The International Rescue Committee (IRC) responds to the world’s worst humanitarian crises, helping to restore health, safety, education, economic wellbeing, and power to people devastated by conflict and disaster. Founded in 1933 at the call of Albert Einstein, the IRC is one of the world’s largest international humanitarian non-governmental organizations (INGO), at work in more than 50 countries and more than 25 U.S. cities helping people to survive, reclaim control of their future and strengthen their communities. A force for humanity, IRC employees deliver lasting impact by restoring safety, dignity and hope to millions. If you’re a solutions-driven, passionate change-maker, come join us in positively impacting the lives of millions of people world-wide for a better future.
The IRC worked in Haiti from 2010 through 2016, initially launching an emergency response to the earthquake and later delivering child protection, water and sanitation, health, women’s protection and empowerment, and economic recovery programs in Port-au-Prince and beyond. Even with the closure of its country office in 2016, the IRC has continued to provide operational, technical, and financial support to a small number of Haitian NGO partners, including in response to the 2021 earthquake. Haiti was identified as one of 20 countries at greatest risk of a major new—or significantly worsened—humanitarian crisis over the year ahead in IRC’s 2023 and 2024 Emergency Watchlist given its political instability, gang violence, rising food insecurity, disease outbreaks, and climate shocks that could drive rapid escalation of the humanitarian crisis. In early 2023, IRC re-opened its Haiti operations and scaled up its emergency response with a fully partner-led response in Port-au-Prince and surrounding communities. The focus has been on neighborhoods highly affected by gang violence as well as limited access to healthcare and services for survivors of violence and/or cholera hotspot issues. IRC is also engaging with partners in the Artibonite and Ouest Departments to service unmet needs in those areas.
The IRC Emergency Humanitarian Access Unit (EHAU) led the initial emergency responses and support establishing a country program that can be fully transitioned under the Latin American (LATAM) region.
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 Haiti country program and also act the bridge between Supply Chain, partner health technical staff and the Health Unit. S/he will participate in the definition of strategies for medicines and medical products supply chain management, distribution and use of medical products and donations in the Haiti program in line with the local health department’s recommendations and policies whilst ensuring national regulations are followed. This position is the link with external actors/partners concerning pharmaceutical issues.
Key responsbilities
Pharmaceuticals and Supplies Management
• 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 and mobile clinic sites, aggregated, analyzed and used for forecasting needs of the program.
• Monitor the availability of medical products to avoid stock-outs and financial losses generated by expired items; Collaborate with the Haiti Health Coordinator and health program partners to define stock security levels in supported mobile clinics and health facilities.
• In close collaboration with the Warehouse officer(s), develop stock levels alert (based on an average monthly consumption AMC and morbidity data); gather stock indicators, analyze them and discuss with to the Health Coordinator / Supply Chain coordinator so as to avoid stock-outs and the financial losses generated by expired items.
• Provide input for international and local orders: draw up the first draft of orders with the Health Coordinator, review the parameters involved in replenishing stock, finalize orders based on consumption and future needs arising from the developments in program locations
• Participate in defining strategies for supply, management, distribution and use of medical products in line with IRC’s recommendations and policies; under the supervision of the Health Coordinator and in collaboration with IRC’s Supply Chain Coordinator, partner Health and Supply Chain Managers, support development/use of new pharmaceutical stock management systems and software;
• Participate in implementing the pharmaceutical supply chain standard operating procedures;
• Applies Good Distribution Practices (GDPs) for pharmaceutical products at storage level, and Good Dispensing Practices in end user units. These include:
o Documentation verification:
o 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 (Certificate of Analyses)
o Check conformity of the received goods with the PO (Purchase Order) and the PL (Packing List) (strength, origin, manufacturer, batch number)
o Transportation and storage:
o Ensure transportation of medical goods (including any dangerous goods and cold chain) is done in an appropriate manner and following national regulations.
o Conduct 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.
o Handle cold chain products according to the recommendations of the manufacturer.
o Ensure that cold chain equipment is working properly and that daily temperature monitoring of cold chain items is in place.
