Consultancy HR Capacity AND governance oversight at USAID Global Health Supply Chain Program

USAID Global Health Supply Chain Program

Consultancy HR Capacity AND governance oversight

Statement of Work

Purpose: Provide Consultancy services for the supply chain on human resource capacity, Governance, oversight and accountability module of the Zanzibar holistic supply chain review

Period of Performance: February and March 2021

Place of Performance:  Zanzibar and Virtual/desk work

BACKGROUND

The Ministry of Health, Social Welfare, Elderly Gender and Children (MOHSWEGC) Zanzibar embarked on the reform process from the beginning of 1990’s and through these reforms; the ministry became fully fledged in the early 2000’s. The Zanzibar health care delivery system has been divided into tertiary, secondary and primary care services; the primary health care services being spread throughout the islands (Pemba and Unguja)s. The primary health care services have been transferred to President’s Office, Regional Administration, and Local Government Special Department (PORALGSD). The distribution allows good access to primary services to 95% of the population living within or less than 5km to the nearest public health facility.

Through the Chief Pharmacist Office (CPO) and the Central Medical Stores (CMS); MOHSWGEC is responsible for procurement of commodities in collaboration with the Procurement Unit. The CMS is responsible to store and distribute commodities to all public health facilities. The health procurement and logistics systems are challenged by limited qualified human resources and issues related to contract management including order processing, delivery and payment terms. All these issues impact the efficiency of the health procurement system hence compromising availability of health commodities.

In November 2013, the MOHSWEGC conducted a strategic review of the national supply chain for health commodities. The review examined broader systems issues affecting the availability of commodities, the performance of the supply chain, and CMS’s ability to fulfill its responsibilities. Supply chain partners and stakeholders proposed interventions in five key areas: financing, policy, and planning; warehousing, inventory management, and distribution; system design and the LMIS; procurement and the private sector; and human resources. The review recommended CMS transformation; and implementation of the recommendations and resulted to CMS achieving a semi-autonomous status.

Some additional and notable benefits of the 2013 review include storage capacity increase, and improved distribution of health commodities. This improved availability and accessibility at all times. The MOHSWGEC has continued to strengthen collaboration between alternative medical practitioners and health institutions in areas of drug monitoring and research. The cold storage system for drugs in Unguja and Pemba was also strengthened. Whilst a lot has been achieved to date, there are still some gaps that require immediate attention as noted below:

The procurement system for health commodities and supplies is still challenged with lengthy procurement processes, poor specifications for some health commodities, inadequate and unpredictable funding for medicines and inadequate infrastructure contributing to shortages of drugs

The increase of demand for health services has led to increase in number of health facilities and hence it is recommended to strengthen security at HFs premises, health commodity monitoring compliance of rational drug use practices by health providers

Recent initiatives such as digitization of the Zanzibar health system, decentralization of the health care services and modernization of logistics system requires RGOZ to also ensure that the public health supply chain system is upgraded to meet the new expectations

Despite the positive development of the overall Zanzibar health supply chain performance, there are still areas to improve. Based on Zanzibar Annual performance review reports of 2015/16; Zanzibar had experienced stock outs of essential commodities. There was an increase in the proportion of facilities experiencing stock out of tracer drugs from 37% in 2013/14 to 68% in 2015/16.

In addition, according to the performance analysis of the Zanzibar Supply chain action plan 2017/2020, factors such as inadequate funding, poor planning and coordination, inadequate tracking mechanisms and tools, as well as inadequate pharmaceutical human resources at the facility level lead to poor availability of health commodities. Capacity at health facilities to use the Integrated Logistics System (ILS) remains inadequate (knowledge, time, supervision). Overall record keeping (inventory control, prescribing, dispensing) is weak which facilitates leakages of supplies to the private sector. Adherence to good storage practices varies.

Therefore, the MOHSWEGC conducts a holistic review of the health supply chain in order to fully address the observed challenges identified in the entire system. In this case the review will assess the current situation, analyse options available to address areas requiring improvement and develop strategies to strengthen the health supply chain. It is expected that the review will lead to improving management of health commodities ensuring 100% stock availability of essential medicines in all primary health facilities in the country.

Purpose

The purpose of this scope of work is to review the health supply chain governance, human resources capacity, and leadership and oversight mechanisms. This scope also includes identifying the cadres/professionals involved in executing health supply chain activities over the entire supply chain of health commodities in Zanzibar and identifying optimal staffing for each cadre (Pharmacy, Lab and Diagnostics, biomedical engineering, ICT, procurement, etc.). In addition, the task needs to include assessing the existing structures, roles and responsibilities of different actors in supply chain and identifying how different actors are aligned when it comes to executing supply chain activities, e.g., how does the financing entities contribute in strengthening service delivery. The review must identify HR resources available, capacity gaps and identify key actors who contribute to strengthening HR for supply chain. In addition, the review needs to focus on key contributors to success of the current skills and knowledge. Recommendations of the optimal requirement of human resource at all levels should be presented to the ZHSCR taskforce and the oversight Committee.

