Consultant - Research, Assessment and Monitoring Officer (RAM)

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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.

JOB TITLE: Programme and Policy (VAM and M&E)

TYPE OF CONTRACT: Jr CST level 3

UNIT/DIVISION: Programme

DUTY STATION (City, Country): Freetown, Sierra Leone

DURATION: 6 months with extensions

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.

ORGANIZATIONAL CONTEXT

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) 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 nutrition food they need.

Sierra Leone is a low income and food-deficit country, with a population of about 7 million. It ranked 181 out of 189 countries in the 2019 Human Development Index and the scores for men and boys (0.465) and women and girls (0.411) indicate significant gender inequality. About half of the adult population is illiterate and half of children leaving primary school are unable to read or ‎write. Women’s literacy is 44 percent compared to 56 percent among men, and the country ranks 150 out of 160 countries ‎assessed on the Gender Inequality Index. ‎

A large majority (78 percent) of Sierra Leone’s population is food insecure. One in five households (20 percent) are severely food insecure.The combined impact of Covid-19 pandemic and the Russia – Ukraine war on Sierra Leonean economy are a huge burden on households as their expenditures increase due to high inflation rates and rapid depreciation of the local currency’s foreign exchange value after the volatility experienced in the global markets.

The World Bank also reported Sierra Leone being among the ten countries in the world with the highest Food inflation. Food inflation reached 50 percent with only Ghana being worse in West Africa with 59 percent.

WFP’s engagement in Sierra Leone is to support national efforts to end hunger (Sustainable Development Goal 2) and strengthen partnerships for sustainable development (Sustainable Development Goal 17) are channelled through a number of programmes, such as School feeding, Resilience building, Nutrition prevention and Emergency support.

WFP’s ability to achieve its Strategic Objectives depends on its capacity to deliver food assistance that addresses the different needs and priorities of the women, men, girls and boys whom it serves. A world with zero hunger can be achieved only when everyone has equal opportunities, equal access to resources, and equal voice in the decisions that shape their households, communities and societies.

WFP Sierra Leone is committed to achieving enhanced management effectiveness, operational oversight, and strategic coherence.

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES (not all-inclusive)

1. Lead the development of VAM/M&E projects and activities, plans and processes, ensuring alignment with wider WFP policies and guidance.

2. Support and ensure that developed systems and tools for the monitoring and assessment of food assistance needs are implemented and in line with innovative methodologies and best practice.

3. Lead food security and vulnerability analysis and the preparation of timely reports on food assessment needs in line with wider VAM/M&E policies, processes and guidance to enable effective decision-making on the development of country strategy, policies and programmes.

4. Provide assistance on the coordination of data gathering and monitoring systems ensuring that rigorous quality standards are maintained.

5. Focal point for Evaluations

6. Liaise with implementing partners (internal and external) to monitor ongoing projects, ensuring effective collaboration, timeliness and efficiency and highlight potential risks to project delivery.

7. Support the capacity building of WFP staff, partners and national government to conduct vulnerability analysis to effectively inform preparedness and response activities.

8. Provide support to relevant partners that are focusing on food security and nutrition issues to enable sharing of experience, lessons learned and best practice.

9. Guide and supervise more junior staff, acting as a point of referral and supporting them with analysis and queries.

10. Act in an assigned emergency response capacity as required to meet emergency food assistance needs.

11. Participate in National Food Security Working Groups and other technical Forums in line with corporate VAM/M&E responsibilities.

STANDARD MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS

Education:

Advanced University degree in International Affairs, Economics, Nutrition/Health, Agriculture, Statistics, Environmental Science, Social Sciences or other field relevant to international development assistance, or First University Degree with additional years of related work experience and/or trainings/courses.

Experience:

Minimum five years of relevant professional work experience in international development or humanitarian work. Minimum of three years of experience in managing food security monitoring/vulnerability analysis and/or complex monitoring and evaluation activities spanning a range of policies and programme initiatives.

Strong knowledge of analytical tools, GIS knowledge is desirable.

Experience in managing diverse teams of technical staff.

Languages:

Fluency (Level C) in both written and spoken English.

TERMS AND CONDITIONS

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

22 June 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.