Closing date: Wednesday, 5 April 2023
The United Nations World Food Programme
The Gambia Country office
VACANCY ANNOUNCEMENT
TERMS OF REFERENCE
Title of post: Programme Policy Officer (Resilience), NOC
Type of contract: Fixed Term
Unit/ division: Programme & Policy
Duty Station Banjul, The Gambia
Duration: One Year, Renewable.
Why work at WFP?
SAVING & CHANGING LIVES ❤
Make a difference, the world will notice.
We are driven by our mission to fight world hunger and feed people’s dreams of a brighter future!
GLOBAL COMMUNITY ????
Build bridges that unite people across the world. Being part of a global, diverse and
multicultural community like WFP, will continuously expose you to new ideas and
perspectives.
UNLIMITED POSSIBILITIES ????
Unlock possibilities you never thought you’d find.
WFP goes anywhere it is needed and does whatever it takes to get the job done.
Join us to make a difference!
For more details about WFP contractual modality and salary, please follow this link: https://icsc.un.org/
- BACKGROUND
WFP Gambia’s Country Strategic Plan (CSP) 2019-2023 aims to support the Government in reaching the National Development Plan (2017-2023)’s goals through investments in sectors relevant to Sustainable Development Goal
- This CSP positions WFP as an enabler for the Government and combines direct implementation and capacity support in the enhancement of the national transition process. WFP support constitutes direct operational support, knowledge transfer and technical assistance and it contribute to WFP’s Strategic Results 1, 2, 3 and 5 in line with the National Development Plan, the National Social Protection Policy and the United Nations development assistance framework for 2017–2021.
The CSP focuses on contingency plans for response to shocks (Strategic outcome 1); building the resilience of vulnerable populations through nutrition-sensitive and gender-responsive social safety nets for children in primary and early childhood education, pregnant and lactating women and girls, children under 5 and smallholder farmers (Strategic outcomes 2, 3 and 4) and capacity strengthening to facilitate the alignment of national policies through an integrated approach to food and nutrition security that includes the school meals programme, nutrition interventions, social protection, disaster risk reduction and early-warning systems (Strategic outcome 5). Critical new focus areas will be support for development of a social protection system focused on mainstreaming the national school meals programme as a national safety net, food fortification and south-south and triangular cooperation. The country office (CO) aims to streamline all planning and implementation processes to ensure alignment with corporate standards and procedures.
Facilitating South-South cooperation is a strategic priority and opportunity for WFP Gambia to (1) adopt more effective programme approaches by tapping into empiric evidence on localized solutions; (2) expand the tools and modalities to implement CSP activities by mobilizing additional technical and capacity development support from other countries through support from the WFP Centres of Excellence; (3) promote country ownership and advocacy on SDG 2 by engaging host governments not only as recipients, but also as providers of SDG 2 solutions; (4) scale up local innovation; and (5) expand their financial resources by engaging with triangular and emerging donors.
PURPOSE OF THE ASSIGNMENT:
The Programme Policy Officer will manage the programme policy activities that strengthen resilience and recovery of livelihoods mainly in rural areas in the framework of WFP’s Country Strategic Plans (2019-2023 and 2024-2028).
B. ACCOUNTABILITIES/RESPONSIBILITIES:
Under the direct supervision of the Deputy Country Director / Head of Programme and the overall supervision of the Country Director, the Programme Policy Officer (Resilience) will provide support to the livelihood support and asset creation activities including the special projects-Gambia Agriculture and Food Security Project (GAFSp), Climate Adaptation Fund-supported Rural Integrated Climate Adaptation and Resilience Building project, and other Disaster risk reduction and climate resilience initiatives, in the strategic shift towards capacity strengthening of the government, providing technical guidance, and programme team management for the effective implementation of the CSP priorities and strategies in this focus area. The Programme Policy Officer (Resilience) will also assist the Head of Programme as his deputy.
Specifically, the Programme Policy Officer (Resilience) will:
- Lead the development of asset creation, livelihood and disaster risk mitigation activities plans and processes, promoting nutrition and gender sensitive activities.
- Provide project management support to livelihood and asset creation projects and activities, ensuring a coordinated approach with wider programmes / projects that complies with WFP standards and procedures.
- Support reporting activities and contribute to the preparation of accurate and timely reports on livelihood and asset creation activities that enable informed decision making and ensure consistency of information presented to stakeholders.
- Support the identification of potential cooperating partners and stakeholders and liaise with them to identify opportunities for complementary and converging programmes to increase impact and efficiency.
- support the development of the value chain and support to small holder farmer strategy and any other strategy document development (integrated resilience programming, nexus and others as needed);
- Support the coordination of key joint resilience programme by ensuring the preparation of the meeting (including basis documentation: update of workplans, consolidation of analysis and planning documents, etc.), minutes of the meetings and follow up of actions with colleagues.
- Help prepare project documents and funding proposals as required for livelihood/asset creation and resilience building activities.
- Review of the M&E framework for the resilience approach and alignment of all donor reporting requirements and the information captured in COMET, etc.
- Assist the Head of Programme as his deputy in ensuring that different CSP activities are implemented in line with the plan, ensuring quality and efficient performance.
