Junior Economist

Details

Mission and objectives

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. As the international community has committed to end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition by 2030, one in nine people worldwide still do not have enough to eat. Food and food-related assistance lie at the heart of the struggle to break the cycle of hunger and poverty. In 2020, WFP assisted 115.5 million people – the largest number since 2012 – in 84 countries. For its efforts to combat hunger, for its contribution to bettering conditions for peace in conflict-affected areas and for acting as a driving force in efforts to prevent the use of hunger as a weapon of war and conflict, WFP was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2020. WFP’s efforts focus on emergency assistance, relief and rehabilitation, development aid and special operations. Two-thirds of our work is in conflict-affected countries where people are three times more likely to be undernourished than those living in countries without conflict. In emergencies, WFP is often first on the scene, providing food assistance to the victims of war, civil conflict, drought, floods, earthquakes, hurricanes, crop failures and natural disasters. When the emergency subsides, WFP helps communities rebuild shattered lives and livelihoods. We also work to strengthen the resilience of people and communities affected by protracted crises by applying a development lens in our humanitarian response. WFP development projects focus on nutrition, especially for mothers and children, addressing malnutrition from the earliest stages through programmes targeting the first 1,000 days from conception to a child’s second birthday, and later through school meals.

Context

In February 2022, WFP re-established its presence in Ukraine. The WFP Ukraine Country Office is providing food assistance via in-kind food and cash-based transfers (CBT) to affected populations in Ukraine, Since the beginning of the war, WFP has reached up to 3 million people with in-kind and cash assistance per month and will continue responding to Ukrainians in need. WFP continuously monitors the food security situation in Ukraine, to adjust its assistance and accommodate surging needs. WFP is also providing logistics and emergency telecommunications services to the humanitarian community, facilitating the timely provision of assistance. The Research, Assessment and Monitoring Unit in the Ukraine CO is responsible for undertaking food security needs assessments and economic and market analysis to inform WFP’s operation on household needs and advise on appropriate programme design, as well as for carrying out field monitoring of WFP’s programme activities in Ukraine. The RAM Unit is recruiting a UNV Junior Economist with a strong economics profile to help support the analytical activities of the Unit.

Task description

The Junior Economist will support the analytical work of the RAM Unit and report to the Head of RAM. Tasks will primarily center around economic analysis and analysis of household data. Economic analysis may fall both in the micro- and macro-economic domain but with a general focus on price analysis, food security impacts of economic events and household-level needs. Examples of tasks include: 1. Household food security and essential needs analysis: a. Develop data collection tools in accordance with corporate standards b. Carry out data cleaning as well as descriptive and econometric analysis of household survey data on themes such as food security, consumption patterns, income and expenditures, price-elasticities and multi-dimensional poverty c. Draft analytical briefs and present findings in narrative and visual ways 2. Market and economic analysis: a. Coordinate regular collection of market prices with internal and external stakeholders and analyze food price data b. Uploading of food prices on to WFP’s price database; c. Analyse price data, inflation and exchange rate trends d. Develop market assessment materials in accordance with corporate standards and support market data collection and analysis e. Conduct market assessments using WFP’s corporate tools in order to assess market functionality and advice on appropriate modalities of assistance f. Monitor macro-economic outlooks and carry out analysis of the economic situation of Ukraine and how it impacts household food security. 3. Crosscutting RAM activities: a. Support the training of data collectors and field monitors as needed b. Support on assessment concept notes, methodology and analysis plan preparations c. Any other assigned task