Programme Policy Officer Resilience, Assets, Livelihoods P3 - FIT Pool - All Locations

WFP celebrates and embraces diversity. It is committed to the principle of equal employment opportunity for all its employees and encourages qualified candidates to apply irrespective of race, color, national origin, ethnic or social background, genetic information, gender, gender identity and/or expression, sexual orientation, religion or belief, HIV status, physical or mental disability.

Are you mobile and ready to take you career to the international level?

If yes, this is your opportunity to join the Future International Talent Pool (FIT Pool)!

We are looking for candidates of the highest integrity and professionalism who share our humanitarian principles. We select our FIT Pool members on a competitive basis, and we are committed to promoting diversity and gender balance.

ABOUT WFP

The United Nations World Food Programme is the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate. We are the world’s largest humanitarian organization, saving lives in emergencies and using food assistance to build a pathway to peace, stability and prosperity for people recovering from conflict, disasters and the impact of climate change.

To learn more about WFP, visit our website: https://www.wfp.org/ and follow us on social media to keep up with our latest news: LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter.

ABOUT THE FIT POOL

The Future International Talent Pool (FIT Pool) is an excellent opportunity for a professional international career within WFP. WFP is looking to build a pool of highly qualified and dynamic talents interested in serving in any of the 80 countries where WFP operates. Qualifying for the Resilience, Food Assistance for Assets, Livelihoods FIT Pool gives you priority to be considered for vacant Fixed Term positions anywhere in the world and consequently to commence your global journey in the humanitarian world, often at the forefront of world affairs. (https://www.wfp.org/countries).  

For more information: https://www.wfp.org/fit-pool

ABOUT PROGRAMME POLICY OFFICER P3 RESILIENCE, FOOD ASSISTANCE FOR ASSETS AND LIVELIHOODS

These roles are found in Headquarters (HQ), Regional Bureaux (RBs) and Country Offices (COs). Job holders report to the Regional/Country/Division Deputy Director/Head of Programme or the designated Programme Policy Officer and operate in relatively complex programme environments. Such environments can be characterised by challenging political, operational or security situations, access restrictions, large and varied programme portfolios requiring a range of approaches, or cutting edge, globally reaching, high profile and strategically important policies and programmes requiring relevant technical, leadership, coordination and management skills. Job holders are likely to manage a moderate portfolio of integrated resilience programmes that may include contribution to and/or direct management of programmes in COs of moderate complexity, or contribution to policy formulation and provision of technical advice at RB or HQ level for a defined area of expertise relevant for Resilience and Livelihoods Programming. Job holders operate with independence in their specialities and may manage a team of junior professional, national officers and support staff.

JOB PURPOSE

To support the design and manage the development, implementation and oversight of resilience, food for assets and livelihoods programs that effectively meet food assistance needs in complex contexts. To develop and provide programmatic and technical guidance on livelihoods, assets creation and integrated resilience as well as to contribute to technical advice and oversight on the development and implementation of relatively complex strategies related to resilience building. To support the program team build/promote strategic and operational partnerships with Governments, UN and non-UN actors, and guide a number of scaling up operations and support to COs, including reporting on major achievements and advocacy.

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES (not all-inclusive)

As a Programme Policy Officer Resilience, Food Assistance for Assets, Livelihoods P3, you will be responsible for the following key duties:

