Senior Programme Associate (School Feeding), SC 7, Banjul

Banjul

Organization: WFP - World Food Programme
Location: Banjul
Grade: Consultancy - SB-3 (SC6/SC7), Service Contract, Local Contractors Agreement
Occupational Groups:
- Administrative support
- Education, Learning and Training
- Nutrition
- Children's rights (health and protection)
- Project and Programme Management
Closing Date: Closed

TERMS OF REFERENCE

Title of post: Senior Programme Associate (School Feeding), SC 7

Type of contract: Service Contract (SC)

Unit/ division: Programme Unit

Duty Station Banjul, The Gambia

Duration: 12 months, with a possibility of extension.

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Build bridges that unite people across the world. Being part of a global, diverse and

multicultural community like WFP, will continuously expose you to new ideas and

perspectives.

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For more details about WFP contractual modality and salary, please follow this link: https://icsc.un.org/

CONTEXT AND OBJECTIVES OF POST

The World Food Programme (WFP) is the world's largest humanitarian agency, fighting hunger worldwide. In The Gambia, WFP has been supporting the government in schools feeding since 1970. In 2012, WFP in collaboration with the government embarked on a three-year food security project called Improving Food Security through Crop Production Intensification and School Feeding Programme was launched with EU support. The main aim of the project was to increase household food security and income of participating farmers and enhance nutritional status of targeted school children. School Feeding is the largest social safety-net in The Gambia.

Continuation on building on WFP’s experience of more than 40 years in the Gambia, school feeding provides support for the establishment of a sustainable, nationally owned home-grown school feeding (HGSF) programme, where food supplied to the schools would be sourced from local smallholder farmers.

This was done by reinforcing capacities at the central, regional and community levels for home grown school feeding implementation and management. It was jointly implemented with The Government building capacity for school feeding in the targeted regions, to improve enrolment and retention in early childhood development centers and the basic education cycle.

The current programme structured as the Country Strategic Plan (CSP), was developed in consultation with all major stakeholders, and started in January 2019 through to 2021, provides the following strategic shifts; (i) alignment of country portfolio to the National Social Protection Policy; (ii) increased focus on capacity strengthening and national ownership of the SMP, assisting the government to improve modalities and absorb part of the caseload, while providing management and monitoring support; (iii) an integrated resilience intervention, converging nutrition, support to smallholder farmers and resilience buidling activities to enhance community assets, while providing conditional transfers to those at risk during the lean season; and (iv) field-level implementation to technical capacity support to national government in early warning systems and preparedness.

WFP is currently seeking a qualified candidate to take up functions of the Senior Programme Associate (School Feeding) SC 7 position.

Under the direct supervision of the Head of Programme, the incumbent will be expected to coordinate programmes of School Feeding to ensure that they are designed, implemented and monitored effectively for the efficient functioning, while ensuring information from the ground informs decision-making.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES (not all-inclusive, nor exhaustive):

Provide specialized expertise and contribute towards the development of project activities, plans and processes within the specific technical area of work ensuring alignment with wider programme policies and guidelines.
Provide efficient coordination and specialized project management support to a range of specific and/or defined programmes to ensure that the various activities are performed within the established targets following WFP’s policies and procedures.
Within the specific area of responsibility, prepare a variety of elaborated reports and substantial data analysis (e.g. food assistance needs, resource utilization, programme status, performance) and make recommendations to supervisors, ensuring deliverables adhere to corporate standards and quality control.
Lead and ensure accurate, timely recording of data within the specific technical area of work (e.g. assistance programmes, food security and vulnerability assessments) and consistency of information presented to stakeholders.
Coordinate and liaise with internal counterparts on a range of complex matters to enable effective collaboration, implementation and monitoring of ongoing project activities.
Foster relationships and support partnership-building with local partners, agencies, NGOs and government institutions to perform accurate food security analyses and to ensure efficient delivery of food assistance.
Support the capacity building of WFP staff, cooperating partners and national government within a specific technical area.
Act as an escalation point for complex query resolution on all matters within the area of responsibility.
Manage a team of support staff, providing advice, guidance and training, to ensure individual and team objectives are delivered to agreed standards and deadlines.
Follow standard emergency preparedness practices to ensure WFP is able to quickly respond and deploy needed resources to affected areas at the onset of the crisis.

OTHER DUTIES:

Manage the implementation of all School Feeding activities, including:
- Ensure food delivery and distribution, school preparedness, and monitoring
- Prepare planning documents for food deliveries are completed and accurate.
- Facilitate training for WFP staff and external partners
Coordinate with internal and external stakeholders:
- Coordinate food deliveries and or cash disbursement with WFP Logistics, schools, retailers/transporters and local authorities
- Facilitate relationship with regional and village authorities
- Work with local/ CO teams to ensure retailers are delivering and being paid on time
- Engage with Logistics and Finance to ensure programme delivery
- Engage with School Feeding at Regional Bureau and Headquaters for support, reporting and guidance
- Prepare and oversee donors briefings and missions

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 analyse and consolidate quantitative and qualitative information from different sources (e.g., market studies) to inform transfer modality selection and programme development.
Broad Knowledge of Specialized Areas	Demonstrates the ability to interpret basic data in the context of WFP specialised fields to contribute to technical programme design, implementation and monitoring.
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.

4Ps CORE ORGANISATIONAL CAPABILITIES:

4P Theme	Capability Name	Description of the behaviour expected for the proficiency level
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.

DESIRED EXPERIENCES FOR ENTRY INTO THE ROLE:

Has participated in implementing technical programs (i.e. Education, Nutrition, Rural development programmes etc.).
Has implemented programmes with increased level of responsibility.
Has provided input to policy discussions.

STANDARD MINIMUM ACADEMIC QUALIFICATIONS:

Education:Completion of secondary school education. A post-secondary certificate in the related functional area is desirable. A university degree will be an added advantage.

Language: Fluency (level C) in English language: Fluency in both oral and written communication

QUALIFIED FEMALE CANDIDATES ARE ENCOURAGED TO APPLY.

Only Gambian nationals or holders of valid residence and work permits are eligible to apply for this position.
Applications are to be submitted and received online and in English language only.
WFP will apply a rigorous and transparent selection process including thorough assessment of technical skills to ensure the best candidates are selected for the job. Please ensure that your application contains accurate and complete information on academic qualifications, employment record and language skills.
Canvassing of any sort is strictly prohibited and will lead to automatic disqualification of the concerned applicant.
Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.