Programme & Policy

Overview

Lead development of SAMS strategy and funding proposal to support smallholder farmers.

You have:

• Advanced University degree in Agriculture, Economics, Development Economics or any relevant field.
• At least 7 years of progressively responsible experience in program related functions of which significant experience (2 or more years) must be related to agricultural value chains, market linkages for smallholder farmers and/or market analysis.
• Experience working with governments in implementing school feeding programs, in particular homegrown school feeding.
• Experience in programming of food and cash assistance in emergency and/or development contexts.
• Training and/or experience in food systems, including value chains development and market systems.
• Knowledge of WFP financial regulations; and rules and WFP policies and procedures in procurement and supply chain is desirable.
• Excellent written and oral communication and presentation skills.
• Strong analytical and negotiation skills.
• Working knowledge (proficiency level C) of English.

Vacancy Announcement

JOB TITLE: Programme Policy Officer (Smallholder Agricultural Market Support (SAMS) Strategy Development)

Number of openings: 01

Contract Type: International Consultant (CST) Regular - Level II

Duration: 3 months

Duty Station (City, Country): Monrovia, Liberia

ABOUT WFP

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.

Our response to emergencies - saving lives and livelihoods either through direct assistance or by strengthening country capacities – remains at the heart of our operations, especially as humanitarian needs become increasingly complex and protracted, such as those brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic.

ORGANISATIONAL CONTEXT & BACKGROUND OF THE ASSIGNMENT

Through its emergency and development activities, WFP has provided assistance in Liberia since 1968 and through its five-year Country Strategic Plan (2018-2023), supports social and productive safety nets, capacity strengthening, and emergency preparedness and response. WFP aims to provide safety nets to strengthen food and nutrition security through school feeding and social protection measures and assists in strengthening the national capacity of Liberia to own and implement hunger solutions.

This position is in the WFP Liberia Country Office under the Supply Chain unit. The Storekeeper will handle receipt/dispatch and verification of commodities to maximise the quality of warehouse operations and mitigate losses and support the best storage management practices in compliance with WFP warehouse standards and established guidelines.

1. BACKGROUND OF THE ASSIGNMENT:

The WFP Liberia Country Strategic Plan (CSP) supports the implementation of school feeding, the largest safety net in the country. Since the formulation of the National School Feeding Policy in 2013, school feeding in Liberia has made significant strides towards sustainable homegrown school feeding (HGSF). Through this initiative, the school feeding programme is linked to relevant agricultural sector programmes to ensure that economic outcomes can benefit entire communities, particularly smallholder farmers. This will enhance sustainability of the programme and create predictable and structured markets for local produce, especially those commodities that are regularly used in the school feeding programme. Such an approach is one of the critical elements in transitioning to a sustainable and nationally owned programme. The Government is committed to assuming gradual takeover of the programme but lacks the financial capacity to take full responsibility.

WFP support in school feeding therefore largely focuses on capacity strengthening towards the transition to full national ownership. As the transition process continues, the Government with the support of WFP and other partners explores and adopts alternative options and models while seeking to identify the most sustainable and cost-efficient approach. In 2016, a total of 6 schools started the pilot HGSF implementation. By 2019, there were a total of 126 schools participating in the HGSF programme through a WFP supported cash transfer model that facilitates direct procurement from local farmers. To re-enforce this transition process, activities of school feeding at decentralized level continued to promote the fullest participation of parents and community members; increasing number of community and school level staff members receive training in local procurement process, cash and food management, monitoring and reporting. However, the element of financial control and accountability and food quality assurance were still weak. At central level, WFP has supported the Government get exposed to the learning from other programmes through south-south cooperation arrangements, in collaboration with the WFP Centres of Excellences in Brazil. In the interest of improving the quality of the HGSF implementation, WFP expanded its partnership for the HGSF by engaging Community Based Non-Governmental Organizations to support capacity building for communities and improving the monitoring and reporting aspect of the programme. This partnership has helped in intensifying the sensitization of communities on the importance of school health and nutrition.

In 2019, WFP secured additional resources for the school feeding programme from a private donor (Master Card). This new contribution was intended to support mainly the HGSF programme with focus of procurement of locally produced commodities to be used for the HGSF. The aim of this approach was to strengthen production and productivity of smallholders through commercialization to an assured structured market-the school feeding programme which will spur an increase in the volumes of selected commodities produced locally through the expansion of production area; increase in cropping intensity and increase in productivity and ensure food safety and quality assurance.

2. PURPOSE OF THE ASSIGNMENT:

WFP Liberia seeks to increase smallholder farmer engagement for improved access to both public and private markets through strategic, policy and operational engagement with the government and partners to expand opportunities for smallholder farmers, partnerships with the private sector, providing technical support to the government and other partners and direct capacity development for smallholders and promote sustainable market linkages.