• Contribute to the design and implementation of specific elements of an overall portfolio of integrated resilience programmes in country office and foster synergies between activities supporting people, communities, systems, to become more resilient to shocks and stressors. Those multisectoral integrated programmes combine, as relevant, activities aiming to create climate smart and nutrition-sensitive community and household level assets, support livelihoods through individual skills development, strengthen local food systems, promote access to markets and value chain development through a wide range of context specific layered and sequenced integrated programming that enhanced resilience at multiple levels. 
• Provide technical support and guidance as relevant, to individual, household and community livelihood assets creation through watershed/landscape-based approaches by adopting and promoting nature-based solutions, soil and water conservation, water infrastructure; individual skills development related to on-farm and off-farm livelihoods both in rural and urban contexts, livelihoods in refugee and displacement contexts, climate adaptation, food systems interventions, and foster programme synergies in line with both organizational strategy and the practical realities of operating in the field. Ensure the translation of WFP-wide programme policy into Regional/Country level contexts and implementation modalities and operations.
• Provide solid technical support on a broad range of strategic, programmatic (e.g., type pf activities, design, layering and sequencing), technical (e.g. standards and norms, toolkits, etc.) and operational issues (e.g. SOPs, training, etc.) to support government efforts and engage with partners and stakeholders to scale up resilience programmes that consist of integrated, layered and sequenced initiatives, and contribute to reducing hunger and malnutrition.
• Engage with government stakeholders and partners to provide support and technical expertise for the planning, formulation and implementation of integrated resilience programmes, and to strengthen government and community ownership and effectiveness of food security and nutrition programmes at global/regional, national and sub-national levels – including through extended field work.
• Support the development of effective operational partnerships with other multi-sectorial partners (governments, UN, NGO’s, academia and research institutions) to foster collaborative approaches and initiatives that improve resilience and livelihoods related assistance packages and support advocacy work (e.g., best practices and other technical/training guidance).
• Contribute to enhancing WFP’s leadership status in different forums on subjects related to resilience; support engagement in the humanitarian-development-peace nexus contexts to seek entry points for context driven assets creation design and implementation, through direct participation and/or through briefings, information products and other training/guidance notes materials, as appropriate.
• Monitor and support operational research and evidence building on issues relevant to the use of resilience programmes to support advocacy and resource mobilisation for WFP, and to strengthen programme/proposals formulation and mobilisation of resources; manage and contribute to preparation and dissemination of timely analytical and critical reports, publications, and a variety of information products or proposals for internal and/or external use, that demonstrate how resilience building efforts are advancing to enable informed decision-making related to the programmes.

• Advocate for resources for a portfolio of WFP resilience programmes, that clearly articulate where the need and opportunities for food assistance related resilience programmes are relevant and required and follow up on the resource situation of projects including commodity and cash availability.
• Advise and support the development and implementation of functional training that enhance the capacity of WFP staff and partners to design and deliver effective integrated resilience programmes in line with corporate guidance such as the Resilience Toolkit. 
• Ensure that the assigned financial resources are put to best use for achievement of set objectives.
• Ensure gender perspectives are incorporated in all areas of this work to ensure meaningful participation of women and men and the empowerment of women and youth and other marginalized groups. This may include actions at multiple levels from individual, household, community, institutions and systems, such as access to information and training, land tenure rights and other mechanisms to ensure access to land and community assets for women and vulnerable/marginalized groups and enhancing women’s social capital. Also ensure that other cross-cutting issues, e.g., environment and social safeguards, accountability to affected populations and other relevant protection considerations are mainstreamed.
• Contribute to CO operations that build resilience at different levels through Country Strategic Plans; liaise with Emergency Preparedness and Social Protection focal persons in terms of early warning, trends and risk analysis, and contingency planning to ensure complementary response to humanitarian crises and nexus needs.  
• Assist the Head of Programme, Deputy Country Director, and other senior staff with resilience coordination internally with other units to break down siloed approaches, foster synergies and exchange on challenges, lessons learned and good practices for wider dissemination. 
• Lead, motivate and develop a team of staff to enable high performance.
• Take responsibility for incorporating gender perspectives in areas of work, to ensure equal participation of women and men. 

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS & KEY REQUIREMENTS

Education

You have:
Advanced University degree (recognized by https://www.whed.net/home.php), preferably in International Affairs, Development, Economics, Agriculture, Forestry, Environmental Science, Social Sciences, or other fields, or First University Degree (recognized by https://www.whed.net/home.php) with additional years of relevant professional work experience and/or trainings/courses.

