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Qualifications
Purpose of consultancyย ย ย
The purpose of this consultancy is to contributeย to the design and implementation of a national framework to strengthen the paediatric medicines ecosystem in four ASEAN countries (Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines), with the goal of improving access to safe and effective medicines for children with high-burden conditions.
Backgroundย ย
Despite sustained efforts by Member States of the World Health Organization (WHO), civil society and other stakeholders, many countries are still facing multiple challenges in ensuring availability, affordability and rational use of quality-assured medicines that are adapted for children to prevent or treat high burden conditions. At the Seventy-seventh World Health Assembly, Member States re-committed to improving the health of children and have called on Member States, stakeholders and the WHO secretariat to enable access to safe, high-quality and age-appropriate essential medicines for children. They urged accelerating implementation of priority actions by promoting, supporting and financing investigation, development, manufacturing, registration and supply of age-appropriate, quality-controlled formulations of medicines for diseases that affect children.
The Global Accelerator for Paediatric Formulations (GAP-f) is a WHO Network launched in 2020 to advance access better paediatric medicines. It is a network of 30 organizations, that works across the life cycle of drug development, by bringing efficiency through enhanced coordination across stakeholders to prioritize, evaluate, develop and deliver better Paediatric medicines.
GAP-f is led by a Secretariat, which is responsible for developing and maintaining the GAP-f strategy, leading GAP-fโs advocacy work, and overall operations of GAP-f. The Secretariat sits within WHOโs Science for Health Department, and has a coordination function, liaising with around 30 external organizations as well as multiple technical departments within WHO. The GAP-f Secretariat supports the work of four working groups which are designed to gather GAP-f network members and leverage their expertise to address systemic barriers across the product life cycle. The working groups include prioritization, clinical research, product development and regulatory affairs, and product access and treatment delivery. The access and treatment delivery working group facilitates the work on the network to ensure that better formulations are effectively introduced and rapidly rolled out.
Building on collaborations with technical departments and ongoing work led by GAP-f partners, WHO is committed to enable end-to-end action on paediatric medicines innovation and access and utilise GAP-f crosscutting expertise to improve the paediatric medicines ecosystem for high-burden conditions. This work will start in Asia and focus on diseases highly prevalent in ASEAN countries (i.e. dengue, malaria, bacterial infections and non-communicable diseases). The collaboration with WHO will focus on documenting successful models for increasing access to optimal paediatric medicines and scale up those models across the region with a focus on 4 ASEAN countries (Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines). In this work, we plan to collaborate with national programmes, national academic institutions and centres of excellence for child health across the region.
To this end, the WHO is seeking a short-term consultant (โThe Consultantโ) to provide technical and coordination and support to the design and implementation of a generic national framework to improve paediatric medicines ecosystem enabling better access to important safe effective medicines for high burden conditions affecting children in the ASEAN region. In doing so the candidate selected will engage and leverage support and expertise of the GAP-f Access and Treatment Delivery working group and work with national and regional WHO offices and technical experts from counterpart organizations and governments in Southeast Asia.
Deliverables
Task 1: Development and Implementation of a Customized Essential Paediatric Medicines Framework (4 ASEAN Countries)ย
Task 2: National Adoption & Adaptation of the Essential Medicines List for Children (EMLc)
Development of an EMLc 2025 Dissemination Strategy & Materials in the four ASEAN countries.Expected by: March 2026Development of a priority disease mapping report โ Identification of priority diseases per country based on local epidemiology and government priorities.Development of a comparative analysis of existing national EMLs against the 2025 EMLc, with recommendations for revision.Development of a Policy Gap Analysis Report โ Assessment of policy gaps related to EMLc adoption and adaptation for priority diseases.
Development of a customized M&E Plan for Essential Paediatric Medicines including a framework to support future updates and impact assessment.
Task 3: Leveraging Global Platforms to Accelerate the Introduction of Novel Therapeutics for Paediatric Use
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Updated GAP-f Access & Delivery Toolkit โ Revised version of toolkit incorporating best practices for accelerating paediatric therapeutic introductions.Development of training materials for capacity strengthening such as customized resources for virtual training sessions.Training Session Reports โ documentation of sessions conducted, participant engagement, and key takeaways.Task 4: Regional Collaboration for Strengthening the Paediatric Medicines Ecosystem.
Regional Stakeholder Engagement Report โ Summary of regional challenges and opportunities identified.Regional Workshop Materials & Summary Reports โ Agenda, presentations, key takeaways, and action items from discussions.Development of a regional roadmap for paediatric medicines ecosystem strengthening โ A strategic framework based on pilot outcomes.Stakeholder Engagement Log โ Documentation of ongoing engagements, opportunities, and shared actions.Task 5: Coordination of GAP-fโs Access and Delivery Working Group
Development of an Access & Delivery Working group workplan with defined objectives and milestones aligned with GAP-f Phase 3 strategy.Meeting & Webinar Reports โ Documentation of discussions, outcomes, and action points from ad hoc meetings.Access & Delivery Working Group Engagement Summary โ Detailing contributions and feedback from working group members on ASEAN initiatives.Qualifications, experience, skills and languages
Educational Qualifications:ย ย Essential:
University degree (Masterโs level) in medical or social science.Desirable: Advanced University degree (PhD level) in clinical epidemiology, public health, pharmacy or equivalent.ย
Experienceย ย Essential:ย
At least 5 years of relevant experience in managing and coordinating collaborative projects.
Experience with introduction and roll out of new medical health products .Desirable:
Experience providing technical and capacity-building support to government and development partners in Asia.
Experience and expertise in key aspects of pharmaceutical management, including national regulatory framework, procurement, and supply chain management.ย
Skills/KnowledgeEssential:
Ability to work remotely (across time zones) but collaboratively with multiple stakeholders
Understanding of Asian context including regional partnerships
Knowledge of Access to medical products
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Knowledge of standard tools (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, MS Team and Zoom)
Languages and level requiredย Essential:
Expert knowledge of EnglishDesirable: Intermediate or basic knowledge of another UN languageLocationย Off site: home based. The consultant must be available during working hours for South East Asia.ย
Travelย The consultant will be expected to travel.
Remuneration and budget (travel costs are excluded)
Remuneration:ย Band level B โ USD 7'000 - USD 9'980 per month
Living expenses (A living expense is payable to on-site consultants who are internationally recruited):N/A
Expected duration of contract:ย ย ย 11 months with a possibility of extension subject to availability of funds and satisfactory performance.