Programme Policy Officer (Social Protection) at World Food Program: (Deadline: 18 January 2021)

Programme Policy Officer (Social Protection) at World Food Program: (Deadline: 18 January 2021)

Title: Programme Policy Officer (Social Protection)

Type of Appointment: Service Contract (SC)

Level_9

REPORTING TO: Programme Policy Officer (SO2)

DURATION: 12 Months (renewable based on level of performance and availability of funding)

Duty Station: Kigali Office

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.

In Rwanda, WFP works in partnership with the Government and other stakeholders to support national priorities for achieving food and nutrition security. This is done through direct implementation of integrated programmes targeting the most vulnerable people and strengthening national capacity to design, implement and manage programmes for achieving zero hunger. Under its Country Strategic Plan (2019-2023), WFP’s support revolves around four strategic outcomes (SOs) as follows:

• The Strategic Outcome 1 (SO1) is designed to ensure that refugees and returnees in Rwanda have access to adequate and nutritious food at all times.
• SO2 aims to ensure that vulnerable populations in food insecure communities and area have improved access to adequate and nutritious foods all year.
• SO3 focuses on ensuring that children under 5 years, adolescents and pregnant and lactating women in Rwanda have improved access to nutritious foods and services to meet their nutritional needs all year.
• SO4 targets smallholder farmers especially women and aims to provide opportunities for increased marketable surplus and access to agricultural market through efficient supply chains by 2030.

ORGANIZATIONAL CONTEXT

WFP’s emerging role in social protection is to strengthen country capacity to operationalize social protection policies and programmes that improve access to food and nutrition, and generate related knowledge and evidence to influence related policymaking.

WFP supports social protection in different ways according to country-specific needs and opportunities. Specifically, WFP supports countries to: (a) design and implement social protection programmes that protect access to food and nutrition, improve resilience and reduce reliance on humanitarian response; (b) develop efficient social protection delivery systems.

JOB PURPOSE

In implementing its activities, WFP Rwanda will bridge the humanitarian–development nexus and leverage its extensive experience and the contributions it has made in Rwanda over many decades in order to achieve four strategic outcomes:
1.    Refugees and returnees in Rwanda have access to adequate and nutritious food at all times.
2.    Vulnerable populations in food-insecure communities and areas have improved access to adequate and nutritious food all year.
3.    Children under 5, adolescents and pregnant and nursing women and girls in Rwanda have improved access to nutritious foods and services that enable them to meet their nutrition needs all year.
4.    Smallholder farmers, especially women, have increased marketable surplus and access to agricultural markets through efficient supply chains by 2030.
Under strategic outcome 2, WFP is engaging with the Rwandan Social Protection and Emergency management sector, looking at options to leverage the existing social protection programmes and systems to: 1) mitigate the risk of natural disasters and 2) provide more effective, efficient and rapid assistance to affected populations after a disaster has occurred.
To fulfil this role, WFP needs to recruit a Programme Policy Officer under a temporary contract (Service Contract) and who will  report to The Senior Programme Policy Officer.
The job holder will operate with a high degree of independence, manage more junior staff to ensure that programme and policy objectives are achieved in full and will be involved in a wide variety of programme and policy activities and analytical work, some of which may be of a considerable complexity. At this level the job holder is expected to contribute to performance improvement.

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES (not all-inclusive)

Under the supervision of the Outcome Manager, the incumbent will be responsible for the following key duties:

• Ensure effective social protection-related policy and technical dialogue with Government, building a strong and collaborative partnership.
• Plan and coordinate the development of social protection work and activity plans and budgets for technical assistance, capacity strengthening and community-level operations, ensuring alignment with programme policies and guidance.
• Ensure strong sector coordination with partners, including by representing WFP in key coordination platforms, particularly the Social Protection Sector Working Group.
• Research and analyse policy and operational issues to inform the development of policies, programmes and activities. Support the design and coordination of analytical work and assessments and oversee the work of service providers engaged for such assignments.
• Develop content for social protection-related capacity building of Government, partner and WFP staff.
• Contribute to the preparation of accurate and timely reporting on programmes and activities that enable informed decision making and consistency of information presented to stakeholders.
• Provide technical guidance to NGO partners and Field Offices on social protection activities at district and community level.
• Contribute to programme resource mobilisation and partnerships through inputs into proposals.
• Guide and supervise more junior staff, acting as a point of referral and supporting them with technical guidance.
• Ensure effective day-to-day internal operational coordination and collaboration with Kigali-based units and field offices in the implementation of activities.

STANDARD MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS

Education:

Advanced University degree in International Affairs, Economics, Nutrition/Health, Agriculture, Environmental Science, Social Sciences or other field relevant to international development assistance, or First University Degree with additional years of related work experience and/or training/courses.

Experience:

• At least five years of professional in social protection or a closely related field.
• Demonstrated experience working in Government or in close partnership with Government agencies.

Language: 

Fluency (level C) in English language and Kinyarwanda

OTHER SPECIFIC JOB REQUIREMENTS

• Understanding of the national social protection policies, strategies, set up and function to identify areas of cooperation and potential technical support.
• Strong interpersonal skills with the ability to work under pressure and to establish and maintain effective work relationships with people of different national and cultural backgrounds;
• Proven capacity to work well in a team;
• Excellent communication and negotiation skills with an ability to express ideas clearly, concisely and persuasively, both orally and in writing;
• Sound understanding of national social protection policy-making processes and ability to filter operationally relevant lessons for governments and other partners.
• Demonstrated experience in cross-agency collaboration and providing input into policy discussions and decisions.
• Demonstrated experience in managing data collection and analysis for policy decisions. Strong understanding of social protection programming in both development and emergency contexts will be considered as a strong asset.

DESIRED EXPERIENCES FOR ENTRY INTO THE ROLE

• Has deepened technical knowledge through exposure to technical teams.
  • Has taken leadership in implementing programmes.
  • Has provided input into policy discussions and decisions.

TERMS AND CONDITIONS

This position is open for one year with the possibility of renewal, depending on fund availability and satisfactory performance.

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

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

The deadline for applications is 18 January 2021

CLICK HERE TO APPLY