Supply Chain Officer

Details

Mission and objectives

The World Food Programme is the world’s largest humanitarian organization, saving lives in emergencies and using food assistance to build a pathway to peace, stability and prosperity for people recovering from conflict, disasters and the impact of climate change. Created in 1961 as an experiment to provide food aid through the UN system, WFP is enshrined in 1965 as a fully-fledged UN Programme. Powered by the passion, dedication and professionalism of our 20,000 staff worldwide, the World Food Programme (WFP) works in over 80 countries to bring life-saving food to people displaced by conflict and made destitute by disasters, and help individuals and communities find life-changing solutions to the multiple challenges they face in building better futures. Social protection is an increasingly prominent strategy for governments to reduce extreme poverty, hunger, and inequalities and promote access to essential needs. As a global leader in fighting hunger and malnutrition worldwide, often in very difficult contexts, the World Food Programme (WFP) is increasingly called upon by governments to support national social protection systems. WFP is partnering with governments across over 75 countries to strengthen their national social protection systems, making support in social protection an integral part of its activities in most of the countries where it operates. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, lives and livelihoods of the most vulnerable are put at risk across the globe, undermining decades of progress towards the SDGs. In response to this, many governments are currently adapting and/or putting in place new social protection policies, systems and schemes.

Context

Cameroon is a lower-middle-income country with a population of 23.3 million people of diverse ethnic and two linguistic groups. Ranked 153rd of 188 countries in the 2016 Human Development Index, the average life expectancy is 58 years; 24% live on less than USD 2 per day and poverty is concentrated in the Northern and Eastern regions, where 90 percent of people requiring humanitarian support reside. At least 75 percent of the people over 15 years of age are illiterate, with wide disparity between men and boys (78 percent) and women and girls (65 percent). Cameroon is confronted with three major complex crises: the crisis in the Lake Chad basin impacting the Far North region; the consequences of the influx Central African refugees in the east and the crisis in the Northwest and Southwest (SW/NW). More than one million people are displaced, and 4.5 million people have humanitarian needs. These challenges are reinforced by structural factors and chronic vulnerabilities that aggravate the impact of crises and affect people's resilience capacity. The World Food Programme (WFP) is the world's largest humanitarian agency fighting hunger worldwide. WFP’s current Country Strategy Programme (2018-2021) contributes to all four United Nations Development Assistance Framework pillars: (i) increase employment opportunities and measures to protect women, young people, children and socially vulnerable people in target areas; (ii) improve the health of target populations and prevent child malnutrition in all its forms; (iii) improve access to education and quality vocational training; and (iv) strengthen the resilience of target populations addressing food insecurity and environmental, social and economic shocks. WFP Cameroon is currently seeking for International UN Volunteers to provide support and technical expertise to the Field Offices with the design and management of programmes of moderate size or complexity that effectively meet food assistance needs or contribute to policy formulation and / or provide technical advice or oversight on programme strategy and implementation.

Task description

Under the general supervision of the Head of Field Office, and the technical supervision of the CO Head of Supply, the incumbent UN Volunteer will perform the following tasks: 1. Participate in the development and implementation of supply chain plans and procedures, in line with the global WFP supply chain strategy and regional/functional strategies, policies and plans, to achieve operational cost efficiency, agility, reliability, quality and to support national capacity strengthening. 2. Analyze regional/country context, and design and manage end-to-end operational supply chain and retail networks, to proactively mitigate and/or address dynamic supply chain challenges and obtain operational optimization. 3. Plan and manage implementation of innovative supply chain operations, initiatives and services to ensure timely, cost-effective and integrated approach with core activities and services and in close cooperation with key supply chain stakeholders. 4. Provide technical advice and identify opportunities for improvement and innovation initiatives analyzing best practices from the humanitarian and development fields, academia and private sector. 5. Plan, monitor and manage resources to maximize effectiveness of supply chain operations. 6. Build productive partnerships and collaborate with counterparts in the key supply chain functions to ensure an integrated supply chain approach to food assistance and cross functional operational alignment. 7. Identify and build productive partnerships with counterparts amongst government and other national organizations, UN agencies, NGOs and private sector to share operational knowledge and resources and build capacity to ensure coordinated and cost-effective supply chain operations. 8. Perform in-depth market analysis and supply chain network mapping to inform the selection of an appropriate operation modalities to improve supply chain performance. 9. Manage supply chain operations to ensure compliance with the established supply chain strategies, policies, procedures, and controls, and following corporate standards, with special emphasis on quality control, loss prevention, risk mitigation and cost effectiveness. 10. Constantly monitor the performance of supply chain operations to ensure that appropriate internal controls are in place. 11. Manage service providers/vendors, port, fleet and warehouse operations to promote safe, efficient planning and execution of WFP operations and safeguard WFP’s interest. 12. Manage accurate and timely reporting including provision of substantial analysis of supply chain activities and trends to enable informed decision-making and consistency of information presented to a wide range of stakeholders. 13. Manage, motivate and develop a team providing coaching, training and career guidance as required to ensure appropriate development and enable high performance. 14. Contribute to preparedness actions, providing technical recommendations and guidance and monitoring the management of specific supply chain risks to enable WFP, governments and other partners to quickly respond and deploy food and resources at the onset of the crisis. 15. Other as required.