Senior Programme Associate G7 (Accountability to Affected Populations)

 Vacancy Announcement

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.

In emergencies, WFP gets food to where it is needed, saving the lives of victims of war, civil conflict and natural disasters. After an emergency, WFP uses food to help communities rebuild their shattered lives. On average, WFP reaches more than 80 million people with food assistance in 83 countries each year. The organization has the global footprint, deep field presence and local knowledge and relationships necessary to provide access to nutritious food and contribute to the lasting solutions, especially in many of the world’s most remote and fragile areas.

WFP has been presented in Myanmar since 1994 and is now focusing on helping the Government reach its national Zero Hunger Challenge by 2025. WFP’s work in the country is guided by three priorities: emergency preparedness and response; nutrition; and provision of social safety nets.The Myanmar CSP 2018-2022 approved by the WFP Executive Board in November 2017 and it aims to contribute to three Strategic Outcomes that are aligned to four Strategic Results of SDG 2 (Zero Hunger) and SDG 17 (Partnerships for Development). A total of eight Activities are planned to be implemented to achieve the contributions to the three Strategic Outcomes. Under the Integrated Road Map (IRM) WFP has committed to a new way of working, linking not only all activities to the defined Strategic Outcomes, but also linking the resources used for implementing the activities to the results achieved.

The three strategic outcomes are:

SO1: Crisis-affected people in food insecure areas meet their food and nutrition needs all year round. Lifesaving food andddd/or cash will be provided to women, men, girls and boys affected by natural disasters, armed conflict and inter-communal violence.

SO 2: “Vulnerable people in states and regions with high food insecurity and/or malnutrition have access to food all year round.” WFP will provide food/cash assistance to vulnerable populations, while providing technical assistance to support the government in strengthening its social protection programmes, food systems and emergency preparedness capacity.

SO 3: “Children under 5 in Myanmar have improved nutrition in line with national targets by 2022.” WFP will contribute to increasing the availability and access to safe and nutritious food for vulnerable and affected populations in crisis and non-crisis situations to enhance their nutrition and resilience. WFP will also support the government in implementing national nutrition.

This post is located at WFP Office in Nay Pyi Taw.

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.

In its work, WFP is  committed to being accountable to affected people, in accordance with the Interagency Standing Committee Revised Commitments on Accountability to Affected Populations (2017). WFP Myanmar upholds its accountability to affected populations by facilitating community participation in WFP’s programmes, and by ensuring that programme design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation processes are informed by the needs, choices, and greater agency of those being assisted. Throughout the project cycle, WFP regularly collects feedback from beneficiaries through its offices across Myanmar and particularly in Rakhine, Shan and Kachin States, and subsequently follows up on any complaints and feedback received. These elements collectively form the three main components of how WFP operationalizes AAP: (i) information provision, (ii) consultations and (iii) establishing functioning complaint and feedback mechanism.

Rationale:

WFP Myanmar is enhancing the operation of its community engagement mechanism (CEM) through use of an improved customer relations management platform, clear standard operating procedures and ensuring CEM focal points in the various field offices are well equipped, informed, confident and supported in their work. An AAP Associate is needed to coordinate day-to-day operation of the CEM. Additionally, to maintain the strong commitment towards beneficiary participation and consultation, and raising beneficiary awareness about WFP programmes and other important areas such as gender and protection, an AAP Associate is needed to ensure the right materials and support is provided in each area of the operation, including rapid support in times of emergency response.

To provide effective coordination and specialized support to a full range of policy and programme activities that effectively meet food assistance needs.

