Emergency Preparedness & Response Information Management Officer, Regional Bureau for Western Africa

VACANCY ANNOUNCEMENT

JOB TITLE: EPR Information Management Officer, Regional Bureau for Western Africa

Contract Type: Regular Consultancy / CST

Contract duration: 6 months

Duty Station (City, Country): Dakar, Senegal or Remote working

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.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE OF THE ASSIGNMENT

The West and Central Africa region is facing multiple crisis with a number of hotspots where the deterioration is already causing significant humanitarian impact, and other where violence and fragility threatens to cause further displacements, human and livelihood losses and instability. This is against a well-known backdrop of chronic vulnerabilities, recurring shocks, state fragility and poverty, in particular in the central band of the region.

Notably, insecurity and armed attacks in the Central Sahel have reached unprecedented levels. Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger are facing a massive displacement of people due to conflicts. The number of violent incidents is spiralling and spreading quickly into new areas.

WFP continues to increase operations in the region and has launched emergency operations (L2) in Mali and CAR, North East Nigeria remains a Corporate L3 and more recently Central Sahel (September 2019) was also elevated to an L3 given the magnitude of the crisis for a more coordinated approach between the three involved countries (Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger western borders). In 2021, according to the March 2021 updated analyses, the food security situation continues to deteriorate in most of the Sahelian countries. The spread of violent conflicts in most of the Sahel belt, and the socio-economic impact of COVID-19 further aggravate the situation.

To meet these challenges, WFP Regional Bureau for West and Central Africa (RBD) has strengthened its Emergency Preparedness and Response (EPR) team with roving field level support capacity, deployable from RBD, as well as key expert positions on Humanitarian Policy, Conflict Sensitivity programming, Humanitarian-Military Interaction, and Climate Risk Financing.

With an increasing volume of activity, the need for additional capacity in knowledge and information management and analysis, as well as support in the development of policy, guidance and other related Crisis Response documents has surfaced. This consultancy core purpose therefore is to provide support to the head of EPR and the rest of the RBD EPR team members in the production and management of information analysis and products, reports writing, consolidation, and synthesis of data, etc for integrated emergency preparedness and response scale up at Regional or Country Office (CO) level.

Specifically, under supervision from the Senior Regional Emergency Adviser/Head of EPR, the EPR Information Management Officer is required to support on the following:

ACCOUNTABILITIES/RESPONSIBILITIES:

1. Coordinate relevant information and data from country offices and Regional Bureau units to feed into reports, products and analytical pieces led by the EPR team for the Regional or Global levels;
2. Ensure that standard information management and operational reporting procedures and templates are followed to drive quality, consistency and standardization within the team;
3. Produce/coordinate internal and external emergency reports and daily updates, consolidate inputs for dashboards and other information products in conjunction with the Reporting team;
4. Production of an RBD EPR newsletter on a bi-monthly or quarterly basis;
5. Coordinate with the Communications teams to monitor and feed the RBD-EPR community in Yammer, with more dynamic info video, pictures on our day-to-day activities in the region mainly from the field
6. Facilitate and maximize the exchange of information and data flow between functional areas to provide operational awareness and enable decision-making;
7. Manage emergency information and data on the Regional Bureau's online information management system (Teams) for the EPR team and the whole RB when relevant;
8. Maintain up-to-date dissemination lists and reporting flows Organize/coordinate Operational Task Force (OTF) and Strategic Task Force (STF) meetings and other relevant emergency meetings;
9. Produce notes for the record for emergency related internal meetings;
10. Support in monitoring CO compliance of the corporate Emergency Preparedness and Response Package (EPRP) and monitoring/risk analysis in the region. This will include support in producing initial drafts of Risk Outlooks / Corporate Alert System / Global Operational Response Plans under the guidance of the EPR officer in charge;
11. Support the EPR team members on their respective geographical portfolios with any knowledge and information management tasks;
12. Support the Humanitarian Policy Advisor on Protection, PSEA and AAP objectives, the Humanitarian-Military Interaction Advisor, and the Climate Risk Advisor as required;
13. Provide general support to the team and have the versatility to backstop the EPR team on other priorities as needed.

DELIVERABLES AT THE END OF THE CONTRACT

1. Enhanced quality for all EPR information products, including EPR visibility in social media with a dynamic and live community page in Yammer and more tweet on WFP EPR activities in the region
2. Improved knowledge management for the EPR team
3. Contingency Plans or CONOPS for CO supported
4. Operation Task Force (OTF) preparation for all L2/L3 supported

QUALIFICATIONS & EXPERIENCE REQUIRED

EDUCATION:

• Advanced University degree in International Affairs, Public Relations, Social Sciences, Development Studies or other related fields is desirable, or First University Degree with additional years of related work experience and/or trainings/courses.

EXPERIENCE:

• At least two (02) years or more of professional experience in the aid sector, on information management, communications or advocacy;
• Experience at country-level with a humanitarian operational organisation is an advantage;
• Experience in drafting and developing humanitarian project proposals, project reports, quality information products.

TECHNICAL KNOWLEDGE & SKILLS:

• IT Skills & Office Management Skills: Ability to effectively use standard MS Office software and information systems;
• Demonstrated skills in collaborative problem-solving, lateral thinking and systems development are an advantage;
• Experience working in the West and Central Africa region is desirable, but not mandatory;

LANGUAGE:

• Excellent French and English communications skills are imperative (written/speaking)

WHY WORK WITH US?

This position is based in the Regional Bureau for Western Africa, Dakar, Senegal. It supports 19 country offices (CO) in their programme delivery and advocate for the integration of WFP corporate priorities (People at the centre, Organizational effectiveness, Triple Nexus and Digital transformation) into national policies and programmes.

The Regional Bureau core functions are to provide strategic guidance, technical support, and operational oversight. By providing guidance and policy support to COs, the Regional Bureau ensures clear communication at management level between HQ, RB and COs, in line with the realignment of HQ-RB responsibilities, including advisory support to improve the quality of programme implementation, positioning and fundraising efforts. Significant work of the Regional Bureau is around technical support provided to COs, notably to ensure the quality of project design, to facilitate the sharing of technical resources and enhance CO’s staff capacity. WFP Regional Bureau also advocates for assessing and recommending appropriate actions to strengthen the capacities of Governments and National actors involved in achieving SDG2, foster the linkages between national academics, research entities and WFP operations. The Regional Bureau works to strengthen emergency preparedness and response capacities across the region to strategically position WFP as the leading organization responding to emergencies.

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: 24 October 2021

Working remotely is possible for this position.

Qualified female applicants are especially encouraged to apply.

WFP has zero tolerance for discrimination and does not discriminate based on race, sex, colour, ethnic group, age, sexual orientation, other affiliation, or HIV/AIDS status.

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.