Programme Policy Officer- Lead, Innovation, Financial Services & Insur CST II, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

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WFP celebrates and embraces diversity. It is committed to the principle of equal employment opportunity for all its employees and encourages qualified candidates to apply irrespective of race, colour, national origin, ethnic or social background, genetic information, gender, gender identity and/or expression, sexual orientation, religion or belief, HIV status or disability.

CONTRACTUAL INFORMATION

JOB TITLE: Programme Policy Officer – Lead, Innovation, Financial Services & Insurance
TYPE OF CONTRACT: CST II
UNIT/DIVISION: Programme
DUTY STATION: Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
DURATION: 6 Months 

ABOUT WFP

The United Nations World Food Programme is the world's largest humanitarian agency fighting hunger worldwide. The mission of WFP is to end global hunger. Every day, WFP works worldwide to ensure that no child goes to bed hungry and that the poorest and most vulnerable, particularly women and children, access and consume diverse nutritious food to avert double burdens of malnutrition. In Ethiopia, an estimated 70 percent of the population are employed in the agriculture sector (crops and livestock). In addition, much of the arable land is rain-fed with only 2 percent irrigated while with much of the cultivated land occupied by smallholder farmers (96 percent). Furthermore, an estimated 20 million people in Ethiopia require humanitarian assistance of which 9.8 million people are largely due to severe drought effects. Ethiopia, like any other sub-Saharan country remains extremely prone to cyclic effects of climate change with impacts varying across the different regions. 

Despite these challenges, Ethiopia has made significant development gains in recent years, leading to important progress towards reducing poverty rates of above 20% between 2000-20151 and a 55% reduction in the Global Hunger Index since 20002. Progress has been registered in cereal production from 10.9 million metric tons (mt) in 2000/01 to 29.7 million mt in 2019/203 with increased consumption and dietary diversity contributing to significant health advancements. The percentage of households that are food energy deficient has dropped dramatically from 64% in 2000 to 40% in 20164 and promising improvements have also been noted in children’s nutrition, where rates of undernutrition among children under five decreased significantly from 41% in 2000 to 24% in 2016.
 

Click the link to learn more about WFP in Ethiopia:  WFP Ethiopia Employee Value Proposition.pdf 

BACKGROUND OF THE ASSIGNMENT

WFP Ethiopia Country Office has supporting Climate Change Adaptation intervention Horn of Africa Risk Transfer for Adaptation (HARITA) which evolved into R4 Rural Resilience Initiative focusing on productive safety net intervention (Disaster Risk Reduction, Risk Reserves – Village Economic and Savings Groups, Prudent Borrow – Formal Credit and Risk Transfer – Insurance). Most recently the CO with technical support HQ developed a Satellite based Index Insurance for Pastoralists in Ethiopia (SIIPE) avert risk averseness of (agro) pastoralists to climate shocks that have repeatedly experienced huge losses of livestock due to insufficient folder and water. The CO is also working with the Social Protection team with support from HQ to develop meso level insurance product that will be integrated to the existing shock responsive Productive Safety-Net Programmes (PSNP). Integration of the three financial services originally conceptualized under the R4 is key in all the existing CCRB interventions as they will continue acting as key and strategic enablers. 

PURPOSE OF THE ASSIGNMENT:
This assignment will involve overall and strategic management of the innovation, insurance, financial services, and inclusions under the Climate Change Adaptation Resilience Building workstream (Activity 5) of the Strategic Outcome 2 “Vulnerable and food-insecure populations in targeted areas have increased resilience to shocks by 2025”.  This will also involve leading the strategic discussions on the development of digital financial solutions, innovations and bundled insurance products to improve productivity, incomes and resilience of crop and livestock farmers in geographic areas with the desirable agro-climatic conditions. In addition, the assignment will also include strategic technical lead in adequately integrating innovation, insurance, financial services, and inclusion in diverse transformative and resilient local food systems interventions in the CO. 
 

