Individual Consultant- eVIN Documentation (Indian National Only)

Background

The Universal Immunization Programme (UIP) is an ambitious programme of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) that aims to reduce morbidity and mortality due to Vaccine Preventable Diseases (VPD). Joint Review Missions and Common Review Missions, organized by MoHFW on a regular basis have noted that whilst UIP performance in India has improved overtime, there still remain a number of key constraints impacting immunization coverage in the country. Some of the main constraints preventing India from achieving a quality immunization programme with universally high coverage rates, relate to Cold Chain and Vaccine Logistics Management.

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare is currently rolling out an innovative Electronic Vaccine Intelligence Network called eVIN in twelve states of the country. eVIN aims to support the Government of India’s Universal Immunization Programme by providing real-time information on vaccine stocks and flows, and storage temperatures across all cold chain points in these states.

eVIN provides an integrated solution to address widespread inequities in vaccine coverage by supporting state governments in overcoming constraints of infrastructure, monitoring and management information systems and human resources, often resulting in overstocking and stock-outs of vaccines in storage centres. The three key components of eVIN are:

• Technology – the software solution and its use, and the temperature logger device;
• Human resource- building capacities of government staff and providing supportive supervision through the vaccine and cold chain managers deployed in each district;
• Governance- ensuring efficient and systematic record-keeping and developing standard operating procedures.

Beginning in October 2015, eVIN has been successfully implemented in 371 districts of Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Manipur, Nagaland, Odisha, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. With this, eVIN will support better vaccine logistics management at more than 10,500 cold chain points reaching out to nearly 60 percent of children under the age of two in the country. Additionally, the process of roll-out of eVIN has been initiated in five states- Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Telangana, Uttarakhand.

UNDP intends to hire the services of a documentation specialist to document the complete process of implementation of eVIN, tracking its progress and evolution, listing its various components, impact and indicators, and compiling case studies and success stories. The consultant would focus on the following deliverables:

Duties and Responsibilities

The documentation specialist will be required to undertake the following tasks:

• Documentation of the process of implementation of the Electronic Vaccine Intelligence Network in detail, capturing the history, progress, various components and significance of the innovation.
• Develop and record specific case studies covering various aspects of eVIN and its impact including success stories, good practices and quantitative results
• Interact and discuss learning, challenges and changes with key stakeholders including government health officials, project team, and health workers at the national, state, region and district levels, undertake several field visits to understand and record accounts.
• Develop stories on impact by compiling and presenting quantitative data from reports, assessments and field visits.
• Research, review, organize from the existing literature/ content on eVIN.
• Plan and present visual data including info graphs, tables, diagrams and data charts.
• Carry out technical editing and copy-editing of the document for readability and consistency.
• Liaise and coordinate with Project Officer- Communications for the assignment.
• Coordinate and plan with the photographer for the assignment for visual presentation of information through photographs in the document.

Objective of the document

The document among other things will

• Give a complete overview of eVIN, its history, evolution and various components;
• Provide a detailed description of the process of implementation of eVIN;
• Enlist quantitative and qualitative impact and achievements of eVIN;
• Present specific case studies capturing good practices, success stories and voices from the field.

Structure of the document

Document- Main document should be submitted as MS Word document only.

Length- The document would approximately be 200-250 pages.

Language- The document should be written and submitted in English. However, anecdotes and accounts may first be recorded in Hindi or regional language and translated to English.

Design- The text would be supported with visual description including photographs, info graphs, data charts, diagrams and tables. The content may be planned accordingly. For ease of reference, annexes, endnotes, glossary would be structured in the document.

Duty Station

• This is a Delhi- based assignment. The consultant would be required to travel to the implementing states- Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Manipur, Nagaland, Odisha, Rajasthan, Telangana, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh. The payment for out-station travelling and accommodation would be as per the norms.

Competencies

• Demonstrates substantive and technical knowledge to meet responsibilities sand requirements of the role with excellence.
• Strong analytical skills
• Plans and produces quality results to meet established goals
• Demonstrates strong written communication skills
• Demonstrates ability to meet demanding deadlines
• Responds positively to critical feedback and different points of view

Required Skills and Experience

• Recognized post graduate degree
• 5- 10 years of experience as a writer/ editor
• Proven experience in English editing and writing
• Proven experience of documentation and report writing, especially in the development or health sectors.
• Understanding of concepts of public health and immunization is desirable
• Familiarity of UN editorial style and understanding of publication requirements is desirable

Selection Criteria

The consultant should specify his/her daily consultancy fee.

The consultant would be selected based on the following criteria:

Technical Expertise: 70%

Financial quotation: 30%

The technical expertise would be evaluated on the following criteria:

• Educational Qualification- 20 marks
• Experience working on health related subjects- 30 marks
• Experience in working with the UN- 10 marks
• Previous work samples- 50 marks

Payment Schedule

On monthly basis on certification of timesheet submitted.

NotesMiscellaneous charges i.e. internet, phone, relocation charges, local travel etc. would not be reimbursed separately;Individuals working with institutions may also apply, contract would be issued in the name of institution for the specific services of individual;Consultant may have to arrange his own computing equipment.Please ensure that all the documents to be uploaded should be combined in a single PDF file before uploading as the system has provision of uploading only one document.

For any clarification please write to jagdish.singh@undp.org