The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is the world's largest humanitarian agency, fighting hunger worldwide. It is soliciting expressions of interest by development professionals from around the world, in joining the WFP Technical Experts Network (TEN). The TEN will be managed by a small Secretariat housed in the Technical Assistance and Country Capacity Strengthening (TACCS) Service, Programme and Policy Division (OSZ) in the WFP Headquarters in Rome, Italy but will be tapped into by WFP Country Offices around the world.
Context
The adoption in 2015 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs 2030) is a testament to the growing desire of nations to take the lead in sustainably improving the wellbeing of their populations and building their own capacities to design and deliver effective food security and nutrition solutions. In this context, WFP is increasingly being called upon to support and facilitate national food security and nutrition systems and capacity. Food security and nutrition (FSN) capacity refers to a country’s capacity to prepare and manage national systems and public policy to ensure food security and nutrition objectives are consistently met across the board.
Purpose
In order to adequately and appropriately respond to increasing demand for technical services to national FSN systems, WFP is mobilising a cadre of senior experts with strategic and/or technical expertise in designing and implementing food security and nutrition solutions in developing and/or middle income countries who can be contracted and deployed to support the organisation in delivering timely and appropriate quality assistance to governments.
Focus
In its Corporate Strategic Plan (2017-2021) WFP fully embraces the vision set in the 2030 Agenda for a world free from hunger in a context of equitable and environmentally responsible sustainable development. This vision is global and universal, and reflects commitment to leaving no one behind. Reflecting its own history and mandate, and recognizing that all 17 SDGs are interconnected, WFP prioritizes two SDGs – SDG 2 on achieving zero hunger and SDG 17 on partnering to support implementation of the SDGs – while contributing to other SDGs depending on country contexts and national priorities. This focus reflects WFP’s dual mandate as set out in United Nations General Assembly Resolution 1714 of 1961 and subsequent mission statements, and its strengths, capacities and potential as demonstrated in its programme of work and the demand for its technical and operational services, common services and capacities. In its operations, WFP will keep a strong focus on saving lives and livelihoods in emergencies, leveraging its many recognized strengths in humanitarian and crisis settings.
WFP will work towards two strategic goals, which comprise various strategic objectives and results. Strategic Goal 1Support Countries to Achieve Zero Hunger is in line with SDG 2 – End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture. SDG 2 reflects the fact that hunger has multiple interrelated components. As such, achieving zero hunger is a multi-sectoral challenge that will require multi-stakeholder partnerships to make progress on the different components of SDG 2 at the same time in a coordinated and concerted manner. Expressed in everyday language rather than technical definitions, SDG 2 encompasses the four dimensions of food security as defined by the World Food Summit in 1996: (1) End hunger – access to safe, nutritious and sufficient food at all times (Target 2.1); (2) Achieve improved nutrition – consumption of nutritionally adequate diets with complementary actions to support utilization (Target 2.2); (3) Achieve food security –availability of safe, nutritious, and sufficient food (Target 2.3) and stability of food systems (Target 2.4); and (4)Promote sustainable agriculture – stability of food systems (Target 2.4) and inputs (Target 2.5). The four components of SDG 2 provide a definition of zero hunger and benchmarks against which to measure progress towards its achievement. WFP’s primary focus will be on the first three elements of SDG 2 and the first four targets, while other actors have mandates and capacities for promoting sustainable agriculture and enhancing seed, plant and animal genetic diversity.
Strategic Goal 2 Partner to Support Implementation of the SDGs aligns with SDG 17 – Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development. SDG 17 is focused on how the SDGs can be achieved by using multi-stakeholder partnerships to enable collective and coherent action that provides the necessary financial, knowledge and institutional support for implementation. SDG 17 urges all stakeholders to continue to learn, innovate and transform, particularly as they work together to achieve the 2030 Agenda. Its 19 targets reflect the 7 action areas of the Addis Ababa Action Agenda, especially those of particular relevance to ending hunger: sustained resource investments, particularly in social protection and disaster risk reduction; private-sector partnerships; international development cooperation, especially South–South cooperation; addressing systemic issues; and science, technology, innovation and capacity-building.
Approach
The WFP corporate approach to strengthening capacities in FSN systems sees the organisation supporting national counterparts along five critical pathways that can support and relate to WFP’s recognised areas of comparative advantage as it works to deliver against the strategic goals, objectives and results outlined above. These critical pathways include supporting and/or strengthening:
- Effective food security and nutrition policies and legislation;
- Effective and accountable institutions mandated to address food security and nutrition objectives;
- Food security and nutrition-responsive national plans with proportionate budget allocation;
- Effective food security and nutrition programme design, delivery and management; and
- Continuity and sustained national capacity to manage, reduce, and eliminate food insecurity and malnutrition.
Building on the organisation’s recognised niche of operations to deliver results, WFP’s areas of comparative advantage can be articulated through various combinations of the following activities, thematic and functional areas and may unfold in different contexts:
General thematic areas
- Climate and disaster risk reduction
- Country Capacity Development
- Emergency and transition programming
- Gender and gender-sensitive programming
- Nutrition and nutrition-sensitive programming
- Resilience-building programming
- Smallholder agricultural market support
- Social protection and safety nets
Specific activity types
- Asset creation
- General food distribution
- Local procurement
- Nutrition-specific
- School feeding / Home-grown school-feeding (HGSF)
Technical areas
- Economic and Market analysis
- Food Security and Nutrition Analysis
- Food Security and Nutrition Policy Analysis
- Knowledge and experience of transfer modalities (food, cash and/or voucher)
- Nutrition in HIV/TB
- Supply chain/value chains for nutrition (including local production of SNF)
- Value chains assessments for HGSF
- Fortification (rice fortification in particular)
Functional areas:
· Communications
· Evidence-building (research, statistics, analysis etc.)
