Programme Assistant SC-5 (Food Value Chains, Roster)

WFP celebrates and embraces diversity. It is committed to the principle of equal employment opportunity for all its employees and encourages qualified candidates to apply irrespective of race, colour, national origin, ethnic or social background, genetic information, gender, gender identity and/or expression, sexual orientation, religion or belief, HIV status or disability.

About Wfp

The United Nations World Food Programme 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, particularly women and children, can access the nutritious food they need.

ORGANIZATIONAL CONTEXT

The Armenian food sector is characterized by the low productivity of nutritionally diversified commodities, high production costs, fragmented producers, and limited post-harvest and market infrastructures. This in turn negatively impacts on the Armenian population’s access to nutritionally diversified food and is resulting in worrisome levels of food insecurity and malnutrition. At the same time, inefficient post-harvest and supply chain processes entail low quality and safety standards which adversely affect the stability of supplies and which do not allow either the national or international commercialization of Armenian food products.

Under its five-year Country Strategic Plan for 2019-2024, WFP Armenia has designed a portfolio of activities headed up by the Food Value Chain Unit. This Unit supports WFP Armenia to implement smaller-scale activities that through a social protection lens target small-holder farmers to enhance their production, processing, and marketing of selected nutritionally diversified food products. This in turn supports increasing the quantity and quality of selected commodities to be more available at affordable prices within national markets, thus lifting the most vulnerable out of poverty and supporting efforts to tackle the drivers of food insecurity in Armenia.

This is a twelve-month position while the Armenia Country Office completes a comprehensive review of the most appropriate location for an office in the north of Armenia.

JOB PURPOSE

The Programme Assistant is responsible for operational support of the Food Value Chain Unit to ensure the smooth implementation of projects within the full Food Value Chain Portfolio. Three are three main pillars of support; i) Implementation support, ii) business process support, iii) information management support. To perform specialized and/or standardized policy and programme-related processes and activities to support the effective delivery of assistance packages.

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES (not All-inclusive)

Under the overall guidance and direct supervision of the Programme Associate (FVC), the Programme Assistant (FVC) will perform the following duties and responsibilities (but not limited to):

Project Implementation Support

• Provide specialized expertise to guide the timely implementation of food value chain project activities.
• Ensure that project activities are performed in line with the targets established within project documents, report proactively where targets might be missed and provide potential solutions to overcome challenges.
• Ensuring activities are implemented according to planned timelines and aligned with wider programme policies and guidelines including programme Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and lead on the development of such SOPs for management review.
• Act as a communication link and foster relationships between WFP, and the key stakeholders engaged at project level. This includes facilitating smooth channels of communication, and proactively engaging with key stakeholders. Stakeholders include project beneficiaries, government institutions, and NGO’s.
• Advise on the design of the expansion of the food value chain activities, including identifying opportunities for pilots to be expanded into national food value chain projects.
• Provide input into project proposals and support on the implementation of activity scale up.
• Identify capacity building initiatives for stakeholders of FVC activities including WFP staff, the Government and implementing partners;

Project Business Process Support

• Give administrative support to the programme across all Food Value Chain operations, including acting as a central support with all procurement and financial processes.
• Responsible for developing all technical specifications for project requirements and act as the focal point for all WINGS related matters.
• Provide support to the Head of Unit on budgetary matters, including inputting into the implementation plan, procurement plan, and monthly budget reviews.

Project Information Management Support

• Lead and ensure accurate, timely recording of data and consistency of information presented to stakeholders, including WFP internal progress reports, and contributing to external reports.
• Document project activity success, and under the guidance of WFP’s communication team provide input for external communications on project success.
• Work closely with the partnership and communication unit to formulate proposals for funding and for documenting and communicating results;
• Promote synergies between activities supported by WFP Armenia by providing support to all WFP programme teams by monitoring specific activities.
• Support operational research and evidence building by collecting field level data under the guidance of the WFP programme team with support from the WFP M&E team.
• Other tasks as required.

