National Programme Policy Officer - NOA

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.

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.

Type of Contract : Fixed-Term

Grade : NOA

Location : New Delhi, India

Duration of Employment : 1 Year (Renewable, depending on availbility of funds)

Reporting to : Head of Unit, Supply Chain and PDS

The World Food Programme (WFP), operating in India since 1963, aims to provide technical support to strengthening the government’s food safety-nets programmes in order to improve access to food for millions of vulnerable households throughout the country. Through its Country Strategic Plan (2019-2023), WFP India aims to support India in achieving their targets under Sustainable Development Goals 2 and 17. Strategic Outcome (SO) 1 of WFP’s current CSP (2019-2023) is aimed at enhancing the efficiency, targeting, service delivery and supply chain of government programmes for improving access to food and sharing of best practices on warehouse management.

WFP is currently working in partnership with the Department of Food and Public Distribution (DFPD) at the national level and with the state governments of Odisha, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. As part of the CSP 2019-2023, WFP shall continue to work towards improving the service delivery of food-based safety nets through optimising existing supply chain operations, improving warehousing operations for food grains and market linkages for small holder farmers, supporting End to End (EtE) Computerisation of Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS), piloting cash-based transfer and developing best practices.

To provide technical assistance in the areas of supply chain planning, warehouse management, data analytics, execution and management of government’s procurement and distribution at national and/or state levels in line with WFPs strategy and mandate. Provide inputs on solution design/customization, review of best practices, process and policies for achievement of targeted performance in the areas of supply chain operations, storage and transit losses and warehouse management and operations research. In addition to activities supporting supply chain provide support in management and coordination of food security demonstration projects/pilots/scale-up in partner states/Union Territories/Government of India as per WFP’s strategy for systems reforms by providing technical inputs on solution customization/modification, review of process and policies currently being practiced and suggest/take necessary corrective action for maintaining smooth functioning and achievement of targeted performance of these efforts.

Under the overall supervision of the Country Director and under the direct supervision of the Head, Systems Reforms Unit, the incumbent would be required to perform the following duties. The incumbent will be required to frequently collaborate with the Central Project Management Unit (C-PMU)/ State offices for activities; and will also be directly involved in providing technical assistance to state offices and government stakeholders that are responsible for the implementation of projects at the state level.

The specific responsibilities and key functions are:

1. Provide technical support in the design and coordination of projects/pilots as in the areas of supply chain:

• Provide technical assistance for improvements in existing supply chain software systems, through assessments, reviews and use of data analytic.
• Support the overall development and application of optimization tools and methodologies
• Take the lead on the development of an optimization tool that can help identify improvements to the Public Distribution System of India, covering their supply chain at national and intra-state level
• Design and implement supply chain strategies, standards, and guidance to improve supply chain performance, reduce cost, or improve responsiveness.

• Prepare training material and train field users in applying optimization tools
• Develop supply chain models, consolidate and prepare of operational pipeline planning, and management of operational aspects of the supply chain (procurement, shipping, storage and port operation).
• Perform financial feasibility, transportation cost analysis, data analysis, optimisation analysis of government supply chain networks.
• Identify, evaluate and document best practice models in the implementation of service delivery reforms, supply chain planning, optimisation for food-based safety nets, through secondary research, data analysis, pilots and cross learning visits.
• Contribute to the development of policies, guidelines, plans and budgets and manage the deployment of systems and solutions aligned with business needs and in accordance with global technical standards.
• Track supply chain performance and support with scenario analyses to support decision making, inclusive of leveraging planning and optimization tools as relevant to support analyses.

2. Provide project management support in ensuring that all projects are operating smoothly as per the performance targets: 

• Implement and manage day to day operations, monitoring and reporting of ongoing and new projects in areas of supply chain and warehouse management.

• Identify and flag SC bottlenecks, leverage risk mitigation opportunities for upstream & downstream processes, and recommend system & process enhancements to optimise supply chain performance.
• Provide technical advisory for reforms in the service delivery of India’s largest food based social protection schemes for improving targeting, transparency, efficiency, and accountability of systems.
• Review existing processes and policies for mapping requirements, customization of solutions as per requirements for developing concept notes, proposals, project planning, financial feasibility and mapping of resources.
• Research, identify, contextualise and collate global and industry best practices, and support in their dissemination through interfacing with the central government, state governments and other stakeholders through workshops, consultations etc.

• Create and evaluate RFPs, EoIs (Expression of Interest), Master Service Agreement (MSA), Work Orders, LoI (Letter of Intent) etc., followed by complete vendor management activities.
• Represent WFP at meetings to review project progress and present WFP’s recommended best practices.

3. Provide regular updates to other Country Office units in terms of Country Briefs, Executive Briefs, and inputs for analysis, evaluation and/or any such requirements that may arise.

4. Perform any other related duties as required.

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.

Minimum Qualification:

• Advanced University degree in Master’s Degree or equivalent in Mathematics, Computer Science, and/or Engineering or First University Degree with additional years of related work experience and/or trainings/courses.
• Specialization in Operations Research, Management Science, Business Analytics, or Data Science.
• Proficiency in an object-oriented programming language, with a strong preference for Python.

Minimum Experience:

At least 5 years’ of progressively responsible professional experience with working in areas related to optimization, implementing or maintaining large food-based procurement and/or distribution with government and/or private sector in the areas of supply chain planning, execution, operations research, transportation; project design and management.

Experience in working independently with minimum supervision, often in fluid and ambiguous situations will be required.

• Prior experience in Supply Chain related industry including business analysis, process mapping, data extraction and analysis, and development of SC optimization tools within global organizations
• Prior experience working with governments, UN agencies, and/or NGOs
• Prior experience with the development and rollout of analytical tools
• Verbal and written fluency in two or more UN languages.

Competencies & Skills:

The post holder should have strong technical, analytical and problems solving skills; ability to think through complex issues to conceptualize, design and execute actions plans. Demonstrate passion and motivation with the ability to manage complexities, multiple tasks with commitment to deliver against multiple, tight deadlines at work. Excellent team player with an ability to work collaboratively, share information and build strong working relationships with colleagues and stakeholders from diverse backgrounds while focusing on impact and results. Maturity and presence required to effectively participate and contribute in meetings with senior government officials.

Knowledge:

Knowledge of the Indian Government bureaucracy and TPDS operations is required. Sound knowledge of supply chain and logistics for cereals preferably in government or development organizations or private sector is required. Additional knowledge of ICT, Cash based transfer, retail supply chain, e-governance is desirable.

Languages:

Excellent written and spoken English.

Only candidates under serious consideration will be contacted. A written test will be used as a form of screening. In the event your candidature is retained for an interview, you will be required to provide in advance a scanned copy of the degree(s)/diploma(s)/ certificate(s) required for this position.

This is a national position therefore applicants who are not nationals of India will not be considered. 

WFP is committed to promoting diversity and gender balance. WFP adheres to “zero tolerance policies” in the workplace.

Applications for the positions are to be submitted online on the E-recruitment links as mentioned below: https://www1.wfp.org/careers/job-openings

Note: Candidates are requested to Create an account in the system before applying. Candidates curriculum and applications will be registered and allows them to update their profile and apply for a job through WFP careers website.

Vacancy Closing Date : 26 January 2020

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.