Regional Digital Assistance Services Officer (DASO) - Consultant Level 2

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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 lifetime. 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.

The WFP Regional Bureau for Eastern and Central Africa (RBN) is based in Nairobi and provides strategic direction, technical guidance, resource mobilization and management support to WFP operations and activities in ten countries: Burundi, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Somalia, Sudan, South Sudan and Uganda.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE OF ASSIGNMENT

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is the world’s largest humanitarian agency fighting hunger worldwide. The mission is to help the world achieve Zero Hunger in our lifetime. WFP works in over 80 countries worldwide ensuring no child goes to bed hungry and that the poorest and most vulnerable, particularly women and children, can access the nutritious food they need.

The WFP Regional Bureau for Eastern Africa (RBN) is based in Nairobi and provides strategic direction, technical guidance, partnership and management support to WFP operations and activities in ten countries: Burundi, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan and Uganda.

The World Food Programme has developed and is continuing to enhance and maintain a set of digital solutions to help in managing:

• the identities and entitlements of its beneficiaries,
• the operational parameters of the programmes that transfer benefits to them, and
• the assurances and insights to ensure related risks are properly managed.

This includes SCOPE, WFP’s beneficiary and transfer management platform that supports the WFP programme intervention cycle from a technical perspective. The SCOPE platform is a web-based application used for beneficiary registration, intervention setup, distribution planning, transfer and distribution reporting. While there is a current focus and scale-up/enhancement related to cash-based transfers, SCOPE is intended and being developed to fully support all WFP transfer modalities: in-kind, voucher and cash for a variety of project activities. As an extension and over the next couple of years, WFP also plans to develop a broad array of digital assistance services (DAS) beyond those related to the current SCOPE capabilities.

Under the overall responsibility of the lead Regional Digital Assistance Services Officer (DASO), the incumbent will be responsible to support country offices (COs) in the operationalization of SCOPE and related DAS for WFP and/or partners in the region. This will include analyzing new requirements and functionalities for COs, testing and ensuring the new features respond to the programmatic needs. The incumbent should expect frequent missions to countries with SCOPE/DAS operations.

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES/RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Coordinate the implementation and operations of SCOPE/DAS in the region, ensuring involvement of all relevant stakeholder units at CO, RB and HQ as required;
• Engage with CO management and colleagues to support in identifying requirements and the operational design, budgeting, planning and deployment of technology solutions and systems to support SCOPE/DAS in their given contexts, particularly with respect to cash-based transfers;
• Consolidate, analyze and report on regional SCOPE/DAS operational information;
• Capture, document and analyze (i.e. through diagrams, flowcharts, data models, user experience designs, storyboards) CO business requirements for DAS and either identify workable existing solutions or escalate to HQ and follow up for potential consideration (e.g. change request);
• Test and analyze SCOPE/DAS solutions and document the match against business requirements for quality and accuracy;
• Through the appropriate channels, support the efforts of technical teams on outstanding operational issues and changes relevant for the region;
• Support COs to conduct appropriate IT assessments in order to assist management in making informed SCOPE/DAS-related operational decisions;

DELIVERABLES AT THE END OF THE CONTRACT:

1. SCOPE/DAS operational needs and requirements defined, and workable options developed for priority COs;
2. SCOPE/DAS solutions tailored and developed to meet specific CO operational needs;
3. SCOPE/DAS solutions implemented and fully leveraged to enable delivery of WFP assistance in a cost-efficient manner in the prioritized countries in the region;
4. On-going direct support to CO SCOPE/DAS operations is provided as required.

STANDARD MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS

University degree in business management, computer science, telecommunications engineering or social sciences, or relevant degree with relevant work experience.

DESIRED EXPERIENCES FOR ENTRY INTO THE ROLE

• At least five years of post-graduate progressively responsible professional experience in humanitarian aid operations and/or business systems analysis, design and development.
• Experience in client-facing roles in either technology implementation projects or in the planning, design and implementation of humanitarian or development programmes.
• Experience in collaborating with different humanitarian actors or different service providers to design and decide on payment mechanisms and instruments, and capacity building to coordinate the delivery of assistance in humanitarian contexts.

Knowledge & Skills

• Knowledge of and hands-on experience in cash-based transfers (CBT) programming in humanitarian contexts; awareness of technologies used in the delivery of cash and vouchers in humanitarian contexts; and training and knowledge of business analysis and project management philosophies and methodologies would be an asset.
• Possession of a combination of broad business skills and IT experience including: General management skills in business and public sector contexts; Business analysis including creation and review of functional and non-functional business requirements for IT solutions.
• Ability to operate in distributed / decentralised teams, engage with and support partners; Ability to perform under pressure, to multi-task, to navigate through multiple priorities and conflicting requests; Ability to work independently through appropriate personal initiative and regular follow-ups; Capacity to work in difficult and insecure environments; Highly-developed written and oral communication skills with the ability to influence and adapt communication styles to different situations and individuals; Collaborative hands-on team member and relationship-builder with a facilitative nature and strong business partnering skills towards colleagues and stakeholders; Detail-oriented; Ethics & Values; Client Orientation.

TERMS AND CONDITIONS

Grade: International CST, Level 2

Duty Station: Regional Bureau, Nairobi, Kenya

Duration: 11 Months

Unit/Division: TEC

DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS

Applications closing date: 16th June 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.