Data and Monitoring Consultant

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, color, 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.

Job Title: Data and Monitoring Consultant

Type of Contract: Regular Consultant

Division: Research, Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning Unit – School-based Programmes

Duty Station (City, Country): Rome HQ, Italy

Duration: 11 months

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE OF THE ASSIGNMENT:

The World Food Programme (WFP) is the leading organization fighting hunger worldwide, working with communities to improve nutrition, build resilience and address the growing challenges posed by climate change and rising inequality.

For more than 50 years, WFP has been the leading organization in supporting countries with their school feeding programmes, which are widely prevalent throughout the world. Almost every country in the world has a national school feeding programme, making it the most widespread safety net. The interventions reach an estimated 368 million children and adolescents globally. Of these, WFP supports about 16 million children annually and also provides technical assistance to governments ensuring the sustainability and effectiveness of government investments.

To strengthen its global support for school feeding, WFP has established a new School-Based Programmes Service (SBP) within the Programme and Policy Development Department at its Headquarters in Rome. The School-Based Programmes Service will support WFP’s engagement in school feeding across four workstreams identified in WFP’s new School Feeding Strategy 2020-2030:

1. Generating and sharing knowledge and best practices globally

2. Increasing the investment in school feeding

3. Acting in partnership to improve and advocate for school health and nutrition

4. Strengthening programmatic approaches in key areas

Purpose of the assignment

This consultancy is related to workstream 1 of the Strategy, described above: “generating and sharing knowledge and best practices globally”. As the leading international agency supporting school feeding, WFP has the responsibility to house and make available global knowledge so that countries can use that information to improve programmes and provide adequate support to vulnerable children. WFP will work with partners to

establish a research and evidence agenda for school feeding for the next ten years, based on a mapping of learning needs, to ensure that global gaps in the knowledge base are being filled and that research and action on child health and development evolve from a narrow emphasis on the first 1,000 days to holistic concern over the first 8,000 days; from an age-siloed approach to an approach that embraces the needs across the life cycle.

The Data and Monitoring consultant will support the Data and Monitoring Initiative, the fourth initiative under the Global School Meals Coalition, with its overall goal, to ensure every child has the opportunity to receive a healthy, nutritious meal in school by 2030. The Data and Monitoring initiative was created to improve the availability of quality data on national school meal programmes worldwide and institutionalizing current efforts. Better data on school meals and complimentary activities will serve as a measure of progress of the School Meals Coalition while enabling stakeholders to share and exchange information, identify knowledge gaps for research, identify best practices, guide policies, and improve the quality and cost-effectiveness of the programmes.

The Data and Monitoring consultant will serve as a member of a three-person Data and Monitoring secretariat (also includes Supervisor, and Research, and Data Officer).

The Data and Monitoring Initiative has three workstreams:

1) establish agreed core set of indicators, with clear methodologies to calculate and report on them, so that governments will improve consistency and comparability of data;

2) establish agreed set of reporting processes that helps governments to systematically capture and report high-quality data and avoid duplication of demands. Establish a robust dissemination and communication strategy to allow practitioners to fully utilize/apply the information; and

3) create a database on school meals and complimentary activities, as a global public good, that systematically, collects, stores, curates and and makes accessible, timely national data on school meals, and school health and nutrition programmes.

As Data and Monitoring consultant in the school-based programmes team you will gain experience in the humanitarian and development sector by working and contributing to a multidisciplinary team. You will support improving evidence for school-based programmes and support the roll out of the school feeding strategy.

Through your "hands on" and "make it happen" attitude and by sharing your own thoughts and ideas with the team, you will contribute significantly to advancing school feeding programmes worldwide and ensuring that every child has the opportunity to reach their full potential and thrive.

ACCOUNTABITLITIES / RESPONSIBILITIES:

You will work under the direct supervision of the Head of Research, Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning Unit in the School Based Programme Division.

• Support the work of the Data and Monitoring Initiative and its three workstreams: indicators, process and database. Ensure that work is progressing on these three fronts in a timely way, draft and prepare the inputs for these three workstreams, organize meetings with the right stakeholders for their input and ensure that the discussions on indicators and process are evidence-based and technically sound.
• In collaboration with stakeholders and partners, ensure that the global database is the trusted source of internationally comparable data on school health, nutrition and school feeding globally.
• Lead the coordination, design, development and roll-out of a platform (The Global Database on School Health and Nutrition) that electronically and systematically, collects, stores, curates and makes open and accessible in-time national school health and school feeding data globally.
• As member of a Data and Monitoring secretariat, this role will coordinate an Analytics and Metrics Community of Practice (advisory group of academic and research partners) and a Survey and Data Platform working group (includes WFP IT, and the Research Consortium).
• Support the mapping of existing data and establishing the criteria, standards, methodology and processes for collection, validating and reporting of school health and nutrition data globally.
• Serve as product manager to WFP Information Technology team in the creation of business requirements for the Global database, includes review and coordination of specifications, project management, testing and roll-out.
• Using data collected through this global knowledge facility, lead the development of new analytics and reporting on school feeding programmes globally, including the scale, coverage, need, investment level, and policy frameworks.
• Provide and ensure quality control to the global database (back and front end) and provide guidance on the tool.
• Offer helpdesk support to the field, including one-on-one support to WFP regional bureaus and country offices as needed
• In coordination with head of unit/supervisor, draft talking points and briefing notes to support senior management.
• Support development of materials for capacity building: Workshops, including Thought Leadership events, learning and training sessions, and online training packages.
• Other duties as required.

DELIVERABLES QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE REQUIRED:

(Please refer to previous section.)

QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE REQUIRED:

Education:

Master’s degree in public health, statistics, economics, business administration, business analytics, international affairs, social or behavioral sciences, or other relevant fields.

Strong quantitative, research and publication background with advanced skills in data processing and analysis, and survey programming

Experience:

Minimum 3 years of relevant professional experience

Knowledge and Skills:

Proven writing, analytical and communication skills (written and oral); excellent writer and able to draft high-quality documents in English quickly.

Ability to work independently, with minimal supervision and has initiative to propose or initiate activities to the benefit of the team and of WFP

Proven analytical and writing skills

Experience working with large data sets and summarizing data for technical and non-technical audiences.

Proficiency with Excel, Word and PowerPoint

Exposure to WFP systems and excellent information technology skills (Microsoft Office Package, SharePoint, Teams

Strong attention to details

Good interpersonal skills and ability to work in multicultural settings.

Languages:

Fluency (level C) in English language.

Intermediate knowledge (level B) of a second official UN language: Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian, Spanish, and/or Portuguese

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: 20 October 2023

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.