Programme Policy Officer/Knowledge management and capacity development STP-2

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE OF THE ASSIGNMENT:

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 Mali’s new Country Strategic Plan (CSP) (2020-2024) was recently approved at the November 2019 Executive Board of Directors. It builds its strategic objectives around three pillars: a life-saving pillar, a resilience-building pillar and a mainstreamed capacity strengthening pillar aiming at building a national adaptive social protection system.

Increasing emphasis is being placed on policy coherence, resilience building and social protection, as part of a medium-term strategy to move beyond the current focus on responding to the impacts of instability and periodic production shocks. The key objectives are to reduce the need for emergency assistance in response to shocks, by increasing the ability to cope with moderate shocks while developing the capacity of Government to residual requirements.

Country capacity strengthening (CCS) activities are integrated in WFP activities under the CSP in support of government institutions and partners at both the central and decentralised levels.  One of WFPs main goals under the CSP will be to move beyond sector specific support and assuming a more structured and systematic approach contributing to build a national adaptive social protection (ASP) system. The goal is for the government to have the capacity to deliver on key functions related to (a) long-term social protection, (b) resilience and adaptive capacity, and (c) emergency (shock) response.

Gaps will be identified through capacity assessments led by the government with its different partners for each strategic outcome, keeping in mind 5 different pathways of theory of change: 1) policy and legal framework; 2) efficient and accountable institutions; 3) strategic planning and financing; 4) programme design, delivery and M&E; and 5) participation of civil society and the private sector.

Achieving these objectives will be a challenge and will require the identification and implementation of appropriate and effective strategies. Keeping up to date with the most current thinking and best practices, effectively monitoring and documenting progress and results and good practices and lessons learned from implementation, ensuring the team is tooled and trained and effectively communicating these to Government and stakeholders, will all be critical to success. Within this framework, the country office aims to strengthen its programme team.

ACCOUNTABILITIES/RESPONSIBILITIES:

The Programme and Policy Officer will be under the direct supervision of the Head of Programme and work in close collaboration with the other country office’s programme units. The programme and policy officer will focus on the following tasks and responsibilities:

1. Contribute to the formulation of WFP-wide programme policies in line with both organizational strategy and the practical realities of operating in the field; and translate programme policy in the area of capacity strengthening and knowledge management into Country level practices.
2. Developing programme guidance and implementation modalities and tools to support the development of the capacity strengthening pillar of the CSP.
3. Develop and maintain Country Capacity Needs Mapping, partners mapping and a Country Capacity Strengthening (CCS) strategy, with a main focus on national adaptive social protection (ASP) as a hunger solution and including knowledge management as cornerstone component.
4. Provide advice and support to other programme units in the analysis, prioritisation and definition of outcome specific capacity development objectives, in collaboration with national stakeholders and other key partners, in a vision of contributing to an adaptive social protection and national emergency response system.
5. Provide technical advice or mobilise technical expertise on programme and policy issues including the deployment and testing of innovative approaches and tools.
6. Provide policy coherence support to develop a nationally owned ASP strategy by engaging in national dialogue, regularly preparing inputs and engaging in technical and financial partner group discussions and promoting solutions for effective implementation.
7. Establish and maintain strategic partnerships to identify opportunities for collaborative approaches and initiatives that improve delivery and support advocacy work.
8. Enhance WFP’s leadership status in forums relating to area in the different areas of expertise en WFP where it aims to position in terms of capacity strengthening and knowledge management;
9. Ensure the set up and management of the knowledge management strategy for the CSP and coordinate and support the quality control of the different knowledge management and capitalisation exercises.
10. Identify key opportunities and venues for sharing knowledge on critical issues and manage the preparation and dissemination of timely analytical and critical reports, publications, and a variety of information products or proposals for internal or external use.
11. Contribute to resources mobilisations efforts for capacity strengthening and knowledge management and follow up on the resource situation.
12. Advise and support the development of functional training in areas of expertise to enhance the capacity of WFP staff and partner to design and deliver effective capacity development and knowledge management solutions.
13. Lead, motivate and develop a team of staff to enable high performance.

This position will be based in WFP Bamako Country Office but may entail field missions, contingent on the prevailing security situation.

DELIVERABLES AT THE END OF THE CONTRACT:

• Ability to engage effectively with a wide range of colleagues and actors including those in the international humanitarian/development community
• Self-starter and with a strong sense of initiative;
• Ability to work under tight deadlines;
• Maturity, initiative, courtesy, tact and ability to establish and maintain effective working relationships with people of different national and cultural backgrounds.
• Ability to handle any other additional tasks as requested by the supervisor.
• Knowledge of Knowledge Management Concepts;
• Work experience with WFP would be an asset.

QUALIFICATIONS & EXPERIENCE REQUIRED: