WFP seeks candidates of the highest integrity and professionalism who share our humanitarian principles. Selection of staff is made on a competitive basis. We are committed to promoting diversity and the principle of equal employment opportunity for all our employees and encourage qualified candidates to apply irrespective of religion or belief, ethnic or social background, gender, gender identity, and disability.

JOB DETAILS

Job Title: Programme Policy Officer (Head of Programmes)
Grade:  NOB
Type of contract: Fixed Term
Duration:  12 months (Extendable)
Duty Station: Kabul
Vacancy Number: 831129
Date of Publication: 11 Jan 2024
Deadline of Application: 25 Jan 2024

This vacancy announcement is for Afghan nationals only and WFP encourages especially Afghan females and Afghans with disabilities to apply.

ABOUT WFP

The World Food Programme (WFP) is the leading humanitarian organization saving lives and changing lives, delivering food assistance in emergencies and working with communities to improve nutrition and build resilience.

ORGANIZATIONAL CONTEXT

The hunger crisis in Afghanistan is unfolding at a rapidly, with over half the country’s population of 15 million now facing acute food insecurity—the highest number the humanitarian community has ever seen in Afghanistan. Work opportunities are shrinking, with most households now reporting just one day of work per week. This comes on top of the worst drought in years, which is especially concerning for the 85 percent of the population who rely on agriculture for livelihoods.

Preventing and mitigating a drastic increase in hunger and malnutrition is the aim of WFP in Afghanistan which can only be achieved through the scaled up and sustained complementary food security and nutrition interventions, combined with a scale-up of resilience interventions to safeguard gains. WFP has embarked on a significant month on month scale-up of its crisis response and resilience programmes across the country, ensuring that the programme is delivered at the right scale and time, targeted to the right areas. WFP is also actively following up on evolving trends to pre-empt hotspots, while guaranteeing quality and maximum impact of the programme through the monitoring of these hotspots to be able to support continued donor advocacy.

JOB PURPOSE

To lead emergency response activities and the wider programme team to effectively meet emergency food assistance and broader programming needs.

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES (not all-inclusive)

• Lead the emergency programme within the Area Office region of responsibility, ensuring quality and timely implementation in line with the Implementation Plan across all area of the project cycle (needs identification, partnership management, beneficiary targeting, registration and distribution and proper monitoring and strengthening of activities, etc.).
• Contribute towards the development and implementation of a wider variety of projects, plans and processes, ensuring alignment with wider programme policies and Country Office guidance and per the programming requirements of the Area Office.
• Provide project management support to Area Office programmes and projects of considerable size/complexity, ensuring a coordinated approach with wider programmes that complies with WFP standards and procedures.
• Develop and coordinate data gathering and monitoring systems ensuring that rigorous quality standards are maintained, in coordination with M&E colleagues, to make the best use of multiple forms of monitoring and programme information to enhance implementation.
• Ensure effective, efficient and transparent partnerships with cooperating partners for implementation, in coordination with the Country Office.
• Ensure the preparation of accurate and timely reporting on programmes and activities that enable informed decision making and consistency of information presented to stakeholders.
• Liaise with internal and external counterparts to ensure effective collaboration, accurate and timely preparation of all necessary requests and documents (including FRNs, SESs etc), monitor ongoing projects and highlight potential risks to project delivery.
• Liaise regularly with Country Office programme focal points, including the emergency programme team, M&E, VAME and others to ensure implementation, capacity strengthening and adaptation and strengthening of the programme as may be required.
• Research and analyse a range of policy and operational issues to inform the development of policies, programmes and activities with the support of the Country Office.
• Support the capacity building of WFP staff and partners to prepare for and respond to food assistance needs.
• Guide and supervise the Area Office Programme team, acting as a point of referral and supporting them with analysis and queries.
• Other as required.

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 specialized training and additional two year of most related professional work experience.

Minimum Work Experience:

• At least three (3) years of postgraduate professional experience in programme management;

Desirable Work Experience:

• Has led a mid-size team to ensure the effective delivery of objectives
• Has led and implemented food and/or cash assistance programmes at scale.
• Has experience in identifying capacity strengthening needs in a team environment and implementing a set of training, coaching, mentoring or other measures to enhance overall performance.
• Has provided input into policy discussions and decisions on how to translate overall programmatic guidance or standards into specific programme designs or project adaptations.
• Technical knowledge and experience of areas relevant to portfolio of work in the Programme and Policy such as general food distributions, nutrition, school feeding, food assistance for assets or deepened technical knowledge of one or more of the following thematic areas: resilience, livelihoods, nutrition, social protection, climate change adaptation.

Knowledge and Skills:

• Solid understanding of the different components of the programme management cycle with technical knowledge of different food assistance modalities and their applicability;
• Knowledge of one or more cross-cutting areas, such as protection, accountability to affected populations, gender, climate change and conflict-sensitive approaches;
• Knowledge of in-kind food, cash and voucher transfers;
• Has deepened technical knowledge through exposure to technical teams in at least some of the following areas; vulnerability assessment and mapping (VAM), monitoring and evaluation (M&E), protection and access, cooperating partner management, and/or SCOPE.
• Familiarity with risk management as it relates to project implementation and the security situation in Afghanistan in co-ordination with security experts and local authorities

Language:

• Fluency (level C) in English language and local languages.

HOW TO APPLY

To be considered, interested candidates are invited to apply via (https://www.wfp.org/careers/job-openings). Only short-listed candidates will be contacted.

We want to ensure the recruitment process is fully accessible. Please contact us at afg.hrrecruitment@wfp.org to advise us of any accessibility needs you may have.

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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.