Senior Programme Associate (Home Grown School Meals)

ABOUT WFP

The United Nations World Food Programme is the world's largest humanitarian agency fighting hunger worldwide.  The mission of WFP is to help the world achieve Zero Hunger in our lifetimes.  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, can access the nutritious food they need.

STANDARD MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS

Education: Bachelor’s degree in one or more of the disciplines relevant to the following areas: Education, Agriculture and Irrigation, Development Studies, Community development, or Social Sciences fields relevant to international development assistance.
Language: Fluency in both oral and written English.

JOB PURPOSE

UNWFP Malawi has been supporting the Government of Malawi (GoM) to implement the School Meals Programme (SMP) since 1999. WFP assists about one million people through Development Programme (DEV). Under the Support to Education component, WFP provides SMP through Centralized Model (CM) and Home Grown School Meals (HGSM) models. The programme provides wet feeding) to 954,669 primary school learners in 13 food insecure districts and 24,577 pre-primary children in 2 most food insecure districts in Malawi. Additionally Take Home Rations (THR) is provided to Girls and orphaned boys in upper classes particularly during the lean season. WFP has been providing technical assistance to the GoM to design and implement cost efficient and sustainable school meals models and has supported with the development of key documents such as the National School Health and Nutrition Policy and school Meals document. As part of overall vision to support the government objective of universal coverage, as well as for a smooth handover of the SMP from WFP to GoM WFP continues to strengthen the capacity of the government in school Meals Programme delivery. As part of enhancing programme sustainability and government ownership, WFP is supporting the GoM to develop a National School Meals Strategy. WFP’s additional role in this regard includes designing and testing different models of SMP that include locally produced food and are well-integrated with water, sanitation, nutrition, agriculture, gender and HIV as outlined in the National School Health and Nutrition (NSHN) strategy to maintain sustainability of the programme.

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES (not all-inclusive)

A Programme Associate will be hired with the main responsibility to provide specialized support to a full range of policy and School Meals Programme activities that effectively meet food assistance needs of school going children in 13 districts in Malawi.

• Provide specialized expertise and contribute towards the development of the School Meals programme activities, plans and processes ensuring alignment with wider programme policies and guidelines as well as with other WFP supported programs.
• Provide efficient coordination and specialized project management support to the effective delivery of the SMP including Home Grown School Meals programmes to ensure that the various activities are performed within the established targets following WFP’s policies and procedures.
• Prepare a variety of elaborated reports and substantial data analysis (e.g. SMP food assistance needs, resource utilization, programme status, performance) and make recommendations to supervisors, ensuring deliverables adhere to corporate standards and quality control.
• Lead and ensure accurate, timely recording of data for the SMP (e.g. food and cash assistance for SMP programmes, food security and vulnerability assessments, THR beneficiaries) and consistency of information presented to stakeholders.
• Coordinate and liaise with internal counterparts on a range of complex SMP matters to enable effective collaboration, implementation and monitoring of ongoing project activities.
• Foster relationships and support partnership-building with local partners, agencies, NGOs and government institutions to perform accurate SMP analyses and to ensure efficient delivery of both the Home Grown, centralized and ECD feeding programme.
• Support the capacity building of WFP Field staff, cooperating partners and national government on School Meals Programme.
• Manage a team of support staff, providing advice, guidance and training, to ensure individual and team objectives are delivered to agreed standards and deadlines.
• Follow standard emergency preparedness practices to ensure WFP is able to quickly respond and deploy needed resources to affected areas at the onset of the crisis especially for the SMP programme.

OTHER SPECIFIC JOB REQUIREMENTS

• Familiarity with WFP global policies and experience in Education and/or School Meals programming and/or implementation and monitoring
• Good analytical skills, initiative and drive to get things done timely
• Ability to solve problems in a holistic manner and achieve planned goals;
• Ability to accept additional responsibilities at any time
• Knowledge of the Local farmer organization structures, nutrition, Financial Management and the Malawi Education systems is essential
• Experience in use of computer software (particularly Word, Excel and Power Point)

DESIRED EXPERIENCES FOR ENTRY INTO THE ROLE

• Years of progressively professional work experience at national, district and community levels implementing and managing technical programs e.g. SMP, Nutrition or Emergency programs
• Has implemented School Meals or Humanitarian programs with increased level of responsibility
•  Hs experience providing input to policy discussion
• Working in / with the UN or other development organization is an asset.

TERMS AND CONDITIONS

WFP is committed to gender equality in its mandate and its staff. Well qualified candidates, particularly females are strongly encouraged to apply.

Applications that do not meet the above requirements, and do not attach certificates will be disregarded.

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted. Paper applications will not be accepted.

DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS

Deadline for application is 20 March 2018.

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Female applicants and qualified applicants from developing countries are especially encouraged to apply

WFP has zero tolerance for discrimination and does not discriminate on the basis of HIV/AIDS status.

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.