Under the direct supervision of Programme Policy Officer (Gender and Protection) and overall supervision of the Deputy Country Director in Nay Pyi Taw, the incumbent will perform the following duties:-
 

• Coordinate the roll-out and implementation of the CEM, which includes helplines, SMS, email, Viber, suggestion boxes, helpdesks and face-to-face inputs. The AAP Associate will have the role of CEM Manager.
• Support CEM Focal Points in all Field Offices, to ensure cases are properly received, referred and escalated within WFP and/or referred to relevant other organizations or services.
• Ensure complaints referred to Nay Phi Taw office are responded to effectively by relevant staff members.
• Support CEM CO advisory team meeting bi-annual and ad-hoc, provide updates on the status of CEM implementation, and recommendations for improvements to CEM and to programming and operations as a result of complaints received.
• Undertake Quality Assurance functions including review of CEM Focal Point performance.
• Contribute to CEM reporting through the production of dashboards, narrative reports with recommendations (monthly, quarterly, annual and ad-hoc).
• Integrate the required budget for CEM/AAP in CSP budget revisions.

• Analyze the different communications pathways and preferences for affected people of different ages, gender, abilities, ethnicities, languages and other diversity, taking into account the cultural context.
• Design, field test, produce and disseminate to the field appropriate information education and communications (IEC) materials about WFP, its programmes and CEM to affected people.
• Conduct community consultations relevant to AAP, using participatory methods including focus group discussions, and report on them including appropriate recommendations.
• Support relevant units to incorporate beneficiary participation into planning, design and implementation, including ensuring assessments are inclusive and monitoring covers corporate indicators for AAP.
• Ensure beneficiary communications and participation leaves no one behind, including women, children, older people, people with disabilities and other vulnerable groups who may otherwise be voiceless or invisible.

• Facilitate workshops, briefings and inductions on AAP, provide mentoring to CEM Focal Points and Trainer of Trainers for partners.
• Participate, where requested, in interagency meetings on AAP and contribute to joint approaches to AAP.
• Liaise, where requested, with counterpart governments on AAP issues.
• Provide, where requested, support to gender and protection activities and events.
• Travel frequently to the field to provide technical support and capacity strengthening in AAP for field staff and partners.
• Perform other related professional duties 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.

Education:

• University degree (Master’s degree, or Bachelor's degree or equivalent plus experience) in communications, social science, international development or law, international studies, human rights, political science, public administration or a related field is required. Or
• A first-level university degree in combination with two additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree.

Language:

• Fluency in both oral and written communication in English and Myanmar is required, and  other language spoken in Rakhine, Kachine or Shan State  is desirable.

Knowledge & Skills:

• Knowledge of community engagement/accountability to affected populations, including feedback mechanisms, information sharing and participatory approaches;
• Understanding of protection and gender dimensions of AAP including beneficiary safety, dignity, gender equality and women’s empowerment;
• Knowledge of humanitarian assistance and development practice including general knowledge of UN system, policies, rules, regulations and procedures governing administration;
• Knowledge of the political, economic and social situation in Myanmar;
• Community engagement skills and an ability to work in a culturally sensitive manner;
• Strong analytical and communication skills, including public speaking, workshop facilitation and focus group discussions; and
• Competency in use of MS Office (Word, Excel,  Outlook, PowerPoint, Publisher, Teams). Use of databases such as customer relations management tools, and softward such as Tableau, is desirable

• At least two years’ experience (Masters degree applicants) or five years’ experience (Bachelors degree applicants) in humanitarian and development work at field level, with at least one-year field experience in a development context;
• Demonstrated experience in AAP implementation, strong background in communications work, preferably specifically in Communicating with Communities and preferably in a developing country context, but alternatively experience in managing a call centre or customer relationship management department;
• Awareness of gender, protection and AAP in humanitarian action;
• Capacity for  advocacy and negotiation, proven interpersonal and networking skills and prior experience in facilitating workshops;
• Technical experience in designing and managing communications projects, including in locations with less access to telecommunications and social media; and
• Willingness to travel to the field visit with limited basic infrastructure, and ability to work in a culturally sensitive manner.

This post is opened for Myanmar Nationals Only.

Applications received after the closing date will not be considered. Only short-listed candidates will be notified.

Female applicants and qualified applicants 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.