Health Care, Community Service

ABH Partners PLC

Introduction

Founded in 2007, ABH Partners PLC is a leading consultancy and human resources sourcing management firm in Ethiopia with over eleven years of experience in supporting the implementation of development programs and projects. ABH exists to fuel synergistic societal growth by harnessing local knowledge and international standard. Dedicated to the betterment of societal development, technical assistance and knowledge management, ABH has gained credibility and industry experience in the development sector in general and the public health sphere of Ethiopia in particular. ABH focuses on knowledge management as the enabler and cross-cutting theme across its four major service lines or core competencies: Consultancy, Survey Management, Training and Implementation of projects and programs.

Purpose: to provide technical assistance on the regional COVID-19 vaccine Rollout support in the planning and coordination, advocacy communication and social mobilization activities, cold chain, and vaccine management, AEFI surveillance and monitoring, capacity building activities regarding COVID-19 vaccine and the overall monitoring and evaluation of the COVID-19 vaccination rollout.

Location: Different Regional/ zonal level Health Bureau

Duration:24 months (1st March 2023 to 28 February 2025)

No. of consultants:        Fourteen (#14)

Start Date:       March 2023

Reporting to:   MCH Directorate, MoH and UNICEF

Background:

On 30th January 2020, WHO declared the COVID-19 outbreak as a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC), WHO’s highest level of urgency. On 11th March, WHO made the assessment that COVID-19 could be characterized as a Global pandemic. As of 16th May 2022, globally, the total confirmed cases of COVID-19 have reached 521,366,398 and 6,288,682 confirmed deaths. As of 16th January 2022, a total of 11,700,000,000 vaccine doses have been administered worldwide.

The first COVID-19 case in Ethiopia was reported on 13th March 2020, subsequently, the government declared a five-month state of emergency in April 2020. As of 16th May 2022, there have been 4,827,846 total laboratories tested, 470,949 confirmed cases and 7,510 deaths.  

Ethiopia has taken significant steps in the preparations for COVID-19 vaccine introduction, including formation of a planning/coordination structure, indicating participation in COVAX and requesting support from Gavi for COVID-19 vaccine introduction and cold chain supply. Since its launching on March 13, 2021, Ethiopia has administered more than 29 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine from this 24.5 million took at least one dose and 21 million are fully vaccinated. So far four types of COVID-19 vaccines (AstraZeneca, Sinopharm, Jansson and Pfizer) are in use to vaccinate targets age 12 years and above.

Ethiopia used fixed/ static, outreach, mobile, temporary fixed post (IDP, Refugee, industry parks, schools, different public institutions) service delivery strategy to create access for vaccination. Besides consecutive campaigns were planned and so far, round one and round 2 nationwide COVID-19 vaccination campaigns were undertaken and tried to reach more targets in a short period of time. We are now in a preparation phase to conduct third round nationwide COVID-19 vaccination campaign tentatively on the first week of June.

Purpose of the position:

To provide technical assistance on the regional COVID-19 vaccine Rollout support in the planning and coordination, advocacy communication and social mobilization activities, cold chain, and vaccine management, AEFI surveillance and monitoring, capacity building activities regarding COVID-19 vaccine and the overall monitoring and evaluation of the COVID-19 vaccination rollout.

Specific Tasks:

