Logistics Assistant (Supply Chain Planning) at World Food Programme (WFP)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE OF THE ASSIGNMENT
 
The World Food Programme (WFP) is the United Nations frontline humanitarian agency addressing hunger and malnutrition worldwide. WFP tackles poverty and hunger through a range of interventions: saving lives and protecting livelihoods in emergencies; investing in the prevention and mitigation of disasters; restoring and rebuilding lives and livelihoods in post-conflict or post-disaster situation; and other interventions to tackle hunger. Each year, on average, WFP feeds more than 90 million people in over 80 countries.

The Supply Chain (SC) Planning Service was conceptualized to maximize and mainstream best practices developed across WFP in SC Planning. The Service supports cross-functional collaboration, promotes end-to-end SC visibility, and leverages advanced analytics and optimization tools. Planning equips WFP’s SC to better achieve its strategic goals of being agile, being reliable & cost efficient, supporting quality & safety, and strengthening national capacities & markets.
 
KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES (not all-inclusive)
 
Supply Chain Management is at the core of WFP’s humanitarian response and therefore an area of strategic focus. WFP aims to better integrate and continuously improve its Supply Chain by identifying, designing and implementing initiatives on four levels: strategy, structure, processes & tools, and staff development. In line with this overarching goal, the consultant will: 

Strategic Planning:

• Be a proactive listener with the different business units at RB and CO levels to understand their challenges and propose relevant analytical support,
• Leverage network, knowledge, and experience to seek opportunities to enhance effectiveness and efficiency of the operations,
• Gather relevant information and data to provide guiding insights to decision makers, cross functionally, at RB and CO levels, 
• Support Country Offices in strategizing their operation with a data-driven approach, 
• Support Country Offices in visualizing their concept of operation for a fluid understanding and dissemination to internal and external stakeholders (e.g. staff, donors, etc.),

Operational Tools Development and Roll Out:

• Support development, testing, and implementation of Supply Chain Planning tools in the region, including the Prepo Tracking tool (South Sudan), the PRISMA initiative (Sudan), and Optimus (RBN)
• Assist in providing SC Planning guidance and tools to the Country Offices in the region.

Analytics and Optimization:

• Apply innovative thinking, leverage analytics and optimization methods to address inefficiencies or operational issues,
• Work with country operations on developing a set of tracking and analytical tools to monitor the health of their operation, with alerts to    foresee and flag issues,
• Provide inputs to weekly prepositioning coordination calls for South Sudan

Capacity building:

• Build local capacity at CO and RB levels in data management, advanced analytics, operational visibility, and in the provision of supply chain related insights to decision makers, in particular through the use of DOTS.

DELIVERABLES AT THE END OF THE CONTRACT:

• Supply Chain Planning support to complex operations to ensure an optimal allocation of resources within operational constraints.
• Identification of supply chain cost inefficiencies in RBN operations and proposition of models to achieve cost savings.
• Co-development of the tools to support supply chain decision making.
• Provision of informed coordination backed by supply chain analytics as required in operations with a regional scope. (objective: weekly/bi-weekly analytical review and supporting coordination call with regional stakeholders. eg. South Sudan).
• Support COs in the design of their concept of operation as required.

STANDARD MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS
 
Education:

• University degree in Engineering or equivalent
• Specialization in Logistics and/or Supply Chain Management

Experience:

• At least half a year of working experience in the area of humanitarian logistics
• One to two  of working experience in the area of analytics development

OTHER SPECIFIC JOB REQUIREMENTS
 
Knowledge & Skills:

• Advanced use of Excel, DOTS, and Tableau
• Highly numerate with an innate ability to analyse and interpret data quickly, and recommend improvements
• Effective organizational, interpersonal, and communication skills
• Flexibility and ability to work with deadlines under sometimes stressful conditions
• Ability to work both individually and in a team as appropriate
• Pragmatic problem-solving skills

Languages:

• ​​​​​Verbal and written fluency in English