Social Protection and Cash Based Transfer Consultant

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WFP seeks candidates of the highest integrity and professionalism who share our humanitarian principles.

The selection will be competitive; WFP is committed to promoting diversity and gender balance.

ABOUT WFP

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.

ORGANIZATIONAL CONTEXT

Social protection is a core priority for WFP in Latin America and the Caribbean. As per the Regional Strategy on Social Protection, RBP focus is “Social Protection for Zero Hunger”, with four main pillars of work: shock-responsive social protection, nutrition-sensitive social protection, social protection and climate change and social protection system strengthening

WFP will support governments around the world to understand their policy challenges and support the articulation and implementation of suitable policy solutions that underpin the direction of programmatic and administrative efforts in social protection. Moreover, WFP has been offering its support to governments to design and deliver large-scale responses to the social and economic impacts of COVID-19. WFP is working with governments and interested partners to:  

• Increase understanding of needs and changing vulnerabilities;
• Leverage on existing Social Protection systems to enhance coverage, adequacy, quality and comprehensiveness of social assistance interventions;
• Establish new schemes to reach populations that are not able to be covered by current Social Protection programmes;
• Strengthen national Social Protection and emergency response systems and their coordination.

This will enable WFP to contribute to mitigating the worst food security and nutrition impacts of the crisis and minimising the erosion of gains that countries have made towards SDG 2 “Zero Hunger”. Governments’ responses to the COVID-19 pandemic have included a large spectrum of requests for WFP to support their actions, including to support and strengthen their national Social Protection systems to better assist, through CBTs, their existing beneficiaries or newly vulnerable populations. These responses often include the following: Introducing entirely new Social Protection programmes; adjusting the administrative procedures or operations of existing programmes; expanding the coverage of existing programmes; removing conditionalities; adjusting the duration of the programme or the transfer value (amount or frequency); linking COVID-19 responses to elements of existing Social Protection or emergency response programmes.

WFP may also be requested to directly deliver assistance in the form of CBTs through existing government systems.

JOB PURPOSE

Based on the above information, we are currently seeking for a consultant to fill the position of Social Protection and Cash Based Transfer (CBT) Officer within the Regional Bureau for Latin America and the Caribbean (RBP) based in Panama City, Panama.

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES (not all-inclusive)

1. Act as a liaison between the CBT and Social protection units in RBP, at HQ level and CO level and identify synergies and common work streams that can be supported, in a coordinated and complementary manner, by this officer.

2. Support Country Offices in screening Governments’ requests for technical assistance from WFP when they are considering the provision of CBTs through their national Social Protection programmes;

3. Support WFP Country Offices and Governments in their transition to switch between and in combining transfer modalities (in-kind, CBTs (cash transfers and value vouchers), and commodity vouchers;

4. Support WFP Country Offices and Governments on defining the target population, the transfer value, frequency and duration of benefits; and on implementing operational controls and end-to-end assurance to ensure that the right beneficiaries receive the right entitlements and the risks of potential fraud, human error or other divergence of CBTs are mitigate.

5. Support RBP programme unit in ensuring an adequate oversight of WFP operations that use national Social Protection Programmes as a vehicle to distribute WFP assistance, and participate in joint oversight missions and prepare corresponding chapters of these mission reports.

6. Build an understanding and foster linkages between humanitarian CBTs and Social Protection policy and programming, and the use of CBTs in shock-responsive Social Protection schemes;

7.Encourage and support initiatives that promote (digital) financial inclusion and women economic empowerment as part of the cooperation with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation;

8. Support evidence generation, learning and knowledge management by documenting and analysing CBT operations in the region to elevate lessons learnt;

9. Support coordination efforts and leverage partnerships with various regional platforms relevant to CBT and Social Protection (such as the R4V CWG, CaLP and SP.org) to support common initiatives for evidence generation;

10. Support fostering of partnerships and organisation of events to disseminate lessons learnt and strengthen capacities of regional stakeholders in Social Protection and CBT to provide visibility to WFP;

11. Others tasks as required.

DELIVERABLES

. Documentation, mapping and analysis of CBT operations in the region implemented by WFP Country Office level that work with National Social Protection Systems.

. Provision of technical assistance to WFP Country Offices in relation to minimum assurance related requirements (as per Interim Guidance and Assurance Standards for Cash-Based Transfer (CBT) through Governments and Social Protection Systems), and in particular in the framework of the preparation of the different documents.

. Participation in Oversight missions and report preparation for WFP COs .

. Organization of partnerships and events with regional Social Protection and CBT stakeholders

. Systematization of case studies and publications and development of communication and dissemination material, associated to knowledge management efforts related to Social Protection and CBT.

STANDARD MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS

Education:

Advanced University degree in International Affairs, Economics, Nutrition/Health, Public Policy, Environmental Science, Social Sciences or other field relevant to international development or humanitarian assistance, or First University Degree with additional years of related work experience and/or trainings/courses;

Experience:

Five years post graduate, progressively responsible work experience in humanitarian and/or development settings - experience in emergency preparedness would be an advantage; .

Languages:

Fluency in Spanish and English.

DESIRED EXPERIENCES FOR ENTRY INTO THE ROLE

. Experience and expertise with designing, setting up and implementing CBT interventions - knowledge of corporate CBT guidance of WFP would be an advantage;

. Experience in the development of Social Protection guidance and in providing technical and policy support to governments and development agencies in the design and set up of Social  Protection programmes- experience in Latin America and the Caribbean is desirable;

. Experience in the use of CBTs for emergency response through social protection systems;

. Experience in research and capacity building in Social Protection and CBT policy and programming, and in the definition and delivery of tailored learning agendas;

. Proficiency in Windows MS Office (Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Outlook) and MS TEAMS (Sharepoint);

. Behavioural competencies such as Action Management, Client Orientation, Cognitive Capacity, Innovation, Partnering and Teamwork;

TERMS AND CONDITIONS

Position: Social Protection and Cash Based Transfer Consultant

Number of openings: 1

Unit: Programme

Based in: Panama City, Panama

Type of Contract: Consultancy

Duration: Until February 28, 2022

Only short-listed qualified candidates will receive an acknowledgement.

DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS

The deadline to apply for this position is August 13, 2021.

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“Qualified applicants, especially female applicants, are 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.