Standard Minimum Qualifications

Education: Completion of secondary school education. A post-secondary certificate in the functional area is desirable. A first level university degree in Business Administration, International Affairs, Economics, Nutrition/Health, Agriculture, Environmental Science, Social Sciences or other field relevant to international development assistance would be an asset.

Experience: Four or more years of progressively responsible experience in direct implementation of field level project activities for an NGO, government institution, UN Agency. Experience of working on agricultural projects is highly desirable.

Knowledge and Skills: Strong analytical, written and oral communication skills, excellent interpersonal skills and ability to work in a team; ability to plan and organize work with minimum supervision; ability to work under pressure and meet tight deadlines. General knowledge of UN system policies, rules, regulations and procedures is desirable.

Language: Fluency in Armenian, and highly competent in the English language; working knowledge (level B) of Russian language is desired.

4Ps CORE ORGANISATIONAL CAPABILITIES

Purpose

• Understand and communicate the Strategic Objectives: Helps teammates articulate WFP’s Strategic Objectives.
• Be a force for positive change: Suggests potential improvements to team’s work processes to supervisor.
• Make the mission inspiring to our team: Explains the impact of WFP activities in beneficiary communities to teammates.
• Make our mission visible in everyday actions: Articulates how own unit’s responsibilities will serve WFP’s mission.

People

• Look for ways to strengthen people’s skills: Trains junior teammates on new skills and capabilities.
• Create an inclusive culture: Seeks opportunities to work with people from different backgrounds.
• Be a coach & provide constructive feedback: Serves as a peer coach for colleagues in same area of work.
• Create an “I will”/”We will” spirit: Tracks progress toward goals and shares this information on a regular basis with supervisor.

Performance

• Encourage innovation & creative solutions: Explores ways to consistently be more efficient and accurate in own areas of work and shares new methods of work with colleagues.
• Focus on getting results: Focuses on getting results and tracks trends in completion rates for own tasks to identify opportunities for efficiency.
• Make commitments and make good on commitments: Takes responsibility for own tasks and notifies supervisor as soon as possible of potential delays in meeting deadlines or commitments.
• Be Decisive: Independently decides what action to take when faced with critical choices in the workplace or in dangerous situations in the field.

Partnership

• Connect and share across WFP units: Suggests opportunities for partnering with other units to supervisor.
• Build strong external partnerships: Identifies opportunities to work with colleagues and partners in the field towards common goals.
• Be politically agile & adaptable: Develops an understanding of the value of WFP’s teams and external partners in fulfilling team’s goals and objectives.
• Be clear about the value WFP brings to partnerships: Aligns own activities with supervisor’s priorities to fulfill internal and external partner needs.

TERMS AND CONDITIONS

Contract Duration: 12 months with possibility to extend

Applications must be submitted online through WFP e-Recruitment System.

Internal WFP staff can access the VA through the internal WFP CAREER page via the link: http://newgo.wfp.org/services/e-recruitment

Make sure that you answer all mandatory questions accurately and to upload your updated CV in English.

Only short-listed candidates will be contacted.

The successful candidate will have to be vaccinated against the COVID-19 to be able to perform his/her duties. The UN strongly recommends UN personnel, and their dependents receive a COVID-19 vaccine that has been approved by WHO.

DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS

Interested candidates are invited to submit their application not later than Monday, 14 March 2022.

All employment decisions are made on the basis of organizational needs, job requirements, merit, and individual qualifications. WFP is committed to providing an inclusive work environment free of sexual exploitation and abuse, all forms of discrimination, any kind of harassment, sexual harassment, and abuse of authority. Therefore, all selected candidates will undergo rigorous reference and background checks.

No appointment under any kind of contract will be offered to members of the UN Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ), International Civil Service Commission (ICSC), FAO Finance Committee, WFP External Auditor, WFP Audit Committee, Joint Inspection Unit (JIU) and other similar bodies within the United Nations system with oversight responsibilities over WFP, both during their service and within three years of ceasing that service.