Objectives

• Establish minimum HR requirements for health supply chain to effectively run data to day health supply chain in Zanzibar public system
• Identify key HR skills and knowledge priority areas required for a strong health supply chain system
• Identify bottlenecks and enablers to improving HR capacity, oversight and governance in supply chain
• To assess the health supply chain stakeholders and their contribution in building capacity of the RGOZ in health commodities management and supply chain
• To conduct option analysis on possible actions to strengthen governance, accountability, HR knowledge and skills for health supply chain in Zanzibar
• To propose strategies and develop action plan to strengthen health supply chain capacity, performance and governance in Zanzibar

Specific tasks to be performed

In collaboration with a team of supply chain experts, the consultant is expected to focus on HR capacity, oversight, governance and accountability of the health supply chain in Zanzibar. The consultant is tasked to identify bottlenecks and enablers to improving HR capacity, oversight and governance in supply chain. Key areas of focus will include literature review, data collection, data cleaning and analysis and report preparation and dissemination. The tasks include:

1. Schedule and conduct planning and implementing meetings of the activities that are related to the human resource for execution of health supply chain in Zanzibar
2. Documents/literature review (CMS SOPs, SOP Manual for human resources for health, Reports of Previous Reviews, etc.)
3. Hold meeting with keys stakeholders/groups.
4. Conduct assessment (Methodology, Data collection tools development, Pre-testing of tools, data collection, data cleaning and analysis. Key areas to include Identify existing documents on human resource for health in Zanzibar that are pertinent to the health supply chain (Costing report of Essential healthcare package,).

A. Key areas with HR capacity focus;

• Presence of HR policies/plans and guideline for health supply chain
• Supply chain skill set and requirements (qualification, cadres, etc)
• Recruitment of Supply chain staff
• Number of staff involved in health supply chain at all levels
• Cadres of staff involved in health supply chain at all levels
• Capacity building strategies for health supply chain workforce
• Internship, In service trainings/ packages available, regular supporting supervision and mentoring
• On job training/certification, CPD, registration and licensing, specialization, research and publications
• Funding/financing for HR on the health supply chain.
• database for supply chain HR
• specific job description at the respective level

B. Key areas focusing on supply chain oversight, governance and accountability;

• Previous assessments and reports done on supply chain oversight, governance and accountability.
• Organogram Structures available in place which determine governance, oversight and accountability in the supply chain management.
• Governance (structure, process and function) and oversight (roles and responsibilities) systems available in place to strengthen supply chain management in Zanzibar and the role played by key players at all levels.
• Key methods used to facilitate governance, oversight and accountability which propel decisions affecting supply chain management systems.
• Review stakeholders currently involved in oversight, governance and accountability.
• Review current coordination (Best practice) and networking (National, international) for all levels of supply chain management.
• Quality management system (QMS) for health supply chain

5. From the information gathered, propose different scenarios and options. Options proposed can be analyzed and based on the cost benefit analysis discuss the appropriate modifications to the current systems or propose new policies and their advantages

6. Summarize the results of the analyzed options in a formal report.

7. Discuss the results with the task force or other identified authorities.

8. Finalize and submit the final formal report to the taskforce and identified authorities.

Deliverable/outputs

1. Technical report with recommendations on an optimal operating scenario and proposed implementation roadmap to attain an improved and optimized supply chain system
2. Analysis of the options available to strengthen HR capacity, oversight, governance and accountability for supply chain
3. Final report  of the module in review
4. Detailed and costed action plan to implement the recommendations made in the HR review report.

5. Qualifications and attributes required:  

Applicant for this consultancy should be Tanzanian national or lawful resident/institution who possesses following minimum qualifications and can provide documentation supporting capabilities and experience:

1. Demonstrated technical capabilities.

• Be a qualified professional or firm with a team comprised of qualified experts with a demonstrated track record in Human resource capacity strategies, oversight and governance of health systems.
• Experience developing policies in Human resource capacity strategies, oversight and governance and have knowledge of Supply chain in Zanzibar.
• Extensive experience of working on Human resource capacity strategies, oversight and governance for health.

2. Demonstrated consultancy services.

• Demonstrated experience leading and supporting similar projects.
• Strong experience managing projects of this scope and size, including meeting deadlines and managing risks.
• Experience in planning and executing communications efforts in support of teams of this scope and size.
• Be able to participate and lead both virtual and in-person workshop(s) to review prototype materials, as needed.
• Excellent verbal and written English and Swahili
• An organization with knowledge of Zanzibar supply chain system and that has worked on similar assignment in Zanzibar in recent years.
• A person with at least 10 years’ experience in Human resource capacity strategies, oversight and governance in a resource limited setting.
• A person with at least 10 years’ experience in supply chain of health commodities covering Pharmaceuticals, laboratory commodities and biomedical equipment other technical aspects.
• Experience working in resource limited setting is a plus.

Proposal Submission and Timelines

• All submission have to be sent [email protected].
• Please indicate in the subject line HR Capacity and Governance oversight module.
• Bid submission have to be submitted by February 22, 2021 17:00 EAT.
• All cost proposals should be broken down by number daily rate.
• All travel costs will be covered by the project and therefore does not have to be included in proposal response.
• The work is expected to start once the contract is signed by the contractor.
• We expect work to commence in February 2021.
• All proposals should be priced/quoted according to days and deliverables.
• All proposals should include references and contacts of institutions for which the bidder performed a similar work.
• Examples of past work are required and should be shown when needed.
• Estimated LOE is 20 days.
• Duration of activity is from February to March 2021

Selection Criteria 

• Experience Human resource capacity strategies, oversight and governance including sample of work and organization for which work was performed.
• References checks.
• Quality of proposal
• Pricing
• The lowest price technical acceptable proposal based on the above criteria will be selected.