Sudan: Consultant - Programme Officer (Resilience and Safety Nets)

JOB TITLE: Programme Officer- Resilience and Safety Nets

Type of Contract: Consultant

Duty Station: Khartoum, Sudan

Duration: 11 Months

Location: Khartoum with frequent visits to Area Offices

Supervision: Reports to Country Office Head of Resilience and Safety Nets

Background:

Sudan continues to be a complex humanitarian and food security situation characterized by major shocks and stresses, including conflict and population displacement, recurrent natural disasters, climatic shocks and socio-economic inequality. The frequent and intense shocks, over a period of many years, have destroyed and disrupted people’s livelihoods and eroded the capacity of poor households to meet the basic food security nutrition needs.

In addition to maintaining its capacity to respond to emergency needs as and when required, WFP in Sudan is currently engaging in a strategy to “right-size” and rationalize its assistance throughout the country. The objective of this strategy is to lend more support to stabilizing livelihoods, reducing dependence on food assistance and enhancing capacity and systems to address long term food security and malnutrition issues at all levels of government and among civil society actors. This strategy forms the foundation of the current Protracted Relief and Recovery Operation {PRRO and serves to outline the transition (through ICSP)} to a longer-term Country Strategic Plan (CSP) from 2019 which will define WFP’s contribution to achieving both short-term improvements in food security and nutrition and to supporting longer-term national Zero Hunger targets in the context of the Sustainable Development Goals.

The PRRO incorporates processes initiated in 2013 to transition from blanket emergency food assistance to IDPs across the Darfur region, to a more targeted response which focuses on combining life-saving relief to the most vulnerable with conditional livelihoods support to bridge households affected by conflict to pursue development pathways.

To this end, WFP Sudan has enhanced its technical and programming capacity to design, implement and coordinate resilience and safety net activities under the PRRO with a dedicated Unit at Country Office (CO) level and technical staff in Area Offices (AO). The Programme Officer - Resilience and Safety Nets will form part of the CO Resilience and Safety Nets Unit with a focus on providing technical guidance and support to WFP’s Food Assistance for Assets (FFA) and Resilience Support in the field. The position will also support design and partnerships for WFP’s Safety Nets programmes in Sudan.

Responsibilities:

Under the supervision of the Head of Resilience and Safety Nets, the Programme Officer will coordinate WFP Sudan’s FFA based Resilience Programmes by bringing existing WFP strategies for these thematic areas into the county context through the following tasks:

Technical

• Coordinate WFP Sudan’s Resilience programmes including project design, review, appraisal, and implementation of activities (including FFA, FFT, income generating activities and the Safe Access to Firewood and Alternative Energy (SAFE) project)
• Support WFP staff and Cooperating Partners (CPs) in planning and formulating quality FFA projects that address the underlying causes of food insecurity for various target groups using community based planning processes.
• Provide technical assistance to AOs in shifting current eligible WFP beneficiaries to FFA and income generating activities based on results of IDP profiling exercise
• Liaise with WFP AOs and CPs including visits to FFA project sites in order to ensure that activities are implemented on timely basis and to the required quality standards.
• Support the design and development of WFP’s Safety Nets programme in Sudan, with a focus on design, delivery and partnerships for productive safety net programmes.
• Oversee preparation and dissemination of timely analytical and critical reports including proposals for improvements in operation and the scope of programmes;
• In liaison with the WFP Monitoring and Evaluation Unit ensure the FFA baseline information is compiled and ensure continued monitoring reports are made and shared regularly.
• Support the development of outcome monitoring and evaluation reports for implemented activities
• Work with the service units (Procurement, Logistics, and Finance) to ensure that quality non-food items are purchased and supplied to the communities for effective implementation of projects.
• Ensure compliance with WFP’s policies, criteria and procedures with respect to food assistance.

Coordination and Capacity Building

• Initiate and support partnerships with public and private sector actors, International Financial Institutions and UN agencies to identify points of entry for WFP programming;
• Assess Partners’ capacity gaps and organize capacity building programmes (workshops, training, exchange visits etc.) to fill these gaps.
• Provide effective technical support and capacity building to staff of CPs and WFP colleagues in advancing the existing FFA project planning and monitoring formats, work norms and standard operating procedures (SOP).
• Support building of partnerships with other agencies (UN, I/NGOs, CBOs and Government) to improve synergy and impact of the projects.
• Support in development and improvement of FFA project guidance manuals (FFA work norms and standard specification) on projects implementation.
• Perform other related duties as required.

Qualifications & Experience Required

Education: University degree, preferably at an advanced level, in Economics, Agriculture, International Affairs, Business Administration, Social Sciences, Development Studies or other fields related to international development assistance.

Experience:

• At least 5 to 8 years (of which 3 at international) of postgraduate progressively responsible professional experience in public sector management, community-based development; experience in project management and operational implementation a must, while experience with WFP is strongly desirable.
• Strong experience in formulating programme strategies and activities in humanitarian and transition contexts, drawing upon full range of food assistance tools, and translating them into implementation modalities and operations;
• Proven experience in designing and managing resilience programmes;

Technical Skills & Knowledge:

• Ability to provide technical advice, or mobilize technical expertise, on a broad range of operational areas including on the choice of objectives, activities, transfer modalities and appropriate food products, the deployment and testing of innovative approaches and the development of strategies to support government efforts to reduce hunger and malnutrition;
• Demonstrated effectiveness in designing FFA and resilience programmes bringing WFP policies, guidance and strategies into the country context; strong interpersonal skills demonstrated by the ability to gain the assistance and cooperation of others in a team endeavor through demonstrated technical leadership; solid writing skills; ability to deal patiently and tactfully with people of different national and cultural backgrounds.
• Good understanding of programme principles in conflict, transition and development situations with ability to translate them into context specific design and implementation approaches;
• Proficiency in MS Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook);
• General knowledge of UN system policies, rules, regulations and procedures governing administration is desirable.

Competencies:

• Demonstrated skills in project design, management and implementation
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills;
• Effective action management to plan, coordinate and prioritize multiple tasks;
• Outstanding teamwork and interpersonal skills with ability to work patiently and tactfully with people of different national and cultural backgrounds;
• Excellent partnership skills to build strategic relationships with a wide range of internal and external stakeholders;
• Ability to gain the assistance and cooperation of others in a team endeavor through technical leadership in a broad range of operational areas.

Language:

• Fluency in oral and written English. Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian and Spanish) desirable.

How to Apply:

Interested external applicants can apply on WFP Career Site:

https://career012.successfactors.eu/sfcareer/jobreqcareer?jobId=56703&company=C0000168410P&username=

Interested WFP internal applicants can apply through the E-Recruitment tool:

https://performancemanager5.successfactors.eu/sf/jobreq?jobId=56703&company=C0000168410P&username=

• Applicants are required to create their personal account and fill in the profile form with their personal details in WFP Career Web-Site through the links provided above.
• Applicants must ensure that they fill in the mandatory sections in the application, attach an updated CV, answer the pre-screening questions and agree on the legal statement prior to submitting the application.
• Qualified female candidates are highly encouraged to apply.
• The closing date for the VA will be 27 June 2017