- As the deputy of the Head of Programme, assist in managing the programme team, including ensuring timely submission of unit work plans and monitoring their quality implementation; and,
- Perform any other tasks as required.
4Ps CORE ORGANISATIONAL CAPABILITIES
Purpose
- Understand and communicate the Strategic Objectives: Coaches team in the most effective ways to communicate WFP’s Strategic Objectives to WFP team and partners in the field.
- Be a force for positive change: Implements new methods or tools to improve team’s work processes and productivity.
- Make the mission inspiring to our team: Maps team’s activities and tasks to specific successes in beneficiary communities to showcase positive impact.
- Make our mission visible in everyday actions: Explains to teammates how each unit contributes to the overall WFP mission.
People
- Look for ways to strengthen people’s skills: Identifies skill development opportunities such as training modules or on-the-job experiences for self, colleagues and direct reports.
- Create an inclusive culture: Facilitates team building activities to build rapport in own unit.
- Be a coach & provide constructive feedback: Facilitates the pairing of junior colleagues with coaches within own team.
- Create an “I will”/” We will” spirit: Proactively anticipates potential challenges and develops mitigation plans to ensure that team meets goals and targets.
Performance
- Encourage innovation & creative solutions: Identifies opportunities to be creative in own work and to help team be more innovative and accurate in their respective tasks and areas of work.
- Focus on getting results: Monitors team’s deliverables and provides feedback to ensure outcomes are delivered consistently and accurately.
- Make commitments and make good on commitments: Provides accurate guidance to team on expected responsibilities and tasks, whilst also upholding own commitment to the team.
- Be Decisive: Sets an example and provides guidance to junior team members on when to escalate issues when faced with challenging issues in the workplace or in the field.
Partnership
- Connect and share across WFP units: Facilitates partnerships with other WFP units to accomplish missions in the field.
- Build strong external partnerships: Sets an example and provides guidance to team on how to build relationships with external partners.
- Be politically agile & adaptable: Articulates to colleagues or direct reports the value of contributing to other WFP teams and agency partnerships in fulfilling WFP’s goals and objectives.
- Be clear about the value WFP brings to partnerships: Organizes, monitors, and prioritizes own and team’s efforts to ensure that they will fulfil the needs of internal and external partners.
FUNCTIONAL CAPABILITIES
Capability Name:
Description of the behaviour expected for the proficiency level
Programme Lifecycle & Food Assistance
Demonstrates ability to identify key variables and contextual factors that affect food assistance problems and programmes throughout the lifecycle to inform quality programme design or re-design.
Demonstrates effectiveness in developing recovery programmes, bringing the corporate/ existing WFP strategies into the country context; ability to provide technical advice, or mobilise technical expertise, on a broad range of operational areas to managers and implementation staff.
Transfer Modalities
(Food, Cash, Vouchers)
Demonstrates ability to implement food assistance programmes deploying the full range of transfer modalities with an understanding of basic principles guiding modality selection and implementation.
Broad Knowledge of
Specialized Areas
Understands basic technical concepts and data and their relevance to food assistance programmes.
Emergency
Programming
Displays capacity to provide inputs into the development, implementation and realignment of activities that bridge emergency response with long term resilience programmes.
Strategic Policy
Engagement w/Government
Understands and applies basic principles of engagement with government counterparts at the national or local level.
REQUIRED EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE:
Education:
- Advanced University degree in Agriculture, Environmental Science, Social Sciences or other field relevant to international development assistance.
Experience:
- At least 5 years of post-graduate professional experience in public sector management/international organisations, development projects, agriculture/food security and livelihoods programming, performance reporting, budget planning, resource and/or project management.
- Proven project and operational experience in development as well as humanitarian settings.
- Experience of coordination with government, local and international partners and strong network within government and other stakeholders.
- Experience leading and engaging multi-disciplinary technical teams in challenging contexts.
- Knowledge of supervising setting up project team, financial, reporting and M&E systems for results-based reporting an advantage.
- Demonstrated experience in donor, government, and private sector liaison and coordination.
- Previous UN work experience will be an added advantage.
Competences:
- Thorough understanding of operational planning and business processes, rules and procedures and apply them consistently in the implementation and support of programme interventions.
- Ability to lead strategic planning, results-based management and reporting.
- Ability to lead formulation and monitoring of management projects.
- Has performed basic financial analysis or either office or operational budgets.
- Has provided analytical inputs for the development of budgets, financial plans or analysis.
- Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude.
- Demonstrates openness to change and ability to manage complexities
Language:
Fluency (level C) in English language: Fluency in both oral and written communication.
QUALIFIED FEMALE CANDIDATES ARE ENCOURAGED TO APPLY.
- Only Gambian nationals are eligible to apply for this position.
- Applications are to be submitted online and in the English language only.
- WFP will apply a rigorous and transparent selection process including thorough assessment of technical skills to ensure the best candidates are selected for the job. Please ensure that your application contains accurate and complete information on academic qualifications, employment record and language skills.
The deadline for submission of applications is 4 April 2023
Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.
- ——– WFP has zero tolerance for any form of discrimination ……..
