Head of Director’s Office and Strategy Team

WFP seeks candidates of the highest integrity and professionalism who share our humanitarian principles.

Selection of staff is made on a competitive basis, and we are committed to promoting diversity and gender balance.

Job Title: Head of Director’s Office and Strategy Team

Division: PPF – Private Partnerships and Fundraising Division

Duty Station: Rome HQ or Remote

Type of Contract: full-time regular Consultant

Duration: 11 months

Deadline for applications: 17.11.2022

ORGANIZATIONAL CONTEXT

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is the world’s largest humanitarian agency working to create a world with zero hunger. WFP and its partners believe that no child should go to bed hungry and that individual and collective wellbeing can only be achieved if all children, women and men get the nutritious food they need to lead healthy, dignified lives. In 2020 WFP assisted 115.5 million people in 84 countries. WFP works with partners to strengthen the resilience of communities most vulnerable to hunger and malnutrition through long-term development programmes aimed at boosting food security, local economies, education, employment and gender equality.

Starting in 2020, WFP has embarked upon a new partnership and engagement strategy, which will focus on cooperation with the business sector, foundations and individuals to drive progress towards zero hunger. Within 18 months, PPF has grown significantly from 35 to 161 people. WFP will concentrate its efforts over the next strategic period (2020-2025) around three key pillars:

Impact: partnerships that provide expertise and skills to support capacity strengthening for WFP and local governments.

Income: investing in and growing fundraising from companies, foundations and individuals.

Innovation: identifying areas for innovation – particularly with businesses –uniquely able to drive change at scale.

The Private Partnerships & Fundraising Division (PPF) is responsible for working with the private sector to achieve greater impact in WFP’s work. PPF has embarked on an exceptionally ambitious new strategy to raise an additional one billion dollars for hungry or malnourished people in the next five years and to expand the contribution to WFP from the business sector through effective and sustainable long-term partnerships as well as from private individual supporters around the world. This includes securing new high impact technical partnerships, signing significant new corporate deals and growing existing relationships as well as building a base of one million individual supporters. Our strategy and ambition are based on need. 2020 was the first year of implementation of the new five-year Private Sector Partnerships & Fundraising (PSPF) Strategy. This includes a USD 50 million Executive-Board approved investment during the first three years of the strategy (subject to achieving KPIs) particularly in individual giving, resulting in substantially increase income over the next 5 years.

PURPOSE OF THE ASSIGNMENT

The Head of Director’s Office and Strategy Team is a key leadership role in PPF and will support the Director to shape and drive the growth strategy for WFP.

They will advise the PPF Director on strategy planning and implementation and oversee the work of the Director’s Office & Strategy Team which a) delivers for the division on reporting to internal stakeholders, including regular Executive Board reports and events; b) coordinates Director-level engagement with key internal and external leaders and stakeholders including RBAs, UN agencies and Friends’ organisations; c) supports the Director on division-wide communications and organisational development initiatives to continuously build a high performing team; d) supervises the team on initiatives and projects identified by the Director for prioritised delivery.

They will collaborate with the Head of Finance and their team to provide technical oversight of the Executive Board approved investment funds to ensure that the division delivers the returns required on this exceptional fund allocation. Their advice will directly affect WFP and how the PSPF strategy is shaped to achieve its ambitious goals by the end of 2025, and they will lead on monitoring all strategy related activities with regular rapid performance reviews and reports.

ACCOUNTABILITIES / RESPONSIBILITIES

Shape and drive growth strategy for WFP, measuring Performance and Impact Analysis for the PPF division

• Report directly to the PPF Director and lead the division’s strategy team responsible for reporting to the Executive Board on the implementation of the divisional strategy, including specifically building the capacity of the Policy Officer to take on responsibility as lead author of future reports as well as to deliver a risk register for the division by the end of 2023;
• Oversee strategy implementation and plans, including regular reviews and reprioritization with teams through the semestral review process with team leads.

