WFP seeks candidates of the highest integrity and professionalism who share our humanitarian principles.

Selection of staff is made on a competitive basis, and we are committed to promoting diversity and gender balance.

This position is only open to Korean Nationals

This post is open in the context of the Junior Professional Officer (JPO) scheme sponsored by the Government of the Republic of Korea and is addressed exclusively to candidates of the Republic of Korea.

Junior Professional Officer - Community Resilience Strengthening, Colombo, Sri Lanka Programme Unit/Sri Lanka Country Office/Regional Bureau Bangkok

The World Food Programme (WFP) is the world's largest humanitarian agency, fighting hunger worldwide. We are currently seeking for a Junior Professional Officer to fill the position of ‘Junior Professional Officer - Community Resilience Strengthening’ with our ‘Programme Unit/Sri Lanka Country Office/Regional Bureau Bangkok’’ in Colombo, Sri Lanka

• Junior Professional Officer - Community Resilience Strengthening
• Supervisor: Head of Programme//Deputy Country Director
• Unit: Programme
• Country: Sri Lanka
• Duty Station: Colombo
• Duration of assignment: Two years

Sri Lanka, with a population of 20.3 million people, has seen a significant improvement in its social and economic status over the past decade. The nationwide nutrition assessment (2012) found 15 percent of children under five years of age with acute malnutrition, one of the highest levels in the world. The high levels of acute malnutrition were found across the 25 districts surveyed.

The National Strategic Review of Food Security and Nutrition (2017) reported that Sri Lanka is vulnerable to recurring climate shocks such as floods, landslides, and droughts (currently the worst main harvest in 40 years), which further undermines the socioeconomic status of the affected population. While farmers have been in a continuous struggle to adapt to frequent climate shocks, predictions of the changes in Sri Lanka’s climate parameters and its likely scenario are not conducive for positive agriculture growth in the country. Temperatures are continuously increasing, while the distribution and the variability of rainfall is drastically changing, negatively impacting food security. Increased intensity and frequency of extreme weather events such as droughts and floods have also led to damages to productive assets and crop losses. The effects of erratic rainfall and climate change are undermining the resilience of affected communities, while heightening the need for further investment and strengthening of nationwide emergency preparedness and response mechanisms.

In this context, WFP is seeking to prioritize the implementation of the national climate adaptation plan, community-based resilience building, and emergency preparedness. We believe our mission of achieving Zero Hunger (SDG2) in Sri Lanka can only be reached if livelihood diversification initiatives are in place to better withstand repeated natural disasters and impacts of climate change.

WFP supports national, local and regional food security and nutrition plans. It partners with other United Nations agencies, international organizations, non-governmental organizations, civil society and the private sector to enable people, communities and countries to meet their own food needs

WFP's Strategic Plan for 2017-2022 provides the framework for WFP’s operations and its role in achieving a world with zero hunger while WFP’s Sri Lanka Country Strategic Plan (2018-2022) will focus on ensuring support to the government on the provision of food and nutrition assistance for the most vulnerable women, men, boys and girls.

Under the direct supervision of the Deputy Country Director, and in close coordination and with guidance from the Resilience Activity Manager, the JPO will perform the following responsibilities:

• Assist in strengthening WFP’s operational interventions under SDG2: “End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture’ through resilience building activities, in the form of food assistance for assets creation (FFA).
• Support in the implementation of nutrition- sensitive FFA activities linked with climate-related operations such as drought and floods.
• Maintain strong liaison with the project cooperating partners to track implementation, progress and achievements; undertake regular field visits to monitor project outputs and inspect relevant activities and provide necessary guidance to the field staff. Assist the implementing partners in preparing their plans and strategies for an effective and efficient implementation. Liaise closely with the nutrition team to ensure linkages and integration of nutrition activities within the resilience building activities.
• Help ensure close coordination with other units within WFP including nutrition and school feeding teams.
• Help to ensure close coordination with key partners and stakeholders, including the Government of Sri Lanka, UN agencies and community organizations.
• Assist in development and coordinating data gathering and monitoring systems, ensuring that rigorous quality standards are maintained. Liaise with internal and external counterparts to ensure effective collaboration, monitor ongoing projects and highlight potential risks to project delivery.
• Provide data inputs to and prepare regular country office and corporate reports that contribute to accurate and timely reporting on programmes and activities for informed decision making and consistency of information, targeted and for presentation to stakeholders including donor reports and WFP’s Annual Country Report.  

