Senior Programme Associate G7 - Act 4 1

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.

To contribute the Sustainable Development Goal Number 2: Achieve Zero Hunger ", the United Nations World Food Program in Nicaragua (WFP), designed the Country Strategic Plan 2019 – 2023 (CSP). In this strategy, activities are implemented to provide food assistance, technical support, and strengthening of national capacities with government partners and smallholder farmer organizations. WFP's focus areas in Nicaragua are school feeding, social protection, nutrition, resilience, climate change adaptation, gender, emergency preparedness, and response. WFP implement these activities in close coordination with Government partners and Farmer Organizations.

The strategic outcome 3 (SO3) of the Country Strategic Plan is: National institutions have improved capacities to advance gender equality and women’s empowerment and to incorporate gender-transformative approaches into programmes, contributing to the achievement of zero hunger by 2023.

This SO aims at accelerating action for gender equality and women’s empowerment as a catalyst for the achievement of zero hunger. WFP will promote transformative approaches and the horizontal and vertical coordination of institutions and other actors, adopting a “whole of society” approach

Under this SO3, WFP will implement Activity 4: Provide technical assistance to the Government in designing and implementing gender-transformative interventions for promoting gender equality and food security and nutrition.

Work under this outcome addresses the need for enhanced evidence on how the actions of women and men – individually and through their institutions – contribute to food security and food insecurity and how their roles and relations affect their access to food in Nicaragua. WFP will support the design and implementation of gender-transformative national programmes and awareness raising campaigns tailored to different demographic groups.

To implement this activity, WFP will work closely with universities, United Nations agencies and government partners, including the Ministry of Education, National System for Disaster Prevention, Mitigation and Attention, the Ministry of Family Economy, Community Associations and Cooperatives, the Nicaraguan Institute of Agricultural Technology, the Ministry of the Woman and Ministry of the Family, Adolescence and Childhood.

To achieve these results, the WFP Policy and Programme Unit in Nicaragua needs to hire a professional to work as a Manager of the Activity 4.

Education:         Completion of secondary school education. A post-secondary certificate in the related areas is desired: Sociology, Gender, Social Science, Rural Development, or related fields.

Language:       Fluency in both oral and written communication in the UN language in use at the duty station and in the duty station’s language, if different.

Experience:    At least 5 years of relevant work experience in gender or related field, such as human rights.

Experience in programme design, monitoring and evaluation with gender perspective.

Experience in coordination and negotiation with Government counterparts.

These jobs is found at Nicaragua Country Office, based in Managua. Job holder will report to the Programme Policy Officer. Field missions to the implementation area are required.  
At this level, job holders are responsible for technical work including the planning, implementation and co-ordination of activities that require thorough understanding of programme/project context, issues and ability to apply a range of guidelines/practices. They independently handle a wide range of specialized programme or policy support activities and may be involved in analytical work. Work performed typically has a substantial impact affecting other parts of the programme. Job holders demonstrate initiative in the identification and resolution of a wide range of issues/problems, and effectively handle unforeseen situations. They may act as technical focal points in the area of vulnerability assessment and analysis. Job holders set objectives, resolve wide-ranging issues and unforeseen problems, supervise and coach a team of support staff within an area of responsibility.  

  To provide effective coordination and specialized support to the Policy and Programme Unit, particularly to CSP Activity 4 to effectively meet technical support needs.

