Programme Policy Officer

Details

Mission and objectives

The World Food Programme (WFP) is the leading humanitarian organization saving lives and changing lives, delivering food assistance in emergencies and working with communities to improve nutrition and build resilience. As the international community has committed to end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition by 2030, one in nine people worldwide still do not have enough to eat. Food and food-related assistance lie at the heart of the struggle to break the cycle of hunger and poverty. WFP’s efforts focus on emergency assistance, relief and rehabilitation, development aid and special operations. Two-thirds of our work is in conflict-affected countries where people are three times more likely to be undernourished than those living in countries without conflict.

Context

The influx of Rohingya refugees into Cox’s Bazar in 2017 has placed a heavy strain on local natural resources, service provision and infrastructure, impacting many livelihood aspects of local communities. Support to local communities are crucial to mitigate potential tensions between the refugees and local communities, and to contribute to regional development. Localization of food supply chain: As a part of WFP’s general food assistance intervention in the refugee camps, WFP aims to localize the fresh food supply chain as much as possible by linking WFP-contracted retailers (who distribute to refugees) to the Bangladeshi producers in the Cox’s Bazar district. These activities have a high potential to boost local agricultural production and to provide access to markets for farmers and local producers, allowing WFP to continue buying at the scale through the retailers who can ensure a high degree of food quality and quantity. To achieve this, WFP has introduced Fresh Food Corners in e-voucher outlets in the refugee camps, providing access to varieties of fresh and nutritious food items (vegetables, fruits, fish and chicken) to the refugees. Promotion of market linkages in local community: In local community of Cox’s Bazar, WFP implements an extensive livelihoods programme to improve vulnerable women’s food security and nutritional status. The programme works with women as an entry point to transform communities, through empowering them socially and economically and helping them become entrepreneurs. The graduates of WFP’s livelihoods programme focus on business growth by; 1) linking to local supply chains for agricultural produce; and 2) connecting producers to markets for non-agricultural products. To ensure the businesses’ JICA UNV Application Form sustainability and profitability, several market linkage initiatives are promoted– on-farm production is channelled mainly through Aggregation Centres, while off-farm production (i.e. bamboo crafts, jute production, embroidery) is supported with a shop in Cox’s Bazar and other outlets. As part of the market linkage activity, WFP also collaborates with Japanese private sector to support livelihoods of local community through training on improved mung beans production to farmers, and on-the-job training to at-risk youths and women through agri-process facilities.

Task description

Task description The UN Volunteer will be based in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. Under the direct supervision of the Head of Resilience, with overall guidance from the Head of Cox’s Bazar Area Office, the UN Volunteer will undertake the following tasks: Programme Management: Provide project management support to livelihoods/market linkage project in Cox’s Bazar. Liaise with internal and external counterparts to ensure effective collaboration, monitor ongoing projects and highlight potential risks to project delivery. This includes providing programmatic support and advice to WFP cooperating partner(s) and support the capacity-building according to the WFP guidelines. Coordination and Partnerships: Act as donor liaison for specific donors, especially with Japan. Establish relations with JICA and other Japanese NGOs, and Japanese private sector companies in Bangladesh. This comprises support in preparation of project proposals for donors, donor missions, and meetings in coordination with the management and relevant units. Duty Travel: This post requires occasional visit to Dhaka for donor liaison, and Patuakhali and Ishwardi district for cooperating partner coordination and project monitoring. UN Volunteer will be part of the Livelihoods team that supports market linkage, engaging famers, aggregators and retailers by linking producers to WFP-contracted retailers. In particular, UN Volunteer is expected to contribute towards management of WFP-Euglena Co.Ltd project, ensuring coordination with different stakeholders including coordination with private sector partner(s), act as donor liaison, as well as internal coordination with various units (e.g. Livelihoods, Retail, Partnerships, Communications) to align with wider programme policies and procedures. Furthermore, UN Volunteers are required to: • Strengthen their knowledge and understanding of the concept of volunteerism by reading relevant UNV and external publications and take active part in UNV activities (for instance in events that mark International Volunteer Day); • Be acquainted with and build on traditional and/or local forms of volunteerism in the host country; • Reflect on the type and quality of voluntary action that they are undertaking, including participation in ongoing reflection activities; • Contribute articles/write-ups on field experiences and submit them for UNV publications/websites, newsletters, press releases, etc.; • Assist with the UNV Buddy Programme for newly-arrived UN Volunteers; • Promote or advise local groups in the use of online volunteering, or encourage relevant local individuals and organizations to use the UNV Online Volunteering service whenever technically possible.