Consultant - Operations Project Managers

WFP seeks candidates of the highest integrity and professionalism who share our humanitarian principles

Selection of staff is made on a competitive basis, and we are committed to promoting diversity and gender balance

Who we are looking for: we are seeking to identify Operations Project Managers (Consultants). This recruitment is aimed at recruiting and/or building/maintaining a pool of potential Operations Project Managers.

What we offer: an international consultancy contract of up to 11 months from start date will be offered to the selected candidate(s).

Workplace: Regional Bureaus or other locations/Country Offices depending on the need with possibility of field deployments to emergencies.

ABOUT WFP

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) 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, mainly women and children, can access the nutritious food they need.

ORGANIZATIONAL CONTEXT

Technology and connectivity are rapidly reaching some of the most vulnerable people and places affected by crisis, but they are also increasingly expanding to the services responding to those same crises. As one of the main humanitarian actors, 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 – in the next two years – the core elements of an end-to-end digital business process.

The objective is to support the Executive Director’s digital strategy to ensure that WFP assistance is digitized and that these business services may also potentially be offered to partners and governments.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE OF THE ASSIGNMENT

The World Food Programme has developed and is continuing to enhance and maintain a set of digital solutions to help in managing:

• the identities and entitlements of its beneficiaries;
• the operational parameters of the programmes that transfer benefits to them; and
• the assurances and insights to ensure related risks are properly managed.

This includes SCOPE (for further information about SCOPE click here: https://tiny.cc/wfpscope), 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 intended and being developed to fully support all WFP transfer modalities: in-kind, voucher and cash for a variety of project activities. As an extension and over the next couple of years, WFP also plans to develop a broad array of digital assistance services (DAS) beyond those related to the current SCOPE capabilities.

Under the overall responsibility of a lead Officer, the incumbents will be responsible to support the operationalization of SCOPE and related DAS for WFP and/or partners. This will include analyzing new requirements and functionalities, testing and ensuring the new features respond to the programmatic needs. The incumbent should expect frequent missions to countries with SCOPE/DAS operations. 

ACCOUNTABILITIES/RESPONSIBILITIES

• Coordinate the implementation and operations of SCOPE/DAS, ensuring involvement of all relevant stakeholder units at CO, RB and HQ as required;
• Engage with management and colleagues to support in identifying requirements and the operational design, budgeting, planning and deployment of technology solutions and systems to support SCOPE/DAS in their given contexts, particularly with respect to Cash-Based Transfers;
• Consolidate, analyze and report on regional SCOPE/DAS operational information;
• Capture, document and analyze (i.e. through diagrams, flowcharts, data models, user experience designs, storyboards) business requirements for DAS and either identify workable existing solutions or escalate to HQ and follow up for potential consideration (e.g. change request);
• Test and analyze SCOPE/DAS solutions and document the match against business requirements for quality and accuracy;
• Through the appropriate channels, support the efforts of technical teams on outstanding operational issues and changes relevant for the region;
• Support to conduct appropriate IT assessments in order to assist management in making informed SCOPE/DAS-related operational decisions;
• Deploy as needed to support on-ground testing, roll-out and/or operations of SCOPE/DAS as required;
• Identify learning needs and support capacity building initiatives for SCOPE/DAS and new related functionalities, aimed at building solid digital assistance expertise amongst cross-functional colleagues in the region;
• Where relevant, support in extending their operational support to partners for the use of WFP’s SCOPE/DAS;
• Support the management of change brought about by the use of technology in CO/Programme processes; and
• Perform any other duties as required.

QUALIFICATIONS & EXPERIENCE REQUIRED

Education: University degree in business management, computer science, telecommunications engineering or social sciences, or another degree with relevant work experience.

Experience

• At least five years of post-graduate progressively responsible professional experience in field operations and/or business systems analysis, design and development.
• Experience in client-facing roles in either technology implementation projects or in the planning, design and implementation of humanitarian or development programmes.
• Experience in collaborating with different humanitarian actors or different service providers to design and decide on payment mechanisms and instruments, and capacity building to coordinate the delivery of assistance in humanitarian contexts.

Technical Experience, Skills & Knowledge

Possession of a combination of broad business skills and IT experience including: General management skills in business and public sector contexts; Business analysis including creation and review of functional and non-functional business requirements for IT solutions.

Awareness of technologies and programming used in the delivery of cash and vouchers in humanitarian contexts; and training and knowledge of business analysis and project management philosophies and methodologies would be an asset.

Competencies and Behaviours:

• 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;
• Capacity to work in difficult and insecure environments;
• Highly-developed written and oral communication skills with the 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;
• Detail-oriented;
• Ethics & Values;
• Client Orientation;
• Interpersonal; and
• Behavioural Flexibility.

Language: Proficiency in English and intermediate knowledge of at least one other official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian and Spanish) or Portuguese (one of WFP’s working languages) appropriate to the Regional Bureau/Country Office.

Terms and Conditions

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: 26 July 2019

Ref.: VA No. 106134