1. Provide policy and programme advice on specific gender issues that impact on WFP operations, as well as specialized expertise and contribute towards the development of project activities, plans and processes within Activity 4
2. Provide efficient coordination and specialized project management support to a range of specific and/or defined initiatives to ensure that Activity 4 is performed within the established targets following WFP’s policies and procedures.
3. Provide efficient coordination and specialized project management support to a range of specific and/or defined initiatives to ensure that Activity 4 is performed within the established targets following WFP’s policies and procedures.
4. Within the specific area of responsibility, prepare a variety of elaborated reports and substantial data analysis (e.g. resource utilization, programme status, performance) and make recommendations to supervisors, ensuring deliverables adhere to corporate standards and quality control.
5. Ensure accurate timely recording of data with gender considerations, in coordination with M&E team, within the specific technical area of work and consistency of information presented to stakeholders.
6. Coordinate and liaise with internal (WFP functional units, WFP Regional bureau and Head Quarter) and external counterparts, (Ministry of Women, Ministry of Family, UN Agencies, and others), on a range of complex matters to enable effective collaboration, implementation and monitoring of Activity 4.
7. Establish and strengthen strategic partnerships on GEWE.
8. Develop staff capacities to integrate GEWE into their work, employing diverse learning methods.
9. Strengthen WFP partners’ gender awareness, gender analysis capacities and ability to mainstream gender in programming and operations
10. Work with senior management in the Country and Sub-Offices to ensure strong institutional
11. Commitment and leadership for gender equality and women’s empowerment (GEWE) across programming and operations.
12. 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.
13. Other as required.

Purpose

• Understand and communicate the Strategic Objectives: Coaches team in the most effective ways to communicate WFP’s Strategic Objectives to WFP team and partners in the field.
•  Be a force for positive change: Implements new methods or tools to improve team’s work processes and productivity.
•  Make the mission inspiring to our team: Maps team’s activities and tasks to specific successes in beneficiary communities to showcase positive impact.
•  Make our mission visible in everyday actions: Explains to teammates how each unit contributes to the overall WFP mission.

People

• Look for ways to strengthen people's skills: Identifies skill development opportunities such as training modules or on-the-job experiences for self, colleagues and direct reports.
•  Create an inclusive culture: Facilitates team building activities to build rapport in own unit.
•  Be a coach & provide constructive feedback: Facilitates the pairing of junior colleagues with coaches within own team.
•  Create an “I will”/”We will” spirit: Proactively anticipates potential challenges and develops mitigation plans to ensure that team meets goals and targets.

Performance

• Encourage innovation & creative solutions: Identifies opportunities to be creative in own work and to help team be more innovative and accurate in their respective tasks and areas of work.
•  Focus on getting results: Monitors team’s deliverables and provides feedback to ensure outcomes are delivered consistently and accurately.
•  Make commitments and make good on commitments: Provides accurate guidance to team on expected responsibilities and tasks, whilst also upholding own commitment to the team.
•  Be Decisive: Sets an example and provides guidance to junior team members on when to escalate issues when faced with challenging issues in the workplace or in the field.

Partnership

• Connect and share across WFP units: Facilitates partnerships with other WFP units to accomplish missions in the field.
•  Build strong external partnerships: Sets an example and provides guidance to team on how to build relationships with external partners.
•  Be politically agile & adaptable: Articulates to colleagues or direct reports the value of contributing to other WFP teams and agency partnerships in fulfilling WFP’s goals and objectives.
•  Be clear about the value WFP brings to partnerships: Organizes, monitors, and prioritizes own and team’s efforts to ensure that they will fulfil the needs of internal and external partners.

• In-depth knowledge of gender in humanitarian and development settings, gender-based violence, humanitarian policy issues and linkages with food security and nutrition.
• Solid analytical skills, including gender analysis.
• Solid communication skills, including the ability to effectively communicate through multiple mediums (e.g. policy, advocacy messaging, reporting, training)
• Sound knowledge and skills in adult learning
• Knowledge of the UN system, including gender-related mandates
• Team spirit and excellent interpersonal relations
• Excellent interpersonal skills including active listening, teamwork, responsibility, dependability, leadership, motivation, flexibility, and patience
• Ability to work in a fast-paced environment with competing deadlines and can adapt to organizational changes

POSITION TITLE: Senior Programme Associate - Act. 4

CONTRACT TYPE: Fixed-Term Contract in General Service category grade 7. 

DUTY STATION: (City, Country): Managua, Nicaragua

DURATION OF APPOINTMENT: Twelve (12) months. Renewal subject to funds and performance.

Applications will be received through the Careers web page until April 10th, 2020.

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

Note that this position is only open to nationals and/or residents of Nicaragua.

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.