Job Openings at the United Nations World Food Programme

Organizational Context

• This job roles will be based in the country office. Job holder report o the Head of Programme at the Country Office.

Job Purpose

• Under the general supervision and guidance of the Head of Programme, the Programme Policy Officer – CBT will assist in the design and management of CBT transfer modalities for activities of moderate size or complexity that effectively meet food assistance needs.
• He/ she will contribute to policy formulation and/or provide CBT technical advice or oversight on programme strategy and implementation.
• PPO CBT will focus on coordinating CBT functions at the country office, including coordination with the Government of Nigeria’s Cash and Voucher Assistance Policy agenda.

Key Accountabilities

• Conduct Transfer Modality Assessments across the Northeast states of Borno, Adamawa and Yobe (BAY) leading to the production of key reports for decision making on transfer modalities across LGAs. These assessments may also expand to the Northwest contingent upon programme expansion in the region.
• Support the Management-level Strategic Cash Task Force in conducting a holistic assessment of how to streamline and strengthen the rigour of Transfer Modality Assessments to determine the exact transfer ratio of Cash to Food.
• Channel CBT technical expertise and findings from assessments into the National Cash and Voucher Assistance (NCVA) Policy Task Team, of which WFP is a partner. These inputs will coordinate with the NCVA task team to provide a national framework for CVA, promote an inclusive approach that will integrate the use and scale-up of CVA, improve the operational environment for CVA, promote financial inclusion, and facilitate linkage of humanitarian cash transfer with social protection.
• Assist in providing technical advice or mobilize technical expertise, in line with the CBT requirements, on a wide range of programme and policy issues including assessment and analysis, the choice of objectives, activities, transfer modalities and the deployment and testing of innovative approaches and the development of strategies to support government efforts to reduce hunger and malnutrition.
• Assist counterparts in governments and other partners in identifying where CBT assistance can be usefully employed and provide support and technical expertise for the planning, formulation and implementation of moderately complex food assistance programmes to strengthen government and community ownership and effectiveness of food security and nutrition programmes at national and sub-national levels.
• Establish and maintain operational partnerships to identify opportunities for collaborative approaches and initiatives that improve assistance packages and support advocacy work.
• Manage and lead WFP CBT operations within the area of assignment to ensure timely and effective deployment of assistance programmes and ensure efficient use of financial resources for achievement of set objectives.
• Hold accountability and/or prepare accurate and comprehensive analysis and reports on WFP CBT operations and performance with regular and timely submission Country Office review to identify programme support requirements and inform operational planning and decisions.
• Forge and nurture external partnerships, including the national cash working group, to improve assistance packages and support complementary strategies; identify potential areas for collaborative approaches and initiatives.
• Perform other duties 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 years of related work experience and/or trainings/courses.

Experience:

• Minumum of 5 years of professional work experience in Programme design and implementation.

Language:

• National Professional: Fluency (level C) in English language and the duty station’s language, if different.

Desired Experiences for Entry into the Role:

• Has developed, or supported in the development of, multi-discipline work plans to support the achievement of WFP strategic aims within a defined area.
• Has gained experience in field operations, preferably in a hardship duty station or emergency situation.
• Gained experience of analysing political situations, assessing risk accurately and supporting managers and leaders in decision making that is sensitive to this.
• Gained broader exposure across areas within CBT function
• Has gained experience managing mid-size financial budgets, balancing multiple priorities effectively.
• Has experience leading a mid-size to large team to ensure the effective delivery of objectives.
• Participated in a vendor/government/ partner negotiation in support of broad function or Country Office requirements.
• Participated in a moderately complex emergency operation/ development programme.

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Organizational Context

• This job is found in Country Offices (COs), Regional Bureaux (RBs), and Headquarters (HQ), and typically report to a more senior Information Technology (IT) Officer, Regional/Country Director or the designate.
• Job holders operate with minimal supervision, and provide guidance to junior staff to ensure that objectives are achieved. They are responsible for a broad range of daily activities, analytical work and deliver technical support by modifying existing systems, and resolving straightforward issues/problems. They also develop and/or support the usage of systems and applications, data and databases.
• Digital solutions are rapidly reaching some of the most vulnerable people and places affected by crisis. As one of the main humanitarian actors, the World Food Programme (WFP) has the opportunity and the obligation to leverage data and technology to better know and serve those in need by digitally transforming the way it works. Such ambition led to a plan aimed at establishing, integrating, and mainstreaming the core elements of an end-to-end digital business process. This includes SCOPE - WFP’s beneficiary and transfer management platform that supports the WFP programme intervention cycle from a technical perspective.
• The SCOPE platform is a web-based application used for beneficiary registration, intervention setup, distribution planning, transfer and distribution reporting.  While there is a current focus and scale-up/enhancement related to cash-based transfers, SCOPE is used in Nigeria to fully support all WFP transfer modalities: in-kind, e-voucher and cash for a variety of project activities.