Ensure excellence in advisory for planning and executing business strategies towards PPF’s 2025 goals

• Advise and support the PPF Director on the implementation of the PSPF strategy driving progress and overseeing specific projects at a senior level as requested by Director;
• Advise the PPF Director and guide the Director’s Office and Strategy Team on reporting, stakeholder engagement, culture and organisational development, and on PPF’s capacity, skills and structure to achieve the goals and targets in the PSPF strategy;
• Advise the PPF Director to ensure effective presentation and reporting of strategy progress and impact across WFP;
• Have a representative role, where required, to network with peer organisations, leaders and strategic or supplier relationships in the sector with sister organisations, including UNHCR and UNICEF.

Manage team performance and development

• Lead a high-performing team to create and implement strategic initiatives in support of the goals and priorities, across the board;
• Mentor, coach, and ensure performance in the team is sustained and continuously improved;
• Ensure ways of working and team processes optimization for high impact output, while striking a balance between agility and the need to navigate established external structures;
• Instill a culture of customer centricity and experimentation, based on data and insights.

Other

• Work with WFP’s existing global systems, policies, and processes to deliver the objectives of this role in a compliant, collaborative, and efficient way;
• Work on any other tasks as consummate with the level of experience and required to support the PPF Director.

DELIVERABLES AT THE END OF THE CONTRACT

• Successful management of strategic reviews throughout the year across the division, which includes creating plans to achieve the PPF’s goals, objectives and strategy by 2025;
• Demonstrable business results in accordance with sustainability and growth objectives, using data and insights as drivers for decision making.

QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE REQUIRED

Education	Advanced University degree in Business administration, Corporate governance, International development/relations, Political Science, Development economics, or other relevant field – or First University degree with additional years of related work experience and/or trainings.
Work history	At least 12 years progressive experience working in, with or leading international teams in resource mobilization from the private sector ideally at the national, regional and international levels.
Hard skills	Experience in advisory for planning and executing business strategies in international organisations, including UN agencies and INGOs, as a director and/or a senior level advisor to directors and leadership teams. Managing international teams and leading them through strategy development and implementation with a focus on delivering to targets. Extensive experience in advising senior leaders on oversight, allocation and reporting to deliver to the strategic objectives. Extensive and proven experience of working in an international context. Financial budgeting and reporting skills and experience overseeing budgets. Ability to build relationships with senior leaders and direct experience in advising boards, CEOs and senior leadership teams in making recommendations for new business plans and organizational change.
Soft skills	Excellent written and verbal communication skills. Strong interpersonal skills and the ability to cultivate relationships and influence senior decision-makers. Understanding and/or appreciation for working in a large, complex, hierarchical, decentralised and geographically dispersed organization. Exceptional time management and planning skills, with an ability to handle multiple projects/tasks within deadlines while maintaining a high level of attention to details and accuracy. Highly adaptable to change and comfortable dealing with ambiguity, stress, and competing demands with grace and a sense of humour. Strong interpersonal skills and ability to establish and maintain effective working relationships with people in a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic environment with sensitivity and respect for diversity and a champion of inclusion. Ability to build relationships with internal stakeholders and business partners, as well as with external partners and suppliers, and act as an effective negotiator for WFP.
Language(s)	Excellent command of spoken and written English. Intermediate knowledge of another official UN language would be a plus (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian, Spanish).

Terms and Conditions

Short-listed candidates can be subject to written assessment.

WFP offers a competitive compensation package which will be determined by role’s responsibilities and deliverables. This consultancy assignment is renewable upon funding.

Visit the website for detailed information on working with WFP: http://www.wfp.org – Click on: “Our work” and “Countries” to learn more about our operations.

Qualified female applicants and qualified applicants from developing countries are especially encouraged to apply.

WFP is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages all qualified candidates, irrespective of gender, nationality, religious and ethnic backgrounds, including persons living with disabilities, to apply to become a part of the Organisation. We will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to participate in the selection & recruitment process, and for work-related needs upon joining the Programme.

WFP has zero tolerance for discrimination and does not discriminate on the basis of HIV/AIDS status. WFP has zero tolerance for sexual exploitation and abuse, any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment, abuse of authority or discrimination. 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.

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