• Support in research and analyse a range of policy and operational issues to inform the development of policies, programmes and activities.
• Assist the capacity building of WFP staff, partners and national government prepare and respond to food assistance needs, e.g. through providing inputs into training materials.
• Support the identification, development and management of potential partnerships to collaborative working leading to improved food assistance packages, including exploring partnerships with civil societies and NGOs.
• Assist the Country Office in the development of community resilience strengthening related project proposals, advocacy materials and resource mobilization in collaboration with other UN agencies.
• Ensure gender analysis is properly integrated in needs assessments and taken into consideration during the design and implementation of resilience building/livelihood diversification programmes.
• Contribute to evaluating and generating evidence from the projects and support the mapping of current best practices and successful experiences.
• Contribute to the operational research on the impact of nutrition-sensitive programming on nutrition outcomes.
• Assist with grant management in cooperation with the Programme and Finance staff.
• Maintain close coordination WFP sub office and field offices on project activity implementation.
• Assist in research and analysis of a range of policy and operational issues to inform the implementation of livelihoods projects and any corrective action that may be required.
• Liaise with internal and external counterparts to ensure effective collaboration, monitor ongoing projects and highlight potential risks to project delivery.
• Support the identification, development and management of potential partnerships to collaborative working leading to improved food assistance packages.
• Assist in conducting programme reviews by the involvement of all stakeholders for a self critical analysis in order to capture progress and achievements and to identify areas where improvements are required.
• Facilitate donor missions to the project activities and ensure programme visibility as per WFP policies.
• Perform other related duties as requested by the Programme Policy Officer Resilience Building.

• Advanced University degree with experience and training/courses in one or more of the following disciplines: Business/Public Administration, Economics, Rural Development, Nutrition/Health, Agriculture, Social Sciences or other field relevant to international development assistance.
• Three years post graduate, progressively responsible, job related experience in community resilience strengthening projects, ideally in the Asia region. In-depth knowledge in development context, community resilience strengthening, and demonstrated experience and proficiency in managing programmes that strengthen Community Resilience.
• Possess good presentation and writing skills
• Knowledge of M&E is an advantage.
• Experience in working with communities.
• Demonstrated skills in training management and experience in capacity building relating to Community Resilience Strengthening.
• Proficiency in Windows, MS Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook).
• Competencies: Cognitive Capacity, Teamwork, Action Management, Innovation, Partnering, Client Orientation.

Working Languages 

• Working knowledge of English (proficiency/level C) and intermediate knowledge (intermediate/level B) of another UN official language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian and Spanish). Knowledge of Korean, and Sinhalese or Tamil is an advantage.

All applicants must submit their application electronically through WFP’s career site / E-recruitment system.  All documents should be in English.  Evaluation of qualified candidates may include a written assessment exercise followed by competency-based interviews.General requirements for candidates applying to the JPO vacancies funded by the Republic of Korea:

- Korean citizenship

- Fluency in English and Korean

- Completed university with a bachelor’s degree, as per the vacancy announcement

- Be no older than 32 years of age as of 31st December of 2019 (The maximum age limit for those who served in the military will be extended accordingly)

- Male applicants should complete the Korean military service or be exempted

Application hyperlink: https://career5.successfactors.eu/sfcareer/jobreqcareer?jobId=104404&company=C0000168410P&username=

• Motivation letter and CV
• Scanned copy of applicant’s Resident Register
• Copy of the university degree
• Certificate of English language proficiency. Applicants should submit a minimum of iBT TOEFL score of 107 or PBT equivalent or TEPS score of 800 or New TEPS score of 452.
• Only for male applicants: A certificate of Korean Military Service. The maximum age limit for those who served in the military will be extended* in accordance with the Support for Discharged Soldiers Act and the military service law.

* Age limit for male candidates who have completed the service:

∙ less than one year will be extended for one year;

∙ one year above and two years under will be extended for two years;

∙ two years or more will be extended for three years.

• Only for low-income applicants: A scanned copy of applicant’s certificate of National Basic Livelihood Security Recipients issued in Korean and its unofficial English translation

9 August 2019

For general information on the Korean JPO Program and additional conditions see the following MoFA International Organizations Recruitment Center (IORC)’s website address: https://UNrecruit.mofa.go.kr

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.