Information Technology (IT) Technical Assistance (TA)

LonAdd HR Consultancy Plc (www.lonadd.com) is a Recruitment & Outsourcing Company based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, with branch offices in Dukem, Hawassa and Bahir Dar. We are looking to recruit a qualified candidate on behalf of our client.

Location   Adama

No. Required – 2 (Two)

Start date – as soon as possible 

Background and Justification

The partnership between the MasterCard Foundation and the Africa CDC, known as Saving Lives and Livelihoods (SLL), has been established to facilitate the acquisition of 60 million COVID-19 vaccines and aid in their distribution to millions of people throughout Africa. Additionally, the partnership aims to lay the foundation for vaccine manufacturing in Africa by focusing on the development of human capital and strengthening the Africa CDC.

To move forward with the SLL Program, Implementing Partners prepared for collaborative micro-planning with Member States Ministry of health, which is an essential step in the pre-implementation process. The SLL projects, which aim to enhance the COVID-19 vaccination program by strengthening the EPI program, are being implemented in cooperation with the implementing partners and regional health bureaus. The national immunization program is closely monitoring the progress of these projects.

Accordingly, UNICEF has been sub-granted the responsibility of procuring and managing the logistics of the COVID- 19 vaccines at the country level. According to the micro-plan, activities have been carried out to procure cold chain equipment and handle in-country logistics. As part of the efforts to strengthen in-country logistics, Information technology (IT) consultants (TAs) are to be hired and deployed to EPSS Hubs.

The Ministry of Health of Ethiopia has successfully launched the COVID-19 vaccine rollout on March 13, 2021, prioritizing healthcare workers, support staff, and vulnerable groups. Various strategies, such as fixed/static, outreach, mobile, and temporary fixed post services, have been employed to ensure widespread access to vaccination. The country has conducted four nationwide vaccination campaigns with the aim of vaccinating as many people as possible in a short period of time.

As of July 2023, over 54,206,986 individuals have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, which is a significant portion of the population. The country’s target is to vaccinate 70% of the total population by the end of 2023.

However, inadequate stock management can lead to negative consequences, including increased costs, inequities, reduced demand, and difficulties in reaching underserved populations. The UNICEF and WHO Joint Reporting Form (JRF) analysis indicates that 46% of developing countries experienced service interruptions due to stock outs in 2019, an increase from 30% in 2014. Timely and equitable immunization services are crucial for long-term health and economic development, and effective vaccine stock management plays a crucial role in achieving these objectives. It ensures a consistent supply of life-saving vaccines, even in remote areas, helps meet coverage targets, and ensures that no individual is left without access to vaccines. Moreover, different vaccines have varying technology platforms, safety profiles, and cold chain requirements. These factors affect their storage, distribution, logistics data visibility, and use at national, sub-national, and service delivery levels.

To address challenges related to logistics data visibility, using the grant from SLL project, the Ministry of Health, in collaboration with UNICEF Ethiopia Country Office, is seeking 11.5 months of technical assistance to strengthen the Ethiopian Pharmaceuticals Supply Service (EPSS) immunization supply chain activities. This assistance aims to integrate COVID-19 vaccines with routine services in the future, ensuring a reliable vaccine supply for health facilities at each EPSS Hub. It also involves coordinating and monitoring vaccine logistics management information system (eLMIS) and ensuring that health facilities have technical capacity to use digital inventory and transaction systems (mBrana and other eLMIS tools), data visibility and use the data for decision making at the sub-national and woreda level. Ultimately, the goal is to prevent the transmission of vaccine-preventable diseases within the community.

The IT consultant will be a key member of the sub-national logistics technical working group. The consultant will provide direct system and IT related support and guidance for mBrana software implementation at districts or health facilities. He/she is expected to provide technical assistance, training, supportive supervision, and monitoring and evaluation support or different systems being implemented at the woreda and health facility. The consultant is expected to understand, communicate, train, and coach staff at the supported facilities to ensure the utilization of the systems effectively and efficiently, with minimal assistance. He/she is responsible for ensuring the smooth running of activities and compliance with MOH and UNICEF policies and regulations.