Technical assistance is required to support the Country Office develop a Smallholder Agriculture Market Support (SAMS) strategy that will be used to guide the CO in its support to the Government and smallholder farmers and to design and implement programmes linking smallholder production to WFP/Government-supported HGSF focusing on strengthening the capacity of smallholder farmers and other value chain actors, particularly women and youth, in climate-smart agriculture, food quality and safety, marketing of nutritious foods and financial services. The purpose of this ToR, therefore, is to identify a suitable consultant to develop a SAMS strategy for the Country Office. Building on the findings of the envisaged SAM study, WFP will continue to link the smallholder farmers with HGSF programmes, including exploring new innovations, technological solutions, and knowledge in this field to ensure sustainable scale-up.

This position is critical not only for the strategy development but also for supporting the development of a funding proposal to be used for resource mobilization to support farmers address the challenges associated with crop production, management of post-harvest losses due to limited market access and other impediments. The Consultant Position of Programme Policy Officer (SAMS Strategy Development) will interact with various stakeholders including the Ministry of Education (MOE), Ministry of Agriculture (MOA), Ministry of Commerce, the Cooperative Development Agency (CDA), and other relevant Ministries, agencies and private sector actors to access information that will facilitate this assignment.

3. ACCOUNTABILITIES/RESPONSIBILITIES:

Under the overall supervision of the Deputy Country Director and direct supervision of the Head of Programme, the Consultant-Programme Policy Officer will provide technical support and lead the development of the CO SAMS strategy and develop a funding proposal to be used for resource mobilization to implement programmes and activities proposed in the envisaged SAMS strategy.

Specific duties will include:

• Lead the development and provide guidance on the implementation of a comprehensive smallholder agricultural market support (SAMS) strategy that outlines WFP support for smallholder farmers with clear market linkages through the HGSF.
• Lead the development of a funding proposal to mobilize resources to support the roll-out of activities and programmes proposed in the envisaged SAMS strategy and to support effective and quality delivery of the HGSF linkages with smallholder farmers.
• Conduct desk review of existing documents to understand the production and marketing capacity of smallholder farmers, farmer organizations, their ability to access services, credit, information and resources and suggest improvements in the value chain system to ensure direct linkages of the smallholder farmers to structured markets to increase their agricultural incomes;
• Organize stakeholders meetings to validate the SAMS strategy;
• Participate in relevant sector meetings and gather the information that will ensure that WFP`s SAMS strategy is aligned to the Government and development partners’ sectorial policies and plans for Liberia;
• Support the M&E team to update the CO SAMS M&E tool to align with WFP corporate reporting and accountability requirements.
• Participate in relevant internal WFP meetings;

Any other duties that may be assigned by your supervisor from time to time

4. DELIVERABLES AND OUTPUTS

• Smallholder agricultural market support (SAMS) strategy developed
• Action plans developed for the roll-out and implementation of the strategy.
• Funding proposal to support SAMS activities and further innovations on linking smallholder farmers to HGSF
• Organize stakeholder consultations to gather views and information that will support the development of the SAMS strategy and the funding proposal

5. 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 their 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.

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Performance

• • Encourage innovation & creative solutions: Identifies opportunities to be creative in own work and to help the 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.

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6. REQUIRED SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE:

Qualifications and Experience Required Education:

• • Advanced University degree in Agriculture, Economics, Development Economics or any relevant field.

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Experience:

• • At least 7 years of progressively responsible experience in programme related functions of which significant experience (2 or more years) must be related to agricultural value chains, market linkages for smallholder farmers and/or market analysis.
  • Experience working with governments in implementing school feeding programs, in particular homegrown school feeding;
  • Experience in programming of food and cash assistance in emergency and/or development contexts;

Technical Skills and Knowledge:

• • Training and/or experience in food systems, including value chains development and market systems.
  • Utilizing computers including word processing, spreadsheet, and other software packages
  • Knowledge of WFP financial regulations; and rules and WFP policies and procedures in procurement and supply chain is desirable.
  • Strong knowledge of education and school feeding and recent developments in the field;
  • Food security and multi-sector programme knowledge and experience are desirable.
  • Knowledge of research methods and monitoring and evaluation standards;
  • Understanding of donor policies, strategies, and programme priorities;
  • quantitative and qualitative education/health/nutrition survey methodologies and assessments is desirable.

Competencies:

• • Excellent written and oral communication and presentation skills;
  • Strong analytical and negotiation skills;
  • Resourcefulness, initiative, maturity of judgement and tact;
  • Ability to work with minimum supervision; to supervise and train support staff; and to work effectively with people of different national and cultural backgrounds.
  • Ability to establish priorities and to plan, coordinate and monitor own work plan and those under supervision;
  • Demonstrated ability to develop and maintain effective work relationships with counterparts and staff within the office, host government, donors, other UN agencies and NGOs.

Language:

• • Working knowledge (proficiency level C) of English

DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS

Monday, 28 March 2022 till 11:59 PM ( ROME TIME)

Apply now

Potential interview questions

Added 4 years ago - Updated 1 year ago - Source: wfp.org