🇸🇱 Job Vacancies @ WFP (World Food Programme) – 2 Positions
Career Opportunities: Programme Associate
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 World Food Programme (WFP) has been present in Sierra Leone since 1968. It supports the Government through a range of integrated life-saving and resilience-building activities.
To build the resilience of smallholder farmers, WFP provides support along the entire value chain, from production to marketing. Currently WFP directly supports almost 9,000 smallholder farmers to produce, process and market rice, nutritious vegetables, legumes and Orange Fleshed Sweet Potato. WFP’s flagship programme is Home-Grown School Feeding, which synergies local production and consumption, providing a market for smallholder production through supplying the National School Feeding programme. WFP provides daily school feeding in 5 districts across the country, covering over 1,000 schools and approximately 240,000 beneficiaries. To expand the benefits associated with school feeding, in select schools, WFP is undertaking a Home-Grown School Feeding approach, based on local procurement from smallholder farmers.
In Bonthe district, WFP covers 166 schools and over 36,000 beneficiaries with School Feeding. The Government of Iceland is funding the conversion of 136 of these schools to Home-Grown School Feeding modality (currently only 5 schools are on this modality) through the inclusion of locally produced fresh vegetables in the food basket and orange-fleshed sweet potato/fish in select schools. The package also includes the construction of kitchen/storage facilities and installation of fuel-efficient stoves.
ORGANIZATIONAL CONTEXT
Job holders reports to the Head of Asset Creation and Livelihood and the Head of Kenema Sub Office At this level, job holders are expected to demonstrate responsibility and initiative to respond independently to various queries with only general guidance. There is a requirement to use judgment in dealing with unforeseen operational problems on a daily basis. Job holders are expected to manage resources and coach and coordinate support staff.
JOB PURPOSE
To provide effective specialized support and technical analyses to policy and programme activities that effectively meet food assistance needs.
KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES (not all-inclusive)
Under the supervision of the Head of Asset Creation and Livelihood and the Head of Kenema Sub Office, the position will entail: Smallholder capacity strengthening
- In collaboration with MAFS, train farmers using in nutrition-sensitive agriculture using the farmer field school approach, provide timely Improved Planting Materials and support compost preparation.
- Train farmers in improved Post-Harvest Management and provide technical support to aggregation, processing, and handling.
- Develop organizational governance and financial management capacities of FBOs.
- Increase financial inclusion through effective management of Village Savings and Loans Associations.
- Support Mother Support Groups to diversify their Income Generating Activities through vegetable, legume and tuber cultivation and transformation.
- Climate- sensitive agriculture
- Restore degraded ecosystems through reforestation and improved soil management practices. This will also include supporting communities/schools to plant fast growing trees schools can harvest and use as source of firewood.
Climate-sensitive agriculture
- Restore degraded ecosystems through reforestation and improved soil management practices. This will also include supporting communities/schools to plant fast growing trees schools can harvest and use as source of firewood.
Infrastructural development
- Monitor the construction/rehabilitation of school/community stores and drying floors.
- Roll-out Home-Grown School Feeding
- Build marketing capacities of FBOs and linking them to WFP programmes – particularly through Home Grown School Feeding - and other markets.
- Support the sourcing and processing of fish under the Home-Grown School Feeding.
- Government capacity strengthening
- Through its close working relationship with MAFS, WFP is also strengthening the capacities of extension workers to build food security in their operational areas.
- Monitoring and Reporting
- In collaboration with WFP Research, Assessment and Monitoring (RAM) unit, undertake weekly monitoring of project activities and ensure that these are effectively documented, and lessons learned incorporated into the project cycle.
- Compile monthly monitoring data into a monthly report to be shared with the ACL Activity Manager to track project progress (Iceland)
- Support compilation of quarterly and annual project narrative reports to the Government of Iceland.
- Closely monitor project expenditure to ensure that it is aligned with the approved project budget. eBFICKQ C0zk13
- Collect case studies to show the impact of the project to the Government of Iceland and the public
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 implement, under guidance, food assistance programmes deploying the full range of transfer modalities with an understanding of basic principles guiding modality selection and implementation.
Broad Knowledge of Specialized Areas
Understands basic technical concepts and data and their relevance to food assistance programmes.
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.
STANDARD MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS
Education: General Agriculture, Crop Science, Irrigation Engineering, Rural Development, Development Economics; etc. If the candidate lacks a formal qualification in agriculture, they must be able to demonstrate knowledge acquired through agricultural project management.
Experience: At least five years of relevant professional experience in programme design and implementation in School Feeding and/or cash-based activities or local procurement component.
Fluency (level C) in Krio and English. Intermediate (level B) in Mende and Sherbro
DESIRED EXPERIENCES FOR ENTRY INTO THE ROLE
- Proven capacity to provide implementation support to complex multi-faceted programs.
- Ability to represent WFP at strategic engagements with partners.
- Ability to think creatively, strategically and to work autonomously.
- Strong networking skills
- Ability to take initiative and be proactive.
TERMS AND CONDITIONS
Position open to Sierra Leone Nationals only
Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.
Qualified female candidates are strongly encouraged to apply.
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
24th January 2024
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
WFP will not request payment at any stage of the recruitment process including at the offer stage. Any requests for payment should be refused and reported to local law enforcement authorities for appropriate action.