Programme Policy Officer (Project Coordinator), Service Contract, L-9, New Delhi

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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, colour, national origin, ethnic or social background, genetic information, gender, gender identity and/or expression, sexual orientation, religion or belief, HIV status or disability.

WFP encourages female candidates and people with disabilities to apply.

VACANCY DETAILS

Job Title: Programme Policy Officer (Project Coordinator)
Grade: L9
Type of contract: Service Contract
Duration: 1 Year (renewable with maximum of 2.5 years)   
Reporting to: Under the direct supervision of WFP Deputy Country Director, and in close coordination with the Global Coordinator in WFP Headquarters
Duty Station: New Delhi, India
Vacancy no : 171490
Date of Publication: 17 August 2022
Deadline of Application: 31 August 2022

TERMS AND CONDITIONS

•    This vacancy is open to Indian Nationals only. 
•    This vacancy is open for internal and external candidates. As per the WFP’s Recruitment & Selection Policy, the definition of “internal” is only applicable to WFP staff members holding a permanent, continuing or FT appointment.
•    Only candidates under serious consideration will be contacted.
•    A written test will be used for screening candidates.
•    Only recommended candidates will be retained on roster for a period of two years and may be considered for similar positions from roster. 
•    The salary for this position is INR 2,192,953 per annum, plus medical benefits as per WFP's plan. All tax liability for payments from this contract are to be borne by the subscriber. 

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES (not all-inclusive)

Under the direct supervision of WFP Deputy Country Director, and in close coordination with the Global Coordinator in WFP Headquarters, the Programme Policy Officer (Project Coordinator) will perform the following responsibilities:
1. Effective Project Management
•    Provide effective leadership for project management and implementation and ensure the achievement of project results as per the project document in close coordination with the Programme unit heads.
•    Guide and supervise staff, acting as a point of referral and providing support. With the support of the project staff, prepare and review detailed annual and quarterly project work plans.
•    Ensure effective collaboration with WFP Headquarters technical officers, in particular the School Based Programming (SBP), Nutrition, and Gender, to enable the alignment and integration of the project with their strategic objectives and targets in consultation with the relevant Unit heads.
•    Ensure coordination within the Country Office team, particularly school feeding, nutrition, supply chain optimization and PDS reforms, millet mainstreaming and climate team to ensure effective alignment and integration of the project with their strategic objectives and targets.
•    Lead the development of a monitoring and evaluation plan and ensure that project indicators are applied and tracked.
•    In collaboration with the Country Office management and unit heads, prepare project progress reports, including annual report as required by HQ and the donor.
2. Technical responsibilities
•    Serve as technical professional in guiding the project in the area of operations research with a focus on nutrition and food systems.  
•    Lead the preparation of reports and consultations on findings from the feasibility studies with guidance from country office unit heads and the Deputy Country Director.
3. External Relationships 
•    Act as the main point of contact for Rockefeller and the Coalition initiatives that might be connected to the project and participate in regional and/or global workshops or meetings along with relevant CO staff.
•    Working with CO unit heads, develop working relationships with key government ministries and departments that are crucial to this project
•    Serve as the focal point with the various partners of Rockefeller Foundation to adapt tools and approaches for testing in the India context.  
•    Support the development of an advocacy strategy/plan to support shift at policy level, help coordinate research and evaluation and help communicate impacts, barriers and gaps.
•    Represent the organization in meetings with Government counterparts, partners and other project stakeholders as delegated by the CO.
•    Perform other related duties as required.
 

STANDARD MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS

Education: Advanced university degree in one of the following disciplines: operations research, nutrition, M&E, development studies, gender studies or other related fields. or First University Degree with additional two years of related work experience and/or trainings/courses.
Experience: Minimum 3 years of progressively responsible professional experience in coordination and project management. Previous experience in leading and conducting operations research and managing projects on supply chain, value-chain development, nutrition, food technology or related fields. The ability to coordinate multi-stakeholders is an important asset. 
Knowledge & Skills:
-    Proven abilities to coordinate complex school feeding and food procurement related projects in low- and middle-income countries.
-    In-depth knowledge of school feeding programming and its linkages to agriculture, nutrition and gender issues/inequality in development settings.
-    Proven capacity to manage multi-disciplinary and multi-cultural teams.
-    Solid oral and written communication skills, including the ability to effectively communicate through multiple mediums (e.g. policy, advocacy messaging, reporting, training).
-    Team spirit and excellent interpersonal relations.
-    Knowledge of the UN system, including gender-related mandates is an asset.
Language: Excellent written and spoken English and fluency in Hindi. 
 

