Programme Associate, G6 Nairobi and other locations

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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 or disability.

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.

ORGANIZATIONAL CONTEXT

WFP is supporting the County Governments of Kenya to implement Sustainable Food System and Livelihood Programmes aimed at building the resilience of food insecure households and enabling them to improve their food security and nutrition through the promotion of integrated solutions on food production, transformation, and consumption.

WFP aims to build sustainable demand-led value chains linking smallholder farmers, off-takers, and other key market players such as suppliers of agricultural finance, inputs, and technical expertise. Additionally, WFP seeks to deliver integrated and sustainable services across key value chains in the ASALs and selected potential counties to develop entrepreneurship and income generation among smallholder farmers and micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs).

The entry point for value chain activities is several ranging from different forms of farmer producer organisations, rural agribusinesses known as Farmer Service Centers (FSCs). These rural entrepreneurs play a key role in linking farmers to other value-chain actors, whilst earning commissions from the demand/sales they generate on behalf of their farmer network. As such, training and mentorship of these small-scale enterprises will enable them the learn, connect and grow to scale, thus improving their business and entrepreneurial acumen, assess their profits/losses, make sound business decisions and position them to play a key role in addressing the last-mile challenges faced by smallholder producers. Skills such as negotiation, marketing, partner engagement and customer segmentation are also critical. The WFP team plays a core role in supporting and mentoring the FSCs in developing these skills.

The proposed interventions will build on WFP’s established food systems approach and operational platforms, including Farmers’ Organizations (FOs), Cooperatives, FSCs, youth groups, and resilience livelihoods interventions in the ASALs. These platforms, in addition to WFP’s extensive field presence and existing partnerships including strong relationships with county governments through six established field offices, will bring speed and efficiency to programme scale up and implementation. Priority will be given, through a youth and gender lens, to supporting smallholder farmers, traders, and processors in reducing post-harvest losses (PHL), better access to inputs, and improving market linkages through off-take and aggregation. These efforts will contribute to reduced food losses and waste, increased volumes sold through structured markets, and an improved mid-stream of Kenya’s food system.

JOB PURPOSE

The programme associate positions will be in various duty stations and are funded by MasterCard Foundation (MCF) project. They will report directly to the Head of Field Office, and technically to the Programme Policy Officer coordinating the MCF project from Nairobi.

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES (not all-inclusive)

Key Responsibilities of the Programme Associate, with specific focus on scope of work funded by the MCF: Off-take and aggregation by smallholder farmers and post-harvest loss management

• Provide technical support in planning and designing initiatives that optimize value creation and commercialization opportunities across all segments of food systems (production, transformation consumption), with specific focus on off-take, aggregation, and post-harvest loss management along priority value chains in the county of operation.
• Support aggregation of FSCs and farmers for markets and agricultural support services. This will include: facilitating FSC Development through identification, profiling, and on-boarding; learning, connection and growth through business development and entrepreneurial Coaching (BDEC); establishing connections and building sustainable partnerships linkages with partners along selected value chains, Conduct performance evaluation for FSCs; Indirectly or directly transfer existing and emerging agricultural technology and innovations to FSCs and farmers; and identifying and supporting innovations at FSC and farmer level.
• Farmer Organization development through undertaking profiling exercises, identifying, and recommending capacity strengthening needs and support county government lead departments in designing and implementing tailored capacity strengthening initiatives.
• Provide technical support and help to implement market-led approaches that focus on post-harvest management, value creation, linkage with private sector actor and support alignment with wider programme policies and guidelines.
• Identify new opportunities for developing WFP’s market support initiatives that are in line with the strategy of making food systems sustainable, inclusive and resilient.
• Propose ways to strengthen integration of gender, youth, nutrition, and climate-action in all activities being implemented in the counties of operation

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES cont.

• Liaise with internal counterparts to support effective collaboration, implementation, and monitoring of ongoing project activities.
• Ensure and/or perform accurate and timely collection and recording of project data into WFP’s programme data management tool (inputs and outputs) and ensure consistency of information

• Prepare a range of reports and data analysis, ensuring comprehensive reporting and documentation, based on data collected. This includes regular programme performance status, documentation, and communication of best practices to inform scale and bad practices for learning, highlighting of trends/issues while ensuring deliverables adhere to corporate standards and quality control.

• Support in Partnership forging and collaboration. This would include mapping of key partners to engage based on smallholder, trader, and processor needs.
• Other assignments as required

DESIRED EXPERIENCES FOR ENTRY INTO THE ROLE

• Has experience in working with smallholder farmers and market actors in agricultural market support at scale
• Has contributed technically to value chain development
• Has worked in the technical area i.e., nutrition, food security analysis, market linkages, crop/animal production, emergency preparedness and response, etc.).
• Has contributed to implementation of programmes in arid and semi-arid lands of Kenya.
• Demonstrated responsibility and initiative to respond independently to various queries with only general guidance and use judgment in dealing with unforeseen operational problems daily.

STANDARD MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS

Education:

Completion of secondary school education. A post-secondary certificate in the related functional area Agriculture Economics, Agribusiness Development, Range Management, Post-Harvest Management, Environmental Science, Land and Water Management, Social Sciences, or other fields relevant to international development assistance.

Possession of a University Degree in these fields will be an added advantage.

Language:

Fluency in both oral and written communication of English and Kiswahili.

FUNCTIONAL CAPABILITIES

DEADLINE FOR APPLICATION

• Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.
• The World Food Programme DOES NOT CHARGE A FEE AT ANY STAGE OF THE RECRUITMENT PROCESS.
• WFP embraces diversity and equal opportunity. We are committed to building a team that celebrates diversity and inclusivity in all ways. All employment is decided on the basis of qualifications and merit.
• Applications for this position will close at 11:59 p.m. (East African Time) on 06 November 2022.

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