Senior Regional Logistics & Procurement Officer - Danish Red Cross

Organizational context

The Danish Red Cross (DRC) has been present in the Middle East & North Africa (MENA) region since 2002, aiming to reach highly vulnerable people in partnership with the Red Cross/Red Crescent (RCRC) Host National Societies (HNS) of the countries where we work. Currently this is in Iraq, Lebanon, the occupied Palestinian territories (oPt), Syria, and Yemen. Each of these counties is directly or indirectly affected by civil war or international conflict, and DRC supports the HNS interventions in the fields of emergency relief, health, Psychosocial Support (PS), Water Sanitation & Hygiene (WASH), and Organisational Development (OD) We emphasize strengthening of our partner NS, both through organisational development and operational capacity building, and we see integrity, transparency, autonomy and sustainable volunteer structures as necessary conditions for them to build long term effectiveness and efficiency.

The DRC MENA Regional Office (RO) supports the five Country Teams in the region. Each country programme consists of a set of projects, currently 16 in the countries plus 2 regional projects. The average duration of projects is 1.8 years, and the total expenditure on DRC MENA programmes in 2019, excluding administration fees, is approximately DKK 150 million.

A significant fraction of this total is spent on procurement and logistics, with the procurement conducted locally or internationally, depending upon the circumstances, and either managed by the HNS or by DRC directly, if the HNS does not have sufficiently stringent guidelines or robust practices to satisfy DRC’s need to comply with back-donor requirements and hence retain their confidence. Overseeing procurement and logistics implemented by the HNS and building their capacity to conduct sound procurement and apply proper stock management practices is thus a critical area for DRC in the region.

Job purpose

The purpose of the Senior Regional Logistics & Procurement Officer (henceforth the Senior RLP Officer) is to enable the HNS that DRC works in bilateral partnerships with in MENA Region – namely IRCS, LRC, PRCS (including its branches in Lebanon and Syria), SARC, and YRCS – to reach the level whereby they are capable of conducting logistics and procurement operations for both goods and services that satisfy their own regulations and the requirements of DRC’s back-donors. Where, for various reasons, this is not possible, the Senior RLP Officer is to directly manage the procurement, shipment, importation, delivery, storage and dispatch to the distribution locations, drawing upon support from the respective HNS, other PNS, IFRC or ICRC, and legitimate external agents, as necessary.

This means that the Senior RLP Officer must concentrate his/her efforts on:

1. Capacity building of our currently five bilateral partner HNS in terms of logistics and particularly procurement;
2. Oversight of the procurement and logistics conducted by the HNS using DRC funds, to ensure that it complies with relevant regulations and will hence meet back-donor requirements and thereby be reimbursed;
3. Direct implementation of procurement and related logistic support, when necessitated by the circumstances; and
4. Logistic, procurement and limited administrative support to the DRC MENA Regional Office (RO).

The Senior RLP Officer (hereinafter the Senior Officer) reports directly to the DRC Head of Region (HoR) and technically to the Logistics Coordinator in DRC Headquarter (HQ). As an integral member of the DRC MENA RO Team they are expected to provide support both to the RO and to the DRC Country Teams in MENA, in a principled but also flexible and responsive fashion. The duty station is Beirut but the Senior RLP Officer should be ready to spend up to half their work time working in one of the DRC MENA programme countries or, more occasionally, at DRC HQ in Copenhagen. The HoR as line manager will conduct short weekly meetings with the Senior RLP Officer in order to monitor their work and support them where required, and he will require a quarterly work and travel-plan, and a monthly report on activities and results during that month. The quarterly plan and monthly reports will be shared with the Logistics Coordinator in DRC HQ, and with any DRC Logistics Delegates who may be working on particular issues temporarily or, sometimes, longer term within the region.

Job duties and responsibilities

Capacity building (responsibility i)

• Identify the most critical procurement and logistic capacity building needs within the HNS.
• Design, in consultation with the relevant DRC Country Team, the DRC HQ Logistics Coordinator or other DRC Logistics Delegates, and other concerned PNS, appropriate capacity building measures, and plan a programme to introduce them as well as to encourage adoption of the measures by the relevant HNS managers and staff.
• Conduct formal or on-the-job training in Arabic and/or English as appropriate, and other staff development activities such as mentoring, in order to build sustainable procurement and logistics capacity of the HNS.
• Regularly visit DRC programme countries to provide on-site support and advice in procurement and logistics.
• Follow-up, in cooperation with other concerned PNS, on actions / recommendations / issues identified during visits to ensure that the HNS is willing and able to act on the recommendations and is addressing the issues reported.

