Background:
The International Rescue Committee (IRC) is among the world’s leading humanitarian relief and development organizations. For 80 years, the IRC has been at the forefront of every major humanitarian initiative to assist people uprooted by war, persecution, or civil conflict. The IRC provides lifesaving support to help people survive and re-build their lives, assisting people from harm to home. The IRCs Emergency Unit (EU) leads the IRC’s Global emergency preparedness and response activities. The mission of the EU is to help meet the immediate survival needs and reduce suffering in conflict or disaster affected populations during the acute phase of an emergency.
Context:
The Ministry of Health (MoH) of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) declared an outbreak of Ebola (Ebola Virus Disease – EVD) in North Kivu Province, eastern DRC on August 1st, 2018. As of September 4th, there have been 127 cases (probable & confirmed) resulting in 87 deaths. The IRC is supporting the containment of the EVD outbreak in the North Kivu region of DRC. The IRC’s primary focus is to provide support to existing primary health care (PHC) facilities to ensure the safe continuity of services with the strengthening of infection prevention and control (IPC) practices and the establishment of EVD screening and isolation points at the facilities. The IRC is also working with its teams in North Kivu province to help raise community awareness of behaviors that will help to limit further spread of the outbreak.
Scope of Work:
Under the direct supervision of the ERT Field Director, the Emergency Supply Chain Coordinator will be the lead within the Supply Chain department for the North Kivu Ebola Response. S/he will oversee all procurement, recruit the required staff, and facilitate the set-up of an office and work closely with the country program supply chain department.
Responsibilities:
•Oversee all supply chain functions in the Ebola response;
•Refine and help implement appropriate Emergency logistical plans, including contingency planning to be prepared for any scale up within the response as well as closure/scale down of response.
•Contribute to strategy and proposal development to insure SC involvement in programming and scale up decisions;
•Ensure the timely procurement, transport and proper storage of all required items – in compliance with IRC Supply Chain procedures, especially safe pharmaceutical storage.
•Ensure that appropriate logistics safety measures are in place to prevent loss of supplies and assets.
•Provide training and capacity building for supply chain team members, particularly in the management of medical commodities;
•Assure supply chain staff minimum staffing standards are respected - bearing in mind workload and segregation of duties; include these in future budget proposals. Provide list of minimum team needs per location;
•Collaborate closely across all IRC departments to ensure a coordinated and coherent implementation strategy at field level;
•Assure adequate infrastructure is in place to support the response (vehicles, warehouses, accommodations)
•Require use of the BvA system for raising PRs;
•Assure the maintenance of accurate, up-to-date files for all procurement (including Purchase Requests, Purchase Orders, service and good contracts, Delivery Reports, waybills, etc.);
•Represent the IRC in Logistics coordination meetings related to the emergency response/
•Coordinate IRC response activities with relevant officials and other humanitarian agencies;
•Ensure compliance with government, donor, tax policies and procedures and ensure risks are kept to a minimum;
•Provide a detailed handover (documented as much as possible) to country SC team at the end of deployment;
•Any other duties as assigned by the supervisor to enable and develop IRC programs.
REQUIREMENTS:
The ideal candidate will have:
•University degree in Supply chain Management, Logistics, Business Management or related field.
•At least 3 years progressive management and leadership experience, including in health-related emergency supply chain management.
•Experience in Africa essential, experience in DRC a strong advantage
•Significant experience in other logistics-related roles
•Experience in supervising and managing others in a logistics capacity
•Availability for a minimum of three months
•Willingness to work in unstable areas
•Adaptable and able to work in a multicultural team
•Flexible and able to manage stress
•Warehouse management skills
•Familiarity with cold chain maintenance and procedures
•Fluency in English and French or Swahili.