Programme Policy Officer – Anticipatory Action

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE OF THE ASSIGNMENT:

Burundi is one of the poorest countries in the world. It is a landlocked, low-income, and a food-deficit country with the political situation being one of the main causes of humanitarian concerns, compounded by chronic malnutrition and food insecurity on top of recurring natural disasters, which keep increasing in intensity, causing further vulnerability of rural and urban populations. Despite the recurrence of disasters, extremely limited disaster preparedness capacity in Burundi impedes proper mitigation and prevention of crises. There is no adequate early warning system, given key capacity gaps in the production of alerts (both in terms of surveillance and risk analysis) as well as in making use of risk assessments and consequently in disseminating alerts. In this context, several recent DRR initiatives are taking place, notably WFP’s initiative to establish an anticipatory system based on forecast.

FbF is an innovative approach that enables the implementation of anticipatory actions to prevent and mitigate, to the extent possible, the impact of extreme weather events on the food security and nutrition of the most vulnerable populations. Piloted in 2015 together with the German Red Cross, WFP’s FbF portfolio in eastern and central Africa now includes 8 countries with more countries in the regions of Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, where, together with national and local government partners, WFP is implementing projects to link early warning systems with anticipatory actions embedded in national disaster risk management and pre-allocated finance for critical natural hazards such as droughts, floods and cyclones. In the African region, WFP’s FbF approach is focused on droughts, as the slow onset hazard allow for WFP interventions across a continuum of early warning, early action, recovery and resilience, which can benefit agriculture, livelihoods and food security in the short, medium and long term. With the nunber of flood events increasing in recent times due to climate change, WFP is also supporting establishment of FbF systems for floods in eastern and central Africa.

In Burundi, the first phase of the FbF project in 2020 was a pilot focusing on floods as a basis to establish the anticipatory action system, with a strong capacity strengthening component towards communities and local first responder the Burundi Red Cross (BRC). Over 2021 and 2022, in addition to consolidating this work, WFP has explored anticipatory action for water deficits/droughts, facilitated the setup of the FbF steering committee, and provided support to the national hydrometeorological institute IGEBU so that they can produce forecasts that better inform anticipatory action.
In the next phase of the project (2023-2024), WFP is aiming at further scaling up its support by widening the approach and reinforcing capacity of communities, the BRC and national actors for anticipatory action and preparedness.
WFP is seeking an expert with specialized skills in climate-risk information and experience in FbF and anticipatory actions, early warning systems, and disaster preparedness to support WFP's project entitled ‘’Strengthening preparedness and anticipatory action capacity of communities, the BRC and national actors’’.
Based in WFPs’ Bujumbura office, the expert will provide technical support as well as liaise with government and partner agencies to implement and strengthen coordination efforts for the anticipatory approach.

ACCOUNTABILITIES/RESPONSIBILITIES:

Under the supervision of the Capacity Strengthening Project Manager and together with the FbF Programme Associate, the focus of this role will be to ensure that the FbF portfolio is implemented according to project timelines and technical requirements, is integrated across other DRR and resilience initiatives and is conducted in coordination with partners and government agencies as needed. The Programme Officer will be working on various workstreams within the project, such as 1) operationalizing the exploratory work realized on anticipatory action for water deficits/droughts in coordination with partners, including through the development of triggers and SOPs and the identification of anticipatory actions.
She/he will also 2) support the reinforcement of the national hydrometeorological technical capacities, and 3) support the Capacity Strengthening Project Manager in reinforcing early warning systems and work towards the institutional integration of FbF. She/he will also 4) provide technical advice and support on the other project workstreams such as capacity strengthening of the Red Cross partners, report writing, ensure that project deliverables are met on time and according to the budget.

1) Operationalizing anticipatory action for water deficits/droughts in coordination with partners :

• Together with technical, operational and government partners, facilitate the development of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for water

deficits/droughts, which would include thresholds, forecast triggers, timeline, stakeholders, anticipatory actions and costs
• Coordinate with other risk management initiatives, climate change adaptation and resilience interventions, including, but not limited to FAO, UNDP, UNDRR,

IFRC, World Bank, IOM and Government initiatives
• Organize and attend relevant technical and national meetings/forums
• Coordinate with M&E, VAM and programme teams in the WFP CO as relevant

2) Reinforce the national hydrometeorological technical capacities:

• Together with technical experts, strengthen the capacity of the national hydro-met services IGEBU to issue forecast bulletin for floods and droughts and to

independently run the relevant forecast dissemination platform
• Support the improvement of the existing IGEBU’s forecast dissemination platform, including effective linking to both floods and droughts FbF forecast

requirements
• Develop agreements with technical partners to support capacity strengthening

ACCOUNTABILITIES/RESPONSIBILITIES (SUITE):

3) Together with the Capacity Strengthening Project Manager, support the institutional integration of FbF and capacity strengthening of early warning

systems:

• As part of the UNDRR GFFO project, convene key stakeholders to facilitate discussions on selected topics around early warning and anticipatory actions;

review multi-hazards tools developed.
• Work with the National Platform for DRM to improve various components of the national early warning system to support implementation of anticipatory

action
• Support the revision of the roadmap for integration of FbF for climate risk management into national and WFP institutional frameworks and working towards

the adoption of the SOPs
• Work with the FbF steering committee and the National Platform towards the adoption of the BRC SOPs for floods at the national level

4) Provide technical advice and support on the other project workstreams, which might include:

• Capacity strengthening of the BRC and the Finnish Red Cross on FbF/AA
• Support the design and implementation of assistance to at-risk people in liaison with resilience WFP activities
• Provide support in report writing and inputs in project proposals
• As relevant and needed, support to communications and advocacy, presentations and knowledge sharing

DELIVERABLES AT THE END OF THE CONTRACT:

• SOPs for drought/water deficits anticipatory action (at least internal to WFP and draft national) which include thresholds, forecast triggers, timeline,

stakeholders, anticipatory actions and costs.
• BRC SOPs for floods adopted at the national level
• Strengthened capacities of IGEBU to produce useful information for anticipatory action for floods and drought/water deficits
• Technical improvement of forecast dissemination platform for anticipatory action for floods and drought/water deficits
• Relevant agreements in place with technical partners
• Relevant workshops organized
• Inputs into project reports and communications
• Validated work plans and budget expenditure at field level for the project duration

QUALIFICATIONS & EXPERIENCE REQUIRED:

Education: University degree in climate adaptation, meteorology, hydrology, environmental science or other science related field.

Experience: At least seven years of work experience focusing on disaster risk reduction and mitigation, early warning systems, seasonal and crop

forecasting, including specific experience with Burundi and/or regional early warning systems. Experience in WFP climate-related programmes

is an added advantage.
Knowledge & Skills: • Knowledge and experience with FbF is a strong asset;
• Ability to work independently in a timely and organized manner;
• Excellent oral and written communication skills;
• Willingness to explore and experiment with new ideas and approaches in own work;
• Ability to work in a team and establish effective working relationships with persons of different national and cultural backgrounds and multi-task as needed.

Languages: • Fluent in French and English including strong writing skills

TERMS OF CONDITIONS:

DEADLINE FOR APPLICATION:

Apply For Job