Programme Policy Officer - (RAM - Head of Data) - International Consultant - CST II

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WFP seeks candidates of the highest integrity and professionalism who share our humanitarian principles. Selection of staff is made on a competitive basis. We are committed to promoting diversity and the principle of equal employment opportunity for all our employees and encourages qualified candidates to apply irrespective of religion or belief, ethnic or social background, gender, gender identity and disability.

JOB DETIALS

Job Title: Programme Policy Officer (RAM - Head of Data) - International Consultant Grade: (CST II) Type of contract: Consultant Duration: 11 Months Duty Station: Kabul Vacancy Number: 178500 Date of Publication: 21 Nov 2022 Deadline of Application: 05 Dec 2022

ABOUT WFP

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is the world's largest humanitarian agency, fighting hunger worldwide. WFP has been working in Afghanistan since 1963. WFP food assistance aims to help the most vulnerable, food-insecure Afghans, including women and children, and families affected by conflict and natural disasters. In the approved Country Strategic Plan (2018-2022), WFP Afghanistan is well placed to provide comprehensive support to the country in achieving Zero Hunger by 2030 via its six closely interrelated outcomes, which range from emergency response to livelihoods creation, as well as nutrition Programmes based on a life-cycle approach, and the strengthening of national food systems.

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.

ORGANIZATIONAL CONTEXT

The hunger crisis in Afghanistan is unfolding at a rapidly, with over half the country’s population of 40 million now facing acute food insecurity—the highest number the humanitarian community has ever seen in Afghanistan. Work opportunities are shrinking, with most households now reporting just one day of work per week. This comes on top of the worst drought in years, which is especially concerning for the 85 percent of the population who rely on agriculture for livelihoods.

Preventing and mitigating a drastic increase in hunger and malnutrition is the aim of WFP in Afghanistan which can only be achieved through the scaled up and sustained complementary food security and nutrition interventions, combined with a scale-up of resilience interventions to safeguard gains. WFP has embarked on a significant month on month scale-up of its crisis response and resilience programmes across the country, ensuring that the programme is delivered at the right scale and time, targeted to the right areas. WFP is also actively following up on evolving trends to pre-empt hotspots, while guaranteeing quality and maximum impact of the programme through the monitoring of these hotspots to be able to support continued donor advocacy.

JOB PURPOSE

The position contributes to the Research, Assessment and Monitoring (RAM) Team's mission of monitoring, interpreting and recommending action on food security and food assistance developments in Afghanistan by overseeing the team’s portfolio of household surveys and advising on food security trends among WFP beneficiaries and the population at large. The position also serves to ensure the quality and timeliness of household food security data, in forms spanning from nationwide to localized surveys, mobile and face-to-face surveys in line with WFP’s monitoring and reporting requirements. The position will add coherence to the analysis of food security trends and streamline the planning, production and dissemination of food security reports. The position will strengthen the link between evidence and programmatic activity, contributing to creating more responsive, evidence-based and effective humanitarian interventions. The position will contribute to answering fundamental questions about food security and humanitarian food assistance, leveraging data from household-level assessments and other data sources.

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES (not all-inclusive)

Under the supervision of the Head of RAM, the Programme Policy Officer will be responsible for the following specific duties and responsibilities: • Lead a team of analysts and manage a portfolio of food security household surveys in Afghanistan, including planning, survey design, enumerator training, analysis and communication of results. • Coordinate with Head of RAM and RAM team leads (M&E and Vulnerability Assessment and Mapping teams) to understand team evidence needs and formulate and execute plans to meet those needs. • Support M&E team in its engagement of other units to understand and properly capture monitoring needs. Support M&E by advising on indicator selection, site selection and monitoring frequency. • Design and carry out emergency food security assessments to inform the design and targeting of WFP’s emergency operations, advising programme and management on the allocation of in-kind and cash transfers. • Closely coordinate with Area Office and partners in the scheduling and rollout of surveys, including in administering regular training and capacity development for Area Office and partner staff. • Review and implement best practices in data collection, storage and sharing. Ensure data integrity, protection and privacy in line with WFP corporate regulations. • Develop standardized tools to facilitate the administration of surveys, including standard operating procedures, cleaning and analysis code, etc. • Develop and improve methods to communicate results and findings, including long-and-short-form reports, infographics, presentation decks. Test and propose different channels and strategies to effectively engage internal stakeholders on results. • Support the review and improvement of food security indicators in collaboration with Food Security and Agriculture Cluster and partners. • Advise on programme evaluation/impact evaluation, research designs and otherwise support the team research portfolio, including by leading discussions with WFP regional and headquarters units, external evaluators and partners. • Provide inputs to the Annual Country Report and other corporate and country-level reporting mechanisms, including donor-facing reports and provide updates to thematic working group and cluster meetings as required.

STANDARD MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS

Education: Advanced degree in economics, econometrics, statistics, political science, public policy, public health, sociology, anthropology or other applied field.

Experience: At least 5 years of consistent relevant experience using quantitative analysis—including household surveys—to inform decision-making in development or humanitarian settings. Experience administering household surveys a significant advantage.

Language: Fluency in spoken and written English is required.

DESIRED EXPERIENCE FOR ENTRY INTO THE ROLE: • Passionate about using evidence to inform humanitarian and development interventions • Experience managing teams across a portfolio of work. • Excellent knowledge of statistics and data analysis, including survey design and sampling, inferential statistics and basic econometric modelling. Knowledge of quantitative programme evaluation/experimental research designs an advantage. • Experience working on food security or familiarity with food security and nutrition guiding frameworks, indicators and tools a significant advantage • Exposure to report writing, preferably on M&E related publications, both long-form and summary policy briefs. • Experience working in a developing country; experience working in humanitarian contexts an advantage • Proficiency in one or more statistical software packages—including SPSS / R—preferred

HOW TO APPLY

To be considered, interested candidates are invited to apply via (https://www.wfp.org/careers/job-openings). Only short-listed candidates will be contacted.

We want to ensure the recruitment process is fully accessible. Please contact us at [email protected] to advise us of any accessibility needs you may have.