Procurement Assistant

After 8 years of conflict, Yemen still faces an unprecedented political, humanitarian, and development crisis. Yemen’s conflict broke into a full-blown civil war in March 2015. Despite the continued efforts by the UN to broker a peace deal, Yemen continues to be the worst humanitarian crisis in the world. An estimated 24 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance, and Yemen already lost 21 years of developments gains just until 2019 after four-year of conflict. UNDP predicts that if the conflict persists unabated, Yemen will have the greatest depth of poverty (11.7 million people into extreme poverty), and second poorest in income inequality of any country in the world. The un-extended truce of April 2022 still holds in the country, with renewed hope for a peace process to be launched under the auspices of the UN. 

Four years into the civil conflict, there are some glimmers of hope that a political breakthrough can be achieved and bring the war to an end. In anticipation, UNDP is scaling up its programming and staff capacity in Yemen to support the peace process going forward. In this regard, UNDP elaborated a revised country strategy note that focuses on supporting the transition from humanitarian to development, through three main pillars: (a) green economic recovery; (b) governance and peacebuilding; and (c) climate change, water, energy and environment.

UNDP is striving to ensure its procurement function and practices are an integral part of UNDP’s competitive advantage as a development partner of choice. This requires placing more attention on strategically integrating procurement at the project design stage, stimulating innovation in specifications and technologies, and adopting more sustainable production and consumption practices that align with UNDPs sustainable development goals. Sustainable procurement means making sure products, services, and purchases are as sustainable as possible with the lowest environmental impact and most positive social results. In implementing UNDP strategic procurement priorities, Country offices will strive to use flexible methods for high-value/low-risk and timely delivery that meet the needs of its clients and key stakeholders.

1) Implement sustainable procurement strategies and policies that are in alignment with principles of fairness, integrity and transparency to achieve best value for money

• Ensure full compliance of procurement activities with UNDP rules, regulations, policies and strategies. 
• Provide inputs to mapping CO procurement business processes in consultation with direct supervisor and office management.

2) Support procurement processes for CO, projects, and other UN Agencies.

• Provide inputs for preparation of procurement plans for the country office and projects.
• Support preparation of RFQ, ITB or RFP documents, and receive and conduct preliminary evaluation of quotations, bids or proposals. 
• Prepare Purchase Orders and contracts in and outside of e-procurement, prepare recurring purchase orders for contracting services, create vendors and buyer profiles in e-procurement; and maintain the filing system in the Procurement unit. 
• Prepare submissions for internal procurement review committees (CAP, RACP and ACP).

3)  Contribute to implementation of sourcing strategies to find best values in the marketplace.

• Update rosters of suppliers.

4) Support procurement knowledge building and knowledge sharing in CO.

• Participate in procurement training for operations and project staff.
• Make sound contributions to knowledge networks and communities of practice.

5) The incumbent performs other duties within their functional profile as deemed necessary for the efficient functioning of the Office and the Organization