Consultant - PD Front Office

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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.

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.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE OF THE POSITION

The Programme and Policy Development Department (PD) leads corporate efforts to develop and implement WFP’s Strategic Plan (2022-2025) and ensure the quality of WFP’s programmatic offer in all settings. Those efforts include putting in place the policies, strategies, partnerships, tools and capacities to enable WFP to deliver on its mandate of saving lives and changing lives by delivering assistance directly where it is needed and facilitating national zero hunger solutions.

The front office of the Deputy Executive Director (DED), PD, supports the DED in coordinating  the overall work of the Department, including budget and administrative matters, policy and briefing documents and internal and external engagements and meetings undertaken by the DED.

The front office seeks a professional to join the existing team in supporting  the work of the DED in her internal and external engagements. Such support includes coordinating information exchanges between PD divisions; support in drafting speeches; statements, position, policy and strategic papers; provide strategic and policy advices on Country Strategic Plans, EB documents and other documents produced by/for external partners and/or interagency and other fora. The candidate would also support the DEDs engagement in WFP’s governance and oversight bodies (such as WFP’s Executive Board).

ACCOUNTABILITIES/RESPONSIBILITIES:

Working under the overall supervision of the Director, Strategic Coordination, and daily supervision of the Executive Manager, PD,,  the   selected candidate will be responsible for the following duties:

• Coordinating, reviewing and preparing briefing documents, talking points, speeches.
• Liaising with HQ divisions and field offices as needed, to ensure that the DED receives high quality briefing material in a timely manner;
• Drafting notes for record and other materials as needed to support the work of the front office;
• Archiving and classifying all briefing documentation to enable easy retrieval and reference;
• Provide strategic and policy advices to the DED and/or the Director for Strategic Coordination on internal and external matters;
• Support the development of position and policy papers as needed;
• Other tasks that may be required

DESIRED EXPERIENCES FOR ENTRY INTO THE ROLE

Education: Advanced university degree, or first university degree in a relevant field

Experience: Minimum 3 years professional experience, experience at the international level in programme management, project management or advisory support to senior management. Field experience would be preferred.

Languages: Fluency (mother tongue level) in oral and written English required. Level B  in another UN language (French, Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, Russian) or WFP working language of Portuguese is desirable.

KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS

• Strong written and oral communication skills, including substantive analysis and report writing skills; and proofreading and editorial skills
• General knowledge of information management and communication best practices, techniques and processes.
• Ability to work independently, with flexibility  and adaptability;
• Ability to work at a fast pace and under tight deadlines;
• Management of  multiple and competing demands in an organized and timely manner and a sense of when and how to elevate issues;
• Excellent interpersonal skills and ability to foster working relationships with people at all levels, including senior managers, from varying functional areas, and from diverse backgrounds; and foster trust through exercise of tact, discretion, judgment, and  respect for confidentiality

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WFP has a zero-tolerance approach to conduct such as fraud, sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to WFP’s standards of conduct and will therefore undergo rigorous background verification internally or through third parties. Selected candidates will also be required to provide additional information as part of the verification exercise. Misrepresentation of information provided during the recruitment process may lead to disqualification or termination of employment

WFP will not request payment at any stage of the recruitment process including at the offer stage. Any requests for payment should be refused and reported to local law enforcement authorities for appropriate action.