Surge Deployment Officer
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, color, national origin, ethnic or social background, genetic information, gender, gender identity and/or expression, sexual orientation, religion or belief, HIV status, physical or mental disability.
Job Title: Surge Deployment Officer
Type of Contract: Consultancy
Division: Emergency Operations Division
Duty Station (City, Country): Rome HQ, Italy
Duration: 11 months
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE OF THE ASSIGNMENT:
The United Nations 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. The Emergency Operations Division (EME) supports WFP’s Regional Bureaus (RBs), Country Offices (COs) and partners to prepare and respond to current and future emergencies in a rapidly changing humanitarian environment. EME provides a field[1]focused, service oriented, steering and convening role focusing on forward-looking preparedness and support to emergencies to ensure a swift, coordinated, and integrated response. In particular, the ability to timely deploy surge staff with the required operational experience and technical skills remains a critical factor for effective emergency response. The Global Surge Coordination Unit (GSCU) within EME identifies, upskills and deploys emergency response staff in support of life-saving operations where required. It is responsible for managing the process of identifying and deploying personnel in response to staffing requests, leveraging a pool of qualified candidates. The GSCU also maintains Standby Partnerships with governments and NGOs to field technical experts when needed. It also holds the Surge Learning team which capacitates staff through a curated learning journey that ensures those deployed have the right skills to make an impact. Under the supervision of the Head of Deployments Pillar, the Surge Consultant will support the co-ordination of the identification and deployment of staff to emergency operations, by delivering a professional, client-focused service, partnering with managers to implement solutions in line with WFP corporate priorities. The consultant will also support the development and management of the Young Emergency Talent Initiative (YETI), a two-year programme designed to introduce the next generation of emergency deployers.
ACCOUNTABILITIES/RESPONSIBILITIES:
The consultant will be responsible for the following duties:
Surge Coordination
1. Contribute towards the development of emergency surge plans and processes and prepare for and deliver operational activities, specific projects or new initiatives such as the online surge deployment system, Global Rapid Response Team, etc. towards matching candidates with field staffing needs;
2. Contribute to building and managing talent within WFP, working with managers to understand their needs and delivering solutions to recruit, retain, manage and develop a high caliber workforce to deliver business objectives;
3. Liaise with Staffing Coordinators, focal points in Headquarters, Regional Bureaus and Country Officers to identify suitable candidates and ensure a coherent response to emergencies. This includes providing advice to managers and employees, understanding their needs and ensuring policies, procedures, processes, systems and tools are available and correctly applied to support them;
4. As needed, act as a team focal point for an emergency or region to ensure that the staffing element for that response are delivered in a timely manner.
5. Collect and collate information for management briefings and attend coordination meetings/calls as required.
6. Create and maintain a database to manage unsolicited approaches from individuals looking for deployment, and exploring possibilities to create a Global Surge Talent Pool;
7. Support the management of the OIM Roster or any other functional roster that might be added to the GSU responsibilities, including the screening of candidates, reference checks, the regular update of the related information and the development of the Roster through tests of selected candidates, creating and maintaining any vacancy announcement related to any of these rosters and serving as a point of contact with OIM unit;
8. Attend co-ordination meetings/calls as the GSCU representative or provide pertinent information; 9. Deploy, on request, to support emergency operation with emergency staffing requirements including rapid deployment of temporary staffing, recruiting of staff;
10. Additional tasks as assigned by the supervisor
Young Emergency Talent Initiative (YETI)
1. Contribute to the development of programme related materials such as vacancy announcements, communications, articles, briefing and supporting materials for the YETI.
2. Field enquiries from YETIs, connecting them with the necessary resources or escalating their enquiries to the appropriate personnel.
3. Support the deployment of YETIs to Field and Country Offices through the engagement and follow-up with Country Directors and relevant focal points, ensuring a substantive programme of work for deployed YETIs and monitoring of deployments in progress;
4. Support the collection and analysis of feedback from YETIs on their onboarding, deployment and other aspects of the programme to facilitate a comprehensive review, analysis and evaluation of the YETI programme.
5. Contribute to the review and revision of processes and procedures of the programme.
6. Additional tasks as assigned by the supervisor.
DELIVERABLES:
- Continuous analytical and technical support towards the surge deployment process including the management of a pool of qualified personnel ready to be mobilized in response to emergency staffing requests; coordinating the dispatch or personnel for deployment with relevant stakeholders; and contribute to post-deployment lessons learned reports/exercises.
- Continuous analytical and technical support towards the YETI as a training programme for young professionals including the development of documents and materials related to the programme; evaluation reports on the progress and feedback of YETI participants and mentors; and deployments of YETI participants to Field/Country Offices in close coordination with Country Directors and relevant focal points
QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE REQUIRED:
Education:
Advanced university degree in Human Resource Management, Public or Business Administration, International Relations or other relevant field, or First University degree with additional years of related work experience
Experience:
At least one year of postgraduate professional experience in Human Resources with an interest in international humanitarian development. Experience or exposure to WFP Emergency Field Operations delivering quality human resource outcomes is desirable.
Knowledge and Skills:
- Broad or specialized knowledge of HR best practices, techniques and processes with some understanding of the basic theoretical background.
- Knowledge of, or the ability to quickly assimilate, UN/WFP specific processes and systems including WFP HR information systems, such as e-recruitment, WINGS, etc.
- Ability to analyse data, draw conclusions and recommend a course of action.
- Good communication skills required to give and receive information and work with a variety of individuals.
- Ability to establish and maintain effective relationships with clients and provide client-oriented service.
- Ability to identify client’s needs and match them to appropriate solutions.
- Proficiency to an Advanced Level in Microsoft Office Packages (particularly Word, Excel, Outlook and Powerpoint)
- Ability and willingness to work hours beyond standard office hours including weekends and holidays when required.
- Ability and willingness to deploy to field offices, when needed.
Languages:
International Professional: Fluency (level C) in English language. Intermediate knowledge (level B) of a second official UN language: Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian, Spanish, and/or WFP’s working language, Portuguese.
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: 24 August 2022
Ref.: VA No. 171392
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.
No appointment under any kind of contract will be offered to members of the UN Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ), International Civil Service Commission (ICSC), FAO Finance Committee, WFP External Auditor, WFP Audit Committee, Joint Inspection Unit (JIU) and other similar bodies within the United Nations system with oversight responsibilities over WFP, both during their service and within three years of ceasing that service.
