LOGISTICS & PROCUREMENT DELEGATE, YEMEN

The Danish Red Cross (DRC) has been working in the Middle East and North African (MENA) Region for over 20 years, where we support the Red Cross / Red Crescent (RCRC) Host National Societies (HNS) in Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine, Yemen and Yemen, with a total of 28 international delegates. The support focuses primarily on emergency response, health, and psychosocial support services (PSS). We emphasize strengthening the HNS through organisational development and operational capacity building. We see integrity, transparency, autonomy and sustainable volunteer structures as necessary conditions for building sustainable NS capacity.

We are offering a unique opportunity to be the DRC Logistics & Procurement Delegate in Yemen, the World’s worst humanitarian crisis today. To succeed in this position, you will need to be diplomatic, flexible, resilient and innovative in a challenging context. In return you can expect a full complement of support from the DRC Regional Office and HQ, and a competitive remuneration package with free housing in Sana’a and rest and recuperation breaks after every six weeks.

Context

The Yemen conflict is not only considered by UN-OCHA to be the worst humanitarian crisis in the World today; it is also one of the most under-reported and unsupported. 22 million people – almost the entire population – needs humanitarian assistance, with 3 million children and women acutely malnourished and 8 million people at risk of starvation. The health system has virtually collapsed paving the way for the World’s largest current cholera epidemic. 16 million people need assistance to access healthcare, as less than half of all health facilities are functioning. People have increasingly exhausted their ways of coping with this crisis, which is now entering its fifth year. Reliable information and security are lacking, and we have no choice but to remotely implement and monitor programmes outside Sana’a.

DRC and the Yemen Red Crescent Society (YRCS) have been in partnership for more than ten years, working on both emergency response – access to healthcare, medicine, clean water, and food – and on development activities – capacity building in community-based health, psychosocial support services (PSS), and WASH. The challenge facing the RCRC) Movement is that o scaling-up its response in a volatile high-risk security environment overlying longstanding issues weak governance and low capacity in every aspect of Yemeni economy and society. Hence DRC supports YRCS in organisational capacity-building as well as through efforts to harmonise and integrate support provided in YRCS’ three main programme areas – health, WASH, and Disaster Management (DM) – with that provided by the other Partner National Societies (PNS) present, German Red Cross (GRC) and Norcross, and other PNS not physically present.

DRC’s budget for Yemen will be approximately DKK 35m across three projects in 2020, making it one of our larger country programmes. A significant fraction of this is expended on procurement, either locally managed by YRCS or done directly by DRC. YRCS has guidelines for procurement but reality does not live up to these and hence compliance is a concern, with the risk that the costs may not be accepted by back-donors. Overseeing YRCS logistics practice and building their capacity to conduct sound procurement and apply proper stock management practices is thus a critical area; one that DRC aims to address through the recruitment of a professional Logistics & Procurement Delegate, to support all PNS implementing programmes through YRCS.

Responsibilities

The Logistics & Procurement Delegate is responsible for:

• Helping to build the logistic management and procurement capacity of YRCS, its organisation and staff, and facilitate appropriate capacity-building initiatives.
• Identifying physical resources (transport assets, warehousing, computer hardware and stock management applications, etc.) for efficient Movement logistics.
• Ensuring oversight, control, and risk management of the logistic and procurement components of all DRC projects in Yemen, in accordance with relevant SOPs.
• Providing general support to the DRC Country Team in Yemen, and contributing lessons and experience to DRC and NS logistic management capacity-building.

Experience and qualifications

You have a minimum of 5 years of relevant experience in logistics, especially procurement, supply chain management, and warehousing. You have a university degree in logistics, supply chain management, or a related field.

You have solid experience working for a humanitarian aid organisation in a challenging conflict/post-conflict environment, preferably in the Middle East, and we are particularly interested in your experience in the capacity development of local staff in this field, including curriculum development, facilitation, on the job training, and mentoring. Ideally you will also have experience with the RCRC Movement and knowledge of its logistic management capacities, policies, procedures, and practices. An understanding of the compliance regulations of donors such as ECHO, EU DEVCO, and national MoFAs relating to logistics, will also be useful.

We expect that you have good analytical and negotiating skills. You possess excellent communication, coordination as well as networking and facilitation skills. You need to have assessment, consultation, planning and project management skills, in order to design and achieve a comprehensive logistics development process for YRCS. We expect full proficiency in relevant MS applications, and a valid international driving license. Apart from an excellent level of written and spoken English, the position requires fluency in Arabic and the ability to switch easily.

In terms of personal qualities, good cultural understanding and the ability to work in a challenging multicultural environment is essential. You need to be able to cope with stress, both the stress of living under a restrictive security regimen and also related to workload and the difficulty of achieving significant results in this environment, so you need to be resilient and confident in yourself. Above all you need to have political acumen, good judgment, conviction in yourself and DRC, excellent powers of persuasion and sufficient gravitas to win the confidence of YRCS management. Proven experience in building the logistics capacity of local partners, ideally of Red Cross / Red Crescent National Societies in the Middle East, is the key requirement.

Employment Conditions

The ideal starting date is 1 March 2020 or earlier, if possible. There is a 3-month probationary period, and the total length of the initial contract is 12 months with the possibility of extension. The salary including all allowances and pension payment will be between DKK 41.500 and 43.900 per month, depending on qualifications and experience. An individual apartment in Sanaais provided, free of charge.

Sana’a is a non-family duty station with a paid 7-day Rest & Recuperation break permitted after every 6 weeks in-country. The delegate will be an integral member of the DRC Country Team, although in order to focus on capacity-development they will be embedded within the YRCS Logistics & Procurement Team, making fluent Arabic essential, On occasions the ceiling on the number of RCRC delegates permitted to be in Sana’a, may mean that delegates have to work out of a base in Djibouti. Travelling to programme areas outside of Sana’a is not possible at present.

Join us. Together we can make a world of difference. The Red Cross is always present. We are the largest humanitarian organisation in the world and for 150 years we have helped alleviate people through wars and disasters, diseases and loneliness. Most countries have signed an agreement which gives the Red Cross Red Crescent Movement a unique position and mandate to provide aid regardless of nationality, race or political views. We currently count 19 million volunteers in 191 countries. We are part of your local community no matter where you live. When disaster strikes, we are there.