Pharma Lab Specialist

SOLTHIS is a global health NGO created 18 years ago that works for prevention and access to quality health care for all, by strengthening health systems and services in a sustainable way. We work on women’s, mothers’ and children’s health issues, and on the major pandemics, HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis. Solthis is a development NGO, present in West Africa with 6 country offices and which, in partnership with local actors, deploys projects including operational research, capacity building and advocacy.

Solthis applies a policy of non-discrimination in hiring based solely on the skills, experience and interpersonal skills of its candidates and does not under any circumstances base its selection criteria on notions such as gender, age, nationality, ethnic origin, sexual orientation, religious affiliation or state of health (pathology and/or disability).

We therefore encourage all applications.

In order to carry out our project in SIERRA LEONE, we are looking for a:

PHARMA-LAB SPECIALIST

Contract duration: 7 month

Duty station: Freetown with regular field trips within the 7 districts of implementation of the project

Availability: ASAP

https://www.solthis.org/fr/offer/pharma-lab-specialist-offre-en-anglais/

CONTEXT

Solthis is registered and has been operating in Sierra Leone since 2011 where our teams have been providing comprehensive technical support at both health facility, national and community levels to improve quality of HIV care.

From 2022, Solthis will support the implementation of the New Funding Model 3 (NFM3) to accelerate the achievement of 95-95-95 targets in Sierra Leone by 2024.

The intervention through quality-oriented capacity building approaches, will complement the national healthcare workers’ capacity building activities such as on-site training, clinical mentorship, supportive supervision and coordination planned by the NACP & NAS in the NFM3. It will focus on strengthening the capacity of healthcare workers (HCW) (at Health Facilities (HF) and Key Population Drop-In Centers (DIC)) levels and DHMT staff to provide quality of HIV services delivery including 2 prevention, HTS, ART, eMTCT, DSD, EID, Viral Load, TB/HIV etc.

It will also strengthen the Supply chain management and laboratory component to improve the accessibility and availability of HIV commodities at health facilities and DICs, and to support DHMT to allocate the available resources in the best possible way to minimize service provision disruption. Finally, the intervention will support health information management and systems and use of data to improve HIV related indicators and the Global fund performance framework.

The intervention will be implemented in seven districts including Wester Area (Rural and Urban), Port Loko, Bombali, Tonkolili, Bo and Kenema Districts.

JOB OBJECTIVES

Pharma-Lab specialist support the New Funding Model 3 (NFM3) implementation in HIV field.

Based in Freetown and under the responsibility of the Medical Coordinator his/her main responsibilities are:

• Ensuring adequate supplies at service delivery point: stock management, completion and submission of RR&IV forms.
• To provide technical assistance to NACP and to the central HIV reference laboratory in HIV commodities management
• Strengthen laboratory testing for EID and Viral Load and other HIV service-related laboratory testing, including demand creation, sample collection, transportation and turn-around-time, timely delivery of results to clients and monitoring of viral suppression.
• To facilitate cohesive and supportive collaboration between the health facilities and the central structures (Reference laboratory, HIV program, Central Warehouse) building confidence and teamwork among those involved.

Specific Tasks and responsibilities

• Provide technical, supervisory and programmatic support to NACP in the elaboration and updates of national HIV guidelines, recommendations, strategies, SOPs in regards to ARVs and other related commodities management, including Laboratory ones.
• Provide technical Support to the National ART Pharmacist Coordinator as well as the National Logistics Coordinator in their monitoring and supervision tasks
• Participate and provide technical support to the National HIV Quantification and to the National Laboratory Technical Working Groups and the Community Consultative Group
• Provide support to District Health Management Team (DHMT) to analyse reports from facilities, to elaborate distribution plans of ARVs and other commodities and to prevent any stock-out

Under the supervision of the Medical Coordinator and the technical referent at Solthis HQ and in collaboration with the Softhis HIV team, the Health Pharma/Lab Specialist will:

• Identify training needs and build the capacities of the key actors
• Organize and conduct classroom and/or on-site trainings, post training follow-up Provide on-site mentoring.
• Strengthen the organization and communication between the pharmacists, the counsellors and laboratory staff
• Participate in the definition, follow-up and reporting of project indicators related to pharma & Lab activities: design and monitoring of tools, quality data-collection and data-analysis.
• Participate in the compilation of annual project and donor reports.
• Assist Head of Mission and Medical Coordinator in fundraising and/or expanding/developing new program

PROFILE

Initial training:

Pharmacist

Experience:

You must have at least minimum 5 years’ experience in PSM and Laboratory systems strengthening and experience in

• Designing implementing and monitoring of health activities related to pharmacy and laboratory
• Mentoring of health professionals in HIV commodities management

Qualities & Skills:

We are looking for someone who :

• Is familiar with Adult education, Group facilitation
• Ability to dialogue with health authorities at different level (national and district)
• Ability to animate and dispense trainings
• Facilitates adult meetings/participatory workshops
• Good writing and synthesis skills

You will also need to demonstrate

• Good interpersonal skills, diplomacy and anticipation.
• Ability to manage stress
• Autonomy and proactivity
• Ability to work in partnership and network

Other :

• Languages*: English required, French is an asset*
• Computer skills*: including the usual software (Word, Excel, Outlook, etc.)*

REMUNERATION

Salary :

Depending on experience in a similar position between 1600 euros and 1750 euros gross per month

Advantages :

• Perdiem and housing allowance
• Medical coverage, repatriation insurance, provident fund.
• 33 days paid holiday per year