Logistics Officer

Logistics Officer (Food Safety and Quality)- SC L8

ORGANIZATIONAL CONTEXT

WFP, through its dual mandate in humanitarian and development, provides life-saving food assistance to the most vulnerable and food insecure non-refugee Palestinians and works to safeguard livelihoods, build resilience, and reconstitute food systems in vulnerable areas. WFP also lends its technical expertise to support national institutions by strengthening their capacities in responding to shocks and building an inclusive social safety net.

To further strengthen the humanitarian-development-peace nexus, WFP is providing climate-smart agricultural assets such as hydroponics and wicking beds to households to increase their calorie intake and enable them to generate income. WFP also scaled up its resilience-building activities to include greenhouses, vegetable farms, sheep, poultry, and technical and vocational trainings for youth and people with disabilities. These projects reduce people’s vulnerability to external shocks, serve as a safety net, and support livelihoods. 

In response to the urgent needs of Palestine, where protracted conflict and economic stagnation have led to widespread food insecurity, WFP delivers life-saving food assistance to the most vulnerable non-refugee Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. To address the ongoing crisis, WFP also focuses on strengthening livelihoods through resilience-building projects such as climate-smart agriculture and vocational training. Additionally, WFP supports national institutions by enhancing their capacity to respond to shocks and build inclusive social safety nets. By extending its systems to humanitarian and development partners, WFP contributes to broader efforts within the humanitarian-development-peace nexus.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE:

The current state of humanitarian response in Palestine is characterized by increasingly complex and protracted conflict-driven crisis involving a multiplicity of challenges related to Supply Chain and Food Safety and Quality Assurance. The Country Office is moving forward with the local procurement of food commodities and needs to establish this function within the Unit.

As a result, WFP is working to assure the presence of a local Food Safety and Quality Assurance, following a risk-based approach, including availability and assessment of key infrastructure in place, such as laboratory capacities, inspection, and suppliers.

The Palestine Country Office (PSCO) is therefore seeking a Food Technologist to support Supply Chain activities with responsibilities and expected qualifications described below. This profile will work to assure that FSQ is embedded in all WFP’s assistance modalities and processes in the Country Office, in a particularly challenging operational context.

This position will be based in Jerusalem.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

Operations:

• Establish and implement protocols and tools relating to downstream and upstream FSQ issues, ensuring alignment with WFP logistics, procurement and overall supply chain strategy, policies and plans and food safety and quality manual and guidelines.
• Review and provide advice on the procedures for mitigating and documenting food quality and safety issues e.g. during food transit and storage in warehouses.
• Establish and implement protocols and tools in CO that enable rapid response to situations with food safety concerns.
• Provide technical guidance and input to CO in the design and implementation of medium scale and/or relatively straight forward food assistance programmes, ensuring compliance with WFP food and safety guidelines.
• Build relationships and collaborate with counterparts in key supply chain functions to establish standard operation procedures, protocols and tools that maintain, monitor, and verify food safety and quality along the WFP supply chain.
• Build productive relationships and partnerships with counterparts in UN agencies, NGOs, governments, and the private sector to enhance WFP capacity to respond effectively to levels of under nutrition.
• Keep current on emerging developments and cutting-edge research on the areas of food safety and quality and/or food product optimization to leverage the opportunities to incorporate industry best practices.
• Act in an assigned emergency response capacity as required to meet emergency food assistance needs.

Reporting:

• Prepare accurate and timely reports that inform food risk assessment and management and contribute to a WFP wide view of food technology activities, enabling informed decision making and consistency of information presented to stakeholders.

Institutional Capacity Strengthening:

• Lead and motivate a small team of staff, providing coaching, training and guidance as required to ensure appropriate development and enable high performance.
• Develop and deliver training modules to WFP staff and external stakeholders on the key areas of food technology, such as quality control, food processing, loss prevention and mitigation, food incident management (FIM) to build local capacity in the processing and/or production of specialized nutritious foods.

جميع الحقوق محفوظة لموقع جوبس.

Recruitment Qualifications:

Education: Advanced university degree in Food Technology, Health Sciences, Food Control, Nutrition or other related field, or First University degree with an additional years of related work experience and/or training/courses.

Work Experience: At least 8 years of postgraduate relevant professional experience in related fields. Has worked with counterparts in supply chain function and experience monitoring and assessing food safety and quality issues. Experience building strong external relationships. Preferably worked in emergency response capacity and on developing food assistance programmes.

Languages: Fluency (level C) in English and Arabic languages.

Competencies:

- Good analytical and problem-solving skills;

- Ability to establish priorities and to plan, coordinate and monitor own work plan in line with operational requirements.

- Ability to guide team on the principles of matching food types with local needs and capabilities across the supply chain (e.g., storage capacity) to optimize impact of WFP resources.

- Knowledge of food product optimization and broad knowledge of local regulations, best practices, techniques, and processes to provide technical guidance to country offices in design of food assistance programmes.

- Ability to educate unit/region on the appropriate procedures for handling and communicating risks as they emerge in a timely and safe manner.

- Willingness to work in challenging environments/ field locations.

Note: All candidates will be requested to fill out their application completely and correctly: to provide full and correct years of experience and obtained educational degree/s in Workday platform in addition to attach your updated CV.

REMINDERS BEFORE YOU SUBMIT YOUR APPLICATION

• We strongly recommend that your profile is accurate, complete, and includes your employment records, academic qualifications, language skills and UN Grade (if applicable).

• Once your profile is completed, please apply, and submit your application.

• Please make sure you upload your professional CV in the English language

• Kindly note the only documents you will need to submit at this time are your CV and Cover Letter

• Additional documents such as passport, recommendation letters, academic certificates, etc. may potentially be requested at a future time

• Please contact us at [email protected] in case you face any challenges with submitting your application

• Only shortlisted candidates will be notified

All employment decisions are made on the basis of organizational needs, job requirements, merit, and individual qualifications. WFP is committed to providing an inclusive work environment free of sexual exploitation and abuse, all forms of discrimination, any kind of harassment, sexual harassment, and abuse of authority. Therefore, all selected candidates will undergo rigorous reference and background checks.

No appointment under any kind of contract will be offered to members of the UN Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ), International Civil Service Commission (ICSC), FAO Finance Committee, WFP External Auditor, WFP Audit Committee, Joint Inspection Unit (JIU) and other similar bodies within the United Nations system with oversight responsibilities over WFP, both during their service and within three years of ceasing that service.