable 5.2: Produce synthesis of findings and stakeholder mapping, capturing any best practices or innovations surfaced through interviews.

Output 6: Report of national stakeholder consultation workshop, including best practices validated or discussed.
Deliverable 6.1: Present findings to national stakeholders.
Deliverable 6.2: Facilitate validation of results and prioritization of actions.
Deliverable 6.3: Document workshop outcomes, including stakeholder reflections on best practices and their potential adaptation or scale-up.

Output 7: Final consolidated report including national roadmap/action plan, and a summary of best practices (if identified).
Deliverable 7.1: Integrate all findings into a consolidated final report.
Deliverable 7.2: Develop a practical national roadmap/action plan with recommendations (with explicit linkages to existing national strategies), timelines, and responsible entities.
Deliverable 7.3: Include a synthesized section on best practices identified during the assessment, with relevance for policy, regulatory, and programmatic decision-making.

Qualifications, experience, skills and languages

Educational Qualifications:

Essential:  First university degree, bachelor's in public health, Pharmacy, Health Economics, Health Systems, Paediatrics, or related field.
Desirable: Master's degree in public health, Pharmacy, Health Economics, Health Systems, Paediatrics, or related field.

Experience

Essential: Minimum of 2–5 years of experience in essential medicines, paediatric health, pharmaceutical systems, regulatory affairs, or health supply chains. Demonstrated experience conducting national-level health assessments, landscape analyses, and/or market studies. Proven experience in qualitative data collection, including key informant interviews.
Desirable: Experience working with WHO, UNICEF, or other international health organizations. Experience in Asia or LMIC contexts. Knowledge of paediatric formulation development, regulatory pathways, or product introduction.

Skills/Knowledge:

• Strong analytical and report-writing skills.
• Strong understanding of health systems, access to medicines, and paediatric health.
• Ability to identify, analyze, and document best practices and lessons learned in health systems or access-to-medicines contexts.
• Ability to analyze complex policy, regulatory, and supply chain systems.
• Excellent interpersonal and facilitation skills.
• Ability to work independently and deliver high-quality outputs on time.

Languages and level required

Essential: Excellent written and spoken English. Knowledge of the local language is an important asset.

Location

The assignment will be in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Travel

Travel may be required for stakeholder consultations or data collection. All travel must be approved by WHO and conducted according to WHO travel policies.

Remuneration and budget

Remuneration: IDR 4,000,000 (daily, paid 45 days within the contract duration). 
Expected duration of contract: 6 months, March to September 2026, part-time

Additional Information:

•    This vacancy notice may be used to identify candidates for other similar consultancies at the same level.
•    Only candidates under serious consideration will be contacted.
•    A written test may be used as a form of screening.
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