Programme Associate SC6 (Resilience)

.

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

In July 2023, the World Food Programme (WFP) Zambia commenced a new five-year Country Strategic Plan (CSP), informed by and aligned with national and United Nations priorities and global commitments under the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It embraces the Government’s long-term Vision 2030; aligns with 16 key strategic areas of the 8th National Development Plan (NDP8); and contributes to the joint Zambia-United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF).

WFP Zambia’s integrated and pragmatic CSP shifts away from unsustainable localized and micro-level interventions, to embrace more effective advocacy and engagement with national policies, systems, and programmes to achieve national impact on SDG2. Given the Government’s commitment to budgetary support for nutrition, social protection, and agriculture, despite the constraints in the country’s fiscal position, WFP’s overarching strategy seeks to strengthen the government’s capacities to meet its national priorities through stronger systems, expertise, and resources for implementation. This means a decisive shift of WFP’s country positioning towards the provision of innovative, sustainable, and upstream technical assistance to support nationally owned solutions.

Advancing the global WFP Strategic Plan (2022-2025), the CSP addresses both SDG2 and SDG17, and WFP’s Strategic Results 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. WFP will implement seven activities to achieve five Strategic Outcomes (SO) under the CSP. These SOs include: (SO1) responding to crises and shocks ensuring that crisis-affected people, including refugees, are able to meet their urgent food and nutrition needs; (SO2) addressing the root causes of malnutrition; (SO3) building the resilience, enabling environment and market access for smallholder farmers, especially women; (SO4) supporting government institutions to provide social protection systems (including home grown school meals) and disaster preparedness and response; and (SO5) improving access to supply chain services for humanitarian and development actors.

JOB PURPOSE

Under direct supervision of Programme Policy Officer (Activity 3 Manager) – Resilience, the Programme Associate will be the interlocutor between field implementation and CO on aspects of Integrated Climate Risk Management (ICRM) approaches for resilience building with Department of Agriculture, Department of Agribusiness, Technical Services Branch, and the Zambia Agriculture Institute of Zambia (ZARI) from the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA). Other ministries will include the Ministry of Community Development and Social Services (MCDSS), and the Private Sector (Agro-processors and agro-dealers), supporting the planning and provision of technical oversight on implementation of regenerative agricultural practices including green production, climate smart agriculture and promotion of mechanization technologies for enhanced crop productivity and processing capacity.

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES (not all-inclusive)

1. Support the development of agriculture extension content and materials that are appropriate for targeted beneficiaries, and other secondary partners including rolling out Training for Trainers (ToT) on various topics including but not limited to e-extension services and information on sustainable farming practices, financial literacy, and post-harvest loss management, focusing on logistics and supply chain engagement with the private sector.
2. Support the provision of complementary technical support to the Zambia Meteorological Department in training to Government (MoA – Block and Camp Extension Staff) and NGO partners in participatory climate services for Agro meteorology.
3. Support capacity and systems strengthening in production and dissemination of customized weather forecasts and climate services that integrate indigenous knowledge systems and translate information into local languages to enhance uptake and utilization by local communities.
4. Support regenerative agriculture practices in collaboration with partners such as the Ministry of Agriculture and NGO implementing agencies to enhance adoption and practice of climate smart agriculture practices including Conservation Farmers (CA).
5. Support the design, refinement, and implementation of the resilience programme around the input sector of value chain, including developing of annual implementation plans and budgets.
6. Facilitate private sector participation through input companies, to support farmers’ access to improved and diverse seed varieties, optimize crop enhancing products including farm-level composting production and regenerative agricultural practices
7. Support the implementation of sustainable green agriculture and increased investment in value chains in areas such as horticulture
8. Support the promotion of mechanisation models including land preparation, food processing and irrigation technologies for enhanced productivity and value chain development.