Purpose

The purpose of this activity is to support the Government of Ethiopia (GOE) to improve the quality of health services and create a sustainable health care system using data for decision making, as well as to provide similar services to other countries in Africa or to respond to a crisis in Ethiopia (as needed). The primary objectives of the Activity are to 1) support information technology systems and data repository at all levels; 2) build a culture of data use; and 3) improve capacity and governance of MOH health information systems management.

The primary objective of this consultancy is to provide technical support for enhancing the EPSS vaccine logistics management information system (eLMIS), aiming to improve vaccine logistics data quality, visibility, and data-driven decision-making to optimize immunization supply chain efficiency and vaccine availability.

Specific Tasks

With the overall direction and supervision of the respective EPSS Hub Manager, Warehouse, and inventory management (WIM) team lead, and technical support from the immunization officer of UNICEF Ethiopia’s Health Section, the consultant will play a key role of support the technical working group for vaccine logistics at sub-national hubs on electronic logistics management information system (eLMIS).

Key responsibilities of the consultant include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Offer technical assistance to sub-national Vaccine logistics Technical Working Groups (TWGs) through meeting participation, agenda sharing, minute-taking, and decision/action point facilitation.
• Provide IT support to the woredas and health facilities under EPSS hub catchment in intensive and mature phases of eLMIS implementation.
• Under the guidance of EPSS hub, collaborates with other partners (like JSI/DHA, CHAI, FIT and others) which are working to support the MOH/EPSS health data digitalization.
• Perform hands-on guidance and supervision for facilities and woredas in effectively utilizing the mBrana system, delivering practical on-the-job training, and resolving any encountered IT issues.
• Train, coach, monitor, and capacitate relevant logistics officers or EPI focal persons on eLMIS (like mBrana) technical support as part of sustainability strategy.
• Provide technical assistance on vaccine logistics and service data triangulation for decision making.
• Thoroughly investigate and address reported system malfunctions promptly, collaborating closely with relevant stakeholders to swiftly rectify the situation.
• Follow mBrana sites vaccine requisition form (VRF) data quality and timely submission to EPSS hubs.
• Support EPSS hubs vaccine focal person or warehousing and inventory management (WIM) officer to use eVRF for resupply decision from central warehouses.
• Regular update on mBrana (or any other eLMIS tool) status and challenges to the Hub manager supervisor.
• Proactively mitigate IT-related problems of eLMIS and ensure timely response to emergency user requests.
• Facilitate access to the mBrana dashboard for relevant stakeholders and support EPSS Hub, regional, zonal, woreda, and health facility leadership in effectively utilizing the data for informed decision-making.
• Identify and report bugs, problems, issues, requests for improvements to the relevant Project Manager and responsible IT support unit and follow the actions
• Provide support and guidance to relevant staff in creating backups of recent eLMIS databases.
• Assist the EPSS Hub in adopting the national manuals, guidelines, SOPs, ToRs, and training materials related to eLMIS, logistics data triangulation, and informed decision-making.
• Facilitate and ensure the visibility of third-level stock data using mBrana (any other eLMIS tool).
• Support Regional Health Bureaus, zonal health departments, and Woreda Health offices in managing vaccines and related supplies during vaccination campaigns.
• Collect information about the existing eLMIS being used to evaluate its strengths and weaknesses and provide valuable recommendations to enhance its effectiveness to the management.
• Assist the hub with the IT aspects of new initiatives such as EVM 2.0, Cold Chain Equipment Inventory (CCEI), Remote Temperature Monitoring (RTM), and Cold Room Temperature Mapping, etc.
• Submit monthly activity reports to the EPSS Hubs manager or Hub’s WIM process owner, and a detailed final report at the end of the assignment.
• Perform any other activities related to the assigned post as required by the EPSS Hub manager or Hub’s WIM team leader.

Reporting

The consultant will be directly recruited by third party HR contractor and will report to the EPSS Hub manager or WIM team leader in close collaboration with UNICEF ECO Immunization officer.

