Consultancy Supply Chain Management Information System

Job Description

 

Statement of Work

Purpose:  Provide consultancy in assessing the supply chain management information system in Zanzibar

Provider(s):TBD

Period of Performance: February 2021 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 the 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 for storing and distributing health 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 in 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..

Objectives 

The purpose of this scope of work is to review Management Information Systems for health commodities in Zanzibar.  The scope will include analyzing different paper based and electronic MIS tools available at different levels, document weaknesses and strengths of the tools and recommend the best options for considerations.

The objectives of this STTA are to;

1. To determine the gap available in Health information systems
2. Identify/map existing information systems at all levels for both electronic and paper-based systems.
3. Define best model for logistic information systems.
4. To assess Health information systems processes and routes optimization.
5. To determine the requirements for best technology to be used at CMS and public health Facilities in Zanzibar.
6. To recommend MIS technologies and opportunities for local solutions customization for supply chain system re-modelling.

Key activities

In this review the specific tasks will be carried out and the results compared to determine efficient management information systems to improve logistics information systems. Key steps to perform the tasks 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 management information systems to improve logistics information systems.
2. Documents/literature review (CMS SoPs, SOP Manual for Logistics Systems, Reports of Previous Reviews, etc)
3.  Conduct assessment (Data tools development, Pre-testing of tools, data collection, data cleaning, analysis and report preparation. Key areas to include, Determine/identify available MIS at all levels of supply chain, Desk review to identify available MIS weaknesses and strength (Digital Health strategy guideline, e-Government, ZFDA, CMS, CPO, Procurement System, Mnazi Mmoja, assessment report of the digital health strategy etc), Identify gaps in the existing MIS (usage, accessibility requirements, coverage, system communications, complexity, hosting, security, human resource capability to manage MIS, QA, licensing, MIS documentation, standards, level of support, etc), Develop option analysis, Determine the paper-based MIS challenges, Establish tentative cost for acquisition, installation and maintenance of MIS (Hardware, Software and technologies), Determine interoperability of MIS, data exchange and reporting, Develop data collection tools, Explore MIS technologies and opportunities of local solutions customization for supply chain re-modelling (Pipeline, Logistic systems, warehouse, procurement, barcode, drones), Review SC data storage space, standards, and backup plans for both central and facility level MIS (CMS, Hospital and primary health care facilities), Identify the MIS support capabilities and structures, Conduct a thorough review of the data, analysis work and report to ensure that it is of high quality before it is shared, From the information gathered, propose different scenarios and options. Options proposed can be analysed and based on the cost benefit analysis discuss the appropriate modifications to the current systems or propose new policies and their advantages, Summarise the results of the analysed options in a formal report, Discuss the results with the task force or other identified authorities, Finalize and submit the final formal report to the taskforce and identified authorities

4. Deliverable/outputs

• Technical report with recommendations.
• Draft and final review report (including selected options, plans/strategies and cost of implementing the options)
• Methodology and tools

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:

Demonstrated technical capabilities.

• Be a qualified professional or firm with a team comprised of qualified experts with a demonstrated track record in Management information systems
• Experience developing policies in Management information systems and have knowledge of Supply chain in Zanzibar.
• Extensive experience of working on Management information systems.
• Expertise in conducting MIS assessments.
• Knowledge and understanding of Zanzibar health systems and/or that has worked on similar assignment in other Sub-Saharan countries in recent years.
• Strength and depth in – MIS analyst, MIS policies and regulations
• Experience in e-Health strategies

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 Management information systems of health commodities (Medicines and Laboratory) including for HIV/AIDS, TB 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.

•  All submission have to be sent to ghsc.recruitmenttz@gmail.com. Please indicate in the subject heading “MIS Module Consultancy Proposal”
• Bid submission have to be submitted by February 22, 2021 17:00 EAT.
• All cost proposals should be broken down by 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 and last through March 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 and March 2021

Selection Criteria 

• Experience health commodity supply Chain procurement. Documentation of experience including sample of work and organization for which work was performed.

References checks.

• Quality of proposa
• Pricing
• lowest price technical acceptable proposal based on the above criteria will be selected.

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