Apollo Project Lead – Supply Chain Officer SSA8 World Food Programme (WFP)

ABOUT WFP
The United Nations World Food Programme is the world’s largest humanitarian agency fighting hunger worldwide.  The mission of WFP is to help the world achieve Zero Hunger in our lifetimes.  Every day, WFP works worldwide to ensure that no child goes to bed hungry and that the poorest and most vulnerable, particularly women and children, can access the nutritious food they need.

STANDARD MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS
Bachelor’s degree in logistics and supply chain, engineering, business and/or economy, project management or related fields.

ORGANIZATIONAL CONTEXT
The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is the largest humanitarian organization delivering food assistance to over 90 million beneficiaries in 80 countries on a yearly basis. With over 5000 trucks, 50 ships and close to 100 planes on the move every single day, WFP, together with its partners, operates a global network to deliver life-saving food assistance to the most hard-to reach places. In recent years, WFP’s expertise and footprint were increasingly leveraged to tackle health supply chain challenges. WFP works with governments and health partners in a range of countries both to respond to emergencies (e.g. Ebola, Covid-19) and to structurally strengthen local supply chain capacities, with the goal of making public health systems more performant and shock-resilient.

Building on these experiences, WFP is launching a multi-year global initiative (the “Apollo” project) to provide supply chain technical assistance to national public health actors in countries where specific needs and opportunities are identified. In line with national health strategies, WFP will avail and transfer its knowledge and know-how in core supply chain areas, emergency preparedness and response. Working under the direct supervision of the Country Office (CO) Head of Supply Chain, and in close collaboration with the Regional Project Coordinator, WFP delivery partners (Global Fleet Unit, Supply Chain Planning Unit, Logistics Cluster, etc.) and service providers, the incumbent will be responsible for coordinating the design and delivery of a supply chain capacity strengthening portfolio of activities in direct support of the Ministry of Health (MoH), Central Medical Store (CMS) and other relevant public health institutional actors in Zambia.

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES (not all-inclusive)

• Identify country public health supply chain gaps and formulate high value-add health supply chain technical assistance activities in line with WFP’s core strengths.
• Coordinate the implementation of technical assistance activities in support of the Ministry of Health (MOH), Central Medical Store and other relevant entities.
• Design and maintain activity plans in collaboration with delivery partners, measuring progress against the project targets and reporting as per CO and project requirements.
• Provide hands on technical support for the implementation of activities in the areas of fleet management, distribution logistics, inventory management, supply chain planning, emergency preparedness, etc.
• Design and implement processes (SOPs) and tools with WFP delivery partners to improve the performance and maturity of client supply chain operations, preparedness and response to health emergencies.
• Provide day-to-day technical mentoring, coaching, guidance and training to national counterparts and act as a health supply chain and logistics technical advisor.
• Deliver high quality customer-oriented analysis and written deliverables (ppt, word, etc.) and ensure quality of services meets WFP’s and our clients’ standards.
• Maintain strong relationships with government, partners, and donors, at all levels from senior leadership to technical teams in facilities on the ground.
• Monitor donor and technical partners investments and activities in the health supply chain space, seek alignment and technical collaborations to maximize joint impact.
• Provide direct supervision for country project staff as required.
• Manage the CO project budget and financials in collaboration with CO and global project teams.
• Identify project risks and implement timely mitigation measures.
• Support the CO and global project team in promoting the work and results, in developing communication materials and seeking funding opportunities.

OTHER SPECIFIC JOB REQUIREMENTS

• Minimum of five (5) years of relevant professional experience
• Proven experience in public health supply chains management is needed
• Operational experience coordinating health supply chain projects and logistics
• Experience in capacity strengthening and knowledge transfer initiatives
• Experience working with Ministries of Health and Central Medical Stores
• Proven experience in core functions of transport and inventory management
• Experience working on logistics operations in fragile and/or crisis contexts
• Understanding of WFP’s logistics practices is considered an advantage

DESIRED EXPERIENCES FOR ENTRY INTO THE ROLE

• Understanding of public health distribution systems and related challenges.
• Solid technical understanding of end-to-end health supply chain management.
• Demonstrated technical expertise in transport and inventory management.
• Understanding of logistics networks and challenges in Sub-Saharan Africa.
• Ability to rapidly understand complex operations and quickly focus on priorities.
• Ability to plan ahead, anticipate challenges and work on activities in parallel.
• Ability to think conceptually and produce high-quality written deliverables.
• Extremely result oriented and capable of working under considerable pressure.
• Can-do attitude and ability to quickly adapt to evolving environments.
• Team player able to interact with tact and credibility with diverse stakeholders.
• Customer service-oriented mind-set and excellent communication skills.
• Ability to create and maintain strong relationships with key counterparts.
• Willingness to explore and experiment innovative ideas and approaches.
• Fully committed to the objectives, mandate and code of ethics of the WFP.