Junior Project Manager – United Nations World Food Programme
Job Title: Junior Project Manager – United Nations World Food Programme
Type of Contract: Consultancy
Division: Research Assessment and Monitoring (RAM)
Duty Station (City, Country): Rome, Italy
Duration: 11 months
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE OF THE ASSIGNMENT:
Assisting over 115 million people in more than 84 countries each year, the World Food Programme (WFP) is the leading humanitarian organization saving lives and changing lives, delivering food assistance in emergencies, working with communities to improve nutrition and build resilience, and partnering with governments to strengthen social protection systems. To be effective in this mandate, WFP must ensure that it reaches the right people and that it manages its relationship with those individuals and their communities in a responsible, accountable and effective manner.
The Research, Assessment and Monitoring (RAM) Division aims to provide credible, relevant and timely evidence that forms the basis for the design of WFP operations and the measurement of outcomes and impact. In doing so, RAM provides the necessary information for strategic and operational decision- making, resource mobilization and accountability to beneficiaries.
PURPOSE OF THE ASSIGNMENT:
Evidence-based decision-making is crucial for timely and appropriate humanitarian action. Meaningfully moving from data to evidence requires systematization, organization and interpretation of information in a way that is quick and useful for decision-makers. High frequency food security data collection has become increasingly abundant which is a welcome development. Yet, the operating systems necessary to systematically process and convert this information into operational knowledge still need to be advanced. With 43 million people on the brink of famine, timely food security evidence to guide immediate action and prioritize resources to where they are most urgently needed, is not a choice – it is the very foundation of humanitarian interventions. Hence moving swiftly and systematically from data to evidence is critical.
WFP has a wealth of market, household and monitoring survey data which is used every day to guide food security responses. Recent advances have allowed WFP-RAM to engineer processes to generate, clean, analyze and store data from several domains, including market assessments, market prices, and hunger monitoring, in global databases. However, the complexity of household survey data slowed its integration with other data streams. This constitutes a critical gap in the data-to-evidence process; leveraging existing technologies, we must ensure that integrated and comparable household survey data over time and space is available and analyzed at a much higher frequency.
ACCOUNTABILITIES/RESPONSIBILITIES:
Content development and project planning
- Support project manager on system related strategic initiatives, including for example, BHA Turning Data into Evidence proposal
- Understand and document, where necessary, business and technical requirements for developing, coordinating, managing system(s) that would in effect support WFP field operations
- Consider and input to recommendations to the evolution of standardization of systems within the division or as needed at organizational level
- Support set up and coordination of multi-stakeholder technical engagement, including meetings cadences, governance structure, roles and responsibilities, etc
- Develop content related to day-to-day project management, for example, progress updates, GANTT charts, meeting notes, project monitoring tools, data analysis and visualization for output (in the form of in the form of Word, Powerpoint, Excel)
- Draft and/or proofread content prepared for, for example, directors and donors, on content related to project support, including but not limited to newsletters, briefings, and key messages
- Guarantee a high level of consistency and accuracy, while adapting and updating content for wide variety of audiences
QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE REQUIRED:
Education:
Completion advanced masters education and university degree (Bachelor’s degree) in Economics, International Development, Food Security, Statistics, Data Science, Public Health/Nutrition, Geography or other related fields.
Experience:
The candidate must have at least 4 years of progressively responsible national and international experience in a digital technology and/or project management-related position. Experience with United Nations and World Food Programme or within the field of research, assessment, monitoring is a plus.
Knowledge and Skills:
- Proven and advanced writing skills to provide high-quality written materials, including powerpoint presentations as well as text documents
- Good quantitative ability to perform advanced data analysis with drawn insights to support decisions and way-forward
- Client relationship management skills
- Time management skills with an ability to plan ahead, anticipate requirements, problems and obstacles, and an ability to juggle competing priorities successfully, and to work on tight deadlines
- Self-motivated and able to work with a certain degree of autonomy and/ or in team
- Fully committed and motivated to achieve the aims of the UN World Food Programme
Languages:
Language: Fluency in both oral and written communication in English. Knowledge of French or another second UN language is an advantage.
Terms and Conditions:
WFP offers a competitive compensation package which will be determined by the contract type and selected candidate’s qualifications and experience.
Please visit the following websites for detailed information on working with WFP.
http://www.wfp.org Click on: “Our work” and “Countries” to learn more about WFP’s operations.
Deadline for applications: 30 August 2022
Ref.: VA No. 171542
All employment decisions are made on the basis of organizational needs, job requirements, merit, and individual qualifications. WFP is committed to providing an inclusive work environment free of sexual exploitation and abuse, all forms of discrimination, any kind of harassment, sexual harassment, and abuse of authority. Therefore, all selected candidates will undergo rigorous reference and background checks.
