Programme Policy Officer Technical support & Donor liaison, LFT P3, Addis Ababa 1 Full Time

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CONTRACTUAL INFORMATION

JOB TITLE: Programme Policy Officer_ Technical Support & Donor Liaison
TYPE OF CONTRACT: CST II
UNIT/DIVISION: Programme
DUTY STATION: Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
DURATION: 11 Months

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.

Click the link to learn more about WFP in Ethiopia:  WFP Ethiopia Employee Value Proposition.pdf

BACKGROUND & PURPOSE OF THE ASSIGNMENT

The World Food Programme (WFP) is the United Nations’ frontline humanitarian agency addressing hunger and malnutrition worldwide. WFP tackles poverty and hunger through a range of interventions: saving lives and protecting livelihoods in emergencies; investing in the prevention and mitigation of disasters; restoring and rebuilding lives and livelihoods in post-conflict or post-disaster situation; and other interventions to tackle hunger. Each year, on average, WFP assists more than 100 million people in over 80 countries.

In addition to responding to the humanitarian needs in Ethiopia by providing emergency food and cash assistance to shock-affected populations, WFP is scaling up interventions aimed at strengthening resilience and enhancing livelihoods through a wide range of integrated and mutually reinforcing activities across the country, thereby reducing aid dependency. Germany, through its Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and its Development Bank (KfW), is one of the main donors enabling WFP Ethiopia to implement such activities, funding several projects. As part of WFP’s efforts to strengthen and scale-up its portfolio of resilience-building activities, WFP Ethiopia is introducing a project manager position for KfW- and BMZ-funded projects.

The WFP Ethiopia Country Office has made significant progress in scaling up its resilience building and livelihood strengthening initiatives as a mechanism of supporting vulnerable communities regain and maintain their livelihoods. As part of the Country Office’s goal to systematically transition a significant number of beneficiaries from humanitarian assistance to more changing lives interventions, WFP Ethiopia has developed two strategies designed to guide the scale up of resilience building interventions for individuals and communities in pastoral lowlands and for smallholder farmers in agricultural productive parts of the country. These strategies are aligned to the development priorities of the Federal and Regional governments.
With increased government and donor interest in scaling up resilience building initiatives, it is imperative that WFP get the right skill sets to design and implement innovative and plausible interventions while positioning WFP as a partner of choice. The primary role of this position is to provide technical liaison between WFP and selected donors, in this case BMZ, KFW and Scandinavian countries, keeping them updated on programme implementation, inherent project implementation bottlenecks, and opportunities for further support, while ensuring alignment of interventions with government priorities, donor requirements and WFP’s corporate frameworks. Work closely with the WFP Ethiopia and regional bureau partnerships teams. It therefore requires somebody with strong knowledge of programme/project design and implementation, understanding of pastoral and agro-pastoral working contexts and the ability to adapt solutions to context in a highly complex programme.

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES (not all-inclusive)

As technical liaison between WFP and BMZ, KFW and the Scandinavian funded projects in Ethiopia, the Programme Policy Officer has the responsibility of contributing to project design through ensuring alignment of project interventions to donor requirements, ensuring timelines in submission of concept notes and proposals to respective donors and that any variations or adjustments to implementation are adequately communicated to the donor.  Responsibilities under this role may be extended to supporting projects funded by other donors in addition to the ones stated above as may be deemed necessary as well as strategic planning support to the Head of the Changing Lives portfolio in Ethiopia.
Under the direct supervision of the Lead, Innovation, Insurance & Financial Inclusion, the incumbent’s responsibilities will include:

1. Project Liaison: Liaison for resilience building and livelihood interventions funded by BMZ, KFW and the Scandinavian Countries, and other forms of assistance, as defined by the head of changing lives. Provide regular feedback to the donors on project implementation and support identify, and address bottlenecks affecting the smooth running of the projects. Contribute to project design and ensure alignment of project concept notes or proposals to donor requirements and to WFP policies and the Country Strategic Plan (CSP). Liaise with WFP staff involved in the project implementation to provide guidance on project requirements and monitor project milestones against project targets and objectives, ensure deadlines and targets are met, and ensure that relevant policies, guidelines, and processes (WFP corporate and project-specific) are adhered to (compliance).

