Career Opportunities: Programme Policy Officer – Capacity Strengthening (School Feeding), NOB, Kigali (167941)
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.
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE OF THE ASSIGNMENT
The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is the world’s largest humanitarian agency, fighting hunger worldwide. WFP Rwanda works in partnership with the Government and other stakeholders through the direct implementation of integrated programmes targeting the most vulnerable people and will progressively shift towards building national capacity to formulate, manage and implement programmes for achieving zero hunger. In implementing its activities, WFP will bridge the humanitarian–development nexus and leverage its extensive experience and the contributions it has made in Rwanda over many decades in order to achieve four strategic outcomes outlined in the WFP Country Strategic Plan (CSP). Strategic Outcome 2 focuses on ensuring that vulnerable populations in food-insecure communities and areas have improved access to adequate and nutritious food all year. This Outcome encompasses capacity strengthening and direct programme implementation in the areas of school feeding, social protection, disaster risk management, food security and vulnerability analysis, and climate-resilient livelihoods programming.
Under Strategic Outcome 2, WFP provides home-grown school feeding in food insecure areas in Rwanda and acts as a key technical partner of the Government of Rwanda in developing and expanding the national school feeding programme. This position of the Programme Policy Officer- Capacity Strengthening will be part of the school feeding team based in WFP’s Country Office in Kigali, Rwanda and contributes to the effective and efficient design and operational implementation of technical assistance and capacity strengthening activities in school feeding and other technical areas under Strategic Outcome 2. The position will also advise other units and technical teams on capacity strengthening approaches and methodologies, contributing to more effective results and strong government partnerships.
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE OF THE ASSIGNMENT
In Rwanda there has been a growing demand for WFP to support the Government of Rwanda in the development and scale up of key national safety nets and food systemic interventions, particularly the national school feeding programme. There is an increasing need for coordination of capacity strengthening activities with Government and internally across functional areas (e.g. nutrition, social protection and resilience, SAMS, M&E, VAM, gender, and supply chain), to ensure WFP delivers well-planned, integrated support to the Government.
ACCOUNTABILITIES/RESPONSIBILITIES
To deliver against the above, the Country Office is seeking a Programme Policy Officer – Capacity Strengthening – to provide support to its school feeding activities. The incumbent will operate under the direct supervision of the Programme Policy Officer- School Feeding Programme Manager. The incumbent will be responsible for carrying out the following tasks and responsibilities:
- Contribute towards the development of a limited number of projects, plans and processes, ensuring alignment with corporate policies and guidance relevant to capacity strengthening, with a focus on the national school feeding programme.
- Provide project management to specific and defined school feeding capacity strengthening activities and projects of considerable size/complexity, ensuring a coordinated approach with wider programmes that complies with WFP standards and procedures.
- Research and analyse policy issues to inform the development of school feeding policies, strategies, programmes and activities.
- Support the development of monitoring tools with the M&E unit and in the facilitation of key programme surveys/data collection activities geared towards supporting national systems and capacity strengthening. Contribute to support school feeding studies and assessments, surveys and research activities and their effective utilization by Government and partners.
- Liaise particularly with Government counterparts, particularly MINEDUC, MINAGRI, NCDA to ensure effective collaboration, monitoring of activities and highlight potentials risks to programme delivery. Coordinate and provide technical backstopping to secondments by WFP to Government entities for relevant activities.
- Contribute to the preparation of accurate and timely reporting on capacity strengthening and school feeding programmes and activities that enable informed decision making and consistency of information presented to stakeholders.
- Support the identification and management of partnerships in capacity strengthening and technical assistance. Manage key aspects of external Government partnerships- coordinating agreements, reporting and payments- to ensure strong results.
- Support the capacity strengthening of WFP staff, partners and national government to identify and address in-country school feeding needs, e.g. by providing inputs into specific school feeding guidance materials and/or learning initiatives.
- Provide guidance to support staff, acting as a point of referral and assisting them with analysis and queries related to school feeding.
- Other tasks as required.
QUALIFICATIONS & EXPERIENCE REQUIRED
Education: Advanced University degree in Education, Nutrition, Project Management, Agriculture, International Development, International Relations, Sociology, or other fields relevant to school feeding, or a First University Degree with additional years of related work experience and/or trainings/courses.
Experience: At least 3 years post-graduate experience, with additional years of progressive experience in a role involving capacity strengthening, school feeding, social protection, or education OR a first university degree with relevant experience in implementing programmes with a capacity strengthening and/or school feeding focus.
Languages: Fluency in English language and Kinyarwanda.
Knowledge & Skills
- Has leadership skills and has deepened technical knowledge through exposure to technical work in capacity strengthening and technical assistance delivery
- Has provided input into national policy discussions and decisions related to education and/or food security
- Knowledge of current thinking and developments in the field of school feeding and public policy
- Knowledge of capacity strengthening and effective knowledge transfer models, concepts and principles
- Strategic thinking and analytical skills
- Ability to develop and maintain relationships with a variety of stakeholders, conveying an informed and professional demeanour toward internal and external partners and stakeholders
- Appetite for exploring and experimenting with new ideas and approaches.
- Ability to work independently in a timely and organised manner
- Ability to work as part of a team, participating in open dialogues and valuing diverse opinions of others, regardless of gender, culture, background, experience, or country assignment
TERMS AND CONDITIONS
JOB TITLE: Programme Policy Officer – Capacity Strengthening (School Feeding)
TYPE OF CONTRACT: National Officer, NOB
UNIT/DIVISION: SO2 – School Feeding
DUTY STATION (City, Country): Kigali, Rwanda
DURATION: 12 Months renewable upon satisfactory performance and subject to availability of funds
DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS
The deadline for submitting the applications is on 11th July 2022 at 23:59 CAT
