BACKGROUND:

The International Rescue Committee, one of the world’s largest humanitarian international NGOs, provides relief, rehabilitation and development support to vulnerable people and communities over 30 countries. We began work in Ethiopia in 2000 in response to severe drought in Ethiopia’s Somali region and are currently providing assistance to Ethiopians and refugees in six regions in Ethiopia, implementing emergency and development programs in health, water and sanitation, economic recovery and development (ERD), women’s protection and empowerment, education, child protection, and multi-sectoral emergency response.

Job Overview/Summary:

As the technical lead on pharma management, the country pharmacist shall be responsible for quality assurance of all pharmaceutical products in the country programs and also act the bridge between Supply Chain and the Health Unit. S/he will participate in the definition of strategies for supply chain management, distribution and use of medical products and donations in the programs in line with the health department’s recommendations and policies whilst ensuring national regulations are followed. This position is the link with external actors/partners concerning pharmaceutical issues.

Major Responsibilities

Pharmaceuticals and Supplies Management:

 •      Responsible on overall logistic management on the field (Medicine, nutrition commodities, cold chain and vaccine, and vehicles management).

•      Forecast the monthly and quarterly supply need and communicate with woreda/zonal or RHB to ensure stock availability (no stock out) .

•      Monitor the daily consumption of the team and arrange the next day supply need accordingly.

•      Notify nearly expiry drugs on time and facilitate on time utilization and disposable if incase

•      Facilitate and support re-distribution of supplies from identified cluster hubs to surrounding functional health facilities to ensure service continuity.

•      Oversee the medical drugs and supplies quantification and ensures that all procured items are in the CP Essential Drug List. S/he will ensure drug consumption data is collected at health facilities, aggregated, analyzed, and used for forecasting needs of the program.

•      Monitors the availability of medical products to avoid stock-outs and financial losses generated by expired items; Collaborates with the Shire FO team (Health and Nutrition Manager and Senior health office).

•      In close collaboration with the Warehouse officer(s), develops stock levels alert (based on an average monthly consumption AMC and morbidity data); gathers stock indicators, analyze them, and discuss with to the Health Coordinator / Supply Chain coordinator to avoid stock-outs and the financial losses generated by expired items.

•      Participates in defining strategies for supply, management, distribution and use of medical products in line with IRC’s recommendations and policies.

•       Support application of Good Distribution Practices (GDPs) for pharmaceutical products at storage level, and Good Dispensing Practices in end user units. These include:

Documentation verification:

•      Conduct systematic checks of all medical goods purchased locally and for direct shipments, and control their details correspond to the requested specifications and the received documentation.

•      Check conformity of the received goods with the PO (Purchase Order) and the PL (Packing List) (strength, origin, manufacturer, batch number)

Transportation and storage:

•      Ensure transportation of medical goods (including any dangerous goods and cold chain) is done in an appropriate manner and following national regulations.

•      Involve in conducting GDP self-assessment for the central warehouses with the assistance of GSC Pharma QA Manager and follows up on Corrective Action Preventive Action (CAPA) implementation.

•      Handle cold chain products according to the recommendations of the manufacturer.

•      Follow up cold chain equipment is working properly, and that daily temperature monitoring of cold chain items is in place

•      Report to GSC Pharma QA Manager any cold chain breach (fills the cold chain breech report), who will advise on releasing the products.

•      Follow up appropriate storage conditions are in place for medicines (including dangerous goods products) and advise any need for improvements.

•      Ensure stock rotation according to FIFO (First in First Out) and FEFO (First Expiry First Out).

•      Support in conducting monthly and annual physical stock counts.

Quality assurance of commodities:

•      Investigate and put in quarantine any medical product that has been identified as suspect – meaning that it may be counterfeit, unapproved, or potentially dangerous.

•      Ensure disposal of health care products is done according with national regulations/or IRC Waste Disposal SOP, and that a disposal file is maintained.

•      Handle with the support of GSC Pharma QA Manager, any claim or batch recall according to WHO GDP guidelines (IRC batch recall SOP).

•      Ensure full traceability of the medical products journey through all the stakeholders in the supply chain and is responsible for batch recall.

Technical Support and Capacity Building

•      Provide support supervision to the health team, and government supported health facilities’ pharmacy technicians and dispensers at field offices and services delivery points to ensure proper management and reporting of medical drugs and supplies and ensure a quality-assurance system is incorporated into the health facilities and medical stores.

•      Provide technical guidance to the health team, and government supported health facilities’ pharmacy technicians and dispensers at field offices and services delivery points in all aspects of drug supply management – continuously assess the staff needs, identify gaps, and adapt plans/activities to respond to these gaps.

•       Provide continuous Pharma training for Supply Chain and Health Unit staff on the IRC Pharma SOP’s and GDPs

KEY WORKING RELATIONSHIPS:

•      Position Directly Reports to: Health and nutrition Manager Coordinator (dotted line to Supply Chain Manager based in Shire).

•      Other Internal Contacts: Closely work with Senior Health officer, team leaders, Supply Chain and Warehouse Officers, and clinical teams.

•      Other External Contacts: Other local UNICEF, WFP, WoHO and, other NGOs Job Requirement

Education:

• Diploma in pharmacy technician from an accredited institution, preferred BA degree in pharmacy administration, healthcare administration, business or other relevant subject area or MBA,

Work Experience:

• Above 4 years for Diploma holders and above 2 years for degree.
• prior experience with pharmacy inventory management systems and pharmacy distributing management experience,

Licenses & Certifications:

• Licensed as a pharmacist.

Required Skills, Knowledge, and abilities:

• Ability to learn computer and application skills as applicable to role including medium to advanced skill levels in Microsoft Access and Excel,
• Ability to work in a complex team environment and to collaborate with both external and internal professionals and other customers,
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills,
• Able to demonstrate skills in prioritization, problem solving, team building, decision making, time management and strategic planning,
• Knowledge of laws and regulation regarding pharmacy of the country,
• Planning and problem solving, developing goals and objectives, and establishing priorities.