Oversight of procurement and logistics conducted by DRC’s HNS partners (responsibility ii):

• Each year develop a future procurement plan (with the LSR tracking sheet for each country) and keep it updated for all current and new projects based on the annual project procurement plan submitted by each Country Team.
• Monitor, support and seek to ensure that HNS adhere to relevant procurement regulations (their own or DRC’s), and ensure the efficient and effective delivery of logistic and procurement actions for both goods and services
• Ensure that the HNS submits all procurement and logistics-related documentation required by DRC.

Direct implementation of procurement and logistic operations (responsibility iii):

• Support and maintain a well-functioning DRC logistic and procurement operation in MENA Region.
• Ensure compliance with DRC standard operating procedures (SOPs) and procurement regulations, as appropriate
• Initiate and follow-up direct procurement processes with international and/or local suppliers and with the respective DRC Country Teams and DRC HQ; and document the procurement process according to SOPs.
• Prepare timely and accurate reports on material movement in compliance with DRC SOPs and donor requirements.
• Look for solutions to the timely import and transportation of relief goods into the inaccessible warzones in the region, through any appropriate agency that has the requisite legal status, in cooperation with the respective HNS and in coordination with the DRC country delegates and the respective matrix teams in DRC HQ.
• Stay abreast of new DRC and/or partner procurement guidelines and inform relevant DRC staff accordingly.

Support to the DRC MENA Regional Office (responsibility iv)

• Maintain an updated asset register of all the DRC equipment in the RO and each country including make, model, serial numbers for computing equipment, satellite and mobile phones, location, current custodian, etc., and periodically check that this corresponds with the data held by the DRC Security Adviser and IT Department at HQ.
• Support the emergency communications network of DRC in the MENA Region, based on functioning and regularly tested satellite phones held in the RO and each of the Country Teams.
• Ensure that the DRC-owned and rented vehicles in MENA are properly maintained, in good working order and safe.
• Support the Regional Finance & Admin Manager in liaising with IFRC to ensure that the DRC delegates and staff who need them, receive Lebanese visas.
• Support as requested and participate in relevant DRC meetings, development fora, workshops, and courses, etc.
• Provide backup for other DRC MENA RO staff if requested, and perform any other task assigned by the DRC MENA HoR and/or the Logistics Coordinator at HQ.

Position Requirements

Education:

University Degree in Business Administration or Logistics relevant major – Essential

Experience:

1. 5 years of relevant professional experience in administration or logistics - Essential
2. Experience in dealing with suppliers and procurement - Essential
3. Full driving license and willingness to drive independently - Essential
4. Experience in freight forwarding services - Desirable
5. Experience with donor agencies, e.g. UN, ECHO, Europe Aid, Danish MoFA, etc - Desirable
6. Experience in working for a humanitarian organization, especially the Movement – Desirable

Knowledge and Skills:

1. Ability to support and impart technical knowledge to colleagues of varying seniority - Essential
2. Able to analyze, advise, establish and persuade bilateral partners (i.e. HNS managers and staff) to establish and enforce sound procurement controls and practices - Essential
3. Strong sense of ownership and able to see through to completion the assigned task - Essential
4. Strong communication skills, orally and in writing - Essential
5. Committed to the principles of the International RCRC Movement; a good team-player, with integrity and a high standard of personal conduct; sensitive to diversity; flexible and adaptable; possessing good interpersonal skills, friendly and approachable; with a positive mental attitude, hardworking, resourceful, proactive and resilient; trustworthy, mature and able to maintain confidentiality at all times - Essential

Languages:

1. Fluency in English with good spoken and written command of the language - Essential
2. Fluency in Arabic with good spoken and written command of the language - Essentia
3. Working capacity in French – Desirable

Competencies

1. Able to work independently as well as part of changing teams.

2. Resourceful and capable to research and source information.
3. Flexible and adaptable to changing working conditions.
4. High degree of integrity, proactivity and discretion in personal conduct.
5. Self-motivated, proactive, with good judgement and initiative.
6. Able to prioritize tasks, work under pressure, and meet deadlines.
7. Communication, coordination, networking and facilitation skills.
8. Conversant with and willing to work in volatile (security) environments e.g. Iraq, Yemen or Syria.
9. Able to cope with a working environment that could occasionally be stressful due to e.g. fluctuating workloads, unplanned tasks, and occasional personal insecurity.