o Report to GSC Pharma QA Manager any cold chain breach (fills the cold chain breech report), who will advise on releasing the products
o Ensure that appropriate storage conditions are in place for medicines (including dangerous goods products) and advise any need for improvements
o Ensure controlled drugs are managed according to national regulation
o Ensure stock rotation according to FIFO (First In First Out) and FEFO (First Expiry First Out)
o Support in conducting monthly and annual physical stock counts
o Quality assurance of commodities:
o Ensure with the support of HQ that all offered donations by any partner or others are in compliance with the IRC Quality Assurance Policy and IRC Donations SOP
o Follow-up any claim reports from the field concerning quality (IRC Complaint Form) with the GSC Pharma QA Manager and maintains a file with all claims
o Investigate and put in quarantine any medical product that has been identified as suspect – meaning that it may be counterfeit, unapproved, or potentially dangerous
o Disposal and returns:
o Ensure disposal of health care products is done according with national regulations/or IRC Waste Disposal SOP, and that a disposal file is maintained
o Handle with the support of GSC Pharma QA Manager, any claim or batch recall according to WHO GDP guidelines (IRC batch recall SOP)
o Ensure full traceability of the medical products journey through all the stakeholders in the supply chain and is responsible for batch recall
o Organize return or exchange of rejected goods with the SCC
• Manage medical stock data and indicators, analyze and interpret performance to support the necessary programmatic decisions or course corrections in collaboration with Health and Supply Chain staff (consumption, stock levels, stock-outs, pre-stock-outs, over-stocking, donations, expired products, disposal, etc.);
• Provide support to procurement and supplier management, this includes:
o In coordination with the GSC Pharma QA Manager, maintain, update and file the CP Pharma Database (list of validated suppliers)
o Provide the purchasing team with a list of validated suppliers approved and validated by the GSC Pharma QA Manager (ensures that all local purchases are done via prequalified suppliers)
o Ensure that all requested items by the health team are compliant with the Haiti program Essential Drug List, and flags any discrepancy. If non-standard items are requested, asks the Health Coordinator to get the green-light from HQ before proceeding with the order
o In coordination with the GSC Pharma QA Manager, perform market assessment for preselection of products and suppliers and organizes visits of suppliers
• Supervise the store release, distribution, and transfer of all stock to the required field site locations;
Technical Support and Capacity Building
• Provide support supervision to the pharmacy technicians and dispensers at health program sites 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 pharmacy officers 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 technical staff on the IRC Pharma SOP’s and GDPs
Equitable Partnerships
• Champion a culture of effective and respectful partnerships. Promote partner-led programming in line with IRC’s “why not partner?” and “partner as equals” approach.
• Ensure that partnership considerations are incorporated into pharmaceutical components of all proposals and that local partners are actively engaged response design and program delivery.
• Actively contribute to the relevant sections of Partner Capacity Analysis (PCA) and the subsequent development of partner support plans.
• Manage the implementation of action items in the pharmaceutical management sections of partner support plans.
• Lead and/or support collaborative project and budget design with partners.
• Work collaboratively with partners to ensure that project budgets reflect fair market value.
• Review and provide feedback on partner technical tools, reports, and data as required. Collaborate with partners on recommended adaptations or process improvements.
• Actively participate in the Partnership Working Group (PWG)
Key working relationships:
Position Directly Reports to: Haiti Health Coordinator (dotted line to Supply Chain Coordinator)
Technical Referent: Health Unit Pharmacy Advisors/GSC Senior Manager, Pharmaceutical Quality Assurance
Other Internal Contacts: Senior Health Managers, Supply Chain and Warehouse Managers, Health Officers, clinical teams as relevant
Other External Contacts: Other local NGO and INGOs including technical staff from Health Partners in Haiti
Qualifications:
•Education: Pharmacy degree or equivalent in pharmacy from a recognized institution with an additional training in supply chain management
• Work Experience: 4-5 years’ experience in managing Humanitarian health commodities preferably those with an experience in handling large volumes of health commodities in the humanitarian setups is preferable.
Demonstrated Skills and Competencies:
• Demonstrated success as a humanitarian health commodity manager.
• Good collaborator and influencer with effective interpersonal and analytical skills of working seamlessly across cultures, organizational units.
• Broad knowledge and experience in supply chain planning, Forecasting and quantification of health commodities.
• Excellent in computer MS-Excel, Word and PowerPoint.
• Good analytical and negotiation skills
• Excellent skills in conducting warehouse self-assessment and generation of CAPAs
• Able to work effectively in a highly matrixed structure
Language Skills: Fluency in French is required. Proficiency in English is an advantage.
Working Environment: IRC’s office in Port-au-Prince with local travel to partner project sites as security and access permit.
Standard of Professional Conduct: The IRC and the IRC workers must adhere to the values and principles outlined in the IRC Way – our Code of Conduct. These are Integrity, Service, Accountability, and Equality.
Commitment to Gender, Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion: The IRC is committed to creating a diverse, inclusive, respectful, and safe work environment where all persons are treated fairly, with dignity and respect. The IRC expressly prohibits and will not tolerate discrimination, harassment, retaliation, or bullying of the IRC persons in any work setting. We aim to increase the representation of women, people that are from country and communities we serve, and people who identify as races and ethnicities that are under-represented in global power structures.