Founded in 1933, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) responds to the world’s worst humanitarian crises and helps people to survive and rebuild their lives. The IRC offers lifesaving care and life-changing assistance to refugees forced to flee from war or disaster. At work today in over 40 countries and 22 U.S. cities, we restore safety, dignity and hope to millions who are uprooted and struggling to endure. The IRC leads the way from harm to home. The IRC restarted operations in Sudan in November 2019 after successfully obtaining re-registration in Khartoum with the transitional government and launching initial programs to support displaced populations in urban settings around Khartoum.

Sudan is currently experiencing multiple challenges that include macroeconomic crisis, armed conflicts and displacement, protracted refugee situations, natural disasters, as well as the Covid-19 pandemic. The result of this crisis is large-scale humanitarian need across the country leaving an estimated 9.3 million people in need. In November 2020, fighting in the Tigray region of Ethiopia led to the flight of around 60,000 refugees to eastern Sudan, further worsening the humanitarian need. The number of refugees in eastern Sudan is estimated to raise up to 120,000 refugees by Jan 2022.

In response to growing needs in recent months, the IRC has established a fully functional country program following on the work initially done through the emergency response team and expanded humanitarian activities in the east of the country in response to the Tigrayan refugee crisis.  The IRC currently has two field bases in Gedaref and Damazine in addition to the head office in Khartoum, and is looking to expand in program scale, scope, and geographic support over the coming months IRC Sudan’s humanitarian health response and system strengthening work focused on support to reproductive and essential primary health care, entails procurement and management of pharmaceuticals and other medical supplies, and capacity support for actors in referral pathways to effectively manage stocks.

SCOPE OF WORK: The IRC Sudan Pharmaceutical Manager acts as technical lead on pharma management. S/he shall be responsible for quality assurance of all pharmaceutical products in the country programs and act the bridge between Supply Chain and the Health Unit. S/he will participate in the definition of strategies for supply chain management, distribution and use of medical products and donations in the programs in line with the health department’s recommendations and policies whilst ensuring national regulations are followed. This position is the link with external actors/partners concerning pharmaceutical issues. This position reports to the Health & Nutrition Coordinator with dotted line to Supply Chain Coordinator. The Pharmaceutical Manager also works in close collaboration with warehouse teams, pharmacists, health partners, and operational support teams.

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, aggregated, analyzed, and used for forecasting needs of the program.
• Monitors the availability of medical products to avoid stock-outs and financial losses generated by expired items; Collaborates with the Health Manager/s to define stock security levels in IRC’s directly implemented facilities.
• In close collaboration with the Warehouse officer(s), develops stock levels alert (based on an average monthly consumption AMC and morbidity data); gathers 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.
• Provides input for international and local orders draws up the first draft of orders with the Health Coordinator, reviews the parameters involved in replenishing stock, finalizes orders based on consumption and future needs arising from the developments in the field
• Participates 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 Health and Supply Chain Managers, support development/use of new pharmaceutical stock management systems and software.
• Participates 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:
• Documentation verification:
  • 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)
  • Check conformity of the received goods with the PO (Purchase Order) and the PL (Packing List) (strength, origin, manufacturer, batch number)
• Transportation and storage:
• Ensure transportation of medical goods (including any dangerous goods and cold chain) is done in an appropriate manner and following national regulations.
• 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
  • Handle cold chain products according to the recommendations of the manufacturer
• Ensure that cold chain equipment is working properly, and that daily temperature monitoring of cold chain items is in place
  • Report to GSC Pharma QA Manager any cold chain breach (fills the cold chain breech report), who will advise on releasing the products
  • Ensure that appropriate storage conditions are in place for medicines (including dangerous goods products) and advise any need for improvements
  • Ensure controlled drugs are managed according to national regulation
  • Ensure stock rotation according to FIFO (First in First Out) and FEFO (First Expiry First Out)
  • Support in conducting monthly and annual physical stock counts
• Quality assurance of commodities:
  • Ensure with the support of HQ that all offered donations by any partner or others are following the IRC Quality Assurance Policy and IRC Donations SOP.
  • 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.
  • Investigate and put in quarantine any medical product that has been identified as suspect - meaning that it may be counterfeit, unapproved, or potentially dangerous.
• Disposal and returns:
  • Ensure disposal of health care products is done according with national regulations/or IRC Waste Disposal SOP, and that a disposal file is maintained
  • Handle with the support of GSC Pharma QA Manager, any claim or batch recall according to WHO GDP guidelines (IRC batch recall SOP)
  • Ensure full traceability of the medical products journey through all the stakeholders in the supply chain and is responsible for batch recall
  • Organize return or exchange of rejected goods with the SCC
• Manages medical stock data and indicators, analyzes, and interprets 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.).
• Provides support to procurement and supplier management, this includes:
  • In coordination with the GSC Pharma QA Manager, maintain, update, and file the CP Pharma Database (list of validated suppliers)
  • 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)
  • Ensure that all requested items by the health team are compliant with the CP EDL and flags any discrepancy. If non-standard items are requested, asks the Health & Nutrition Coordinator to get the green-light from HQ before proceeding with the order
  • 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 field 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 Unit staff on the IRC Pharma SOP’s and GDPs

Working Environment:  This position will be based in Khartoum IRC office, Sudan with possible visits to Blue Nile, Gadarif, South Kordofan, other parts of Khartoum state, or any other location to support IRC’s work.

• Bachelor’s degree in pharmacy or clinical pharmacy, with valid practice license in Sudan.
• At least 3 years of experience in managing medical stocks and replenishment.
• Wide understanding of Sudan health systems, importing drugs, custom clearance and pharmaceutical checks, and medical disposables.
• Willingness to work beyond working hours and travel to other states in Sudan
• Strong skills in building the capacities of others (e.g., training) & facilitation.
• Proficient in Microsoft Office particularly Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Access. Experience in advanced Excel is an added advantage.
• Very good communication in English and fluent in Arabic
• Strong sense of personal integrity and understanding of confidentiality and ethics
• Self-directed, able to independently set priorities and solve problems with minimal guidance

Standard of Professional Conduct:

IRC and IRC employees are required to abide by the values and principles outlined in the IRC Way Code of Conduct which are Integrity, Service, and Accountability. In accordance with these values, IRC operates and enforces policies on Beneficiary Protection from Exploitation and Abuse, Child Safeguarding, Harassment-Free Workplace, Fiscal Integrity, Anti-Retaliation, Combating Trafficking in Persons, and several others.

Gender Equality & Equal Opportunity:

We are committed to narrowing the gender gap in leadership positions. We offer generous benefits that provide an enabling environment for women to participate in our workforce including parental leave, gender-sensitive security protocols and other supportive benefits and allowances. We welcome and strongly encourage qualified female professionals to apply.

We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our organization. We do not discriminate based on race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.

Ensuring the non-disclosure of any information whatsoever relating to the practices and business of IRC acquired in the course of duty, to any other person or organization without authority, except in the normal execution of duty.