Cash Transfer Specialist

Organizational Setting

The large-scale escalation in hostilities in Ukraine is exacerbating the food insecurity situation of the most vulnerable rural households and small farmers. In response to the evolving situation, FAO Ukraine is scaling up its emergency humanitarian and resilience programming in conflict affected areas of Ukraine, including previous programming areas of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhia and Kherson; and Lviv and Zakarpattia in the West; as well as newly affected areas.

In order the address to rapidly deteriorating situation, FAO has established a Rapid Response Plan (RRP) that is in line with the UN Flash Appeal and intended to provide life and livelihood saving interventions for the most vulnerable smallholder farming households impacted by the conflict. In support of the RRP, FAO is calling for $50 million over the next 3 months to urgently assist up to 240, 000 most vulnerable rural men and women (over 100,000 households) including IDPs affected by the crisis. The response plan sets out key emergency agricultural interventions and immediate cash transfers to help sustain lives and agricultural livelihoods in a situation of escalating nationwide crises.

The FAO response will employ a ‘Cash ’ intervention modality that combines unconditional, multi-purpose cash (MPC) transfers with agricultural input support packages, ensuring crisis-affected households are able to cover their immediate basic needs while producing their own food and sustaining their productive assets. In this context, FAO is establishing a cash team to support with the design, planning, implementation and monitoring of the cash based response.

Reporting Lines

The Cash Transfer Specialist (CT Specialist) will operate under the overall supervision of the Head of the FAO Ukraine Country Office; the direct supervision and the technical guidance of the Cash and Voucher Assistance Expert.

Technical Focus

The Cash Transfer Specialist will be part of the FAO Ukraine Cash and Voucher Unit and will be responsible for providing technical, strategic and day-to-day implementation support through the formulation, planning, implementation and monitoring of FAO cash transfer activities in the country.

Tasks and responsibilities

Within the overall scope of work, the Cash Transfer Specialist is responsible for the following tasks:

• Coordinate the formulation, planning, timely implementation and monitoring and evaluation of Cash Transfer activities, ensuring high operational standards and compliance with FAO corporate rules and regulations.
• Provide contributions to ongoing processes required for the implementation of Cash Transfer modalities, including, but not limited to:
  • market assessments and feasibility analyses
  • identification and contracting of financial service providers (FSP)
  • identification and engagement of service providers/implementing partners
  • development of partnerships, beneficiary selection and registration
  • development of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs)
  • set up and management of complaints and feedback mechanisms/grievance Redress Mechanism
  • information, awareness raising and other direct communications with beneficiaries throughout implementation
• Manage the day-to-day relationship with service providers/partners and financial service providers and other partners FAO engages with for the targeting, distribution, verification and monitoring of CVA interventions
• Serve as a liaison and facilitate discussions with local stakeholders including private sector organizations; humanitarian NGOs and local government institutions as necessary to inform the above processes and to ensure appropriate information exchange
• Participate in information, awareness raising and other direct communication campaigns with beneficiaries, implying field visits should the security situation allow or alternative means as functional to the process.
• Support the establishment of relevant tools for the post distribution tracking, monitoring, evaluation and reporting of Cash Transfer delivery and ensure their regular roll out by FAO and Partners
• Regularly participate and represent FAO in relevant meetings and sub-teams of the Cash Working Group and other fora and discussions on cash transfers, vouchers, social protection and related topics, to orient and inform FAO’s own programming (in terms of potential partners, preferred approaches, delivery mechanisms, transfer value, etc.)
• Contribute to the formulation of the Cash Transfer component of pipeline projects, proposals, concept notes, reports and strategic documents, based on ongoing experience
• In the course of the work, support with the identification and documentation of Cash Transfer-related good practices that have a potential to enhance the quality of FAO’s future interventions and support their dissemination throughout the organization as opportune
• Undertake other relevant duties as required

CANDIDATES WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE FOLLOWING

Minimum Requirements

• University degree up to masters’ levels in management, accounting, economics or related field
• 3 years of demonstrated relevant experience in field level implementation of humanitarian assistance programmes
• Experience in humanitarian cash assistance strongly recommended
• Working knowledge (level C) of English and Ukrainian/Russian, as all the duties will have to be performed in English
• National of Ukraine

FAO Core Competencies

• Results Focus
• Teamwork
• Communication
• Building Effective Relationships
• Knowledge Sharing and Continuous Improvement

Technical/Functional Skills

• Ability to take ownership and accountability for assigned processes and to work autonomously
• Rigor and demonstrated attention to detail
• Quality of both oral and written communication skills

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION