Research, Assessment & Monitoring Officer

ORGANIZATIONAL CONTEXT:

This role is in the WFP Liberia Country Offices, and reports to the Deputy Country Director. The Research, Assessment & Monitoring (RAM) Officer operates independently and is involved in operational activities and related analytical work.

PURPOSE: To contribute to the RAM evidence base that supports food security and nutrition policies and programmes, e.g. needs assessment and situation analyses, programme design, targeting, cost effectiveness, and operational efficiency.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE OF THE ASSIGNMENT:

Assisting almost 100 million people in 83 countries each year, WFP is the leading humanitarian organization saving lives and changing lives, delivering food assistance in emergencies and working with communities to improve nutrition and build resilience. WFP’s response to emergencies - saving lives and livelihoods either through direct assistance, or by strengthening country capacities – remains at the heart of its operations, especially as humanitarian needs become increasingly complex and protracted, such as those brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Through its emergency and development activities, WFP has provided assistance in Liberia since 1968 and, in 2013, shifted to a five-year development portfolio, including social and productive safety nets, capacity strengthening, and emergency preparedness and response. WFP aims to provide safety nets to strengthen food and nutrition security through school feeding and social protection measures, and assists in strengthening the national capacity of Liberia to own and implement hunger solutions. To ensure effective planning and better-informed responses in supporting the implementation of Liberia’s Pro-Poor Agenda for Prosperity and Development, WFP’s Country Strategic Plan (2019–2023) is designed to align with the government’s priorities alongside the United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF) for 2020–2024 to create better synergy of actions with sister United Nations agencies.

Food security analysis is a core area of the WFP work and forms the basis for the design of all its operations. Prior to any intervention, WFP undertakes an analysis of the food security situation in the area. WFP provides geospatial and economic analysis, food security monitoring and assessments, post shock assessments and thematic analysis. The information allows WFP to perform effective targeting, determine the most appropriate type and scale of intervention, e.g. food distributions, nutrition assistance, school feeding, cash or voucher programmes, and ensures the most efficient use of humanitarian resources by allocating funding according to needs. In Liberia, WFP undertakes food security analysis in close collaboration with partners, including government ministries, UN agencies, local/international NGOs, regional entities and academic institutions. These partnerships ensure a shared understanding of food security problems and common priorities for action.

Under the direct supervision of the WFP Deputy Country Director, the Research, Assessment & Monitoring (RAM) Officer will work on the RAM portfolio of the WFP Country Office. The Research, Assessment & Monitoring (RAM) Officer will directly support the WFP Country Office, contributing to the research, assessment, analysis and monitoring of the implementation of the WFP Liberia Country Strategic Plan 2019-2023.

ACCOUNTABILITIES/RESPONSIBILITIES: (not all-inclusive, within delegated authority)

1. Contribute to the development of RAM projects and activities, plans and processes, ensuring alignment with wider WFP policies and guidance.
2. Contribute to evidence-based decision-making on programme design and implementation, notably through making monitoring, review and evaluations findings accessible, developing innovative, user-friendly and informative products.
3. Support the development of systems and tools for the monitoring and assessment of food assistance needs in line with innovative methodologies and best practice.
4. Support the development of food security and vulnerability analysis and the preparation of timely reports on food assessment needs in line with wider VAM policies, processes and guidance to enable effective decision-making on the development of country strategy, policies and programmes.
5. Support the coordination of data gathering and monitoring systems ensuring that rigorous quality standards are maintained; draft regular monitoring reports on status of results and implementation progress and contribute to the data analysis.
6. Provide inputs to the development of monitoring, review and evaluation plans that will provide the most relevant and strategic information toward achieving expected results (as set out in the CSP, and other global and regional plans), while being compliant with WFP evaluation and monitoring requirements.
7. Ensure CO monitoring systems and tools are in place and compliant with corporate standards including the minimum monitoring requirements, standard operational procedures, and establishment of baselines and targets in alignment with the WFP corporate results framework.
8. Liaise with implementing partners (internal and external) to monitor ongoing projects, ensuring effective collaboration, timeliness and efficiency and highlight potential risks to project delivery.
9. Support the capacity building of WFP staff, partners and national government to conduct food security analysis to effectively inform preparedness and response activities.
10. Provide support to relevant partners that are focusing on food security and nutrition issues to enable sharing of experience, lessons learned and best practice.
11. Guide and supervise more junior staff, acting as a point of referral and supporting them with analysis and queries.
12. Act in an assigned emergency response capacity as required.

OTHER SPECIFIC JOB REQUIREMENTS:

1. Provide managerial and technical guidance for designing and conducting analyses, including computation, interpretation, and presentation of results for food security surveys and key indicators, i.e. comprehensive food security and vulnerability surveys, food security monitoring, implementing mobile surveys, market analysis, food consumption scores, coping strategies indices. data disaggregation, etc.
2. Lead all aspects of food assessment surveys including design, implementation, analysis, findings and reporting; ensured that assessment findings were easily translated into operational programmatic responses.
3. Provide operational support on analyses and assessments that quantify and demonstrates WFP’s unique value as a partner.

4Ps CORE ORGANISATIONAL CAPABILITIES:

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.

FUNCTIONAL CAPABILITIES:

DESIRED EXPERIENCES FOR ENTRY INTO THE ROLE:

• Demonstrated proficiency in the use of several statistical tools and methods for food security analysis.
• Developed practical expertise in food security analysis and mapping by participating in multiple assessments in countries, including the design, data collection and analysis.
• Demonstrated technical knowledge and understanding of WFP vulnerability mapping systems and emergency assessment standards.

STANDARD MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS & EXPERIENCE REQUIRED: