Programme & Policy Officer – CBT Assurance and Beneficiary Data Management (CST 1)

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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.

BACKGROUND:

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is the frontline UN agency in the fight against hunger. Since its creation in 1963, WFP staff around the world have worked tirelessly to eradicate hunger. Each year, WFP feeds more than 90 million people in over 70 countries. Recently, WFP has been diversifying its portfolio along the humanitarian and development spectrum with preparedness and immediate response emergency operations; recovery and resilience activities, including the implementation of capacity strengthening for social safety nets, school meals, nutrition- sensitive activities as well as progressive local purchases; and the provision of emergency logistics, telecommunications and aviation services.

Haiti’s Human Development Index (HDI) ranks 170 out of 189 countries in 2020. Rates of extreme poverty are high and their cause is multidimensional. This poverty is manifested in particular by high illiteracy rates, a life expectancy of 63.7 years in 2018, high infant mortality and significant gender inequalities. A large majority of the population does not have access to basic services such as drinking water, electricity, sanitation and health coverage.

In addition, Haiti is vulnerable to natural disasters. It is considered the fifth most exposed country to natural disasters. The country has suffered, in less than ten years, more than four major disasters from which the country is still struggling to recover: the earthquake of 2010, tropical storm Isaac and hurricane Sandy in 2012, hurricane Matthew in 2016, hurricane Irma and Maria in 2017 and the earthquake of 2021. The country is therefore exposed to earthquakes, the passage of cyclones and also to drought waves linked to the El Nino phenomenon (2018).

Beyond these factors, food insecurity is driven by the poor performance of the agricultural sector combined with the strong dependence on imports of food products (more than half of the food products present on the market) in particular for rice (83%). Product prices are largely influenced by logistical challenges, high production costs, precarious market structures and high inflation rates in recent years.

According to the latest IPC analysis (September 2022 – February 2023) published in October 2022, approximately one in two households in Haiti is acutely food insecure, with more than 1.7 million people in the emergency phase (IPC4). This is an increase of about 500,000 people in IPC4 compared to the previous analysis. Similarly, 19,000 people are in IPC Phase 5 (Disaster), which is a first for Haiti, and for the Americas since the IPC began.

These worrying results are largely linked to [1] the political crisis that has taken hold in the country since July 2018 which has led it into an economic and social crisis, [2] to an agro-climatic crisis with significant pockets of drought in the country causing a significant decrease in agricultural production. In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic has contributed to the increase in food insecurity. The growing insecurity and the blocking of certain access points to the country, in particular since June 2021 the road leading to the Great South, have worsened the indicators of food insecurity.

In Autumn 2022 the Country further endured 2 months of heavy socio-economic turmoil and blockade of most imported goods, but especially fuel, leading to a de-facto paralysis of the entire Country with continued and protracted consequences on inflation, fuel and food availability until today.

PURPOSE OF THE ASSIGNMENT:

The World Food Programme in Haiti has defined its strategy to fight hunger in the Country Strategic Plan (CSP 2019-2023), which includes activities related to emergency food assistance to populations affected by a shock, the establishment of social nets oriented towards nutrition, capacity building and livelihoods of small producers and their resilience to climate change, and capacity building of national and local actors for the fight against hunger. A new CSP exercise has been taking place to determine the 2024-2028 plan and since the Autumn events, WFP Haiti CO has declared L3 corporative scale-up and keeps growing its targets and operations.

For the time being, the WFP Haiti office uses the SCOPE corporate platform for beneficiary data management and cash transfer processes (registration, allocation of funds, reconciliation). Although the current focus is on cash transfers, SCOPE is designed and developed to support all of WFP's transfer modalities: in-kind, vouchers and cash for various project activities. As an extension of SCOPE and over the next few years, WFP also plans to develop a wide range of digital assistance services beyond those related to the current SCOPE capabilities. The WFP Haiti country office intends to participate in this effort to diversify digital solutions beyond SCOPE to support humanitarian and social protection programming and, where appropriate, partners and governments.

Regarding cash transfer mechanisms, the WFP office in Haiti carries out most of its CBT interventions (conditional and unconditional assistance) through cash in envelopes on site, but also has other mechanisms such as cash at the counter, E-money and in the past also paper voucher (value vouchers). These cash transfers are carried out through four financial partners (the country office is seeking diversity of solutions looking for additional FSPs’, especially for E-money). WFP's objective is to increase the volume of cash transfers in E-money, particularly for the new social safety nets set up by the Government of Haiti with WFP support.

Thus, the multiplication of emergency, resilience and new social safety net operations leads to an additional need for human resources, particularly to perfect and diversify CBT mechanisms and to support with digitizing cash transfers. WFP requires a CBT Assurance and Beneficiary Data Management Officer in Port-au-Prince to support WFP's operations in Haiti in all intervention mechanisms, including conditional and unconditional assistance

ACCOUNTABILITIES/RESPONSIBILITIES:

Reporting to the Head of CBT Operations sub-unit, and will be responsible for:

1. Support the Head of CBT Operations with implementing good management practices of the CBT Operations team, focusing on cash assurance and beneficiary data management.

2. Provide advice and implement protocols and procedures to support the Country Office with reaching the cash assurance standards as per the cash assurance framework and be responsible that the standards are met and monitored throughout the whole CBT delivery cycle realized by wide cross-functional team (e.g., Programme, M&E, Finance, Security, TEC, etc.).

3. Provide support to the Head of CBT Operations with coordination of the cross-functional activities and workflows, and communications with external partners. The support may include, but is not limited to distribution planning, reconciliation of the transfers, invoicing, and payments to the service providers.

4. Ensure that the information exchange between the WFP and external partners is shared using secure data exchange protocols and the data is stored and managed according to the corporate standards.

5. Ensure that the identity data that the WFP uses to deliver the assistance to affected population is collected, stored, and managed in secure way; additionally, ensure that the data meets the quality standards, is complete, and that identities are unique and periodically verified.

6. Ensure that the reconciliation of the cash transfers is done in a timely manner, be responsible for producing the reconciliation reports and, if applicable, implement follow up actions to ensure that the right people received the right assistance.

7. Support the Head of CBT operations with preparation of the reports for internal and external audiences by consolidating business requirements and producing the reports in selected tools.

8. Provide support with digitization of the processes linked to the CBT operations in line with the digitalization strategy adopted by the Country Office. 9. Any other tasks in the interest of WFP Haiti mandate and as requested by the supervisor;

DELIVERABLES AT THE END OF THE CONTRACT:

1/ In collaboration with cross-functional team (Finance, TEC, Security, M&E, etc.) ensure the development of reports or tools to support monthly planning and monitoring of the cash delivery throughout the complete delivery cycle, which includes but is not limited to enrolment and distribution tracking, reconciliation of the transfers, and anomaly detection.

2/ Custom reports for targeted internal or external audiences developed and available.

3/Procedures in place to meet the cash-assurance standards as per the cash-assurance framework, and tools or reports to monitor progress and compliance throughout the delivery cycle are in place and used across the functions.

4/ Secure data exchange protocols between the WFP and external partners are in place and all data is stored in a secure place, with special attention to personal data.

5/ Procedures and tools developed to ensure that operational data points are processed timely and consistently in an auditable manner.

6/ Business requirements consolidated, and reporting modules or tool are put in place to support and monitor different workflows of the CBT operations, including but not limited to enrolment and distribution tracking, reconciliation of the transfers, anomaly detection, high-level reporting for management and external partners.

7/ Any other tasks as per the operational needs.

WFP LEADERSHIP FRAMEWORK: COMMON STANDARDS OF BEHAVIOUR:

DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS

Closing Date: 19 April 2023

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WFP has a zero-tolerance approach to conduct such as fraud, sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to WFP’s standards of conduct and will therefore undergo rigorous background verification internally or through third parties. Selected candidates will also be required to provide additional information as part of the verification exercise. Misrepresentation of information provided during the recruitment process may lead to disqualification or termination of employment

WFP will not request payment at any stage of the recruitment process including at the offer stage. Any requests for payment should be refused and reported to local law enforcement authorities for appropriate action.

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