HOW TO APPLY

•    Interested candidates are invited to apply via (https://www.wfp.org/careers/job-openings). Applications received on WFP Career page will be considered. 
•    WFP wants to ensure the recruitment process is fully accessible to people with disabilities. For accessibility requirements you may have, please write to us at email: India.hr@wfp.org with Subject line “Accessibility request for people with disabilities -  VA No……. ”. 

ORGANIZATIONAL CONTEXT

Background & Project Deliverables:
WFP is partnering with the Rockefeller Foundation (RF) for a 2.5 years programme, titled ‘Catalyzing good food through school feeding and food-based programs’. The overarching goal of this project is to improve the nutritional quality of diets, food-based safety net sustainability, equity of national food systems, and positive economic impact for local communities. This will be achieved by introducing nutritious foods leveraging institutional food procurement mechanisms, understanding the food landscape, strengthening supply chains, and influencing healthy eating behavior through food-based programmes.
The project will be implemented at global and national level (4 countries) with a combination of direct implementation to scale interventions and parallel work towards knowledge and evidence creation, testing of metrics and advocacy for changes in healthier diets. 
In India, the objective of this proposal is to improve the nutritional quality of foods in government food-based safety nets (Public Distribution System, school meals and ICDS) while also increasing awareness of and demand for more nutritious options by the beneficiaries.  
WFP India has been working for a decade in strengthening the Government’s food-based safety nets, initially working on introducing reforms to the public distribution system, including digitalization, and then expanding its work to improving the quality of food in the safety nets.  This was done by initiating a series of pilots to fortify rice in the school meals programmes, evaluating those pilots for effectiveness in addressing anaemia as well as scalability, and then presenting the results to state and national government partners.  

 

Building on these experiences and in line with the current work with the Government, the project will focus on three main areas: 
1.    Operations research and evaluation, including feasibility and supply chain optimization
2.    Improving nutrition content of foods in the government food-based safety nets and creating demand through social and behaviour change communication
3.    Advocacy for change in policy and practice of national and state governments

The main components of the project which are presented below: 
1)    Feasibility studies on diversifying the PDS and PM-POSHAN food baskets: 

•    An appraisal of existing State initiatives to diversify PDS food baskets, identifying good practices that could be applied in other states.  Proposed options for diversifying the food basket (fortified oil, fresh foods, pulses, etc.) including cost and expected financial return on investment with a detailed assessment of possible challenges and solutions, savings in terms of health expenditure etc. and a feasibility analysis for implementation at state level, including impact on production, minimum support prices, government procurement and supply chain optimization.  
•    For diversifying the school meals, WFP will conduct a mapping exercise, looking at the quality and diversity of meals provided to school children throughout the country to document alignment to government norms and areas for improvement including best practices in setting up kitchen gardens in schools. This analysis will drive advocacy efforts to bring in nutritional improvements in the meals.

2)    Introduce a pilot of school gardens in Jaipur district of Rajasthan, which is a hot, dry part of the country and where fresh foods are often difficult to obtain. 

3)    Undertake a detailed national level study on the feasibility of introducing locally produced fortified wheat flour into the PDS, considering its impact on the Government’s supply chain: shelf life of fortified wheat flour, incremental cost on account of fortification, documenting learnings from States which have conducted their own pilots.  

4)    Undertake a formative assessment in partnership with the Odisha Millet Mission to understand issues behind the reticence on consumption. The initial study will be conducted in Odisha and can be expanded to other states with surpluses of millets, including Rajasthan.  

5)    Mainstreaming fortified rice in the food-based safety nets
•    Piloting rice fortification in Bihar
•    Developing and implementing an SBCC campaign on the benefits of fortified rice to be implemented in two states (Bihar, Chhattisgarh)
•    Advocacy to the government for mandatory fortification and to establish fortification standards that are equivalent to international standards.  

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.

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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.