Vacancies at World Food Programme (WFP)

STANDARD MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS

Education:

Advanced University degree in International Affairs, Economics, Public Health Nutrition, Nutrition, Food Technology, Agriculture, Environmental Science, Social Sciences, or other relevant field OR a first University degree with additional years of relevant working experience.

Experience:

• At least six years of relevant professional experience in development, project management and/or school feeding.
• Experience in school feeding programs.
• Experience with private partnerships, preferably Rockefeller Foundation.
• Experience in Eastern Africa.
• Technical skills & knowledge of project management.
• Monitoring and reporting knowledge.

Skills:

• Strong skills or experience in designing and implementing monitoring and evaluation processes.
• Experience working in developing country context, preferably in food security or resilience projects or programmes.
• Experience coordinating or leading a programme team or a component of a programme portfolio.
• Experience in engaging in policy and strategy discussions and providing input into these.
• Ability to analyse and identify opportunities for and propose solutions to programme quality improvement.
• Analytical skills with ability to compile, analyse and interpret data, prepare reports and draw conclusions and recommendations.
• Strong interpersonal skills and ability to deal patiently and tactfully with people of different national and cultural backgrounds and to manage external partnerships.
• Ability to communicate clearly and concisely both orally and in writing.

Language:

• Fluency in oral and written English .

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES (not all-inclusive)

Under the general guidance and supervision of the Private Sector Lead, the Project Manager will be responsible for overseeing the implementation of the Scaling up of Fortified Whole Meals in School Feeding Programs in Rwanda / Burundi as well as to help support the Innovations Hub in the implementation of school meals programmes by Food 4 Education (F4E), a local Kenya Project.

Project Management

1. Manage the development and implementation of project plans and activities, providing technical oversight and guidance to Country Office project focal points and colleagues, providing inputs into programmatic strategy, identifying opportunities for programme quality improvement and innovation.
2. Ensure a coordinated approach with wider programmes and functional units like supply chain, nutrition, school-based programmes for successful implementation and scale up.
3. Ensure the dissemination of learning and knowledge sharing from the project to inform corporate policies and programming that complies with WFP standards and procedures.
4. Plan, monitor, and prioritise Rockefeller resources to maximise cost-effectiveness, providing timely reports to the Rockefeller Foundation.
5. Coordinate engagement in strategic communications and knowledge management with a focus on sharing project experiences with regional and global audiences.
6. Improve visibility of Rockefeller-WFP activities in the region by proactively ensuring consistent and accurate programme information in all internal and external communications
7. Manage the preparation and dissemination of accurate and timely reports, publications, and a variety of information products for internal or external use that enable informed decision making and consistency of information presented to stakeholders
8. Proactively highlight strategic opportunities and issues to the Partnership Unit’s management and propose options for the best course of action to nurture trust and interest in the work of WFP.
9. Take responsibility for ensuring gender perspectives are incorporated in all areas of work, to ensure equal participation of women and men.
10. Establish new strategic and operational partnerships with WFP.

Partnership Management (WFP-Rockefeller Foundation)

1. Coordinate and plan monitoring and field trips to the project implementation sites and activities with Rockefeller staff, WFP Country Office Staff, and Government, to ensure programme quality and coordination.
2. Effectively communicate project progress and results to the donor and the other stakeholders through reports and other material to improve transparency and accountability
3. Strengthen WFP’s partnerships portfolio with the Rockefeller Foundation, including strategy development, partner profiling, data/trends analysis and outreach activities, with the aim to maximize resources and leverage policy and technical support for WFP’s work.

Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning

1. Support WFP’s school feeding learning agenda by designing and managing research and evidence building assignments and strengthen research partnerships for activities under the Rockefeller grant.
2. Oversee the development of monitoring, evaluation and accountability approaches for project activities under the Rockefeller grant with the RBN M&E unit, ensuring relevant and credible data and evidence is generated and utilized to inform the activities.
3. Facilitate knowledge exchange amongst country offices, regional bureaux and HQ to develop innovative approaches to better design and implement public procurement and school feeding programming

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KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES (not all-inclusive)

Overall support as Supply Chain Planning Officer:

• Provide Supply Chain Planning support to complex operations to ensure an optimal allocation of resources within operational constraints
• Strengthen supply chain analytical capacity in the RB/COs and identification/training of Supply Chain Planning focal points in interested COs
• Provision of informed coordination backed by supply chain analytics as required in operations and challenges with a regional scope
• Identification of supply chain cost inefficiencies in RBN operations and proposition of models to achieve cost savings.

Tactical and Strategic Planning:

• Provide input for the planning exercise and actively participate in the corporate stock planning optimization in coordination with the Budget and Programming Unit in the Regional Bureau and Headquarters support operations in the region with tactical planning
• Gather relevant information and data to provide guiding insights to decision-makers, cross-functionally, at the Regional and Country level
• Support Global/Regional stakeholders (e.g. Regional Procurement, GCMF etc.) with quantitative planning analyses that can drive efficiency gains
• Provide ‘what-if’ planning scenarios at country/region level, anticipating potential risks and preparedness/mitigation measures.

Operational Tools Development and Roll Out:

• Support development, testing, and implementation of Supply Chain Planning tools in the region
• Assist in providing SC Planning guidance and tools to the Country Offices in the region

Process Improvements:

• Enhance supply chain performance, lead change management, propose process improvements, and Research and support business process mapping & analysis, including demand, availability, delivery, distribution network effectiveness, financial data, demand, and funding forecasting.

Cross-functional Analytics and Optimization:

• Act as a champion for cross-functional analytics, and optimization efforts in the region and apply innovative thinking, leverage analytics and optimization methods to address inefficiencies or operational issues
• Work with country operations on developing a set of tracking and analytical tools to monitor the health of their operation, with alerts to foresee and flag issues

Team management and capacity building:

• Supervise and manage a team of supply chain planning and optimization experts,
• Build local capacity at CO and RB levels in data management, advanced analytics, operational visibility, and the provision of supply chain-related insights to decision-makers.

QUALIFICATIONS & KEY REQUIREMENTS

Education:

You have:

• Advanced University degree preferably in Supply Chain Management, Engineering, Economics, Business Administration, Logistics, or other related fields, or First University degree with additional years of related work experience and/or training/courses.

Experience:

You have:

• At least five years of progressive experience in Logistics/Supply Chain management; including two years in Supply Chain analytics, planning, and optimization

Language:

You have:

• Fluency (level C) in English language. 
• Intermediate knowledge (level B) of a second official UN language: Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian, Spanish, and/or Portuguese (A WFP’s working language)

MORE ABOUT YOU

• You have advanced skills in the usage of MS Excel and visualization software (e.g. Tableau)
• You are highly numerate with an innate ability to analyze & interpret data quickly & recommend improvements
• You have knowledge of Supply Chain and industrial management
• You have effective organizational, interpersonal, and communication skills
• You have the flexibility and ability to work with deadlines and stressful conditions
• You have the ability to work both individually and in a team as appropriate
• You have excellent problem-solving skills

ADDITIONAL / NICE HAVE REQUIREMENTS

• Experience in Service Provision and Capacity Strengthening activities (especially in the Health sector) 
• Field experience is a big plus
• Proficiency in a coding language (particularly Python or SQL)

TERMS AND CONDITIONS

This is an International Professional position and is open to all nationalities. 

Mobility is and continues to be, a core contractual requirement in WFP. The selected candidate will be employed on a fixed-term as well as a rotational contract with a probationary period of one year. 

WFP offers an attractive compensation and benefits package, including basic salary, post adjustment, relocation entitlement, travel, visa and shipment allowances, 30 days’ annual leave, home leave, an education grant for dependent children, a pension plan, and medical insurance. For more information, visit https://icsc.un.org/.

The selected candidate will be required to relocate to Nairobi, Kenya to take up this assignment.

Future analogous positions might be filled up with this recruitment process.