Job Purpose

• Under the supervision of the Head of IT/SCOPE in the Maiduguri Area Office, the incumbent will be responsible to support the Country Office (CO) in the operation of SCOPE and related DAS for WFP and/or partners.
• This will include analyzing new requirements and functionalities for the North-East of Nigeria, testing and ensuring the new features and respond to the programmatic needs.

Key Accountabilities (Not All-inclusive)

• Support the budgeting, planning and deployment of IT and Telecommunications systems to support digital assistance, particularly cash-based transfers, in accordance with WFP corporate standards;
• Assist and advise in the development of programme operational plans and deliver resource requirements to facilitate achievement of overall CBT programme objectives;
• Provide data and documentation to support the procurement of ICT/SCOPE equipment and services in line with WFP rules and regulations;
• Play an active role in beneficiary registration activities such as systems configuration, on-site support, data storage and synchronization as well as beneficiary services;
• Support in maintaining IT Macro and Micro Assessments including Beneficiary Information Assessments standards to ensure IT contribution in transfer modality choice decisions;
• Consolidate requirements for SCOPE functional changes, based on CO operational requirements so that it evolves in keeping with changes and challenges of delivering assistance;
• Respond to queries from users, understanding and resolving issues, providing advice and ensuring SCOPE/CBT policies, procedures, systems and tools are correctly applied to support them. Keep track of the issues and coordinate with BTO/SCOPE Service Desk for resolution;
• Support capacity building aimed at enhancing DAS expertise within the AO, Cooperating Partners and Government counterparts as and when required;
• Collate data and contribute to the preparation of accurate reports (Dashboards, weekly, monthly and on-Demand reports) on SCOPE and CBT activities to inform decision making;
• Manage the end-to-end SCOPE beneficiary registration, project/intervention setup, SCOPE card printing and support Retailer and POS operations.

Other Key Accountabilities:

• Identify opportunities to use SCOPE as a tool to facilitate collaboration with other UN Agencies/ Government;
• Manage and support deduplication and adjudication of the SCOPE database to ensure credible data for both WFP and Partners;
• Provide guidance on issues related to beneficiary data security, explore possibility for data sharing to contribute to effective and efficient functioning of SCOPE;
• Establish and maintain close partnerships with counterparts to effectively meet their needs;
• Manage alignment of IT service levels with SLAs for solutions or services focused on the stakeholders needs. Conduct survey on business satisfaction with IT solutions and services;
• Manage estimates, business cases, planning, risk identification, problem and issue management to ensure the effective delivery of IT solutions;
• Guide and supervise more junior staff, acting as a point of referral and supporting them with more complex analysis and queries;
• Oversee the overall operations of the IT/SCOPE unit in the absence of the Head of IT/SCOPE in the CO;
• Perform any other duties as required.

Qualifications & Experience Required
Education:

• Advanced University Degree in Business Management, Computer Science, Telecommunications Engineering or Social Sciences, or First University Degree with additional years of related work experience or trainings/courses.

Experience: 

• At least 3 years of field experience in humanitarian response operations and/or business systems analysis, design and development.
• Good experience in implementing end-to-end DAS/SCOPE operations.
• Experience in client-facing roles in either technology implementation projects or in the planning, design and implementation of humanitarian and development programmes.
• Has experience in Service provision and support.
• Experience with cash transfer programming and/or beneficiary identity management activities desirable.
• Has coordinated and managed small or medium projects.
• Has participated in the analysis and re-design of business processes or applications.
• Has conducted cost-benefit analyses to support project management.
• Experience in emergencies.

Language:

• Fluency in spoken and written English language. 

Knowledge & Skills:

• Possession of a combination of broad business skills and IT experience including: general management skills in business and/or public sector, excellent business communications skills, business analysis including creation and review of functional and non-functional business requirements for IT solution, research and analysis, market analysis, benchmarking, industry best practices, etc.
• Possess change management skills and experience, with the ability to think strategically;
• Good knowledge and appreciation of IT trends and strategies including external and internal partners vision and application technologies;
• Ability to operate in distributed / decentralised teams, engage with and support partners;
• Ability to perform under pressure, to multi-task, to navigate through multiple priorities and conflicting requests;
• Ability to work independently through appropriate personal initiative and regular follow-ups;
• Highly-developed written and oral communication skills with orientation to details
• Ability to influence and adapt communication styles to different situations and individuals;
• Collaborative hands-on team member and relationship-builder with a facilitative nature and strong business partnering skills towards colleagues and stakeholders;
• Exhibit a detailed understanding of customers’ IT requests in order to effectively address and manage internal customers; needs. Identifies recurrent issues to propose long-term solutions;
• Immediately adapt the personal approach on the basis of the situation and anticipate needs.
• Knowledge of and hands-on experience in cash-based transfers (CBT) programming in humanitarian context would be an asset.