Health Ministry, UNICEF seek services of national consultancy
MBABANE Having applied for a loan of US$ 5 million ( about E73.2 million) from the World Bank and recently received the Johnson and Johnson vaccine, the Ministry of Health in collaboration with UNICEF Eswatini. is seeking the services of a national consultancy.
The overall objective of this consultancy, according to an advert issued on July 12, 2021, is to ensure that the country logistic and supply chain manage effectively the COVID- 19 vaccine and ancillary items received, in terms of storage, packing and safely shipping to specified distribution/ usage points within the agreed timeline.
The deadline of the advert expired on Tuesday this week.
The scope of work for the consultancy company includes: Supporting the vaccine flow during the implementation period, continue to monitor the dry storage and cold chain capacity at all levels with regard to the COVID- 19 vaccines characteristics and suggest recommendations on how to fill the identified supply and logistic gaps.
SUPPORT
They should also support the regional micro- planning ( cold chain capacity, transport, supplies) implementation and update vaccine stock management tools, operating procedures, and any other tool related to COVID- 19 vaccines to reflect the characteristics of COVID- 19 vaccines, among other things.
The selected consultant will assist the implementation and monitoring of the logistic and cold chain related activities for COVID- 19 vaccines flow on job training and mentoring of health workers and other key workers on cold chain and related risks, vaccine management, stock monitoring, transport, monitoring and waste management, maintenance management of existing cold chain equipment and of waste management/ incineration facilities and in temperature monitoring system including dashboard among other things as slated in the advert for the consultancy.
It will also strengthen the use of WHO/ UNICEF Stock Management Tool ( SMT) by the region after the training conducted in April, support implementation and monitoring of regional micro plan activities, support the development of procurement and distribution plans and tools as applicable and follow up procurement process.
It will also assess if the received supplies of vaccines and other inputs consistent with target population and expected wastage factors, coordinate with national level technical group such as TWG and NITAG to ensure timely planning, monitoring and implementation cold chain related activities, use intra- campaign supervision visits to identify and correct inappropriate cold chain practices and safety and waste management.
REINFORCE
“Participate in daily data aggregation, reporting and analysis, reinforce importance of adequate stock levels, accurate forecast of vaccine requirements and wastage reduction, develop a quality survey to be conducted at the end of the campaign and document lessons learnt and convene stakeholders to share lessons learnt”.
The COVID- 19 pandemic is a global health crisis that becomes the greatest challenge to countries in a short period of time.
The pandemic is more than a health crisis that created an unprecedented socio- economic crisis stressing every country it touched. Eswatini is currently in the third wave, having experienced two surges of the pandemic – in May- June 2020 and in December 2020 - February 2021.
Eswatini is the second in Africa with the highest number of COVID- 19- related deaths per million population ( 585/ million) after South Africa ( 945 deaths/ million population).
According to information sourced from the advert, introducing the COVID- 19 vaccine to the population was the intervention that promises to curb the surge of COVID- 19 infections, especially since the Kingdom of Eswatini is facing challenges in managing COVID- 19 cases due to an overwhelmed healthcare system.
It was stated that to optimise the COVID- 19 vaccine rollout, Eswatini developed a National Vaccine Development Plan ( NVDP) and targets, and the country has identified its needs and priorities based on the context, status of the pandemic and learning from first wave vaccination campaigns.
In March 2021, 32 000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine were received and 39 days later, 35 227 people received their first dose.
The most beneficiaries were the elderly population and the health workers as prioritised at inception.
It was anticipated that the country would receive the second batch of the vaccine around the first and second week of June 2021 but it was only on Tuesday that Eswatini received 302 400 doses of the Johnson and Johnson vaccine, which had been donated by the Government of the United States of America, through the COVAX Facility Dos Sharing Mechanism.
Lessons from the test runs shows that a common operational plan and strengthened cold chain system is required to guide all levels of the rollout.
Rapidly deploying and quickly vaccinating target group will be of most goal of the exercise.
“In this regard the importance
of effective supply chain in general and cold chain management remains vital.
In such situation, several activities need to be accomplished within a record time, this includes but not limited to determination of the required logistics will be informed by vaccination strategies.
The storage and transportation need for the vaccine should be understood and the required capacity should be determined in a short window of time,” reads the advert in part.
It was highlighted that a detailed storage and distribution plan needed to agree and be followed strictly as these activities require additional time and knowledge.
ASSISTANCE
“Hence, the Ministry of health ( MOH) through UNICEF Eswatini is seeking assistance in the for m of a consultancy to support on implementation and monitoring of the logistic and Cold Chain related activities during the deployment of COVID- 19 vaccines. In this regard, the consultant is expected to understand supply chain management processes required to successfully deploy, distribute and monitor vaccine and ancillary items,” reads part of the advert.
Ministry of Health Director of Health Services Dr Vusi Magagula said this was a technical assistance by UNICEF being offered to Eswatini, and it is meant to ensure and minimise issues on the vaccine rollout.
“It is being advertised by UNICEF and I am not sure for how long as it is their contact.
“Certainly, more vaccines are coming as the statement by the Hon Minister Nkosi said.
“UNICEF officials are experts on immunisation. What is needed is the expertise as the vaccine rollout plan will be vaccinating 18- year- olds and above,” he said.