Head of Programme CST I, Wau FO

Programme & Policy

Overview

Lead programme activities and manage teams to deliver effective food assistance.

You have:

• Advanced University Degree in International Affairs, Economics, Nutrition/Health, Agriculture, Environmental Science, Social Sciences or other field relevant to international humanitarian and development assistance operations.
• At least 3-5 years of progressive experience working across the Programme portfolio including VAM/Nutrition, Food Security.
• Fluency (level C) in English; additional languages preferably Arabic would be an advantage.

VACANCY ANNOUNCEMENT JR NUMBER 159779

JOB TITLE:

Head of Programme

Regular CST, Level I

WFP Field Office in Wau, South Sudan

TYPE OF CONTRACT:

UNIT/DIVISION:

DUTY STATION (City, Country): Wau City, Republic of South Sudan

DURATION:

11 Months

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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 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 organization, saving lives in emergencies, building prosperity and supporting a sustainable future for people recovering from conflict, disasters and the impact of climate change. 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 WFP South Sudan has 15 Field Offices (FOs) of varying sizes. WFP Wau Field Office is one of those field offices implementing various programme activities in one of the most complex and challenging operating environments for the delivery of food assistance. Therefore, the complex operations require seasoned international programme staff with wide-ranging experience in similar settings to head Programme teams at the FO level and provide technical guidance to WFP partners implementing our operations in the Western Bahir El Ghazel State of South Sudan.

Purpose of the assignment:

To manage a portfolio of programme activities and discrete tasks. The incumbent will directly manage programme activities in the FO and contribute to policy formulation and provision of technical advice to the Country Office (CO) in relation to building programme quality assurance. The incumbent will manage a team of programme staff at FO, providing oversight and mentoring to ensure that programme and policy objectives are achieved in full. S/He will also contribute to a wide variety of programme and policy activities and analytical work, some of which may be of a considerable complexity. The Head of Programme will also have a technical reporting line to the CO Head of Programme.

Reporting line: The FO Head of Programme will report to the Head of Field Office (or designate

JOB PURPOSE

To provide support to policy and programme activities that effectively meet food assistance needs.

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES (not all-inclusive)

1. Lead the day-to-day implementation of FO’s programme activities, solving operational issues and challenges as appropriate.Supervise and motivate the FO Programme team to achieve results and enable high performance including through the provision of training and mentoring to enhance the capacity of WFP and partner staff to design and deliver effective food assistance programmes.

2. Translate programme policy into FO-level practices, ensuring that programme operations are consistent with WFP policies, SOPs and other relevant guidance documents and contributing to the development of programme guidance and implementation modalities and operations

3. Provide technical advice on programme and policy issues including assessments, analyses, monitoring exercises/processes, the choice of objectives/activities, transfer modalities, and identify opportunities for deployment and testing of innovative approaches and the development of strategies to support local authorities’ efforts to reduce hunger and malnutrition.
4. Provide leadership and technical expertise for the planning, formulation, and implementation of flexible food assistance programmes for complex operational environments, including through participation in operational planning forums between CO and FOs.
5. Lead the FO’s work on partnership cycle management (partner selection, oversight, reporting and assessment), building quality relationships/collaborations/partnership with cooperating partners including identifying opportunities for collaborative approaches and initiates that to improve assistance packages, enhance women’s empowerment, support advocacy work and strengthen government and community ownership and effectiveness of food security and nutrition programmes at sub-national levels.

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES CONTINUED

1. Lead the FO’s work on partnership cycle management (partner selection, oversight, reporting and assessment), building quality relationships/collaborations/partnership with cooperating partners including identifying opportunities for collaborative approaches and initiates that to improve assistance packages, enhance women’s empowerment, support advocacy work and strengthen government and community ownership and effectiveness of food security and nutrition programmes at sub-national levels.
2. Ensure adequate monitoring of WFP’s activities in the FO and the use of monitoring data at the FO and CO levels for corrective action and improved activity design and implementation.
3. Strengthen WFP’s leadership status in forums relating to WFP programme activities and facilitate coordination with other agencies and NGOs to ensure that WFP activities complement one another and do not overlap, and that synergies for the food assistance responses are created and maintained.
4. Manage action research interventions and evidence building on issues relevant to food assistance, including gathering and sharing evidence on best practices.
5. Contribute to CO emergency preparedness, i.e., early warning, risk analysis, and contingency planning in order to respond to humanitarian crises and needs.
6. Ensure that WFP programme cycle incorporates gender and protection analysis, age and sex disaggregated data and gender transformative activities.
7. Other duties as required.

STANDARD MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS

Education:

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

Experience:

At least 3-5 years of progressive experience working across the Programme portfolio including VAM/Nutrition, Food Security; leading a programme team, field office or a small country office or a component of a country office programme portfolio; engaging in policy discussion and providing input into policy decisions are desirable.

Languages:

Fluency (level C) in English; additional languages preferably Arabic would be an advantage.

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 Displays ability to identify the main hunger problem at the national or subnational level to design and implement context-specific programmes that integrate complex analysis and the full range of food assistance tools. 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 ability to translate understanding of programme principles in emergencies and protracted conflict situations into relevant, effective, and context specific approaches. 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 deepened technical knowledge through exposure to technical teams. • Has taken leadership of implementing programmes. • Has provided input into policy discussions and decisions.

DELIVERABLES AT THE END OF CONTRACT

An effective and efficient implementation of all Programme portfolios and related outputs/results including capacity building and coaching of Programme staff at FO level.

DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS

31st March 2022

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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