Programme Officer Satellite Index Insurance

Introduction

The Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency (MSB) is opening our roster for a Programme Officer, Satellite Index Insurance (SIIPE), to World Food Programmes (WFP) in Ethiopia.
The SIIPE expert will work in the Somali Region Area Office to conduct the feasibility assessment on the scale up areas and support the WFP programme team’s ability to transfer knowledge and experitise to the regional government. The expert is expected to support the actuarians in updating the rating and settlement tools with the data sets agreed in the contract design. An improved index with minimal basis risks is expected to be designed. Index design and basis risks assessments manuals will be developed. The position will be 11 months initially, but will likely need to extend in order to provide a solid foundation of knowledge, both in the WFP Area Office and within the regional offices dedicated to agriculture and livestock development

The Somali regional state is largely populated by pastoral populations who cope with farming agriculturally marginal lands by practicing extensive livestock management. Household incomes and food and nutrition security of these populations are highly susceptible to weather shocks and climate change, along with other drivers of land degradation. Mortality and productivity loss in Somali region and, as it affects entire communities at once, also renders most community-based social safety nets and coping mechanisms insufficient, often forcing households to rely on negative coping strategies that encourage a descent into poverty and limit their chances of escaping poverty and further vulnerability to weather shocks and climate change.
To identify and deploy solutions that enhance the resilience of these agro-climatically vulnerable pastoral households in Somali region, WFP Ethiopia and its partners (both public and private sector) launched a small-scale the Satellite Index Insurance for Pastoralists in Ethiopia (SIIPE) initiative in 2017. The initiative is currently around 8,000 households in four districts (woredas). Under the CSP, WFP is planning to scale this initiative up to reach 100,000 households.


The MSB strives to apply gender equality in terms of recruitment to our roster.


Duration of the project is 11 months, with start in January 2021, but we can be flexible with the date if needed.

Duties

• Lead the design/co-production of the index insurance product by updating the contract design and rating tool for all woredas in Somali Region using the AQUA Modis platform with most updated data.
• Lead the product improvement based on the basis risk assessment with both combination of ground-truthing exercise by community interaction to support and endorse Unit Area of Insurance (UAI) decision and Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) review on the effect of prosopis, indicative rainfall patterns and local variability.
• Reformat the tool for annual cover inception for two seasons and to compare calculated pure loss cost rates for the threshold and exit trigger options that WFP got prices during the original 1st March 2018 start up and for years renewed.
• To assist the team with checking the past performance, fine tuning triggers and exits, and most importantly checking whether the criteria works for new expansion woredas of the NDVI contract design tool.
• Review the impact of basis risk, reasons for such large difference and how to improve the product.
• Support for developing the index design manual for SIIPE jointly with Livestock Insurance Technical Design Team composed of CO and OSZIR teams of WFP. This manual also to include the ground truthing and other tools for basis risk assessment.
• Lead the pre-feasibility study for the SIIPE scale-up area jointly with Insurance Officer in WFP ETCO team.
• Lead the update of livestock insurance/SIIPE training and community orientation materials, provision of Training of Trainers (ToT) to regional government and cascading of knowledge to woredas and communities.
• Lead the capacity strengthening strategy of the partners and relevant stakeholders for federal and regional public institution, the private sector, research institutions as well as the civil society.
• Develop and lead the handover process with SIIPE insurance company partners jointly with Insurance officer.
• Learn from other livestock insurance projects in the region and if possible (e.g. KLIP), apply best practices and lessons learned to SIIPE project implementation and handover plans. Assess feasibility of Takaful insurance.
• Jointly with Insurance Officer of the team look for innovations for improving (quality, affordability, impact) the livestock insurance services.
• Provide inputs into the national policy platforms and processes that SIIPE and CRM team are engaged in (NAP-ETH, CRGE TWG, PSNP5) to further advocate the use of livestock insurance at national level using lessons learned from SIIPE livestock insurance.
• Act as Focal point for selected partners and stakeholders (e.g. ILRI) to help advance livestock weather index insurance especially on the regional level (e.g. through initiatives such as DIRISHA).

Qualifications

Experience

A successful candidate for this post is expected to possess:

• Minimum progressive work experience of 7 years in the actuarial sector, or data analysis with focus on NDVI. Demonstrated experience in developing NDVI-based livestock index insurance contracts, with specific focus on the East Africa region.
• Ability to work independently in a timely and organized manner.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills.
• Willingness to explore and experiment with new ideas and approaches in own work.
• Ability to work in a team and multi-task as needed.
• A strong understanding of regional context and market functioning in Ethiopia.
• Strong coordination and oversight skills

Education

Advanced University degree in Actuarial, Insurance, Risk, GIS and Climate services with additional years of related work experience and/or training courses.
Degree preferably in the field of civil protection, emergency management, or another relevant area.
A combination of other academic merits with of relevant professional experience could be seen as equivalent.

Languages

For this function, fluency in oral and written English is required.
Knowledge of Somali language would be an advantage

Other requriements

In order to be recruited for an international project, you also need to undergo a health examination and MSBs induction course before departure.
If you have a regular employer, you should inform them of your possible involvement with the MSB.

A registration on our roster is initially for three years and as registered you will continuously receive interesting international job opportunities and invitations to stimulating and valuable trainings and exercises.
Employed by the MSB on an international mission you will receive a monthly salary as well as a comprehensive allowances and benefits package, ranging from free home leave travel to access to psychosocial support.
The MSB highly values the well-being of our staff and whilst on mission you will have access to health and safety support from the MSB 24 hours a day.

Profile

•We are looking for persons with a strong commitment towards humanitarian relief and disaster operations.
•It is of utmost priority that you understand, respect and act in the spirit of the mandate and core values of the MSB.
•You must possess a high level of professional and personal maturity together with an ability to establish and maintain effective working relationships with colleagues, managers and external partners, such as UN organisation, recipient governments and host populations.
•You are expected to have excellent analytical and communicative skills as well as excellent skills in technical writing, able to talk in public and negotiate with counterpart government officials.
•You must show initiative and take both a hands-on and an analytical approach to tasks and problems.

Contractual conditions

Working with the MSB on international operations means that you are temporarily employed by the MSB. The MSB pays salary as well as a comprehensive allowances and benefits package to field staff on international operations, ranging from free home leave travel to access to psychosocial support. In addition, participants on induction training and relevant specialist training courses receive remuneration from the MSB.

When you are registered on the MSB roster you can continuously receive interesting international job opportunities and invitations to stimulating and valuable trainings and exercises.
A registration on MSB roster is valid for three years. After this period your registration will be evaluated and you may be offered an extended registration. After being registered on the roster you need to conduct the MSB induction training and any specialist training courses required.


How to apply
The MSB applies a policy of equal opportunities to avoid any form of discrimination. We strive for gender balance and qualified women are strongly encouraged to apply.
If you wish to apply for the position please press the apply button and register your details on MyPages. Please note; the information that you provide on MyPages will form the basis for your CV. After registering on MyPages do not forget to apply for the position by submitting your application through MyPages.
It is your responsibility as an applicant to document your skills in a way that allows an objective and qualitative assessment. As a government agency we are subject to the principle of public access to official records. This means that if someone requests copies of application documents, we are obliged to disclose them.

Application deadline

2021-01-07

Point of contact

Sandra Engström
Sandra.Engstrom@msb.se
0046 102405469