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES (not all-inclusive)

The incumbent will report to the Team Lead, Changing Lives working in close liaison with Team Lead: Food Systems and Agriculture Support (Smallholder Agriculture Market Support).In addition, the incumbent will carry out the following responsibilities:

• Lead the development and implementation of innovative adaptative and resilience livelihoods activities (including financial services and inclusion as well as multiple and tailored insurance products, ensuring a gender, disability, women and youths are considered.
• Assist government stakeholders at national and sub-national level through our Area Offices in developing and implementing relevant financial services policy frameworks that include insurance, agricultural finance within the context of local food systems interventions, that take into consideration regional contexts.
• Support the development and roll-out of relevant guidelines and standard operating procedures to support effective and quality delivery of the financial services   linked to smallholder farmers and (agro) pastoralists, in close liaison with relevant government agencies and private sector that include financial institutions. 
• Organize and facilitate technical assessments to ascertain the production and marketing capacity of smallholder farmers/(agro) pastoralists inclusive of farmer organizations in terms of their ability to access services, credit, information, and resources and to inform interventions design and implementation for resilience projects.
• Develop and facilitate tailored capacity building strategies for smallholder farmers and farmer organisations to strengthen use of innovation and financial services to enhance aggregation of crop and livestock, food safety and quality control, marketing and business development capacity and skills.
• Advise and support the design of knowledge management initiatives that enhance the capacity of WFP staff and partners to engage in resilient food systems and livelihoods with innovation, insurance, financial service being at core of program design and delivery. 
  • Support development of market access oriented SHF/(agro) pastoralist support, particularly on enhancing adoption of digital innovation and financial products and dissemination through relevant technologies.
  • Focus on consolidating gains made in setting-up and harmonization of financial products and innovations for SHF adoptions 
• Build and maintain partnerships with private sector (E.G. insurance companies, ZEP-RE, International Financial Institutions like the World Bank e.t.c) to ensure complementary collaborative arrangements, create awareness, and support the integration of index insurance in Government programmes and systems etc.
• Training of staff and partners on index insurance (need to increase internal awareness), contribute to proposals development, donor briefs and annual reports, support mainstreaming of financial inclusion in livestock and smallholder livelihoods. 
• Perform any other duties as assigned by the Team Leads and Deputy Country Director (Changing lives).  

KEY EXPECTED DELIVERABLES AND OUTPUTS

• Position WFP as a key player in contributing to enhanced financial inclusion and access to insurance for vulnerable communities and individuals. 
• Prepare financial inclusion implementation workplans and budgets ensuring integration and alignment with the Climate Change and resilience building (CCRB) interventions.
• Review and contribute inputs on financial inclusion in strategic documents - including ACRs, Country Briefs, SITEPS, Donor Reports, funding proposals, MOUs/agreements, Assessments and monitoring tools etc.
• Prepare guidelines/SOPs for activity implementation of the CCRB workstreams with innovation, financial services and inclusion explicitly articulated as key enablers.
• Support Government and Private Sector Capacity strengthening in financial inclusion, innovation, and Insurance.
• Build and maintain strategic partnerships with other actors, and represent WFP at different forums on matters related to financial inclusion, insurance and climate risk management related innovations
   

QUALIFICATIONS & EXPERIENCE REQUIRED

Education:
●    Advanced University degree in Agriculture, Economics, Development Economics or any relevant field.

Experience:
●    At least 5 years of progressively responsible experience in programme related functions of which significant experience (2 or more years) must be related to resilience building, agricultural value chains, market linkages for smallholder farmers/(agro) pastoralists, social protection to achieve food security and/or nutrition objectives. 
●    Experience working with government in implementing resilience, social protection, climate risk management and disaster risk reduction interventions. 
●    Experience in developing, establishing, strengthening, and maintaining relationships with a variety of stakeholders: governments and/or humanitarian & development stakeholders, preferably related to livelihoods and social protection programming.

Competencies:
●    Excellent written and oral communication and presentation skills.
●    Strong analytical and negotiation skills.
●    Resourcefulness, initiative, maturity of judgement.
●    Ability to work with minimum supervision as well as ability to supervise and train support staff; and to work effectively with people of different nationalities and cultural backgrounds. 
●    Ability to establish priorities and to plan, coordinate and monitor own work plan and those under their jurisdiction.
●    Demonstrated ability to develop and maintain effective working relationships with counterparts and staff within the office, host government, donors, other UN agencies, private sector and NGOs/CSOs.

Language:
●    Fluency (level C) in English language
 

DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS

14 May 2024

Qualified Female Candidates and persons with disability are highly encouraged to apply.

Open to non-Ethiopian National 

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WFP has a zero-tolerance approach to conduct such as fraud, sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to WFP’s standards of conduct and will therefore undergo rigorous background verification internally or through third parties. Selected candidates will also be required to provide additional information as part of the verification exercise. Misrepresentation of information provided during the recruitment process may lead to disqualification or termination of employment

WFP will not request payment at any stage of the recruitment process including at the offer stage. Any requests for payment should be refused and reported to local law enforcement authorities for appropriate action.