Background

Instructions to Applicants: Click on the "Apply now" button. Input your information in the appropriate Sections: personal information, language proficiency, education, resume and motivation. Upon completion of the first page, please hit "submit application" tab at the end of the page. Please ensure that CV or P11 and the Cover letter are combined in one file.

The following documents shall be required from the applicants:

Personal CV or P11, indicating all past positions held and their main underlying functions, their durations (month/year), the qualifications, as well as the contact details (email and telephone number) of the Candidate, and at least three (3) the most recent professional references of previous supervisors. References may also include peers.

A cover letter (maximum length: 1 page) indicating why the candidate considers him-/herself to be suitable for the position.

Managers may ask (ad hoc) for any other materials relevant to pre-assessing the relevance of their experience, such as reports, presentations, publications, campaigns or other materials.

Office/Unit/Project Description

Background 

UNDP is the knowledge frontier organization for sustainable development in the UN Development System and serves as the integrator for collective action to realize the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). UNDP's policy work carried out at HQ, Regional and Country Office levels, forms a contiguous spectrum of deep local knowledge to cutting-edge global perspectives and advocacy. In this context, UNDP invests in the Global Policy Network (GPN), a network of field-based and global technical expertise across a wide range of knowledge domains and in support of the signature solutions and organizational capabilities envisioned in the Strategic Plan.

Within the GPN, the Bureau for Policy and Programme Support (BPPS) has the responsibility for developing all relevant policy and guidance to support the results of UNDP's Strategic Plan. BPPS's staff provides technical advice to Country Offices, advocates for UNDP corporate messages, represents UNDP at multi-stakeholder fora including public-private dialogues, government and civil society dialogues, and engages in UN inter-agency coordination in specific thematic areas. BPPS works closely with UNDP's Crisis Bureau (CB) to support emergency and crisis response. BPPS ensures that issues of risk are fully integrated into UNDP's development programmes. 

UNDP is a founding cosponsor of the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), a partner of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria, and a co-sponsor of several other international health partnerships. UNDP’s work on HIV, health and development, as described in the HIV, Health and Development Strategy 2022-2025: Connecting the Dots, leverages UNDP’s core strengths and mandates in human development, governance and capacity development to complement the efforts of specialist health-focused UN agencies. UNDP delivers three types of support to countries in HIV, health and development. 

First, UNDP helps countries to mainstream attention to HIV and health into action on gender, poverty and the broader effort to achieve and sustain the Sustainable Development Goals. Second, UNDP works with partners to address the interactions between governance, human rights and health responses. Sometimes this is done through focused or specialized programmes, such as promoting attention to the role of the law and legal environments in facilitating stronger HIV responses, including the use of flexibilities in intellectual property law to lower the cost of medicines and diagnostics.

Third, as a trusted, long-term partner with extensive operational experience, UNDP supports countries in effective implementation of complex, multilateral and multi-sectoral health and development projects, while simultaneously investing in capacity development so that national and local partners can assume these responsibilities over time.

UNDP’s Partnership with the Global Fund

UNDP’s partnership with the Global Fund is an important part of this work, facilitating access to resources for action on SDG 3 by countries that face constraints in directly receiving and managing such funding.  UNDP partners with countries in crisis/post-crisis situations, those with weak institutional capacity or governance challenges, and countries under sanctions. When requested, UNDP acts as interim Principal Recipient (PR) in these settings, working with national partners and the Global Fund to improve management, implementation and oversight of Global Fund grants, while simultaneously developing national capacity to be able to assume the Principal Recipient role over time.  Health product procurement and supply chain management support are an integral part of UNDP’s PR  role and also providing development solutions and support services that UNDP provides for the implementation of large and complex health and development programmes.  UNDP’s partnership with the Global Fund and other health partners (eg GAVI) is overseen by the Global Fund Health Implementation Support Team (GF/HIST), HIV and Health Group, BPPS/GPN. . The GF/HIST provides its support to COs through a country team approach to strengthen and integrate the different functional capacities, leveraging technical assistance and policy support from the HIV and Health Group and other GPN teams and advisory services from the Office of Audit and Investigations (OAI).

The COVID-19 pandemic is a critical issue for UNDP. It is as much a health and development emergency as it is a human security crisis. In order to deliver on its mission eradicating poverty, reducing inequalities and building resilience to crisis and shocks, UNDP must help countries to urgently and effectively respond to COVID-19 in the context of the 2030 Agenda.

