Programme Policy Officer (Shock Responsive Social Protection) SC9

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 post is open to Cambodian Nationality only

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.

WFP’s mission is to help the world achieve Zero Hunger by 2030 as per the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 2. It works to ensure that the poorest and most vulnerable, particularly women and children, can access the nutritious food they need.

In the period 2019-2023, through the Country Strategic Plan (CSP), WFP Cambodia will contribute to achieving Zero Hunger by promoting access to nutritious diets through home grown school feeding and improving climate smart food production and transformation capacities of small holder farming communities. WFP will help set standards and guidelines for food transformation to satisfy the increasing demand for nutritious processed and convenient foods. WFP will leverage its subnational presence and existing implementation relationships to build scalable models for replication nationally, and enable subnational counterparts’ hands-on learning in intervention planning, management and implementation. Further, WFP will support national and subnational disaster and climate change risk management and assist national strategic direction and coordination on food security, nutrition and social protection through enhanced information systems, knowledge management, and public-private and south-south partnerships.

The CSP aims to contribute to five Strategic Outcomes that are aligned to four Strategic Results of SDG 2 (Zero Hunger) and SDG 17 (Partnerships for Development). A total of 6 Activities are planned to be implemented to achieve the contributions to the five Strategic Outcomes. The five strategic outcomes are:

Position Title:       Programme Policy Officer (Shock Responsive Social Protection)
Type of Contract:  Service Contract
Grade:                 SC-9 (equivalent to NO-B)
Duty Station:       WFP Country Office, Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Duration:             12 months (with possibility of extension)
Reporting Line:     Under overall supervision of the Strategic Outcome Manager for CSP Strategic Outcomes 3, 4 and 5, and directly supervised by the Activity 5 team leader, the Programme Policy Officer will perform the following:

1. Contribute to the development of a wide variety of projects, plans and processes, ensuring alignment with wider programme policies and guidance.
2. Provide project management support to specific and defined programmes and projects of considerable size/complexity, ensuring a coordinated approach with wider programmes that complies with WFP standards and procedures.
3. Develop and coordinate data gathering and monitoring systems ensuring that rigorous quality standards are maintained.
4. Research and analyse a range of policy and operational issues to inform the development of policies, programmes and activities.
5. Contribute to the preparation of accurate and timely reporting on programmes and activities that enable informed decision making and consistency of information presented to stakeholders.
6. Liaise with internal and external counterparts to ensure effective collaboration, monitor ongoing projects and highlight potential risks to project delivery.
7. Support the identification, development and management of potential partnerships to collaborative working leading to improved food assistance packages.
8. Support the capacity building of WFP staff, partners and national government to prepare for and respond to food assistance needs, e.g. through providing inputs into training materials.
9. Guide and supervise more junior staff, acting as a point of referral and supporting them with analysis and queries.
10. Other as required.

This position will support the coordination and implementation of the ECHO-funded project “Scaling up forecast-based financing/ early warning early action and shock responsive social protection with innovative use of climate risk information for disaster resilience in ASEAN” in Cambodia. The focus is on two primary components:

• ASEAN Member States accelerate the use of climate risk data and strengthen early warning systems to trigger early action and shock responsive social protection based on impact-based forecasts.
• ASEAN Member States adopt the forecast-based financing/early warning early action approach and implement roadmaps to establish shock responsive social protection systems.

This will entail the following:

Partnerships and coordination:

1. Identify, establish and maintain partnerships with the National Social Protection Council (NSPC), Ministry of Social Affairs, Veterans and Youth Rehabilitation (MoSVY), National Committee for Disaster Management (NCDM), Council for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD) and other relevant government entities, United Nations agencies, development partners, research partners and academic institutions etc. to explore the implementation of the shock responsive social protection Roadmap and ASEAN Guidelines.
2. Participate and support WFP Country Office’s contribution to broader national level discussions and policy/strategy development for social protection and bridging the humanitarian-development divide etc. in technical working groups/forums by providing inputs to technical discussions, sharing experiences and knowledge, and looking for the collaboration opportunities.
3. Support capacity strengthening of WFP staff, government institutions and staff at both national and subnational levels and relevant partners in technical skills in social protection related topics, in particular how to consider the impact of shocks.

Policy, research and analysis:

1. Collaborate with government and development partners to identify a research agenda for generating evidence for shock responsive social protection.
2. Undertake/coordinate research, and compile and analyze information to support the research agenda.
3. Distill lessons learned and good practice from other countries with shock responsive social protection programming, identify implementation challenges and results.
4. Identify opportunities for pilot programmes and policy work.
5. Provide written inputs into research/policy papers, reports and strategy documents on social protection in Cambodia, and in particular the expansion of social protection programming to protect vulnerable populations from shocks and the inclusion of food security and nutrition considerations.