2. Technical support: Contribute to the design of projects, ensuring alignment of concept notes and proposals to donor requirements; and ensure that the proposals are of a good quality and are submitted on time, and that they are aligned to WFP Ethiopia’s CSP and the respective projects/workstreams under the resilience building and climate change adaptation portfolio.

3. Partnerships: As the liaison with KFW/MMZ and Scandinavian development partners under activity 5, keep the direct supervisor and the WFP partnerships team informed on the implementation of activities funded by KfW/BMZ and the Scandinavian countries. The selected candidate will undertake regular meetings, workshops, joint field visits, presentations, submission of reports and proactively seek opportunities for further funding to support the scale-up of interventions, in addition to seeking new partnerships as needed. Additional responsibilities include supporting the field offices with the selection, onboarding of cooperating partners, including drafting of agreements, with guidance and support by the Programme Partnership unit.

4. Strategic Planning: Support the Changing Lives Portfolio Manager, as guided, to pro-actively formulate and contribute to strategy formulation, development of strategic plans, concept notes, scale-up plans for on-going projects, partnership strategy development, and consolidation of inputs into the second-generation CSPs. Also provide or contribute to reporting and knowledge management.

5. Reporting: Ensure timely and high-quality reporting, which includes compiling relevant annual project reports, provide inputs to WFP Ethiopia’s internal and external reporting structures such as the Annual Country Report (ACR), donor updates, and weekly updates, and provide other reporting inputs as required. Additionally, collaborate with M&E focal points to generate the necessary evidence emerging from the work done under respective activity leads within the resilience building and climate change adaptation portfolio, and changing lives agenda in general. This includes supporting the design of results frameworks, data collection processes, and contributing to evidence generation initiatives.

6. Financial Management: Ensure accountability of the use of project funds; oversee the administrative, financial, and budgetary aspects of project activities, including the monitoring of financial expenditures and transactions; ensure strict and consistent application of WFP rules and regulations and alignment to donor requirements.

7. Knowledge Management: Liaise with focal points of various thematic areas relevant to the project as well as related projects, both externally and internally in the Country Office to ensure best practices are effectively captured and lessons from them applied to enhance programme delivery. Introduce innovative solutions (including digital) to capture, store and access such information. Also support the development of a framework within which knowledge management is effectively managed and utilized.

8. Travel: Regular travel to the field and project sites, including the facilitation of donor- and high-level visits.

9. Other: Carry out other relevant tasks and duties as requested by the immediate supervisor, Head of Programme, and Country Office management

QUALIFICATIONS & EXPERIENCE REQUIRED

Education: Advanced University degree in Environmental Sciences, Management Sciences, (Development) Economics, Statistics, or similar studies.

Experience: At least 5 years of working in the humanitarian or development sector and demonstrated job-related professional experience in project design and management, partnership management, budgeting, and inter-sectoral engagements or other related fields

Knowledge & Skills: 

•    Ability to produce high-quality written materials, such as project proposals and reports, for internal and external consumption.
•    Excellent presentation skills, conveying complex operational and strategic issues to senior and technical, internal and external audiences.
•    Strong analytical abilities, both quantitative and qualitative; ability to leverage analytical skills into advanced data models
•    Knowledge of WFP’s various operational areas and functions
•    Knowledge of the humanitarian and development context in Ethiopia, including key (policy) documents and strategies
•    Understanding of WFP’s dual mandate of saving and changing lives, particularly WFP’s past and ongoing resilience and livelihood projects and activities, both in Ethiopia and other countries.
•    Knowledge of statistical methods to generate evidence in complex and experimental settings, such as randomized control trials.
•    Strong time management skills with an ability to plan, anticipate requirements, problems and obstacles, and an ability to juggle competing priorities successfully, managing tight deadlines
•    Self-motivated and proactive
•    Ability to interact with a wide range of stakeholders with credibility and tact, including with (senior) external partners
•    Good interpersonal and communication skills, ability to perform in a matrix structure
•    Fully committed to achieve the mandate of the World Food Programme in adherence with humanitarian principles
•    WFP’s core competencies & alignment with WFP’s leadership framework (purpose, partnerships, people, performance)

Language: Fluency (level C) in English language.

DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS

January 10, 2023

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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.