Humid Tropics and Savanna Asset Creation Specialist (Roving Officer) P4_LFT_RBD

🚩 Vacancy Announcement n°: 168321

📢 Job Title: Humid Tropics and Savanna Asset Creation Specialist (Roving Officer) P4_LFT

📌Type of Contract: Limited Fixed-Term (LFT)

➡️ Unit / Division: Resilience and Livelihood Unit / Regional Bureau for Western Africa

📍 Duty Station: Dakar, Senegal

➡️ Duration: 24 months (renewable)

⏰ Closing date: Thursday 14 July 2022, midnight (Dakar Time)

What will you do in this position?

You will support selected coastal Country Offices/ COs (with emphasis on English-speaking COs) in developing innovative and scalable asset creation and integrated resilience projects. Within the integrated resilience approach, the position will focus on Food Assistance for Assets (FFA) activities in savanna and humid tropics.

More details on our career page: *www.wfp.org/careers*

What is the broader context of this position?

Besides humanitarian assistance, WFP is assisting vulnerable populations in building resilience to shocks and stressors, tackling underlying vulnerabilities, and achieving more sustainable food security.

In the Western Africa region, WFP’s resilience portfolio includes an innovative programme to strengthen resilience across the G5 Sahel countries (Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger). Since 2018, WFP is implementing an integrated package of activities—combining asset creation, school feeding, nutrition, capacity strengthening and seasonal support— across the region and at scale in close coordination with governments and partners. Asset creation is the building block of the programme and is designed to support communities in addressing specific obstacles to communities’ food security and resilience: watershed approaches to restore degraded landscapes, improve water harvesting for multiple uses, enhance agro-pastoral productivity, reduce vulnerability to natural disasters, as well as restore or build community and market infrastructures such as feeder roads, bridges or grain stores. These interventions are planned in close consultation with communities, using participatory planning methods that ensure the most vulnerable and marginalized have a voice in discussions on needs and solutions. In the past year alone, more than 1,7 million people benefitted from a WFP integrated resilience package, with interventions ongoing in more than 1,500 villages in the five countries.

The Resilience and Livelihood Unit under the Dakar Regional Bureau ensures that “resilience” is conceptualized and operationalized within a WFP context in Western Africa. The unit is responsible to coordinate WFP’s programme, technical and strategic work on livelihood assets creation and synergies with hunger-related safety nets including providing guidance material and direct support to country operations, including capacity development. WFP Offices (CO)s in countries of the Gulf of Guinea (“coastal countries”) are not yet benefitting from sustained support in this area of work, due to lack of human resources. The Resilience and Livelihood Unit can and will play a crucial role in catalysing, supporting and scaling-up livelihood assets creation and complementary activities in the region, and providing technical and operational support to Country Offices in coastal countries.

How can you make a difference?

In this position, you will have to:

• Lead project delivery and operational support (focusing on Food Assistance for Assets – FFA) to the Gulf of Guinea countries, and Sahel countries as needed. Streamline integrated resilience into coastal country operations.
• Provide support to coastal countries in the design, planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of country programmes, with a focus on promoting best practices, advocacy & learning.
• Support WFP Programming with a particular view to asset creation, building resilience, and natural resource management.
• Support to WFP Country Offices in developing project proposals (technical aspects, activity selection and planning, timelines and budgets); Demand-driven support on introducing new FFA technologies and innovations, consolidation and perfection of existing capacities and skills.
• Support and participate in the development and review of Country Strategic Plans and a Sub-Regional Strategy for coastal countries.
• Support the adoption of innovative solutions for low-cost infrastructure and approaches; Integrate and streamline forestry and agroforestry into coastal country’s resilience packages, to support food security and nutrition.
• Support project implementation and coordination in Country Offices in implementation of integrated resilience projects; Institutional development support to strengthen Country Offices structures to sustain scale-up dynamics.
• Assist in advocacy and fundraising efforts to scale up, in general, the resilience and livelihoods activities in the region, and in coastal countries, in particular, the support functions of the Resilience & Livelihood Unit to Country Offices.
• In priority countries, assist the development of specific proposals, and support initiatives that strengthen linkages with gender, nutrition, value chains), etc.
• Support Country Offices in the development of project proposals in the areas of integrated resilience programmes, urban resilience, etc.
• Participate and carry out online and on-the-job FFA and Resilience pieces of training on specific innovations.
• Perform other related duties as required.

This position reports to the Regional Resilience and Livelihoods Officer and will be part of the Resilience and Livelihoods Unit. The future incumbent will work in close collaboration with Programme Units in the Dakar Regional Bureau and WFP Headquarters. Travel within the Western Africa region may be required up to 30% of working time.

To join us in saving lives, changing lives, you will have for…

Education: Bachelor or Master’s degree in one or more of the following disciplines: Agriculture, Natural Resource Management, Environmental Studies, Civil and Environmental Engineering.

Experience: At least 08 years of relevant work experience in Natural Resource Management, Rural Development, Integrated Resilience for Food Security and Nutrition. Exposure to and experience with soil conservation, water works and infrastructure implementation, watershed management and planning, participatory approaches and community-led change projects, food security, nutrition programmes and safety nets desirable. Combination of threefold professional experience: 1) Humid Tropics and Savanah agroecologies, 2) Rural infrastructure works and technologies, and 3) integrated resilience approaches. Professional experience in savanah and humid tropics agroecologies, in the areas of forestry and agro-forestry. Academic and/or professional experience outside of Western Africa (Eastern or Southern Africa, or Asia) would be an asset.

Knowledge & Skills:

• Proficiency in Windows, MS Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook) and experience in using geographic information systems is an advantage.
• Good analytical skills; resourcefulness, initiative, maturity of judgement, tact, negotiating skills; ability to communicate clearly both orally and in writing; ability to work in a team, and establish effective working relations with persons of different national and cultural backgrounds.
• Ability to cope with situations which may threaten health or safety; flexibility in accepting work assignments outside normal desk description. Ability to deal patiently and tactfully with people of different national and cultural backgrounds.

Language: Fluency (level C) in English and Basic (level A) in French.

Before you apply…

A Limited Fixed-Term Appointment (LFT) position is a non-mobile staff appointment in the international professional category for a limited period for up to 4 years and is open to all nationalities (for HQ and RBs) or candidates must be a national of a country other than the country of assignment (for Country Offices). The position is based in Dakar, Senegal and the selected candidate will be expected to relocate. Incumbents of LFT positions are not eligible to apply for other mobile positions advertised internally through the Reassignment.

WFP offers an attractive compensation and benefits package in line with ICSC standards (http://icsc.un.org) including basic salary, post adjustment, relocation entitlement, travel and shipment allowances, 30 days’ annual leave, home leave, an education grant for dependent children, a pension plan, and medical insurance.