Operational Access Officer

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Job Title                : Operational Access Officer

Type of Contract  : CST

Level                     : CST II

Unit/Division         : Supply Chain

Duty Station (City, Country):  WFP Country Office, Port-au-Prince, Haiti 

Duration of assignment:  11 months

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The World Food Programme (WFP) is the world's largest humanitarian agency fighting hunger worldwide. The Policy Unit is currently hiring an expert to provide support to programme and policy work related to climate crisis, adaptative social protection, resilience and disaster risk reduction (DRR).

Background and Purpose

Humanitarian access is critical to enable effective response to food security and nutrition crises in complex and conflict affected environments. Due to its mandate, operational presence, and size, WFP is more regularly operating in complex contexts where humanitarian access poses a challenge to operating efficiently. Thus, the demand on WFP to strengthen its corporate and field level capacities to negotiate, maintain and improve access is increasing.

The decline in the security situation in Haiti has steeply accelerated in 2021 as increasingly powerful armed gangs have expanded their territorial control over Port-au-Prince and the surrounding area, especially the poorest districts of the capital Port-au-Prince, for many years. However, 2021 saw a sharp rise in intra-gang fighting, resulting in a significant surge of violence across the capital, with increasing collateral threats for civilians and kidnaps for ransom have continued to rise in 202. Consequently, the operating environment for humanitarian organizations, including WFP and its cooperating partners (CPs), has become highly challenging with increasing insecurity and shrinking humanitarian space.

The Operational Access Officer (OAO) in the Country Office will provide support to the CO  with internal and external coordination, integrate multi-dimensional approach to implement access strategies and work plans. This position aims to ensure that there is a coordinated, coherent, and predictable humanitarian approach to access that enables the implementation of WFP programmes, with the aim of maximising access to humanitarian assistance for the most vulnerable populations in Haiti.

The position will also manage the analysis of the prevailing humanitarian situation with a view to alerting and anticipating their implications on WFP operations. The Operational Access Officer will be responsible to support WFP’s role in humanitarian access engagement with humanitarian and non-humanitarian actors, and other stakeholders in the country.

While the position is based in Port au Prince, the Operational Access Officer shall deploy to support Field Offices across the country. Specifically, the Operational Access Officer will be responsible for the following:

Knowledge management – Humanitarian and Access Context analysis

• Support the CO to undertake contextual analysis and assess access related risks to alert and anticipate their implications on humanitarian operations and propose mitigation measures as well as opportunities to adjust and design WFP’s programmes.
• Provide inputs to the CO management (Country Director/DCD) on access issues and positioning for WFP’s field level operations
• Support the CO to develop and maintain an overview of the state-of-play of conflicts and insecurity, including WFP’s efforts to engage with communities and other actors with a view to supporting operational decision-making. This includes the implementation of Operational Access Map, to understand where and why WFP may be unable to reach beneficiaries.
• In collaboration with Security and other functional units, develop and maintain an updated actor mapping across the country
• Document good practices and learning from the operation and ensure that it is systematically disseminated to feed the corporate development of guidance and tools.
• Ensure that CO is aware in a timely manner of any new opportunities to enhance engagement on access and engagement issues.  

Technical Support 

• Work with functional Units in the CO to develop long-term institutional arrangements necessary to implement access strategies.
• Support and advise technical units in the CO on components, good practices, key actors and concerns to be considered in the formulation of strategies to reach beneficiaries and facilitate their access to essential goods and services.
• Provide guidance and assistance on considerations pertaining to engaging humanitarian and non-humanitarian actors, civil and public entities for the development of implementation plans to improve WFP’s access.  
• Support identifying programmatic and operational access-related risks and proposing mitigation measures, as well as opportunities to adjust and design WFP’s interventions to efficiently deliver WFP programmes in a timely manner.
• Assist the development of context-specific guidance on administrative and legal regulations
• With support from the regional Bureau and HQ, facilitate the development of country-specific guidelines on engagement with armed gangs, and other civilian entities.
• Support strengthening and establishing sustainable multi-functional operational access coordination in the CO.  
• Initiate and support efforts to build the capacity of WFP staff to undertake operational access and engagement work.

Coordination

• Ensure that WFP is actively participating in relevant inter-agency discussions concerning access. This includes forging partnerships with traditional and non-traditional partners and other experts to improve performance in this area.

• Support the CO’s effort to advocate for establishing and maintaining principled and sustained humanitarian access

• Support the CO to strengthen and maintain sustainable coordination and partnerships with stakeholders in the country.

QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE REQUIRED

Education:       Academic degree in international relations, International Law, development studies, conflict studies, or another relevant discipline is required

Experience:     

• Good understanding of the political, social, security context in Haiti (Essential)
•  (8) years of professional experience related to humanitarian, development, civil work
• Demonstrated experience in humanitarian access negotiations
• Demonstrated conflict and security analytical competency
• Strong knowledge of organized violence, in particular working with armed gangs and civilian entities.

Desirable

Experience in researching, analysing, evaluating, and synthesizing information

Experience with the UN or comparable international organization

Experience in design and completion of conflict analysis

Experience in capacity building (training, accompaniment)

Closing Date : may 20, 2022