Expected Deliverables and Timeline

• Regular updates on mBrana (other eLMIS) status of the EPSS Hub, woredas and health facilities under the hub
• Provide IT support to EPSS Hub and woreda/HFs under the hub’s catchment in eLMIS software (mBrana) implementation 
• Conduct catchment woreda and facility supportive supervision, provide training on mBrana and troubleshooting IT issues.
• Facilitate third-level stock visibility from Woreda and HF level reported timely using digital eLMIS tools (like mBrana, Google sheet, any other eLMIS tool)
• Analyze the VRF data quality assessment of facilities reporting using eLMIS (mBrana) and provide feedback
• Support the eVRF submission of the Hubs request to the central EPSS on time
• Provide IT assistance on logistics and service data triangulation exercises to identify root causes of discrepancies and recommendations to EPI team
• Training report on eLMIS digital tools (like mBrana) for managing immunization supply chain at regional, woreda and health facility levels
• Regular participation and updating about the digitalization effort of vaccine logistics data to Subnational Logistics TWGs
• Support Remote Temperature monitoring (RTM) report from health facilities summarized and timely reported
• Support the IT aspect of EVM 2.0 assessment of the Hub and the Woredas and HFs under the catchment
• Support the IT aspect of Cold chain equipment Inventory (CCEI) of woredas and health facilities and fed on the national CCEI system
• Support data management of COVID-19 vaccine management in integration phase including lesson learned and experience sharing

Expected background and Experience.

The consultant has to meet the following criteria:

• Bachelor’s degree in relevant discipline i.e., IT, Computer Science, or another related field
• Minimum of two years of experience working on Health Information System support
• Experience supervising both technical and administrative staff.
• Knowledge of HMIS and LMIS tools used at MOH/EPSS like mBrana, VITAS/HCMIS, DHIS2, eCHIS, Dagu, etc.
• Proven ability to work effectively with government and multi-stakeholders.
• Professional experience with UNICEF or other partners working in immunization.
• Capacity in documentation of best practices and lesson learned in iSCM interventions.
• Experience in logistics/supply chain management and/or public health commodities management.
• Experience working on implementation of health data capturing tools is a plus.

Language skills: Fluent oral and written communication skill in both Amharic and English. Knowledge of the relevant local language/s would be an asset.

Other Skills: Computer literacy with proficient in use of Microsoft Office applications; other data collection tools like mBrana, VITAS/HCMIS, DHIS2, eCHIS… etc.

Suitable candidate:

• Excellent facilitation, coordination, organizational and analytical skills.
• Ability to write in a clear and concise manner and to present information in relevant formats.
• Ability to manage and analyze basic data in Excel and produce charts/graphs.
• Basic familiarity with UNICEF/WHO and other bilateral agencies work in support of immunization programs and implementation and their practices and procedures.
• Strong interpersonal skills and work effectively in a team at all levels.
• Deep knowledge of the business processes at the Regional, woreda and facility level is desired.
• Must be willing and able to travel 90% of the time.

Desirable: Previous experience working with UNICEF or UN agencies. Familiarity or experience with immunization supply chain management will be an asset.

• The consultant will not be provided lodging and/or meals.
• The consultant will work from their assigned EPSS Hubs.
• The consultant should use his/her own materials, i.e., PC, mobile phone, internet, printer, etc.
• The consultant will be paid monthly upon completion of deliverables as indicated on this TOR and approved by the supervisor monthly through the third-party HR firm.

Policy both parties should be aware of:

• Third-party HR firms will manage all the administrative issues and aspects based on the HR procedures.
• All remuneration must be within the contract agreement through the third-party HR firm.
• No contract may commence unless the contract is signed by both third-party HR firm and the consultant.
• Travel will be facilitated after travel request approved by the consultant’s supervisor and managed by the third- party HR firm.
• Consultants will not have supervisory responsibilities or authority on UNICEF budget.

How To Apply

Interested applicants with the appropriate qualifications and experience should submit their most recent and detailed CV only, via email to recruitment@lonad.com , by putting Application for ‘’Information Technology (IT) Technical Assistance (TA)‘’ in the subject box.

Only Shortlisted Candidates will be contacted

Application Deadline May 30, 2025