Kingdom of Lesotho
Ministry of Health
Lesotho Nutrition and Health System Strengthening Project
LNHSSP-P170278
REQUEST FOR JOB APPLICATIONS
Terms of References (ToRs): Information Technology (IT) Systems Engineer
Responsible to: Project Coordinator Department: MoH-Project Implementation Unit
Responsible to: Project Coordinator
Information Technology System’s Engineer to Develop and Deploy Digital Logistics Management Information Systems (e-LMIS).
BACKGROUND
The Government of Lesotho through Ministry of Health established Supply Chain Management Department (SCMD) with a vision of improving availability and accessibility of all health commodities (medicines, medical devices, and health technologies). SCMD mandate is to oversee supply chain of all health commodities from quantification to inventory management while use of commodities remains with programs. Furthermore, SCMD is responsible for coordination of supply chain players and building one integrated supply chain system.
The are many notable strengths of health supply chain which make it more reliable. Some of these strengths include good and reputable procurement, storage and distribution system which are implemented by Central medical store namely National Drug Service Organisation (NDSO). NDSO has strong warehouse management system (WMS) which collect and generate all logistics data for decision making and reporting. SCMD oversee NDSO operations by using service level agreement to measure NDSO performance with selected key performance indicators.
At district level, the District Health Management Team (DHMT) manage supply chain activities and there is a huge improvement in terms of management of health commodities due to effective supportive supervision and mentoring conducted by district supply chain team (District Logistics Coordinator, District Pharmaceutical Officer, and District Laboratory Head). In addition, there is also availability of supply chain policy documents (supply chain manual, SOPs, and strategic plan) assist in guiding staff during implementation. Some of the notable improvement in the system include good storage practices and inventory management at health facility level.
A logistics management information system (LMIS) is a system of records and reports – whether paper-based or electronic – used to aggregate, analyze, validate, and display data (from all levels of the logistics system) that can be used to make logistics decisions and manage the supply chain. LMIS data elements include stock on hand, losses and adjustments, consumption, demand, issues, shipment status and information about the cost commodities managed in the system.
The Ministry of Health has identified some challenges with the information system which led to stock outs of certain health commodities, nutritional commodities included, at health facilities. Some of the causes include vertical management of certain commodities, limited logistics data to guide quantification of health commodities lack of e-inventory at the service delivery points, and poor reporting of consumption data that result in a fragmented and a poorly managed supply system.
The current Logistics management information system is both manual and electronic. Receipts and issue of health commodities (inventory management) still uses manual records such as stock cards to collect such data. For dispensing, manual dispensing tally sheet are used as a data collection tool. However, at the end of the month health facilities capture information on the Reporting and Requesting tool (RnR) known as informed push tool. This is the system used for reporting and resupply of health commodities. Facilities also capture few data elements such as stock on hand, quantity received, expired, or damaged then the system auto calculate other parameters such as monthly consumption, average monthly consumption and max-min order quantities.
Informed push was developed and introduced in 2016 with a purpose of reducing workload at health centres where supply chain activities are carried out by clinicians. The system was developed by the Ministry of Health through Supply Chain Management Department with support from MOH IT and its partner. This system uses electronic (Excel) database to manage MOH health commodity supply chain information. This automated system allows health facility staff to use electronic tablets to upload information about health commodities as indicated.
By connecting to the National Ministry of Health’s web-based platform for health records, the system automatically calculates the quantity of new supplies the facility needs, to ensure a continuous supply of critical health commodities and minimal waste of unused supplies. This alleviates the burden felt by often understaffed facilities to manually enter stock data into paper-based records when replenishing stock. Informed push is built within DHIS2 which is the health information system not a logistic management information system. The system has shown a lot of challenges as follow.
- It does not have commodities movement tracking module.
- It is not a fully functional logistics management system; it is a data set in DHIS2.
- It is very slow in performing calculations.
- Inadequate data visibility as high level relies on update from facility staff
Currently, the Ministry of Health has introduced e-Register for data collection at facilities which feeds information into District Health Software version2 (DHIS2). e-Register collects individual patient level data while DHIS2 collects aggregate level data. The e-Register is also connected to the electronic Logistics Management Information System (e-LMIS) which belong to the family of Enterprise Resource Planning system (ERP), namely Odoo. Odoo is an open-source supply chain system with both e-inventory and e-dispensing modules. Currently Odoo is used for dispensing HIV commodities across all sites while the inventory management module was tested in only five health facilities in three districts. The implemented e-LMIS needs customization and improvement on the following: Aggregated reporting for district and central level, consolidation of districts and national stock status reports, use of barcoding system, interface with NDSO WMS and integration with Informed Push for automatic aggregated reporting and upgrade to a fully-fledged LMIS.
