Medical Supply Chain Expert

Introduction

Expertise France Expertise France (EF) is a public agency created on 1st January 2015 and merging 6 French public agencies under the supervision of the French Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Economy and Finance with a strong inter-ministerial vocation. EF offers program engineering and technical assistance by developing and implementing international cooperation actions worldwide. EF operates in various fields of development and institutional cooperation including safety and security reform, post-crisis/ stability, public health, human rights, strengthening of institutions and NGOs and governance. Carrying out large-scale, multi-stakeholder programs, EF can ensure the cooperation between individuals, teams and institutions with very different statuses, cultures and specialties. Besides, EF has acquired a sound experience in administrative and financial management of large-scale international programs.

1. Context

Armed conflict in North-Eastern Syria (NES) from 2013 to 2017 caused widescale destruction of the basic and communal infrastructure, significant loss of life, physical and psychosocial trauma, and led to widespread displacement. As coalition forces liberate areas previously held by ISIS and restore security, stability has been returning to these areas. However, the lack of essential services and basic infrastructure in these areas continues to expose communities to physical, social and psychological adverse effects. The influx of displaced populations puts additional stress on an already fragile health service delivery system and overburdens the health workforce.

Expertise France is supporting and improving the living conditions of the population through the progressive recovery of essential services for stability and sustainability; focusing on health service delivery in conflict- affected areas by strengthening service delivery quality, diversity, and availability as well as enhancing the harmonization and coordination of health services’ strategy, policies and approaches through the HERNES program.  

Weak health infrastructure and an unreliable supply chain for medical equipment and supplies are one of the main factors behind the significant gaps in the availability, accessibility, and quality of Health services in NES.

One of the main challenges facing the health system in the NES is the weak medical supply chain. The expiration of the cross-border aid into northeast Syria has disrupted severely the supply chain mechanisms in the NES. The lack of UN-led coordination for the logistic of the humanitarian response in the NES, and the absence of WHO supplies line resulted in huge gaps in medical supplies.

Under HERNES 2, EF aims to contribute to filling these above-mentioned gaps with the support of an EF’ supply chain expert through improving the medical supply chain of the project ‘s implementing partner on one hand, and engaging with the HWG to develop the central coordination related to supply chain management on the other hand. This is to ensure uninterrupted, efficient, and transparent procurement and supply of basic medicines, equipment and consumables.

To this end, Expertise France aims at providing support to harmonized procedures, processes, and capacity building in the field of supply chain management through the HERNES progtam.

In that context, Expertise France aims at looking for a Supply chain Expert to lead the review and improvement of the Medical Supply Chain System under the scope of HERNES program.

1. Main Responsibilities, Qualifications, & Core Competencies

Working under the management of the Program Manager of Expertise France in Iraq, the Medical Supply Chain Expert will be in charge of will assessing and reviewing the existing supply chain and pharmaceutical elements of NES health partners and harmonizing procedures and processes.

 The Medical Supply Chain Expert will review procedures, provide recommendations, develop training packages for supply chain management and perform training for NES partners on better supply chain management.

role and responsibilities

The main responsibilities of the position, and the core competencies required include:

• Support the partner in developing a risk management plan that includes predicting risks for each medical item’s availability, quality, warehousing, and consumption. The plan should also include mitigation strategies such as alternatives for some medical items that are challenging to source, quality measures, and safeguarding protocols when needed.
• Support the partner in developing a quality management policy, that involves sufficient inputs from the program team to the supply chain department.
• Support the partner in developing a specific protocol for narcotic drugs.

Reporting and Deliverables

4. Qualifications & Experience

The qualifications and experience required for the position are as follows:

Education level

• Master’s Degree in public health, health management, epidemiology, medicine, hospital management, health policy, health systems, or related field with broad knowledge and experience of the Syrian as a whole and specifically of the North East of Syria;

Qualifications

• At least 5 years of experience managing and supporting medical supply chains.
• Ability to design policies, strategies, and tools related to medical supply chain management.
• Knowledge of the Public and Global Health in the context of the NES and a strong understanding of the steps to strengthen a health system via community engagement in the NES context is necessary;
• Excellent professional Arabic and English is a requirement.
• Proven experience within health or civil society support sectors
• Experience in humanitarian, stabilization, and/or post-crisis settings with NGOs, INGOs, or development organizations
• Experience in remote management
• Good computer skills: MS Windows and MS Office packages (Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Outlook).
• Good communication, writing, and reporting skills;

Personal qualities

• Proactive, results-oriented and service-oriented.
• Ability to work with diplomacy, tact and sensitivity and experience in working within different cultural contexts requiring cultural sensitivity;
• Well-developed interpersonal and team skills and proven ability to be flexible in demanding situations and ability to work under pressure and in response to changing needs

5. Reporting Lines

The Medical Supply Chain Expert will report directly to the Program Manager, and work in close coordination with the program team, EF staff, and health actors in NES.

6. Duty Station & Travel

The position is home-based with frequent travels to Erbil, Iraq

Only applicants who apply as per the below details will be shortlisted.

• Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.

• Deadline of submission: 18th April 2022
• All applications must include the following (In English and in PDF format only) :

• Detailed CV
• Cover Letter (explaining suitability for the position)

• Applications should be sent to [email protected] , using the following subject:“Medical Supply Chain Expert”
• Expertise France reserves the right to close the announcement prior to the stated deadline as applications are screened on a rolling basis and only short-listed candidates will be contacted for interviews.
• Incomplete applications and wrong title formats will not be considered