· Information and Knowledge management
· Information Communication Technology
· Logistics
· Management Information systems
· Marketing
· Monitoring and Evaluations capacities
· Results-based management
· Social behaviour change communication (SBCC)
Contexts
· Disruptions (emergency/humanitarian)
· Structural Poverty
· Recovery
· Rural and/or Urban
For the purposes of the cadre of senior strategic and/or technical experts, WFP is seeking experts experienced in supporting the design and implementation of country food security and nutrition solutions at scale by operating through one or more of the critical pathways as they relate to a specific activity, thematic, technical and/or functional area.
Other considerations
Duties and Responsibilities
This Expression of Interest provides an opportunity for senior strategic and/or technical experts to submit their professional profiles for inclusion in the WFP Technical Experts Network (TEN).
Duties and responsibilities for specific assignments – as these arise – will be detailed through assignment-specific Terms of Reference on a case-by-case basis and will be circulated by the TEN Secretariat on behalf of requesting WFP Country Offices, to experts with relevant profiles in the TEN to assess interest and availability. Once selected by the requesting WFP Country Office, experts will be deployed to specific locations in the capacity of an external Technical Expert collaborating with and/or on behalf of WFP in the context of the organisation’s national capacity strengthening activities. It should be noted that these assignments will be of finite duration are not to be considered WFP Staff positions.
Qualifications, Experience and Skills
Education
Minimum of a Master’s degree in Policy, International Affairs, Economics, Nutrition/Health, Agriculture, Environmental Science, Social Sciences or other field relevant to international development assistance, with additional years of related work experience and/or postgraduate trainings/courses.
Doctorate and/or post-doctorate level studies desirable.
Experience
· Ten or more years postgraduate and progressively responsible professional experience in supporting national governments working towards the realisation of national development goals aiming to reduce food insecurity and malnutrition, with:
o Demonstrable experience in supporting actual implementation of national food security and nutrition solutions as pertinent to the relevant work/thematic/functional areas listed above;
o Experience reviewing food security and nutrition national policies and institutional structures and response mechanisms;
o Experience in analysing and responding to national capacity assessment and gaps analyses in challenging/fragile contexts; and
o Experience in delivering technical assistance through one or more of the WFP points of engagement to strengthen food security and nutrition systems.
· Experience working in complex multiple-stakeholder contexts and in establishing contacts and liaising with partner organisations/companies;
· Previous work experience through official roles/capacities in national government is considered an asset.
· Previous work experience in an International Organisation and/or UN organisation is considered an asset.
Technical Skills & Knowledge
· Recognised and demonstrable subject matter expertise (through previous work engagements and references, publications, academic reputation, etc.);
· Demonstrated ability to grasp the main food security and nutrition issues prevailing at national or subnational levels
· Ability to design and/or support the design of context-specific technical assistance and/or capacity development responses related to areas of expertise that recognise contextual complexity and propose a range of approaches to strengthening food security and nutrition systems;
· Knowledge of key country capacity strengthening concepts and principles relevant to a range of contexts;
· Knowledge of effective models for country capacity strengthening through both technical assistance and capacity development approaches;
· Demonstrated data collection and analytical writing skills (if and as relevant to the subject matter and point of engagement);
· Moderate to proficient computer literacy, as needed by the specific tasks assigned; and
· Familiarity with WFP’s mandate and intervention modalities, programme and project lifecycle tools, implementation and monitoring and evaluation desirable.
Soft skills
· Ability to liaise and dialogue with national government representatives at highest levels; particularly if submitting professional profile for consideration as a senior strategic expert;
· In-depth understanding of how to facilitate change, work with and manage possible resistance towards the same; the ability to combine sector-specific technical skills with a background in organisational development would be ideal;
· Ability to participate in open dialogue and respect diversity of opinion, regardless of background, culture, experience, or country assignment;
· Ability to explain projects and activities to national counterparts and to communicate with stakeholders clearly and effectively;
· Ability to understand and appropriately respond to and/or escalate needs of national stakeholders;
· Ability to establish priorities and plan, coordinate and monitor own work plan so as to deliver accurately against agreed timelines and budgets;
· Ability to portray an informed and professional demeanour toward internal and external partners and stakeholders;
· Willingness to explore and experiment with new ideas and approaches in own work;
· Strong facilitation skills for strategic/analytical workshops and group discussions;
· Good operational, analytical and problem solving skills; and
· Ability to work independently in a timely and organised manner but also able to work in a team.
Languages:
· Fluency in one or more of the official UN languages: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish.
· Other languages: Specification of other languages is extremely important as WFP will strive to match nationals and/or native tongue speakers of the language of the national governments requesting technical assistance and capacity development support.
HOW TO APPLY:
Application Process:
Step 1: Register and create your online CV.
Step 2: Click on “Description” to read the position requirements and “Apply” to submit your application.
NOTE: You must complete Step 1 and 2 in order for your application to be considered for this Expression of Interest.
Deadline for applications: 31 July 2016