Knowledge and information sharing:

1. Coordinate and liaise with functional and Strategic Outcome teams, regional bureau and headquarters to ensure effective collaboration and share learning related to social protection, in particular shock-responsive social protection.
2. Maintain a knowledge and information sharing platform to update and communicate with relevant stakeholders on bridging the humanitarian and development divide within Cambodia.
3. Assist in organizing and facilitating workshops and seminars.

Operational support/project management:

1. Coordinate and liaise with relevant government organisations, United Nations partners and NGOs on standard operating procedures and delivery models for cash assistance during shocks.
2. Draft relevant sections of project documents, fundraising proposals and progress reports.
3. Coordinate and liaise with functional and Strategic Outcome teams and external stakeholders to explore the utilisation of risk and impact analytics to inform national social protection programme design.
4. Support WFP Country Office in organizing project planning missions, meetings and briefings in relevant areas of expertise and engagement.

Other Duties:

1. Undertake other related duties, as may be assigned by the line manager and/or the Strategic Outcome Manager.

Purpose

• Understand and communicate the Strategic Objectives: Understands WFP’s Strategic Objectives and the link to own work objectives.
• Be a force for positive change: Flexibly adapts individual contributions to accommodate changes in direction from supervisors and internal/external changes (such as evolving needs of beneficiaries, new requirements of partners).
•  Make the mission inspiring to our team: Recognizes and shares with team members the ways in which individual contributions relate to WFP’s mission.
•  Make our mission visible in everyday actions: Sets own goals in alignment with WFP’s overall operations, and is able to communicate this link to others.

People

• Look for ways to strengthen people's skills: Assesses own strengths and weaknesses to increase self-awareness, and includes these in conversations on own developmental needs.
•  Create an inclusive culture: Participates in open dialogue, and values the diverse opinion of others, regardless of background, culture, experience, or country assignment.
•  Be a coach & provide constructive feedback: Proactively seeks feedback and coaching to build confidence, and develop and improve individual skills.
•  Create an “I will”/”We will” spirit: Participates in accomplishing team activities and goals in the face of challenging circumstances.

Performance

• Encourage innovation & creative solutions: Shows willingness to explore and experiment with new ideas and approaches in own work.
•  Focus on getting results: Consistently delivers results within individual scope of work on time, on budget and without errors.
•  Make commitments and make good on commitments: Commits to upholding individual accountabilities and responsibilities in the face of ever-changing country or functional priorities.
•  Be Decisive: Makes rational decisions about individual activities when faced with uncertain circumstances, including in times of ambiguity regarding information or manager direction.

Partnership

• Connect and share across WFP units: Seeks to understand and adapt to internal or cross-unit teams’ priorities and preferred working styles.
•  Build strong external partnerships: Demonstrates ability to understand and appropriately respond to and/or escalate needs of external partners.
•  Be politically agile & adaptable: Portrays an informed and professional demeanor toward internal and external partners and stakeholders.
•  Be clear about the value WFP brings to partnerships: Provides operational support on analyses and assessments that quantifies and demonstrates WFP’s unique value as a partner.

• At least five years of experience and progressive responsibility in technical assistance, policy analysis and guidance, and/or operational experience in the field of social protection, humanitarian assistance, and/or disaster preparedness and response;
• Experience working with United Nations, donor organizations, non-governmental organizations and/or government;
• Sound understanding of policy-making processes and the ability to distil operationally relevant recommendations/lessons for government institutions and other partners;
• Proven experience in managing cross-agency collaboration work along social protection;
• Ability to manage and prioritize complex workloads;
• Excellent communication skills in both written and spoken English;
• Experience working on cash-based transfer schemes is desirable;
• Experience working in disaster management or emergency preparedness work is desirable.

Education:            Advanced University degree in International Affairs, Economics, Public Health, Nutrition, Agriculture, Environmental Science, Social Sciences or other field relevant to international humanitarian and development

                             assistance, or First University Degree with additional years of related work experience and/or trainings/courses.

Language:             Fluency (level C) in English language and Khmer language

The vacancy will be closed on Sunday, 10th November 2019 at 17:00 GMT+7

Qualified women and men are encouraged to apply.

WFP is committed to an inclusive working environment which values diversity

and has zero tolerance for discrimination, harassment and abuse of any kind.

• WFP is committed to gender equality and parity (50% women and 50% men) and to diversity more generally, among employees across all grades, functions and contract modalities. WFP supports the use of flexible working arrangements to assist women and men in balancing work and personal responsibilities, translating into effective, efficient and dedicated participation of women and men in the workforce.
• WFP Work Environment: WFP is committed to ensuring that all its workplaces are free from abuse, offensive behavior, harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. WFP does not discriminate on the basis of HIV/AIDS status. WFP is also committed to promoting a work culture in which every employee understands, and is able to carry out, his/her personal responsibilities for maintaining the dignity of work colleagues. WFP seeks to promote gender equality and the empowerment of women. We believe our mission of fighting global hunger worldwide can only be achieved if women, men, girls and boys are offered equal opportunities in terms of access to resources and services, and participation in decision making roles.