MOH health shortage IT staff to manage and support IT solutions used by different programs including supply chain department. Currently MOH rely more on ICAP support which is focusing more on TB/HIV program. In this project ICAP and Chemonics will be providing technical support on the design through embedded staff. Furthermore Chemonics will be providing expertise on the supply chain part as it is the main counterpart of MOH SCMD. In order to have end to end data visibility by digitalizing LMIS the Ministry of Health is in search for IT System Engineer that will join a team of experts from the Ministry of Health and its implementing partners for customization, development and deployment of Odoo solution into a fully-fledged e-LMIS that will enable SCMD to perform its business functions effectively and efficiently. The Government of Lesotho (GOL) is implementing the Lesotho Nutrition and Health System Strengthening Project (LNHSSP) with the financial and technical support from the International Development Association’s (IDA). Among other things, the LNHSS project will improve the quality of healthcare services using digital solutions.
OBJECTIVES OF THE ASSIGNMENT
The Government of Lesotho with the support of the World Bank through the Lesotho Nutrition and Health Systems Strengthening Project aims to contract an IT System Engineer that will join a team of experts from the Ministry of Health and its implementing partners for customization, development and deployment of the digital solution that will enable SCMD to perform its business functions effectively and efficiently. Therefore, the objective of this assignment is to support development of Digital Logistics Management Information Systems (LMIS) that integrates data from logistics management information system (LMIS) into health management information system (HMIS) to facilitate composite analysis of the stock, service delivery at health facilities and health data to support effective logistics planning, improve supply chain performance and better decision making.
SCOPE OF WORK
The IT system engineer shall work within 12 months starting from dates agreed on the contract and the methods of work hereunder shall complement the achievement of the objectives as aforementioned. Therefore, the personnel shall:
- Collaborate with partners and other ministry programmes especially the Supply chain department and IT department to work towards achieving the goal;
- Join the development, customization, and implementation team made up of the Ministry of Health Supply Chain, the Ministry of Health IT, and various stakeholders.
- To find gaps in the current supply chain’s digitalization, examine the systems for data collection and reporting currently in place, the various components that have been digitized, and the non-digital system. This will make it clearer which eLMIS modules should be integrated into Lesotho’s current LMIS.
- For each area, provide reports detailing the progress to MOH and other stakeholders;
- Work with the team, partners and stakeholders to organize and attend workshops and bootcamp on the systems design, supported to meet the information needs of the various programs and stakeholders, development of key performance indicators, development of interoperability layer, LMIS/DHIS integration, user acceptance testing for integration etc;
- Travel with a team to districts and facilities for preparation, implementation, and maintenance of e-LMIS.
- Perform other office duties as required. e.g., system administration and housekeeping.
SPECIFIC ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
In collaboration with IT team from MoH, Chemonics and experts from ICAP and NUL as well as MOH Supply Chain Department and their counterpart Chemonics, the incumbent will take the lead in ensuring that the following activities happen as planned:
- Conduct Site Readiness Assessment at all healthcare levels for the envisaged system and prepare a report indicating that the needs of the SCMD are addressed through the eLMIS;
- To conduct bootcamps for development or customization and testing of application to suit the needs informed by site readiness assessment. This should also include drafting of system configuration and Odoo ERP user manual;
- To conduct bootcamp for designing reports and developing DHIS2 connector;
- Facilitate Workshop to train training of trainers at central and districts on the use of system;
- Perform User Acceptance Testing by piloting the system;
- Train the end-users on the system by either hand holding at facilities or conducting workshops;
- Participate in the acquisition of new ICT equipment and software for functional LMIS;
- Participating in the launching of the installation of the application and other related meetings as necessary;
- To assess the functionality of the LMIS and other related functions (distribution, storage, inventory control) within selected facilities;
- To identify strategies for developing a long term, sustainable LMIS system;
- Perform the database design/modifications and implementation of the various database objects and functionalities that are to support the application development effort and requirements.
- Participate and provide updates to the LMIS development team
DURATION
The assignment is for a period of 12 months and the IT system engineer is expected to work full time.
ASSIGNMENT DELIVERY APPROACHES
Phase I: Requirements Analysis
Phase II: Design
Phase III: Development
Phase IV: Verification
Phase V: Deployment and Maintenance
Phase VI: Product Life Cycle Routine reporting
Phase I: Requirements and readiness assessment: to ensure that supply chain business processes are implemented efficiently – these include forecasting and supply planning, requisition/allocation, order processing, transport, receiving, storage, monitoring.
