Medical Supply Chain Strengthening Specialists (Turkana & Samburu)

ROLE PURPOSE: 

The Medical Supply Chain Strengthening Specialist will provide technical guidance and support to the USAID Nawiri project and County department of health service delivery points at the County level have a consistent supply of Nutrition, Maternal and Child Health, and Reproductive Health commodities. She/he will provide training, mentorship and supervision and medical commodities pipeline monitoring at the County, sub-county, health facility and community health unit level. The Supply Chain Strengthening Specialist will work to embed sustainability mechanisms for stronger county medical supplies and commodities systems in the project. She/he will work with the County Government Health Management Teams including the County & Sub County pharmacists, County & Sub County Nutrition Coordinators, County & Sub County Community Strategy Focal persons and other counterparts in health & nutrition service delivery.

About USAID Nawiri project:

USAID Nawiri Program is a 5 year U.S. Government (USAID and Food For Peace) funded project designed to tackle persistent acute malnutrition rates in northern Kenya. The project is co-created, co-implemented, and co-measured to address problems and solve them at the county level. Save the Children is a member of the Mercy Corps-led consortium and will be implementing in Samburu and Turkana counties. 

SCOPE OF ROLE:

Reports to: Health Systems Strengthening Advisor

Staff reporting to this post: None

Budget Responsibilities: None.

Country Dimensions: Save the Children has been operational in Kenya since the 1950s, providing support to children through developmental and humanitarian relief programmes delivered both directly and through local partners. Current programming focuses on child protection, child rights governance, education, health, HIV/AIDS, livelihoods, nutrition and WASH. In 2012, as part of a global reorganization process, Save the Children combined the programmes of SC UK, SC Canada and SC Finland to create a single operation in Kenya. In Feb 2014, we completed a second transition, which saw us join forces with the British INGO, Merlin, and merge their health and nutrition programmes with our own. Save the Children now has an operational presence in Bungoma, Dadaab Refugee Camp, Garissa, Mandera, Turkana, Wajir and Nairobi and we work through partners in many other parts of the country. In total, we employ around 200 staff and had an operating annual budget in 2019 of approximately US$13 million.

KEY AREAS OF ACCOUNTABILITY:

• Collaborate with Ministry of Health at County, Sub County, Health facility and Community Health unit levels of health care to promote sustained delivery of Health and Nutrition interventions.
• Provide regular technical support and guidance to the department of health county, Sub County and Health facility managers and Health service delivery staff to address logistics system problems to ensure consistent supply of commodities.
• Work closely with the County Health Management Team (CHMT) to support supply and management of pharmaceuticals and non-pharmaceutical including coordinating CHMT support for the sub-counties, facilities and community units
• Collaborate with County Department of Health at all levels of health care to ensure availability of commodities in public and private health facilities, and community health unit level.
• Gather data, analyze and address medical supply chain system bottlenecks to ensure sustainability and accountability.
• Build the capacity of health staff on commodities and supplies management through supervision, coaching, mentorship and support to teams in the implementation of activity plans.
• Advance innovations and use of technology in requisition, utilization, and monitoring of health commodities and supplies for the private and public health sector.
• Build the health teams capacity in inventory management 
• Work with other project staff to help identify resource and/or performance improvement needs to advance the goal of commodity security.
• Prepare and present quarterly technical reports and presentations as necessary.
• Participate in the County Commodity security committee meetings, County health services performance review meetings, technical and partner meetings as required.

BEHAVIOURS (Values in Practice)

Accountability:

• Holds self-accountable for making decisions, managing resources efficiently, achieving and role modelling Save the Children values
• Holds the team and partners accountable to deliver on their responsibilities - giving them the freedom to deliver in the best way they see fit, providing the necessary development to improve performance and applying appropriate consequences when results are not achieved.

Ambition:

• Sets ambitious and challenging goals for themselves and their team takes responsibility for their personal development and encourages their team to do the same
• Widely shares their vision for Save the Children, engages and motivates others
• Fully-orientated thinks strategically and on a global scale.

Collaboration:

• Builds and maintains effective relationships, with their team, colleagues, Members and external partners and supporters
• Values diversity sees it as a source of competitive strength
• Approachable, good listener, easy to talk to.

Integrity:

• Honest, encourages openness and transparency; demonstrates highest levels of integrity

QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE

• Bachelor's degree or higher in pharmacy, Nursing, Nutrition, or related field. 
• Minimum of eight years of experience with progressively increasing responsibility managing designing and implementing large and complex public health programs, ideally in Sub-Saharan Africa. 
• Experience leading a highly successful health systems strengthening program in Kenya or in a similar setting. 
• Demonstrated understanding and knowledge of decentralized nutrition and health delivery programs within Africa
• A minimum of three years of experience managing health commodities and supplies
• Proven experience building capacity of programs with local NGOs and government bodies in-country and working collaboratively with partners and/or key stakeholders. 
• Excellent oral and written communication skills.  Fluency in English required. 
• Proven experience and skills in research and advocacy and influencing institutional, private and/or corporate donors and writing up high quality donor reports
• Experience of working with local/national governments and capacity building of systems, partners and staff
• Willingness to be based in Turkana County, with frequent travel to project offices and field sites within the Turkana and Samburu Counties. 
• Highly developed interpersonal and communication skills including influencing, negotiation and coaching
• Highly developed cultural awareness and ability to work well in an international and matrix management environment with people from diverse backgrounds and cultures
• Strong results orientation, with the ability to challenge existing mind-sets
• Experience of solving complex issues through analysis, definition of a clear way forward and ensuring buy in
• Ability to present complex information in a succinct and compelling manner
• Fluency in English, both verbal and written, required
• Demonstrates Save the Children’s core values of accountability, collaboration, integrity, ambition, and creativity. 

THE ORGANIZATION

We employ approximately 25,000 people across the globe and work on the ground in over 100 countries to help children affected by crises, or those that need better healthcare, education and child protection. We also campaign and advocate at the highest levels to realise the right of children and to ensure their voices are heard. 

 We are working towards three breakthroughs in how the world treats children by 2030:

• No child dies from preventable causes before their 5th birthday.
• All children learn from a quality basic education and that,
• Violence against children is no longer tolerated.

Save the Children is an equal opportunity employer and seeks to employ and assign the best-qualified talent.

Female Candidates are encouraged to apply.

Disclaimer: 

Beware that there are individuals who may take and use SCI’s name in an attempt to solicit fees from interested job-seekers. We do not use recruiting persons or agencies to help us identify candidates for employment. If you’re contacted by a person promising you recruitment or placement at SCI for a charge, do not accept, and please get in touch with us at SCIFraud@savethechildren.org.

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.