Country: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Closing date: 02 Jul 2019
VSO is the world’s leading international development organisation that works through volunteers to fight poverty. Working in 24 countries around the world, our unique role in international development is to place committed volunteers with carefully selected organisations where their skills can have the greatest impact. Our extraordinary volunteers live and work in some of the world’s poorest communities. Sharing their unique skills and experience to generate new ideas and new ways of doing things, helping the communities they work in lift themselves out of poverty. We’re not about delivering quick fixes, but instead we focus on long-lasting, sustainable change, that will impact generations to come. Join us and help us work towards our vision of a world without poverty.
Role overview
Objectives:
The work needed on the Medical section of the Logistics manual includes:
* Ensuring guidance on sourcing of medical supplies (e.g. equipment, consumables, and potentially pharmaceuticals) is carried out appropriately and safely following industry standards and best practice, and is in line with VSO’s Procurement Policy and relevant donor requirements. Focus will be on medical equipment.
* Ensuring relevant guidance is in place regarding transportation, storage, and disposal (where necessary) of medical goods.
* Creating documents and templates to help with medical procurement, for example, Product specifications, List of required quality standards (for tendering documentation) for products and suppliers and other required, useful documents for tendering
The guidance is currently in draft and requires expert input from a medical professional prior to launch across VSO.
Scope:
This is global guidance and will need to cover 24 current country offices across Africa and Asia. All liaisons and information will be given by Global Procurement based in Kingston, UK.
Approach and Methodology:
This will involve focusing on reading existing guidance and providing recommendations and information in the existing gaps. Work will be done in consultation with Global Procurement. After initial recommendations, there will likely need to be some dialogue internally within VSO before the document is again worked on. The consultant will not be expected to attend the internal dialogue but feed into it. When internal decisions have been made where needed the document will be finalised.
Deliverables and Schedule:
Action / Output
* Read and make recommendations on existing content of the Medical Procurement guidance
* Help develop the specification section of the manual
1) Help make a recommenda tion on the required specification method e.g. WHO
2) Develop VSO specification list using 30 current items
3) Make recommendations on any items that are too high risk for VSO to procure (with full details of what the risks entail and potential mitigating factors)
* Help develop the quality standards section of the manual
1) Develop a list of quality standards clearly defined (manufacturer, supplier, product)
2) Feed into procurement documents (e.g. tender documents) to ensure quality is added and clear
3) Create table of quality standards relating to product category
* Help feed into any internal discussion required for decision making
* Help make revisions to the document following any decision making
* Help finalise medical section of manual and any connected templates
Work will likely be required on an ad hoc basis until completion, as the documents are shared/ developed and progressed between the consultant and the Global Procurement Team.
Skills, qualifications and experience
Qualifications and Experience:
Knowledge/qualifications:
* Qualifications in medical field
* Knowledgeable in industry best practice and relevant international guidelines related to sourcing of medical goods e.g. WHO guidelines or other INGO’s
Experience:
* Significant experience in the medical industry
* Previous involvement in procurement of medical items
* Experience of working within medical programming in developing countries
* Experience of working within the charity sector
Skills/Abilities:
* Skills in written communication (drafting guidance in layman’s terms)
* Ability to work well as part of a team
Desirable Criteria:
* Interest in, and commitment to, VSO’s vision and mission
* Ideally based in the UK and able to travel to VSO’s Kingston offices (if not possible, able to Skype call)
At VSO we believe progress is only possible b y working together.
Whether you want to join us as an employee, or as a volunteer working in your own country, overseas or online, our selection process includes an assessment based on these core competencies:
* Ability to be open minded and respectful
* Ability to be resilient and adaptive to new situations
* Ability to facilitate positive change and build sustainable working relationships
* Ability to seek and share knowledge
Equal Opportunities
VSO promotes equal opportunities and values a diverse workforce.
VSO reserves the right to close this job early if we receive a sufficient number of applications.
How to apply:
Application URL: http://www.aplitrak.com/?adid=Yi5jaXJlcmEuMjAxMDAuMzgzMEB2c28uYXBsaXRyYWsuY29t