The Position:
The System Strengthening Associate position is located in the Country Support Team within Pillar 1 – Resilience and Capacity Development in the UNFPA Supply Chain Management Unit (SCMU). The position reports directly to the System Strengthening Team Lead. The System Strengthening Associate will work closely with other SCMU colleagues, other HQ Business Units, the Regional Offices and the Country Offices and with a number of external partners.
The position provides assistance to the System Strengthening Team Lead to build sustainable national health supply chain systems for reproductive health products.
How you can make a difference:
UNFPA occupies a unique position in the sexual and reproductive health commodity ecosystem as a critical player in supply chain management, a leading public procurer of sexual and reproductive health commodities, a trusted partner to national governments, and one of the few organizations with the scale and partnerships necessary to build accountability for last mile delivery.
The UNFPA Supply Chain Management Unit (SCMU) is self-funded and was made operational in January 2022. It is tasked with ensuring that UNFPA is able to effectively and efficiently support the delivery of life-saving reproductive health products and other programme supplies to the end user when and where they are needed. To achieve this, it is important to strengthen the capacity of governments and implementing partners to ensure coordination, end-to-end visibility and accountability on all supply chain and logistics management related activities, in particular for programme supplies, across all UNFPA programmes.
Job Purpose:
In general, the System Strengthening Associate will provide foundational support and ensuring smooth day-to-day operation to enhance national health supply chain systems.
Qualifications and Experience:
Education:
- Completion of secondary education is required.
- A University degree at Bachelor Level in Medical Science, Pharmacy, Supply Chain Management, Public Health, International Development, Logistics, Business Administration, Economics, Data Science, Accounting and Audit or equivalent is an asset.
- A professional certification such as professional Supply Chain Management certification such as Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply (CIPS) at Level 2 Certificate and/or Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILT-UK) at Level 2, Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE), GDP/GMP certification, and/or professional certifications in quality management systems such as ISO 9001 would be an asset.
Knowledge and Experience:
- A minimum of six (6) years of relevant, progressively responsible experience in supply management, quality assurance of medical products in the supply chain, particularly involving storage and distribution, supply chain monitoring and evaluation and logistics information systems is required. Candidates should demonstrate experience in the below key areas, with the understanding that these experiences may overlap:
- At least 1 year (1) year of hands-on experience working in development and/or complex humanitarian operating environments in low-resource countries. Candidates must demonstrate a deep understanding of the unique challenges and regulations specific to these contexts. This field experience is required.
- At least one (1) year of hands-on experience working with WHO Good Distribution/Storage Practices and National Medical Guidelines, Protocols and Standards
- At least one (1) year of hands-on in developing pharmaceutical master plans/strategies, logistics strategies for multi-year and significantly large dollar value projects funded by Donors such as the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the European Union, the UK's Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) and/or the Global Fund with an understanding of their compliance and reporting requirements.
- Strong interpersonal skills and capability to develop and maintain broad diversified partnerships is required.
- Professional written and spoken presentation skills, including for the development of reports, presentations, and the ability to synthesize complex supply chain documents for both technical and non-technical audiences is required.
- Experience using Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is required.
- Experience working in a matrix organizational structure is an asset.
- Basic knowledge of the principles and operational aspects of sexual and reproductive health commodities in global development and the humanitarian community is an asset.
Languages:
Fluency in English is required. Working knowledge of another official UN language is desirable.
We are no longer accepting applications for this position.
