Cold chain and vaccine management Consultant, Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea 12 months (Only PNG Nationals to apply)

UNICEF Papua New Guinea is seeking to engage a motivated national consultant for the post of Cold Chain Officer. The Cold Chain Officer, Immunization reports to the Immunization Specialist for close guidance and supervision to provide the technical expertise needed in this field.

UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfill their potential. 

Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone. 

And we never give up. 

For every child, Support

With over 850 indigenous languages and one of the most ethnically diverse populations, widespread poverty, and gender inequality make it hard for many children to realize their rights. In Papua New Guinea, UNICEF’s works effectively both ‘upstream’ (with governments) and ‘downstream’ (at the grassroots level) to carry out its mission through a programme of cooperation jointly developed with the government guides our work in the country.

How can you make a difference? 

UNICEF has supported the National Department of Health of Government of Papua New Guinea (PNG) to establish and expand the cold chain capacity to reach 92% of the health facilities with the investment from Government of Japan, DFAT, MFAT and Gavi, the vaccine alliance in the past five years (2018-2023). In 2024 and 2025, additional 366 cold chain equipment are being installed across 22 provinces to expand the cold chain facilities to the last miles in the remote areas.

Due to the limited cold chain technician network in PNG, the national cold chain consultants are important to support NDOH to timely install the cold chain equipment. Moreover, the cold chain repair and maintenance system is established through digital recording and reporting (compliant system) to address the cold chain failure to ensure the quality of the vaccines.

The effective vaccine management scoring of PNG is 58% against the WHO and UNICEF recommended standard scoring of 80% which is one of the strategic targets of National Immunization Strategy 2021-2025.The implementation of the effective vaccine management comprehensive improvement plan (EVM cIP) will be supported by UNICEF through the funding support of Gavi to strengthen the capacity of the EPI focal persons, health workers, provincial cold chain and logistics persons, and cold chain engineers at provinces.

The strengthening of the vaccine and stock management is also another critical area identified through the EPI review and annual reports. Hence, UNCEF is supporting NDOH to rollout the immunization supply chain management SOPs, electronic logistics information management system (mSupply) through capacity building of cold chain focal persons, technicians at provincial vaccine stores and health workers through mentoring and coaching to enhance their skills in cold chain maintenance and vaccine management.

Hence UNICEF is looking for four national cold chain and vaccine management consultants to be deployed to four regions of PNG to implement EVM cIP across 22 provinces to maintain the functional cold chain network, successful rollout of mSupply and improve vaccine management practices to ensure availability of the quality vaccines to improve immunization coverage and equity in PNG.

Under the direct supervision of the Immunization Specialist UNICEF Papua New Guinea, and technical guidance of the cold chain Officer in the UNICEF PNG country office, the key tasks for the Consultant will be:

• To provide technical assistance and hands-on support in the installation of all new cold chain equipment and solar power system (including solar direct drive refrigerators, WIC, and WIF, solar system)
• To facilitate PHAs to roll out the Cold Chain Equipment Inventory Gap Analysis Tool to the health facilities in the assigned provinces.
• Monitors the status of all incoming and outbound immunization-related supplies, communicates with NDOH and AMS vaccine store focal persons about the status of the supplies and ensures that the expected date of arrival of goods are communicated well in advance and ensures that goods are received in good condition and correct quantity.
• To review and monitor the cold chain equipment inventory and functionality at assigned provincial and health facilities and identify and equipment that needs repair and maintenance using the cold chain compliant ticketing system.
• To prepare a comprehensive list of spare parts to support the repair and maintenance of faulty cold chain equipment based on the assessment and cold chain inventory reports.
• Preparing a report on the results of repair, maintenance, and installation of equipment sharing in stakeholders’ meetings at the Provincial and national level.
• To facilitate and conduct the repair and preventive maintenance of cold chain equipment and generators to ensure the optimal functionality of the cold chain stores in Papua New Guinea
• To assess the skills of frontline health workers on the repair, maintenance, and installation of cold chain equipment and support training activities at provincial and district levels for cold chain technicians, assistants for SIAs, and routine EPI.
• To conduct capacity building of the health workers on cold chain management and immunization supply chain standard operating procedures.
• To ensure that the Remote Temperature Monitoring Devices (RTMDs) in the provinces of assignment are fully functional and that the staff are trained in the use of RTMDs.
• Work with the NDOH mSupply focal persons to support in rollout of mSupply in provinces and also to monitor vaccine stock status at the provincial level and health facilities.
• To ensure that all the assigned provinces report 100% of the stock status of all antigens at the end of each month and act in case there is stock out of vaccines.
• To conduct cold chain monitoring and supervision activities using standard checklist and digital monitoring tools.
• Support the implementation of the Incinerator installation, commissioning, and training end users in six provinces.

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have… 

• Minimum 3 years of work experience in cold chain equipment installation, repair, and maintenance
• Use of digital reporting and analytics for example ODK, mSupply, inventory tools (IGA) , interactive dashboard, etc
• Experience in immunization/emergency project management especially in public health will be desirable.
• Strong verbal and written communication skills.
• Willingness to travel and work in field environments.
• Previous work experience with non-profit organizations or UN agencies in similar assignments will be an asset.

Specific Knowledge/Expertise/Skills required:

• Excellent written and verbal English and Pidgin is required. Knowledge of other local languages of the duty station is an asset.

Other necessary requirements: 

• Candidate must be a national of PNG.
• Interested applicants must submit a cover letter together with their CV.
• Candidate must include in the cover letter the expected monthly consultancy fee (state amount in PGK please)

For every Child, you demonstrate… 

UNICEF’s values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, Accountability, and Sustainability (CRITAS). 

To view our competency framework, please visit  here. 

UNICEF is here to serve the world’s most disadvantaged children and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to include everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, age, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, or any other personal characteristic.

UNICEF offers reasonable accommodation for consultants/individual contractors with disabilities. This may include, for example, accessible software, travel assistance for missions or personal attendants. We encourage you to disclose your disability during your application in case you need reasonable accommodation during the selection process and afterwards in your assignment. 

UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. UNICEF also adheres to strict child safeguarding principles. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check. 

Remarks:  

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process. 

Individuals engaged under a consultancy or individual contract will not be considered “staff members” under the Staff Regulations and Rules of the United Nations and UNICEF’s policies and procedures,and will not be entitled to benefits provided therein (such as leave entitlements and medical insurance coverage). Their conditions of service will be governed by their contract and the General Conditions of Contracts for the Services of Consultants and Individual Contractors. Consultants and individual contractors are responsible for determining their tax liabilities and for the payment of any taxes and/or duties, in accordance with local or other applicable laws. 

The selected candidate is solely responsible to ensure that the visa (applicable) and health insurance required to perform the duties of the contract are valid for the entire period of the contract. Selected candidates are subject to confirmation of fully-vaccinated status against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) with a World Health Organization (WHO)-endorsed vaccine, which must be met prior to taking up the assignment. It does not apply to consultants who will work remotely and are not expected to work on or visit UNICEF premises, programme delivery locations or directly interact with communities UNICEF works with, nor to travel to perform functions for UNICEF for the duration of their consultancy contracts.