Programme Policy Officer (Food Security) NOA - Makeni

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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 end global hunger. 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, access and consume diverse nutritious food to avert double burdens of malnutrition.

In Sierra Leone, WFP in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security (MAFSS) is supporting 8,000 smallholder farmers to cultivate Inland Valley Swamps throughout the year with rice and nutritious vegetables. WFP and MAFSS provide farmers with training in improved agronomic practices and inputs to boost productivity and increase post-harvest management skills and provide equipment to reduce post-harvest losses and improve quality. WFP also link smallholder farmers to market, through Home-Grown School Feeding and by connecting groups to private sector buyers.

After completing a successful Home-Grown School Feeding pilot project, WFP is in the process of scaling up this approach to more of the 1,000 primary schools that it supports. This process will create more market opportunities for smallholder farmers who will supply commodities for daily meals.

ORGANIZATIONAL CONTEXT

To build WFP’s organizational capacity to strengthen integrated resilience building support to smallholder farmers, the Food Systems team is recruiting a Programme Policy Officer to be based in Makeni who will work with MAFSS and other partners to provide technical support to smallholder farmer in irrigation system rehabilitation and development, improved agronomic practices for rice and vegetable cultivation, post-harvest management and marketing.

JOB PURPOSE

Under the direct supervision of the Head of Makeni Sub-Office and the Food Systems Activity Manager, the role will provide oversight to all food system strengthening activities targeting smallholder farmers:

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES (not all-inclusive)

• Provide project management support to food system projects to develop and rehabilitate small-scale irrigation systems in Inland Valley Swamps (IVS) for cultivation of rice and, ensuring a coordinated approach with wider programmes that complies with WFP standards and procedures.
• Collect accurate data to track the implementation of food systems strengthening activities and coordinate with WFP and MAFS counterparts under Makeni SO to ensure the effective application of monitoring systems for rigorous and quality data gathering.
• In collaboration with MAFS counterparts, support the design, planning and implementation of smallholder farmer capacity development activities in improved agronomic practices for rice and vegetable cultivation, irrigation system development and maintenance and nutrition sensitive agriculture under Makeni SO.
• Working with the smallholder market support focal point, assist with linking targeted FBOs under Makeni SO to market, both through direct WFP procurement and connecting with private-sector buyers.

OTHER SPECIFIC JOB REQUIREMENTS

• Coordinate with MAFS district level counterparts to ensure timely operationalization of WFP-MAFS partnership agreements, highlighting challenges to WFP management when encountered for timely resolution.
• Prepare accurate and timely reports on livelihood programmes and activities that enable informed decision making and consistency of information presented to stakeholders.
• Work in integration with other WFP programmes school feeding, nutrition and emergency preparedness and response at SO level to maximise impact.
• Facilitate/attend quarterly meetings with partners at SO level.
• Support the capacity building of the SO livelihood team.
• Support documentation of lessons learned and best practices emanating from the post-harvest management and market linkage activities.
• Perform any other duties as assigned by the Head of Sub Office.

COMPETENCIES

• Excellent written and oral communication and presentation skills.
• Strong analytical and coordination skills.
• Resourcefulness, initiative, maturity of judgement.
• Ability to work with minimum supervision as well as ability to supervise and train support staff; and to work effectively with people of different nationalities and cultural backgrounds.

STANDARD MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS

Education: Advanced University degree in Agriculture, Development Studies, Economics, Environmental Science, Social Sciences, or other field relevant to international development assistance.

Language: Fluency in both oral and written communication in English and Krio. Ability in local languages an asset.

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 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, 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 capacity to provide inputs into the development, implementation and realignment of high quality emergency programmes. 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

• At least five years of progressively responsible experience in programme related functions of which significant experience (2 or more years) must be related to resilience building, agricultural, agronomy, crop science, agricultural value chains, post-harvest management, market linkages for smallholder farmers to achieve food security and/or nutrition objectives.
• Experience in developing, establishing, strengthening, and maintaining relationships with a variety of stakeholders including the MAFSS, NGOs, ABCs and farmers in Sierra Leone.

TERMS AND CONDITIONS

Position open to Sierra Leone Nationals only

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.

Qualified female candidates are strongly encouraged to apply.

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

The contract duration is 12 months for Fixed Term Contract holders.

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

8th September 2023

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WFP has a zero-tolerance approach to conduct such as fraud, sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to WFP’s standards of conduct and will therefore undergo rigorous background verification internally or through third parties. Selected candidates will also be required to provide additional information as part of the verification exercise. Misrepresentation of information provided during the recruitment process may lead to disqualification or termination of employment

WFP will not request payment at any stage of the recruitment process including at the offer stage. Any requests for payment should be refused and reported to local law enforcement authorities for appropriate action.