Should you not find your university degree in this link kindly note that it will be your responsibility to obtain a formal letter from your Ministry of Education stating that their recognition of the university and degree.

Experience

You have:

• At least five (5) years of postgraduate relevant professional level work experience in humanitarian food assistance, resilience, development, agriculture, livelihoods, natural resource management, urban programming, agro ecology, and/or other relevant field, demonstrating high performance.
• Solid experience in implementing resilience and/or food for assets and/or livelihood programmes.
• Experience building partnerships in coordinating resilience, food assistance for assets and livelihoods programmes with government and partners (UN, NGOs, local communities, etc.).
• At least one experience and/or field mission to support the setting up and running multi-disciplinary, resilience, assets creation or livelihoods programmes.

Language

You have:

• Fluency (level C) in English language. 
• Intermediate knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian and Spanish) and/or Portuguese (one of WFP’s working languages). 

Mobility

You are able and motivated to work in any of WFP’s Offices throughout the world, including hardship locations. FIT Pool members are expected to agree on the first proposition of deployment that is offered to them.

ADDITIONAL DESIRED TECHNICAL SKILLS AND KNOWLEDGE

You have some of the following desirable skills:

• Demonstrated expertise and knowledge on main technical areas related to watershed development and landscape management, soil and water conservation, water infrastructure, agriculture, rural development, rural and urban livelihoods, synergies with nutrition-sensitive programs, food systems related value chains development, or other social safety nets etc. 
• Experience leading and supporting multidisciplinary technical teams. 
• Experience in operations which include integrated resilience building to shocks, asset creation, livelihoods, and other types of activities as relevant.
• Experience in the in the design, set-up, implementation and monitoring of resilience, food assistance for assets, livelihood programming or other relevant programs.
• Experience shaping operational strategies and technical partnerships.
• Contributed to major resilience program in country/region.
• Experience in participatory planning at community level and facilitation of multi-stakeholder consultations.
• Demonstrated experience in engaging with national and local governments on resilience and related agenda.

ADDITIONAL DESIRED SOFT SKILLS

You have some of the following desirable skills:

• The ability to establish and maintain partnerships with internal and external partners and stakeholders. 
• Provided and coordinated input into policy discussions and decision-making processes.
• Proven leadership capacity to build and foster an inclusive team.
• Proven capacity to initiate and lead innovation that strives for continuous improvements.
• Good coordination skills.
• Strong motivation to make a difference and to contribute to WFP’s mandate.
• Proven effective cognitive abilities, analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Learning agility and thirst for constant growth.
• Openness and passion for new experiences and multicultural environments.
• The ability to communicate effectively and compellingly, orally and in writing.

TERMS AND CONDITIONS

Building the pool is a comprehensive process and it will take approximately 8 months. The recruitment steps are an Online Tests > Language Test > Panel Interview > Background Verification (the process is subject to change).      
If you are selected, you will be placed in the FIT Pool for a period of up to 2 years. You may be contacted as the needs arise for  fixed-term international positions with a probationary period of one year in any of the countries in which WFP operates, including hardship duty stations.      
 
Mobility is the essence of WFP and continues to be a core contractual requirement. These positions are rotational which means that you shall be subject to the regular reassignment process to any other location on a period of 2 to 4 years unless the position is reclassified as non-rotational.      
 
WFP offers an attractive compensation and benefits package, including basic salary, post adjustment, relocation entitlement, travel and shipment allowances, 30 days’ annual leave, home leave, an education grant for dependent children, pension plan and medical insurance. For more information, visit https://icsc.un.org/.

DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS

Application deadline: 14 February 2022 (midnight Rome time)

Your CV must be submitted in English. For UN workers please include your current contract type and level.

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All employment decisions are made on the basis of organizational needs, job requirements, merit, and individual qualifications. WFP is committed to providing an inclusive work environment free of sexual exploitation and abuse, all forms of discrimination, any kind of harassment, sexual harassment, and abuse of authority. Therefore, all selected candidates will undergo rigorous reference and background checks.

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.