Senior Programme Associate - Kapan Field Office

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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, and we are committed to promoting diversity and gender balance.

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

The Armenian food sector is characterized by the low productivity of nutritionally diversified commodities, high production costs, fragmented producers, and limited post-harvest and market infrastructures. This in turn negatively impacts on the Armenian population’s access to nutritionally diversified food and is resulting in worrisome levels of food insecurity and malnutrition. At the same time, inefficient post-harvest and supply chain processes entail low quality and safety standards which adversely affect the stability of supplies and which do not allow either the national or international commercialization of Armenian food products.

Under its five-year Country Strategic Plan for 2019-2024, WFP Armenia has designed a portfolio of activities headed up by the Food Value Chain Unit. This Unit supports WFP Armenia to implement smaller-scale activities that through a social protection lens target small-holder farmers to enhance their production, processing, and marketing of selected nutritionally diversified food products. This in turn supports increasing the quantity and quality of selected commodities to be more available at affordable prices within national markets, thus lifting the most vulnerable out of poverty and supporting efforts to tackle the drivers of food insecurity in Armenia.

Given the above, and taking into consideration the growing interest from international partners to invest in WFP Armenia to establish nutritionally-sensitive food value chains, the country office has identified the need to hire a Senior Programme Associate to head up a small field office in Kapan and lead the implementation of WFP’s activities in Syunik region, mainly focusing on delivering food value chain activities but not necessarily limited to it. The role will be under the management of the Head of the Food Value Chain UnitThe Senior Programme Associate is responsible for technical work including the planning, implementation and coordination of activities. The Senior Programme Associate is the technical focal point for a broad range of project documents and should have the ability to supervise and coach a team of staff. Applicants must therefore have a thorough understanding of project context, potential challenges, and an ability to apply a range of solutions while working with minimal supervision. The successful candidate will be able to independently handle a wide range of project activities simultaneously and will be able to support policy and analytical work.

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES (not all-inclusive)

Under the overall guidance of the Deputy Country Director and the direct supervision of the Head of the Food Value Chains Unit; the Senior Programme Associate (Food Value Chains) will provide effective coordination and technical support to a range of policy and programme activities (mainly but not exclusively food value chain activities) in Syunik and other marzes. Specifically, the Senior Programme Associate will be responsible for the following duties (but not limited to):

Effective coordination and project management

-Provide specialized expertise and contribute towards the development of project activities, plans and processes within the specific technical area of work ensuring alignment with wider WFP policies and guidelines. -Provide efficient coordination and specialized project management support to a range of specific and/or defined programmes to ensure that the various activities are performed within the established scope, budget, and time following WFP’s policies and procedures. -Act as an escalation point for complex query resolution on all matters within the area of responsibility. -Follow standard operation procedures and emergency preparedness practices to ensure WFP operates within a compliant framework and is able to quickly respond and deploy needed resources to affected areas at the onset of the crisis. -Support the implementation of other WFP supported activities in the region and promote synergies between these activities. Technical support and team management

-Within the specific area of responsibility, prepare and contribute to a variety of elaborated reports and substantial data analysis (e.g. needs assessments, feasibility analysis, cost/benefit analysis. logical frameworks, work plans, resource utilization report, programme status, risk assessments, performance) and make recommendations to supervisors, ensuring deliverables adhere to corporate standards and quality control. -Coordinate and liaise with internal counterparts on a range of complex matters to enable effective collaboration, implementation and monitoring of ongoing project activities. -Support the capacity building of WFP staff, cooperating partners and national government within the technical area of Food Value Chains, behavior change, marketing, and Food Systems. -Manage a team of support staff, providing advice, guidance and training, to ensure individual and team objectives are delivered to agreed standards and deadlines. Given the changing project portfolio under the management of this position, the team structure should be expected to change considerably throughout the contract term. -Responsible for coordinating field operations within the field office and ensuring alignment of administrative practices with corporate standards. Strategy and stakeholder engagement

-Support identifying opportunities for strategic investment in the supply chain network and food value chains that will build resilience along the whole chain and have a transformational impact on food systems. Present such opportunities to senior management in a well research way. -Lead and ensure accurate, timely recording of data within the food value chain unit, and for other projects within this positions portfolio and ensure consistency of information presented to stakeholders (both internal and external). -Foster relationships and support partnership-building with local partners, academic institutions, NGOs and government institutions to form collaborations and to build an evidence-based understanding of needs. Input into strategies on how WFP can respond to these. -Support the partnership and communication unit by inputting into project proposals for funding and for documenting and communicating results;

-Other tasks as required.

STANDARD MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS

Education: Completion of secondary school education. A post-secondary certificate in the functional area is desirable. A first level university degree in Business Administration, International Affairs, Economics, Nutrition/Health, Agriculture, Environmental Science, Social Sciences or other field relevant to international development assistance would be an asset.

Experience: Three or more years of progressively responsible experience in direct implementation of Food Value Chain-related projects. Experience in programme implementation with increased level of responsibility. Experience in providing input to policy discussions.

Knowledge & Skills: Strong analytical, written and oral communication skills, excellent interpersonal skills and ability to work in a team; ability to plan and organize work with minimum supervision; ability to work under pressure and meet tight deadlines; General knowledge of UN system policies, rules, regulations and procedures is desirable.

Languages: Fluency in English and Armenian languages; working knowledge (level B) of Russian language is desired.

JOB PURPOSE

To provide effective coordination and specialized support to a full range of policy and programme activities that effectively meet food assistance needs.

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 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 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 Understands and applies basic principles of engagement with government counterparts at the national or local level.

TERMS AND CONDITIONS

Applications must be submitted online through WFP e-Recruitment System.

Internal WFP staff can access the VA through the internal WFP CAREER page via the link: http://newgo.wfp.org/services/e-recruitment.

Make sure that you answer all mandatory questions accurately and to upload your updated CV in English. Only short-listed candidates will be contacted.

The successful candidate will have to be vaccinated against the COVID-19 to be able to perform his/her duties. The UN strongly recommends UN personnel, and their dependents receive a COVID-19 vaccine that has been approved by WHO.

DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS

Interested candidates are invited to submit their application not later than Monday, 31 December 2021.

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Female applicants and qualified applicants from developing countries 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.