Consultant - Programme (Social Protection and Emergency School Feeding), RBD

Programme & Policy

Overview

Provide support in linking school feeding and shock responsive social protection.

You have:

• Advanced University degree in fields relevant to social protection.
• At least 6 years of professional experience in social protection policy and programming.
• Familiarity with shock responsive social protection concepts.
• Familiarity with school feeding and emergency school feeding programmes is desirable.
• Proficiency (level B) of French and English is required.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Ability to produce high-quality written outputs and present effectively in English.
• Ability to work independently and as part of a team.

JOB TITLE: Consultant - Programme (Social Protection and Emergency School Feeding), Regional Bureau for Western Africa

Unit/Division: PSU / RBD Dakar

Contract Type: International Consultancy

Contract duration: 3 months with possibility of extension

Duty Station (City, Country): Dakar, Senegal (with travel within the region)

ABOUT WFP

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate. We are the world’s largest humanitarian organization, saving lives in emergencies and using food assistance to build a pathway to peace, stability and prosperity for people recovering from conflict, disasters, and the impact of climate change.

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, physical or mental disability.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE OF THE ASSIGNMENT

Social protection is an increasingly popular strategy for governments to reduce extreme poverty, hunger, and inequality. Virtually every country in the world has at least one social protection scheme in place, and in many cases, it is a school feeding programme, and 2.5 million people are already covered by some type of social protection programme.

As a global leader in fighting hunger and malnutrition worldwide, often in very difficult contexts, the World Food Programme (WFP) is increasingly called upon by governments to help implement or strengthen their social protection systems. Helping governments to scale up and enhance social protection is a key pathway towards a zero-hunger world. WFP works with governments and partners to ensure that by 2030 people will have substantially increased access to national social protection systems that safeguard and foster their ability to meet their food security, nutrition and associated essential needs, and to manage the risks and shocks they face.

In this context school feeding programmes have a particular importance as one of the largest/most common type of social assistance programme.

WFP advocates for the universal adoption of school feeding programmes as a safety net that contributes to the development of human capital by increasing children’s access to education and learning opportunities and strengthening their health and nutrition status. To achieve universal education, WFP recognizes the importance of working through national systems whenever possible, helping countries to establish and maintain high quality nationally owned programmes. In countries still requiring WFP’s operational support, it seeks implements high quality school feeding programmes with clear handover strategies.

COVID-19 saw social protection systems expanding dramatically to try to offset part of the socio-economic impacts of the pandemic. This showed how often unprepared social protection systems were to scale up in the face of a shock. With school closures, school feeding programmes also had to be adapted and scaled, to provide much needed support to school children and their families. Despite this, while the role of social protection in response to shocks is more and more conceptualized and developed, school feeding is not traditionally considered when looking at shock responsive social protection. Better understanding how school feeding programmes can be prepared and used to respond to shocks should be an integral part of our work in strengthening shock responsive systems.

REGIONAL CONTEXT

RBD provides strategic guidance, policy/technical support and direction to WFP operations and activities in 19 countries. School feeding has grown fast in the region in the past decade and all countries are implementing school feeding programmes. Most country offices have also already started to feature support to national social protection systems in their strategies, programmes and initiatives, and there are good examples of such engagements conducted in very different contexts and settings.

One key area of engagement in the region is around the support to shock responsive social protection systems. Given WFP’s longstanding engagement with school feeding programmes, the importance emergency school feeding programmes have had in response to covid and the relative lack of representation of school feeding programmes in shock responsive social protection frameworks, RBD is strengthening its capacity and strategic engagement in the intersection of these areas, bringing together, and leveraging WFP’s expertise and experience.

JOB PURPOSE

To deliver against the above, the Regional Bureau is seeking a Consultant – Programme (Social Protection and emergency school feeding) (CST) to provide support to the conceptualisation of the linkages between school feeding and shock responsive social protection, and support country offices in that regard.

You will operate under the direct supervision of the Regional Social Protection Advisor, in close coordination with the Regional School Feeding Advisor, under the overall guidance of the Senior Regional Programme Advisor.

You will be responsible for carrying out the following tasks and responsibilities:

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES

1. Conduct a desk review to conceptualize the linkages between social protection and emergency school feeding in the context of shock responsive social protection.
2. Engage with CO to identify existing experiences in the region and draw lessons, in particular from the COVID-19 response
3. Identify opportunities to further engage with CO on this topic, as well as funding opportunities
4. Provide technical support to CO to position this topic in the social protection space
5. Develop a position paper on emergency school feeding as a shock responsive social protection tool
6. Other as required.

QUALIFICATIONS & EXPERIENCE REQUIRED

EDUCATION:

• Advanced University degree in Public Policy, Public Administration, International Development, International Relations, Sociology, or other fields relevant to social protection.

EXPERIENCE:

• At least 6 years of professional experience in social protection policy and programming, directly supporting governments implementing and strengthening national social protection systems, preferably contributing to food security and/or nutrition objectives.
• Has deepened technical knowledge pertinent to social protection, at policy and programmatic level.
• Is familiar with shock responsive social protection concepts and operationalization.
• Familiarity with school feeding and emergency school feeding programmes is desirable.

TECHNICAL KNOWLEDGE & SKILLS:

• Knowledge of current thinking and developments in the field of social protection and public policy, in particular shock responsive social protection;
• Understanding of Agenda 2030 and respective targets – particularly SDG1, SDG2 and SDG17 - and how the work of WFP can contribute to achieving them;
• Understanding of WFP’s mandate;
• Knowledge of current thinking and developments in country capacity strengthening and effective knowledge transfer models, concepts and principles;
• Knowledge of key national and regional contexts and issues in the West and Central Africa region;
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills;
• Demonstrated ability to produce high-quality written outputs and ability to present in English and the working language.
• Appetite for exploring and experimenting with new ideas and approaches.
• Ability to work independently in a timely and organised manner;
• Ability to work as part of a team, participating in open dialogues and valuing diverse opinions of others, regardless of gender, culture, background, experience, or country assignment.
• Proficient computer literacy.

LANGUAGE:

• Proficiency (level B) of French and English is required.

WHY WORK WITH US?

This is an opportunity for an exciting and challenging position in a multi-cultural and interdisciplinary team, based in a unique location, on a topic with high relevance. In addition, we offer:

➡️Meaningful and impactful careers:

Our day-to-day work makes a difference in the lives of the people we serve

➡️Continuous learning and training:

We provide learning tools for our staff to continually develop their careers

➡️Multicultural and stimulating work environment:

We encourage gender and cultural diversity to make our teams stronger

Join us to make a difference, watch this video to know more about us!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnaxfnNKdsM&t=7s

DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS: 16 JANUARY 2022

All employment decisions are made on the basis of organizational needs, job requirements, merit, and individual qualifications. WFP is committed to providing an inclusive work environment free of sexual exploitation and abuse, all forms of discrimination, any kind of harassment, sexual harassment, and abuse of authority. Therefore, 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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Potential interview questions

Added 4 years ago - Updated 1 year ago - Source: wfp.org