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

Innovative Financing Consultant

WFP Innovation Accelerator, INKA, Munich, Germany

The World Food Programme (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. We are currently seeking to fill an Innovation Accelerator Head of Business Operations Consultancy position in the INKA division, based in Munich, Germany.

Brief description of WFP Innovation Accelerator, INKA:

The World Food Programme (WFP) is the United Nations frontline agency fighting hunger. WFP reaches more than 100 million people every day - delivering food assistance in emergencies and working with smallholder farmers, communities, and governments to improve nutrition and build resilience.

The WFP Innovation Accelerator was named by Fast Company as Most Innovative Non-Profit Organization 2021 for its work in identifying, nurturing, and scaling disruptive start-ups and innovations to end global hunger. Based in Munich, Germany, the Innovation Accelerator provides WFP employees, entrepreneurs and start-ups with funding, hands-on support, and access to WFP’s global operations. Through the Innovation Accelerator, WFP is leveraging unprecedented advances in digital innovation - such as mobile technology, artificial intelligence and blockchain - and new business models to transform the way it serves vulnerable communities across the world. In 2020, Accelerator supported innovations that positively impacted the lives of 3.7 million people globally. Most recently, the Accelerator runs programmes for external partners such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and others.

More information here: http://innovation.wfp.org and https://youtu.be/OnKkQlRdh2c.

General Information:

• Title of Post: Innovative Financing Consultant
• Unit: Innovation Accelerator, Innovation and Knowledge Management Division (INKA)
• Country:  Germany
• Duty Station: Munich
• Initial contract duration: 5 months (extendable)
• Expected Start Date: 01.09.2021

Duties and responsibilities:

The incumbent, reporting to the Strategic Projects and Organisational Design Advisor, is expected to:

1. Foster the development and implementation of the accelerator’s innovative financing models, with a focus on helping to design and implement a Innovation Impact Fund, to create social impact at scale:
   1. Design, test, prototype, validate and implement innovative financing models suitable to the WFP innovation projects and external startups addressing impact, humanitarian and development topics ;
   2. Support the development and implementation of the WFP Innovation Impact Fund, to pool donor funds and private investors’ money towards investable and scalable innovations creating social impact at scale;
   3. Support the development of all the necessary WFP Innovation Impact Fund documentation and processes,  secure internal WFP endorsement and engage internal and external stakeholders, donors and investors, as appropriate;
   4. Manage daily innovative finance operations including investments’ impact measurement and evaluation, reporting, and communication;
   5. Engage with all necessary internal stakeholders (including finance, partnerships, legal) to gather needed input to derive and structure agreed upon innovative financing models;
   6. Support the building of strong collaborations and partnerships within the Innovative Financing ecosystem globally, as applicable.

2. Support innovations/new ventures (internal and external) innovative financing activities to accelerate their path to scale advancing towards Zero Hunger and other Sustainable Development Goals:

1. Support and provide best practices to innovation teams on key decisions regarding innovative financing models from ideation to implementation (as applicable), using methodologies such as human centered design, lean start-up, agile project management and SCRUM;
2. Support piloting  and/or integration of new Innovative Financing models within WFP operations or within other organizations (as applicable), while liaising with internal units such as country offices, finance, partnerships and legal, as required;
3. Participate in and carry out discussions with WFP colleagues in other divisions or WFP operations to showcase the potential value of Innovative Financing models;
4. Provide technical expertise and input into Innovative Financing and overall Accelerator strategy and plans.

3. Support the overall WFP Innovation Accelerator operations:
   1. Provide analysis & content preparation (data on projects, presentations, briefs, etc.) for corporate priority topics and management meetings;
   2. Participate and carry out discussions with colleagues in other divisions or external stakeholders on topics related to innovation and innovative financing models;
   3. Support other core processes of the Innovation Accelerator (e.g. innovation sourcing; innovation bootcamps; sprint programme; thought leadership; scale-up enablement; innovation services; knowledge management) as required;
   4. Support the Head of the Innovation Accelerator and the Director of Innovation and Knowledge Management with any other activities as required.

​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Required qualifications and experience:

Required soft skills/WFP Competencies:

• A proven track record of driving and implementing innovative finance projects, preferably in an impact, humanitarian and/or development context;
• Strong conceptual thinking and analytical skills to develop new innovative financing strategies & models;
• Passion and understanding of technology innovations (e.g. digital payments, blockchain, artificial intelligence) and business model innovations (e.g. innovative finance, venture capital, impact bonds);
• Experience in innovation project life cycle - from ideation, minimum viable product, testing, prototyping and implementation;
• Experience working cross-functionally and getting things done in a scrappy and hands-on way;
• Able to interact with a broad range of stakeholders and external audience with maturity and tact. 
• Excellent communication/presentation skills, with the ability to write strategy documents, to develop business plans and to write and deliver presentations.
• Collaborative spirit, able to partner with a wide range of people at all levels and across different cultures and to act with credibility and diplomacy;
• Self-motivated and able to work with a high degree of autonomy;
• Sets a high-level of ambition for own work to achieve impact for the vulnerable people we serve;
• Fully committed and motivated to achieve the aims of the UN World Food Programme.

Language requirements:

Fluency in oral and written English mandatory. Intermediate knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian and Spanish) or Portuguese (one of WFP’s working languages) is a plus.

Terms and Conditions:

WFP offers a competitive compensation package which will be determined by the contract type and selected candidate’s qualifications and experience. 

Please visit the following website for detailed information on working with WFP: http://www.wfp.org 

Click on: “Our work” and “Countries” to learn more about WFP’s operations.

VA Reference no: 143709

Closing Date: 24 July 2021

Female applicants and qualified applicants from developing countries 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.

Fighting Hunger Worldwide