Under the overall supervision of the GF/HIST Senior Health PSM Advisor, the Procurement and Supply Chain Management Specialist shall play a key role in the thematic area of Procurement and Supply Chain Management (PSM) in providing technical support services to UNDP Country Offices (COs) implementing health programmes through the country team approach. The PSM Specialist  will work in close collaboration with COs, Regional Bureaus (including Hubs), Bureau of Management Services, Legal Office, OAI, Global Fund, and other health stakeholders (e.g., GAVI, GDF, WHO, UNICEF, WFP). 

Institutional Arrangement

The PSM Specialist will report to the GF/HIST Senior Health PSM Advisor (Copenhagen).

Duties and Responsibilities

Scope of Work

Duties and Responsibilities:

Key duties and responsibilities include:

• Advises COs throughout the Global Fund grant life cycle from the formulation of health product lists including for COVID-19 to grant closure and supports the preparation, implementation and monitoring of Procurement Action Plans and Quality Assurance Plans in line with UNDP’s regulations, rules, policies and procedures and Global Fund processes;
• Ensure monitoring of the delivery of the procurement actions plans related to procurement and supply chain management in coordination with the centralised procurement units and the GF/HIST country team;
• Support COs  to develop their GF proposals for funding (including Emergency Funding, Quality Demand, reprogramming in particular in preparing the PSM budget based on the programmatic objectives and activities;
• Supports COs to complete detailed health products procurement and supply chain management risk mapping, including COVID-19 and to identify mitigation and strategies;
• Support COs throughout the audit process (OAI, GF’s Office of Inspector General , SR audits), including, timely follow up to the implementation of the management action plans and supports in the analysis of PSM findings and development and implementation of action plans;
• Under the direction of the Senior Health PSM Advisor (Copenhagen) support investigation processes including development and implementation of action plans;
• Actively participate in GF/HIST country team meetings and the global tracking of the portfolio;
• Supports the capacity assessments of sub-recipients, and service providersand the contracting process  and value for money assessments and monitoring of sub-recipient contracts for warehouse management;
• Supports COs prepare and respond to PSM related sections of progress updates /disbursement requests, Global Fund and other partners’ performance reviews;
• Advises COs on UNDP procurement architecture and supports in trouble shooting with suppliers, service providers, in coordination with the centralised procurement units;
• Supports COs formulate quality and timely submissions to the internal procurement committees (CAP, RACP and ACP) and respond to queries;
• Pre-screen of submitted  health product dossiers for QA review and support the collation of data for CO to CO knowledge exchange;

• Provides technical support to COs and national counterparts to strengthen national supply chains including product selection, forecasting/quantification, quality assurance, Logistic Management Information Systems, inventory management, distribution, storage and waste management;
• Identifies weaknesses and areas of improvement within in-country PSM systems and supports COs and national counterparts to develop and monitor action plan(s) for strengthening the identified areas;
• Supporting COs to respond to the recurring procurement and supply chain management issues identified in the OAI GF Advisory Note (Sept 2020) and consolidated audit reports for COs and sub-recipients;
• Support COs to ensure timely receipt of all health products to ensure that there are no stock outs reported;
• Participates in technical working groups, as directed by the GF/HIST Senior Health PSM Advisor (Copenhagen);
• Supports the development of the capacity development and transition plans with COs and national counterparts in the thematic area of PSM and their implementation through capacity building initiatives (e.g. trainings, guidance materials, tools, systems); 
• Support COs in the area of logistical information system in line with UNDP’s COVID-19 Digital Offer;

• Serves as a focal point in GF/HIST for a UNDP regional bureau(s), or defined countries, and/or PSM thematic area; facilitating resolution of PSM requests from the region; and performs analysis and collects best practices from the region/countries in the thematic area, ensuring knowledge building and sharing, and implementation is in line with international guidelines and recommendations from GF/HIST;  
• Ensures the maintenance of country contact lists and the storage of documents on the relevant GF/HIST document platforms;
• Leads on the provision of inputs to UNDP’s global knowledge management initiatives on PSM and reporting evidence-based development results, develops guidance materials, tools and trainings;
• Synthesis of lessons learned and sharing of best practices in PSM, through conducting survey(s), research, case studies, crowd sourcing through online portals.
• Supports the maintenance of roster of PSM experts and supports the GF/HIST Senior Health PSM Advisor (Copenhagen) and COs in recruitment processes, including the development of terms of reference, screening, interview panels, etc;  Provides support to the GF/HIST PSM Specialists for activities reporting, SharePoint resources, technical documents review and partner meeting  with actions plans for technical reviews and partner meetings; and
• Any other duty assigned by the GF/HIST Senior Health PSM Advisor (Copenhagen).

Competencies

Required Skills and Experience