DESIRED EXPERIENCES FOR ENTRY INTO THE ROLE

• Has worked with technical teams (i.e. nutrition, VAM, etc.).
• Has contributed to implementation of programmes.
• Has observed or assisted with policy discussions.
• Ability to analyse and translate numerical data to show WFP’s outcomes and impact against the objectives; ability to explain WFP projects and operations to counterparts and to communicate with Government and partners clearly and effectively, both orally and in writing; General knowledge of UN system policies, rules, regulations, and procedures.
• Ability to understand the cultural and political environment and to work well with colleagues.

STANDARD MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS

Education: University Degree in one or more of the following disciplines: Agriculture/Agronomy, Horticulture, Agriculture Economics, Agribusiness, Agricultural Extension, Agricultural Education Range Management, Livestock, Natural Resource Management or equivalent qualification from a recognized institution.

Experience: Has minimum of 3 years working experience working in comparable and/or relevant position in the public service or private sector or an international organization.

Language: Fluency in both oral and written English. Understanding of local languages an added advantage.

4Ps CORE ORGANISATIONAL CAPABILITIES

Purpose

• Understand and communicate the Strategic Objectives: Coaches team in the most effective ways to communicate WFP’s Strategic Objectives to WFP team and partners in the field.
• Be a force for positive change: Implements new methods or tools to improve team’s work processes and productivity.
• Make the mission inspiring to our team: Maps team’s activities and tasks to specific successes in beneficiary communities to showcase positive impact.
• Make our mission visible in everyday actions: Explains to teammates how each unit contributes to the overall WFP mission.

People

• Look for ways to strengthen people's skills: Identifies skill development opportunities such as training modules or on-the-job experiences for self, colleagues and direct reports.
• Create an inclusive culture: Facilitates team building activities to build rapport in own unit.
• Be a coach & provide constructive feedback: Facilitates the pairing of junior colleagues with coaches within own team.
• Create an “I will”/”We will” spirit: Proactively anticipates potential challenges and develops mitigation plans to ensure that team meets goals and targets.

Performance

• Encourage innovation & creative solutions: Identifies opportunities to be creative in own work and to help team be more innovative and accurate in their respective tasks and areas of work.
• Focus on getting results: Monitors team’s deliverables and provides feedback to ensure outcomes are delivered consistently and accurately.
• Make commitments and make good on commitments: Provides accurate guidance to team on expected responsibilities and tasks, whilst also upholding own commitment to the team.
• Be Decisive: Sets an example and provides guidance to junior team members on when to escalate issues when faced with challenging issues in the workplace or in the field.

Partnership

• Connect and share across WFP units: Facilitates partnerships with other WFP units to accomplish missions in the field.
• Build strong external partnerships: Sets an example and provides guidance to team on how to build relationships with external partners.
• Be politically agile & adaptable: Articulates to colleagues or direct reports the value of contributing to other WFP teams and agency partnerships in fulfilling WFP’s goals and objectives.
• Be clear about the value WFP brings to partnerships: Organizes, monitors, and prioritizes own and team’s efforts to ensure that they will fulfil the needs of internal and external partners.

FUNCTIONAL CAPABILITIES

Capability Name Description of the behaviour expected for the proficiency level Programme Lifecycle & Food Assistance Demonstrates ability to identify key variables and contextual factors that affect food assistance problems and programmes throughout the lifecycle to inform quality programme design or re-design. Transfer Modalities (Food, Cash, Vouchers) Demonstrates ability to implement, under guidance, food assistance programmes deploying the full range of transfer modalities with an understanding of basic principles guiding modality selection and implementation. Broad Knowledge of Specialized Areas Understands basic technical concepts and data and their relevance to food assistance programmes. Emergency Programming Displays capacity to provide inputs into the development, implementation and realignment of high quality emergency programmes. Strategic Policy Engagement w/Government Understands and applies basic principles of engagement with government counterparts at the national or local level.

TERMS AND CONDITIONS

OPEN TO ZAMBIAN NATIONALS ONLY!

DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS

Deadline for submission of applications: 24th June 2024 at Midnight.

Applications should be sent on-line only, through WFP recruitment website at: https://www.wfp.org/careers

.

Qualified female candidates and persons with disabilities are especially encouraged to apply!!

WFP has zero tolerance for discrimination and does not discriminate on the basis of 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.