Software Requirements Specification
• Functional Requirements Document which assesses the functionality of the current IPT system highlighting which modules can be added and which important function cannot be addressed by the IPT tool. This document should also highlight the completeness of the data collection and highlight the important missing areas. It is also important to assess if the country has the necessary ICT infrastructure for the establishment of the eLMIS.
•Use Cases
• Requirement Traceability Matrix
Costing should also be included to understand operating costs, licensing and service fees and other external services required for project management, customization
Phase II: Design
In this phase we are expecting to have the following outputs:
- System Design Document
- Data Dictionary Document including Key performance indicators
- Data Migration Plan
- System Test Plan
- System Release Plan
- Reporting
Phase III: Development
This phase has the following outputs:
- System Integration Test Report
- Training Plan
- System Installation Procedure
Phase IV: Verification
This phase has the following outputs:
•System User Manual
• System Operations and Maintenance Document
• Application Source Code
•System Training Manual
Phase V: Deployment and Maintenance
This phase has the following outputs:
•System Training Report
• System Release Test Report
•Application Source Code
Phase VI: Product Life Cycle Routine Reporting
At this phase, the Quarterly Production Support Report is expected.
DELIVERABLES
| DELIVERABLES/ REPORTS | CONTENT OF REPORTS | TIMELINE |
| Inception Report | An Inception Report including but not limited to detailing a comprehensive understanding of the IT System Engineer’s responsibilities, objectives, work to be performed, methodologies/ processes, reports with accompanying schedule, the outputs/ deliverables/results to be delivered, a communications plan, identification of dependencies, potential problems/ issues/ risks and an associated mitigation plan. | 1st month |
| Readiness Assessment Report | An approved Assessment Report of existing ICT Systems, Structure and Governance within the MoH (SCMD). | 2nd month |
| Design, Development and launching of the installation of the application | Contextualization of the eLMIS to the country’s needs and launching the app | 3rd – 7th month |
| Verification/ Pilot report | The report should detail all findings obtained during the pilot | 8th – 10th month |
| End user training package and training report. | Manual or SOPs that will lead or guide end users on the use of the App. All users of the App should be trained and the IT System Engineer is to provide training reports. | 11th – 12th month |
| End of Contract Report | An approved ‘End-of-Contract Report’ that will cover overall work agreed upon in the Work Plan, achievements, issues resolved, outstanding issues, ongoing plans/ activities, lessons learned and/or recommendations towards improving and sustaining/continuously enhancing eLMIS within MoH SCMD. | Within one (1) month after completion of the project |
SCHEDULE OF PAYMENT
The IT System Engineer will be remunerated on a monthly basis.
REPORTING
The IT System Engineer shall report to and receive technical guidance from the Head ICT and dotted line reporting to the Director of Supply Chain. The Project Coordinator will be responsible for managing the contract.
RESOURCES
The IT System Engineer will be provided with the following resources:
- Office space for the development work with office related accessories (reliable Wi-Fi, office furniture);
- A computer;
- All available and relevant material that may be required.
DUTY STATION
Ministry of Health Head Office, Maseru Lesotho.
PROFILE OF THE IT SYSTEM ENGINEER
Required qualifications
Degree in Computer Science/Software Engineering or any Software Development related Discipline
Experience
- Five (5) years or more of ICT consulting experience, preferably for government ministries and agencies, as well as for international donor agencies or for ICT-based projects funded by these international donor agencies.
- Experience in development of e-LMIS or point of sales system or e-commerce systems
- About 2 years’ experience leading the design teams in developing or upgrading information systems
- Have comprehensive knowledge on DHIS2 platform
- Have basic knowledge on the Lesotho logistics management information system.
Application Instructions
Interested and suitably qualified candidates should request detailed TORs from the following email; [email protected] there after forward their applications indicating the advertisement and position on the subject line of letter together with detailed curriculum vitae indicating work experience and educational certificates and National ID. Names and contact details (email and daytime phone) of 3 referees should be included in the CV. Submit your application via email here: [email protected]
Applications to be hand delivered to the undersigned not later than 29th September, 2022 1200hour to:
Procurement Officer’s Office, Procurement Unit Ground Floor, Ministry of Health, Corner constitution & Linare Roads, Kingdom of Lesotho, Telephone: (+266) (+266) 27323277.
Only shortlisted and successful candidates will be contacted within two weeks from submission deadline. If you do not receive a call and email from us consider application not successful.