Programme Policy Officer NOA
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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, colour, 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 end global hunger. 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, access and consume diverse nutritious food to avert double burdens of malnutrition.
In Sierra Leone, WFP in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security (MAFS) is supporting 8,000 smallholder farmers to cultivate Inland Valley Swamps throughout the year with rice and nutritious vegetables. WFP and MAFS provide farmers with training in improved agronomic practices and inputs to boost productivity and increase post-harvest management skills and provide equipment to reduce post-harvest losses and improve quality. WFP also link smallholder farmers to market, through Home-Grown School Feeding and by connecting groups to private sector buyers.
STANDARD MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS
Education: Advanced University degree in Agriculture, Development Studies, Economics, Environmental Science, Social Sciences, or other field relevant to international development assistance, or First University Degree with additional years of related work experience.
Experience: At least three years of progressively responsible experience in programme related functions of which significant experience (2 or more years) must be related to resilience building, agricultural value chains, post-harvest management, market linkages for smallholder farmers to achieve food security and/or nutrition objectives.
- Experience in developing, establishing, strengthening, and maintaining relationships with a variety of stakeholders including the MAFS, NGOs, ABCs and farmers in Sierra Leone.
- Experience in marketing and branding.
Language: Fluency in both oral and written communication in English and the local language in Sierra Leone.
ORGANIZATIONAL CONTEXT
After completing a successful Home-Grown School Feeding pilot project, WFP is in the process of scaling up this approach to more of the 1,000 primary schools that it supports. This process will create more market opportunities for smallholder farmers who will supply commodities for daily meals. To build WFP’s organizational capacity to deliver, the Food Systems team is recruiting a Programme Policy Officer to strengthen implementation of the Post-harvest Management and Market Linkage component. The transformational potential of HGSF on Sierra Leone’s food production system will be leveraged to empower women and youth farmers and to improve food and nutrition security.
JOB PURPOSE
Under the direct supervision of the Food Systems Activity Manager, the role will provide oversight to all post-harvest management and market linkage activities targeting smallholder farmers:
KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES (not all-inclusive)
- Support capacity strengthening of assisted Farmer Based Organisations (FBOs) and Agricultural Business Centres (ABCs) in post-harvest management, through trainings, timely technical backstopping and provision of equipment and infrastructure.
- Support timely aggregation, processing and purchase of locally produced rice, Orange Fleshed Sweet Potato, pulses, red palm oil and vegetables from assisted smallholder farmers, ensuring adherence to national Food Safety, Quality and Hygiene (FSQH) regulations.
- Strengthen partnership with Sierra Leone Standards Bureau to conduct Quality and Quantity inspection services.
- Conduct assessment of aggregators including ABCs and aggregating farmer groups to identify capacity strengthening needs to enhance the quality of food commodities.
- Support the joint rehabilitation of ABCs, community stores and drying floors to enhance post-harvest management.
- Support field staff to strengthening strategic partnerships with key agricultural actors including MAFS, ABCs, other NGOs, private sector and FBOs.
- Support the design and implementation of trainings in post-harvest management and marketing for WFP, MAFS, FBOs and Cooperating Partners
- Support documentation of lessons learned and best practices emanating from the post-harvest management and market linkage activities.
- Perform any other duties as assigned by the supervisor and the Head of Programme.
4Ps CORE ORGANISATIONAL CAPABILITIES
Purpose
- Understand and communicate the Strategic Objectives: Understands WFP’s Strategic Objectives and the link to own work objectives.
- Be a force for positive change: Flexibly adapts individual contributions to accommodate changes in direction from supervisors and internal/external changes (such as evolving needs of beneficiaries, new requirements of partners).
- Make the mission inspiring to our team: Recognizes and shares with team members the ways in which individual contributions relate to WFP’s mission.
- Make our mission visible in everyday actions: Sets own goals in alignment with WFP’s overall operations, and is able to communicate this link to others.
People
- Look for ways to strengthen people's skills: Assesses own strengths and weaknesses to increase self-awareness, and includes these in conversations on own developmental needs.
- Create an inclusive culture: Participates in open dialogue, and values the diverse opinion of others, regardless of background, culture, experience, or country assignment.
- Be a coach & provide constructive feedback: Proactively seeks feedback and coaching to build confidence, and develop and improve individual skills.
- Create an “I will”/”We will” spirit: Participates in accomplishing team activities and goals in the face of challenging circumstances.
Performance
- Encourage innovation & creative solutions: Shows willingness to explore and experiment with new ideas and approaches in own work.
- Focus on getting results: Consistently delivers results within individual scope of work on time, on budget and without errors.
- Make commitments and make good on commitments: Commits to upholding individual accountabilities and responsibilities in the face of ever-changing country or functional priorities.
- Be Decisive: Makes rational decisions about individual activities when faced with uncertain circumstances, including in times of ambiguity regarding information or manager direction.
Partnership
- Connect and share across WFP units: Seeks to understand and adapt to internal or cross-unit teams’ priorities and preferred working styles.
- Build strong external partnerships: Demonstrates ability to understand and appropriately respond to and/or escalate needs of external partners.
- Be politically agile & adaptable: Portrays an informed and professional demeanor toward internal and external partners and stakeholders.
- Be clear about the value WFP brings to partnerships: Provides operational support on analyses and assessments that quantifies and demonstrates WFP’s unique value as a partner.
FUNCTIONAL CAPABILITIES
| Capability Name | Description of the behaviour expected for the proficiency level |
| Programme Lifecycle & Food Assistance | Demonstrates ability to identify key variables and contextual factors that affect food assistance problems and programmes throughout the lifecycle to inform quality programme design or re-design. |
| Transfer Modalities (Food, Cash, Voucher) | Demonstrates ability to analyse and consolidate quantitative and qualitative information from different sources (e.g., market studies) to inform transfer modality selection and programme development. |
| Broad Knowledge of Specialized areas (i.e. Nutrition, VAM, etc.) | Demonstrates the ability to interpret basic data in the context of WFP specialised fields to contribute to technical programme design, implementation and monitoring. |
| Emergency Programming | Displays capacity to provide inputs into the development, implementation and realignment of high quality emergency programmes. |
| Strategic Policy Engagement w/ Government | Develops thorough recommendations using multiple inputs (e.g., government counsel, research, own experience) to strengthen national or subnational entities and government owned food and nutrition security programmes. |
DESIRED EXPERIENCES FOR ENTRY INTO THE ROLE
• Has gained experience in implementing technical programs.
• Has implemented programmes and provided input into designing operations.
• Has provided input into policy discussions and decisions.
TERMS AND CONDITIONS
Position open to Sierra Leone Nationals only
Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.
Female Candidates are strongly encouraged to apply
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
8th August 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.
