Job Description

Terms of Reference for consultancy on Digitalization of Health Facilities Logistics Management Information System (LMIS).

About Us.

Action Against Hunger (ACF), a humanitarian and development leader combating hunger, has served Somalia for three decades. Action Against Hunger provides lifesaving malnutrition treatment, creates innovative solutions to hunger, and partners with communities to foster resilience and lasting change. Our Multisectoral hunger prevention programs increase access to water, sanitation, and hygiene, strengthen health systems, improve livelihoods, and empower women. In Somalia, we have been on the frontlines of treating and preventing malnutrition for three decades. We respond to humanitarian crises, meeting the urgent humanitarian and development needs of the most vulnerable sections across the country in the three main sectors of health and nutrition, WASH and Food Security and Livelihoods.

Action Against Hunger has been operational in Somalia for more than 30 years, with operational presence in Banadir, Lower Shabelle, Bakool, Bay, and Nugaal regions with recent expansion to Hiraan, Middle Shabelle, Gedo, Lower Juba and Sool regions. In Somalia, we have been implementing both humanitarian and development programming through Integrated Health, Nutrition, WASH, Food Security, Livelihoods and Resilience projects. Through the years, we have garnered lessons through our interactions with stakeholders (including Communities), reinvented our approaches, brought on board innovative approaches to save lives, and left no one behind.

In 2023 Action Against Hunger reached 2.6 million people in Somalia in 28 (38%) of the districts in the country with lifesaving support. Our main donors are the World Bank, the UN, Global Affairs Canada, GFFO, FCDO, EU and SIDA.

Background

Action Against Hunger has been contracted by Federal Ministry of Health of Somalia to implement the Damal Caafimaad Project, delivering the essential health services package in Bakool and Bay regions of Southwest state of Somalia. Through the project, Action Against Hunger is supporting 11 hospitals, 65 health centres and 17 PHU, providing support for health services, technical support, capacity building, information management, resources and supplies. The Damal Caafimaad project is beingimplemented with general objective of to improve the health status of people in target regions (Bakool and Bay) of Somalia through expanding access to high-impact health and nutrition services and strengthening the stewardship and systems of the government. The specific objectives of the project include: reduce maternal and newborn mortality, reduce under 5 mortality and improving child health and nutrition, reduce excess mortality due to communicable and non-communicable diseases, strengthening the health system (information and logistic systems), and increase the coverage of the package.

We have been using the Logistic Management Information System (LMIS) to monitor the health facility medical and nutrition commodities consumption, however, the current version of LMIS in manual excel format is not fit for purpose, doesn’t provide real-time information on stock status and alerts of impending stock outs as well as expiry status of medical and nutrition supplies. We therefore intend to digitalize the LMIS system and have it aligned with ACF pharmaceutical standard operating procedure (SOPs) as well.

Action Against Hunger seeks to acquire and set up e-LMIS system in two regional and 8 district

Hospitals; This includes Bay regional hospital in Baidoa , Bakool regional hospital in Hudur and 1 district hospital each in Baidoa, Berdale, Burhakaba, Dinsoor,Qansaxdhere, Wajid, Elbarde and Rabdhure  districts.

This is to ensure the quality of the supply chain management as well as strengthen demand driven planning and distribution of medical supplies.

Consultancy Objectives:

1. To digitalize the Logistic Management and Information System (Including alerts on stock outs and re-order levels) for 4 hospitals in Bakool region and 6 hospitals in Bay region.
2. Implement e-LMIS software and hardware solutions from system setup, configuration, testing, phased deployment of e-LMIS for the data management of medicines, diagnostics, and other health products information in the supply chain e-LMIS which shall be inclusive of:
3. Design and implementation of e-LMIS pilot projects;
4. In cooperate the e-LMIS system into the DHIS 2 system.
5. Support in the design and operationalization of e-LMIS activities (pilot project and scaling up).
6. Alert on expiry of drugs four months prior and to train users on the system 

Scope of Work

1. Develop e-LIMIS system that is a user-friendly and meets the specific requirements of the project. The system should be:

• Secure: Employing robust security measures to protect sensitive data.
• Scalable: Designed to accommodate future growth and expansion.
• User-friendly: Featuring an intuitive interface and clear navigation.
• Reporting functionality: Able to generate comprehensive reports and data visualizations.

2. The system functional components should include alerts on stock outs and reorder levels.

• Generate reports for target hospitals to share with districts and central level
• Web accessibility
• Integration with other health systems to share critical data i.e. DHIS2, LINK my supply. 
• Provide any other reports deemed necessary during the installation period.

3. Training Health facility and Action Against Hunger staff including a dedicated administrator on the system functionality and management and transfer of skills to end users.

• Functional Training – training of systems users on the functionalities of the e-LMIS system. This will also entail training of health facility users on the working of the system
• Technical Training -  training the core IT technical staff of Action Against Hunger on the working of the e-LMIS system to enable them support the system

 Key Features/Modules of the e-LMIS System

1. a)Purchases

• Supplier management
• Contract management
• Purchase Requisition or Indents management
• Purchase Order tracking.

1. b)Goods Receipt (G.R.N)

• Goods receipt can only be done with a fully approved Purchase Order
• Partial or Full receipt of goods with respect to an approved Purchase Orders
• Multi-level approval for Goods Receipt

1. c)Customer Order Management

• Uploading of orders through an excel document or ordering directly online
• Multi-level approval for orders
• Order rationalization
• Checking of available stocks at the central stores
• Ordering of commodities based on the Level of use i.e. segregation of health products based on the health facility level from health centre to hospitals
• Customer Order progress tracking (Facility can track their order on the system)
• Dispatch Notification

1. d)Health Facility Management

• Creation of new facilities including facility level I.e. Hospitals, Health centre
• Deactivation of In-active health facilities.
• Facility users management

1. e)Inventory Management ( Stocks )

• Multiple warehouses and locators support
• Product categorization e.g.  Pharmaceuticals, Non-pharmaceuticals, Nutrition, Oncology, X-RAY for easy of ordering and management
• Batch, Serial, Lot  and expiry date tracking on the products
• Inter warehouse transfers
• Reordering rules configuration
• Re-stocking level alerts
• Stock take and Cycle counting processes
• Expiry  tracking and alerts
• Custom bar codes creation
• Product Re-call support
• Pharmacovigilance module

1. f)Reporting and dashboards

• Stocks status
• Issues reports
• Order fill rate reports (OFR)
• Order Turnaround Time report (OTT)

Duration of the Assignment.

This assignment is expected to be completed in 2 months from the initial desk review, system design, testing, reconfiguration and deployment in target facilities.

Experiences and Qualifications

We are looking for a suitable firm with the following skill set and experience to support this assignment.

• Lead consultant with Master’s degree in supply chain management, computer science, international development or related field with at least 5 years’ experience, or bachelor’s degree with at least seven years.
• Experience in the development of digital health systems and solutions in fragile contexts.
• Demonstrated experience in health products “digital supply chain” project management at the international level.
• Experience in health products supply chain management in developing countries
• Ability to lead system development to users’ satisfaction experience in training and capacity building of end user on the system.
• Ability to travel for extended periods of time in-country to support technical activities;
• Knowledge of public health, protection, human rights, international development, or other relevant field is an added advantage
•   Willingness to travel to Somalia (if out of the country) and work with Action Against Hunger team and Health facility staff.

Skills Required

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