International Consultant- Programme Policy Officer-Head of School Feeding, CST-II, Ethiopia

Programme & Policy

Overview

Lead design and implementation of school feeding initiatives and partnerships

You have:

• Advanced university degree or university degree with experience in business, economic, social policy, international development or related disciplines
• At least 6 years of progressively responsible, job-related professional experience in school feeding, smallholder farmers’ support, programme management, or related fields
• Demonstrated experience in establishing effective partnerships with government entities, donors, and partners
• Proficiency in English (written and oral), level C
• Ability to prepare concise and well-written reports and documents in English
• Experience with Microsoft Office, including Word, Excel, and PowerPoint

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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

Over the past 15 to 20 years, Ethiopia has achieved remarkable economic, socio-economic and socio-political development. The country has registered impressive consistent double-digit growth, growing the country to one of the modern successes in African history. Despite these gains, major challenges remain. Ethiopia ranks 173rd of the 189 countries on the Human Development Index. Twenty-four percent of the population is poor and suffers from food insecurity, insufficient access to adequate education and health services and inadequate employment opportunities for young people who have recently graduated from high school or university.

Ethiopia continues to experience the impacts of natural disasters, conflict, locust outbreak, rapid population growth, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, and the poor macroeconomic context which threaten the food security and livelihoods of millions of people including school-age children thereby limiting Ethiopia’s capacity to cope with future shocks and stressors

WFP’s School Feeding Interventions:

WFP Ethiopia, in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, has been implementing school feeding interventions since 1994. However, the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic in early 2020 negatively impacted the gains made by school feeding programmes as schools were closed following government mitigation measures to control the spread of the virus, especially among school-going children. School dropout and absenteeism still remain high even with the re-opening of schools while attendance of children has been seriously affected during the emergency periods as seen with the recent conflict in the Tigray Region.

Currently, WFP Ethiopia implements school feeding programmes providing the minimum daily energy and nutrient requirements for proper growth and development among school-going children and also serves as an incentive for keeping children in school with the end goal of improved learning outcomes and human capital development. WFP’s school feeding predominantly targets regions where food insecurity is highest and where the number of enrolments, particularly for girls, is the lowest: Oromia, Afar, Amhara and the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples’ Region (SNNPR). WFP supports the implementation of school feeding programs and other complementary activities targeting the most vulnerable based on food insecurity, poverty, low educational and nutrition indicators and gender-related problems. WFP also provide capacity strengthening support to both the Federal Ministry of Education and regional Breaux of Education.

WFP is currently engaged in programmatic shift towards sustainable food systems support, by creating effective linkages between school feeding and local agricultural production of smallholder farmers, for example, through Home Grown School Feeding (HGSF) whereby food is procured locally to stimulate local production. For effective programming, monitoring of school-based programmes jointly with partners through efficient data management is also crucial to ensure accountability to beneficiaries, host governments and donors as well as to inform programme quality and design gaps

JOB PURPOSE

To provide support to School Feeding activities that effectively meet food assistance needs.

Under the direct supervision of the Head of Programme, the Programme Policy Officer – Head of School Feeding – will lead the designing and implementation of school feeding activities in WFP Ethiopia. This includes the development of funding proposals, creating partnerships, and conducting assessments linking HGSF and smallholder farmers’ support, while supervising four staff members in the team and closely liaising with Sub Office colleagues.

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES (not all-inclusive)

• Oversee the overall planning and implementation of the School Feeding activities ensuring consistency with WFP policies and other relevant guidance;
• Lead the roll-out of the HGSF Strategy, Implementation Plan and Budget, including advocacy in collaboration with the HGSF Technical Working Group;
• Lead the development of a strategy to link HGSF with smallholder agricultural market support (SAMS), in close collaboration with the resilience team in charge of SAMS activities.
• Enhance and facilitate close collaboration with UNICEF in all ongoing school health and nutrition projects and ensure attainment of project-specific goals, while also enabling synergies across projects;
• Working with the UNICEF Education Team, advocating for the promotion of school health and nutrition in the overall education sector and including the development of a multisectoral policy
• Working with the MEAL Unit, initiate a pilot on an improved data management project as well as operationalize the digital transformation agenda of the School-Based Programming Unit in HQ;
• Contribute to the development and monitoring of partnership agreements for cost-effective and high-quality Programme delivery for WFP’s overall school feeding programme, ensuring the continued capacity strengthening of CPs, WFP frontline staff and government staff;
• Oversee the planning and implementation of capacity building of the Federal Ministry of education and regional Breaux of Education based on evidence and periodic reviews.

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES (Continue)

• Contribute to strategic discussions on School feeding and how these relate to the overall goals of WFP in the country;
• Provide regular updates to stakeholders, including the government, on the progress of the School Feeding implementation, best practices and lessons learnt.
• Participate (and when necessary, lead) in the development of proposals, reports and visibility materials to highlight and advocate for the adoption of best practices and lessons learnt with the aim of enhancing the School Feeding in the country
• Contribute to WFP-wide policy discussions regarding school meals, in alignment with WFP's strategies and policies, CSP, and relevant guidance.
• Liaise with other relevant teams within WFP (M&E, Gender and protection, VAM, Nutrition, Supply Chain, etc.), ensuring Programme integration.
• Lead the development and implementation of different projects/activities with pilots, such as Home-Grown School Feeding (HGSF) and School Gardens.
• Ensure correct management of the budget for the school meals Programme;
• Backstop and act upon issues arising from the school feeding Programme;
• Any other duties as required

STANDARD MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS

Education: Advanced university degree or university degree with experience and training/courses in one or more of the following disciplines: business, economic, social policy, international development or related disciplines

Experience: At least 6 years of progressively responsible, job-related professional experience in school feeding, smallholder farmers’ support, programme management, or related fields.

Demonstrated experience in establishing effective partnerships with government entities, donors, and partners, as well as experience in managing teams effectively.

Knowledge & Skills:: A demonstrated ability to prepare concise and well-written reports and documents in English is critical. Proficiency in utilizing computers, including word processing, spreadsheet, PowerPoint, and other office software packages and systems.

Competencies: Cognitive Capacity, Teamwork, Action Management, Innovation, Partnerships, Client Orientation

Languages: Working knowledge (written and oral) of English (proficiency/level C)

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.

DELIVERABLES AT THE END OF THE CONTRACT:

• Project goals of the various projects under the SF Programme are met
• HGSF strategy linking to smallholder production is established and Implementation Plan is established/implemented.
• School Feeding programme operations are improved through greater support to field offices and the formation of effective, complementary partnerships;
• Complimentary activities such as school gardens and nutrition education are scaled up

TERMS AND CONDITIONS

JOB TITLE: Head of School Feeding TYPE OF CONTRACT: International Consultant, Level II UNIT/DIVISION: Programme Unit DUTY STATION (City, Country): Addis Ababa, Ethiopia DURATION: 11 months REPORTING LINE: Under the direct supervision of the Head of Programme

WFP offers a competitive compensation package that will be determined by the contract type and the selected candidate’s qualifications and experience.

• Other benefits: MSLS, Medical Insurance. 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

12 May 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