• Under the overall guidance and supervision of the Regional MCH Director or process owner, the technical assistant will support the regional COVID-19 vaccine rollout. 
• The duties and responsibilities will include –
•   Provide technical support to the functions of the regional taskforces and regional TWG as setting agendas, meeting procedures and ensure that decisions and action points are being followed-up and implemented, participate in the meeting regularly and minute taking
•   Support the region to establish and/ or revitalize the command post (Regional COVID-19 task force and TWGs to support the service delivery, vaccine cold chain & logistics, demand generation and communication, targeting (Microplanning), COVID-19 surveillance, monitoring and evaluation of the coverage among at-risk groups and monitoring of vaccine impacts, safety of vaccine AEFI (Adverse Events following Immunization) detection and response.
•   Support the region in the revision/ customization of the nationally developed manuals, guidelines, SOP, TOR and training materials
•  Provide technical assistance at regional and lower level to estimate potential numbers of target population that will be prioritized for access to vaccines stratified by target group ad geographic location.
•  Provide technical assistance in the development and revision of training materials by adapting and translating training materials developed by FMOH
• Develop training plan that include key groups of participants, content topic areas, key training partners and training methods and conduct training vaccinators, supervisors and other who participate in the vaccination
•   Develop and adapt existing surveillance and monitoring framework with a set of recommended indicators (Coverage, acceptability, disease surveillance etc,,,) for COVID-19 vaccine
•  Develop and adapt necessary monitoring tools (Vaccination cards/ certificate, facility-based register, tally sheets, vaccination reporting formats and analytical tools to monitor progress and coverage
• Identify potential COVID-19 vaccine delivery strategies leveraging both existing vaccination platforms and non-vaccination delivery approaches to best reach identified target groups.
•   Conduct ongoing readiness assessment on regular basis for the continued COVID-19 vaccination rollout and identify areas for support
•   Plan for handling of AEFI if happens and make sure on the availability of AEFI kits and forms
•  Support the regional demand promotion and social mobilization activities to increase demand and decrease the vaccine hesitancy
•     Participate in the planning and monitoring of the vaccine distribution and logistics management in the region
•  Plan and assist the integration of the Covid-19 vaccination program with the routine EPI activities and Health system
•  Capture and share lessons learned and good practices that can potentially leverage the routine immunization and outbreak response practices
• Participate in the regional COVAX intra-action review and post-introduction evaluation exercise
• Perform any other activity as required by the regional MCH Director
•  Ensure the operationalization of COVID-19 precautions during immunization services provision 
•  Facilitate and monitor timely budget utilization and liquidation of COVID-19 implementation
• Frequent traveling to zones as necessary
•  Submit monthly report the regional MCH Director
•  Submit a detailed final report at the end of the assignment.

Reporting:

The consultant will be directly recruited by ABH Partners Plc, and report to the respective RHB/ZHD EPI team lead. In addition, the technical assistant should have smooth technical communication and relation with the MoH EPI program and respective UNICEF office.

Expected Deliverables and Time frame:

Deliverables	Deadline
Submission of monthly progress reports	Monthly
Submission of meeting minutes from COVID-19 coordination forums (regional ICC (Interagency Coordination Committee), the RITAG (Regional Immunization Technical Advisory Group); and COVID-19 regional Technical Working Group (TWGs), etc.)	Bi-weekly
Regular update on functionality of sub-national (RHB and zonal) COVID-19 Taskforce and TWGs	Monthly
Submission of trainings, monitoring, and supervision reports	Monthly
Submission of documentation of the detailed process including lesson learned, best practices and human-interest stories (HIS)	Quarterly
Submission of guidance/protocol for the rapid assessment to identify areas for support and improvement.	Bi-annual
Support Data collection, analysis, and written report	Bi-annual
Report key findings from the readiness assessment for introduction and vaccination campaigns.	Monthly
Share regular progress report of the sub-national (RHB and zonal) performance	Monthly
Develop & report COVID vaccination implementation report including AEFI documentation & report	Quarterly
Annual Report & recommendation	Annually

Payment Modality & schedule:

The fees for this contract shall be paid on monthly basis based on the submission of monthly reports against the deliverables indicated above.

Expected educational background and experience:

Education (Qualifications): Medical/Public Health or related degree in health science/ with specialized training (Masters) in public health or epidemiology.

Experience: Essential: Over 5 years’ experience in public health programs, preferably in Immunization and vaccine preventable disease surveillance. Prior experience of implementing or supporting routine immunization programs at least from woreda level to higher in a developing country. Previous experience in quantitative and qualitative assessments and data analysis is essential.

Core competencies:

·         Communicating in a credible and effective way

·         Fostering integration and teamwork

·         Building and promoting partnership and multi-sectarianism

·         Moving forward in changing environment

·         Strong analytical skills

·         Promotes knowledge sharing and learning culture in the office

·         Actively works towards continuing personal learning and development in one or more practice areas,

·         Focuses on impact and result for the client and responds positively to feedback

·         Demonstrates openness to change and ability to manage complexities.

·         Ability to work in multicultural and stressful situation.

·         Ability to work in team and independently.

·         Excellent language skill (spoken and written) in English.

·         Excellent skills in basic Microsoft office.

• Region	Amount
  Addis Ababa	1
  Amhara	3
  Oromia	5
  Sidama	1
  SNNP	1
  SWE Region	1
  Somali	1
  TOTAL	14

1. Policy both parties should be aware of:

•  ABH Partners PLC  will manage all the administrative issues and aspects based on the HR policies and procedures.
•  All remuneration must be within the contract agreement through ABH Partners Plc.
•  No contract may commence unless the contract is signed by both ABH Partners Plc and the consultant.
•    Travel will be facilitated after the travel requests are approved by the consultant’s supervisor and managed by the ABH Partners Plc 
•   Consultants will not have supervisory responsibilities or authority over the UNICEF budget.

Lien