Programme Officer-Forecast based Financing (FbF) Coordinator

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.

Job Description

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.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE OF THE ASSIGNMENT

For the 1.3 billion people living on less than a dollar a day globally and depending on agriculture for their livelihoods, vulnerability to climate-related shocks is a constant threat to their food security, lives and livelihoods. The situation is particularly precarious for the food insecure people that WFP supports throughout the region and so it has become imperative to address this multitude of complex risk factors that contribute to food and nutrition insecurity and erode the livelihoods of the poorest. Working with partners, WFP in the region is advancing a more holistic approach to supporting disaster risk reduction, climate adaptation and resilience at all levels through an integrated risk management approach. Understanding how to help communities confront and manage this risk, so they can be resilient to climate-related shocks, is critical for addressing global poverty. WFP is seeking to enhance its capacities and expertise by recruiting a Programme Officer who will provide technical support and support the scaling up of forecast-based financing actions for food security in Ethiopia. WFP aims to institutionalize this work through these activities by both collaborating with PSNP, federal and regional governments, implementing partners and supporting the linkages between WFPs vast experience in food security, risk management, early warning systems capacity strengthening, vulnerability analysis and emergency response.

JOB PURPOSE

The focus of this function will be to ensure that the Forecast-based financing (FbF) project for drought risk is implemented according to project timelines, integrates across other DRR and country office relief and climate Solutions initiatives and liaises with implementation partners and government agencies as needed. The Programme officer will be working on various workstreams within the project including early warning systems for drought, identification of anticipatory actions to mitigate the impacts of drought, climate services, integration of vulnerability assessments to help target interventions, organize workshops, report writing, organize and attend workshops, ensure project deliverables are met on time and on budget.

The overall goal of the FbF project is to enhance the adaptive capacity of vulnerable communities against the effects of climate change on their food security and livelihoods. The project will achieve this by strengthening national capacities and systems for climate risk management, based on the generation, use and integration of tailored climate forecasts and triggers into Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for early action against agricultural drought. The SOPs will serve to bolster national and international response capacities before and during drought shocks, and reduce the overall impact, recovery time and costs associated with responding to drought impacts on agriculture and food security.

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES (not all-inclusive)

Under the direct supervision of the Programme Policy officer, GIS and Mapping, the incumbent will be responsible for the following duties:

• Support potential synergies with other drought risk management projects including other FbF projects in the region/country;
• Share WFP experience with national FBF stakeholders;
• Work with program sections to define appropriate anticipatory actions to mitigate potential drought impacts in Somali region in general and in particular communities selected based on risk assessment;
• Conduct multi-stakeholder workshops and trainings to identify and validate early warning triggers and anticipatory actions;
• Support the development of SOPs for Forecast-based Financing, which would include activity timeline, costs, stakeholders, targeting and the associated early warnings;
• Support documentation, for FbF activities
• Report writing for mid and end of project timelines, support to communications and advocacy, presentations, knowledge sharing amongst other WFP FbF projects; prepare annual and periodic work plans and manage FBF budgets
• Liaise with national counterparts, M&E and VAM teams in Ethiopia CO and global climate team to support effective collaboration, implementation, compliance and monitoring of ongoing project activities.
• Undertake other duties assigned by the supervior related to support to early warning and DRR capacity strengthening activities

STANDARD MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS

Education: Advanced university degree in Agriculture, Natural Resource Management, Disaster Risk Reduction, Social science or other related fields; or additional professional work experience, combined with a first university
degree in a related discipline.

Experience: At least two years working experience focusing on NRM/DRR activities including formulation of guidelines, community engagement, implementation of watershed rehabilitation plans.

Experience in WFP specific programmes like MERET, Climate Change Adaptation is an added advantage.

Language: For this assignment, fluency in oral and written English and Amharic is sufficient. Knowledge of other Ethiopian regional languages would be an advantage.

KNOWLEDGE & SKILLS:

• Ability to work independently in a timely and organized manner.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills.
• Willingness to explore and experiment with new ideas and approaches in own work.
• Ability to work in a team and multi-task as needed.
• A strong understanding of Climate and DRR context of Ethiopia

4Ps CORE ORGANISATIONAL CAPABILITIES

Purpose

• Understand and communicate the Strategic Objectives: Understands WFP’s Strategic Objectives and the link to own work objectives.
• Be a force for positive change: Flexibly adapts individual contributions to accommodate changes in direction from supervisors and internal/external changes (such as evolving needs of beneficiaries, new requirements of partners).
•  Make the mission inspiring to our team: Recognizes and shares with team members the ways in which individual contributions relate to WFP’s mission.
•  Make our mission visible in everyday actions: Sets own goals in alignment with WFP’s overall operations, and is able to communicate this link to others.

People

• Look for ways to strengthen people’s skills: Assesses own strengths and weaknesses to increase self-awareness, and includes these in conversations on own developmental needs.
•  Create an inclusive culture: Participates in open dialogue, and values the diverse opinion of others, regardless of background, culture, experience, or country assignment.
•  Be a coach & provide constructive feedback: Proactively seeks feedback and coaching to build confidence, and develop and improve individual skills.
•  Create an “I will”/”We will” spirit: Participates in accomplishing team activities and goals in the face of challenging circumstances.

Performance

• Encourage innovation & creative solutions: Shows willingness to explore and experiment with new ideas and approaches in own work.
•  Focus on getting results: Consistently delivers results within individual scope of work on time, on budget and without errors.
•  Make commitments and make good on commitments: Commits to upholding individual accountabilities and responsibilities in the face of ever-changing country or functional priorities.
•  Be Decisive: Makes rational decisions about individual activities when faced with uncertain circumstances, including in times of ambiguity regarding information or manager direction.

Partnership

• Connect and share across WFP units: Seeks to understand and adapt to internal or cross-unit teams’ priorities and preferred working styles.
•  Build strong external partnerships: Demonstrates ability to understand and appropriately respond to and/or escalate needs of external partners.
•  Be politically agile & adaptable: Portrays an informed and professional demeanor toward internal and external partners and stakeholders.
•  Be clear about the value WFP brings to partnerships: Provides operational support on analyses and assessments that quantifies and demonstrates WFP’s unique value as a partner.

This position is open to all qualified candidates.

Female applicants and people with disability are especially encouraged to apply.

WFP has a zero-tolerance approach to conduct such as fraud, sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to WFP’s standards of conduct and will therefore undergo rigorous background verification internally or through third parties. Selected candidates will also be required to provide additional information as part of the verification exercise. Misrepresentation of information provided during the recruitment process may lead to disqualification or termination of employment