Programme Policy Officer - Pastoral Livelihoods, CST I, Semera, Ethiopia

.

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.

CONTRACTUAL INFORMATION

JOB TITLE: Programme Policy Officer - Pastoral Livelihoods

TYPE OF CONTRACT: International Consultant Level I

UNIT/DIVISION: Programme 

DUTY STATION: Semera, Ethiopia

DURATION: 6 months

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

In 2020, WFP Ethiopia Country Office launched its CSP 2020-2025. The five-year country strategic plan is based on WFP’s recognized strengths and on strong strategic and operational partnerships with the Government, private sector entities, non-governmental organizations and other United Nations agencies. While the bulk of operations will continue to address the immediate short-term needs of refugees, internally displaced persons and other food-insecure and undernourished people, there will be a gradual expansion and intensification of climate change adaptation, resilience and livelihood diversification initiatives also linked to the humanitarian–development–peace nexus. WFP will focus on the prevention of malnutrition, the building of resilience and the integration of nutrition concerns and gender equality throughout the portfolio.

WFP is working with the Government of Ethiopia and humanitarian partners to strengthen the resilience of people, communities, and systems. Our interventions are highly contextualized and adapted to the specific needs of our beneficiaries, including smallholder farmers, pastoralists, refugees, and host-communities who are most vulnerable to climate shocks.

WFP-supported resilience-building interventions in the drought-prone lowland areas in Ethiopia are focused on supporting vulnerable beneficiaries with an integrated climate-smart package that includes cash for work, indexed insurance, financial services, nature-based disaster risk reduction, restoration of degraded agricultural and range lands, improved access to water through watershed management, fodder production, and livelihood strengthening activities. We work with both pastoral and agropastoral beneficiaries, supporting sustainable natural resource management while enabling restoration of degraded rangelands and agriculturally productive riverine areas to increase local productivity and strengthen market systems in support of diversified, nutritious diets. We simultaneously focus on strengthening capacities of national and local institutions for improved early warning systems, gender transformation, and climate resilient diversified food systems.

JOB PURPOSE

This job is based in the Afar Regional State, Semera Sub-Office. The job holder will report to the Head of Semera Sub-Office. Afar Region is faced with various recurrent and protracted crises such as drought, flood, desert locust and armed conflict. Wasting and stunting have skyrocketed as livelihoods have been eroded by the crises. Over 90% of the rural households depend on livestock and have limited resources in terms of resilience. The purpose of this assignment is to improve livestock production and build resilience through rangeland rehabilitation, soil conservation, folder production and development of water management structures as the entry point for long-term livelihood development for pastoral households.

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES (not all-inclusive)

1. Act as the main liaison between WFP, Cooperating Partners and the Bureau of Agriculture and Natural Resource Development (BoANRD) to promote the adoption of environmentally sustainable, climate resilient agricultural practices that support increased production of livestock.
2. Provide specialized analytical expertise, technical and operational advisory support to partners and stakeholders to enable the highest possible quality in design and effectiveness of activities related to pastoral livelihoods. Facilitation of folder production, index insurance, financial services and Village Savings and Lending Associations (VSLAs).
3. Plan and implement integrated resilience approaches, including but not limited to water management, rangeland rehabilitation and protection, cooperatives and agro-dealer networks for agricultural market access and linkage and diversification of livelihoods options through programmes such as cash-based transfers.
4. Enable synergistic approaches with external partners and other WFP interventions including smallholder crop production and productivity support, nutrition, relief, and supply chain interventions to maximise impact.
5. Lead the development and implementation of pastoralist field schools under (Pastoralist-centric, gender-sensitive field schools implemented on sustainable and regenerative rangeland management and biodiversity-friendly practices)
6. Provide technical advice and support implementation of various activities at household, and community levels to support relief programmes to build infrastructure/assets that contribute to improved livelihoods and resilience through cash- or food-for-assets.
7. Ensure that cross-cutting issues, including gender perspectives, environment and social safeguards, accountability to affected populations and other relevant protection considerations are adequately mainstreamed.
8. Participate in proposal development, assessments, staff and partner trainings, technical or design review, exchange of knowledge and experience while keeping abreast of water harvesting technologies in drylands including Dams, Ponds, and Water Diversion technologies
9. Support governments and other partners in identifying where livelihood and resilience programmes can be usefully employed and provide support and technical expertise for the planning, formulation and implementation of moderately complex livelihood and resilience programme to strengthen government and community ownership and effectiveness of water development and empowerment programmes at field level.
10. Organize practice oriented technical trainings on dryland management, water harvesting, natural resource management to enhance the capacity of WFP staff and government partners to design and deliver effective livelihood recovery and resilience programmes.
11. Provide guidance and support for the implementation of holistic grazing and rangeland management systems (Holistic, regenerative grazing practices and restoration interventions) and forest restoration and management.
12. In close liaison with M&E focal persons for the CPs and Country Office, support the generation of progress monitoring reports, impact stories, photo images and video clips for social media and participate in the project evaluation and documentation of the lessons learned and best practices.
13. Establish model sites with integrated and diversified technologies and initiate the scaling up of those initiatives and support advocacy work.
14. Lead, motivate and develop a team of staff to enable high performance.
15. Perform other duties as assigned.

STANDARD MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS

Education: University degree in Natural Resource Management, Forestry, Economics, Agriculture, Environmental Science, Agricultural engineering, or other fields relevant to food security and livelihood, with a demonstrated focus/interest on rural livelihoods.

Experience:

• At least three (3) years of relevant work experience in Natural Resource Management, Integrated Watershed Planning, Dryland agriculture and Rural Development, Social Protection and Food Security and Nutrition.
• Ability to conduct capacity gaps needs assessments and design programmes to fill these gaps.
• Experience working in arid and semi-arid areas. Previous experience working in Ethiopia is an added advantage.
• Familiarity with water harvesting technologies and pastoral livelihood approaches
• Experience and strong skills in workshop facilitation.

Knowledge & Skills:

• Understanding of Public Works and Food Assistance for Assets, CBT and community based participatory planning approaches
• Strong organization and planning skills coupled with good interpersonal skills.
• Good analytical skills; resourcefulness, initiative, maturity of judgment, tact, negotiating skills.
• Ability to work in a team and establish effective working relations with persons of different national and cultural backgrounds.
• Ability to deal patiently and tactfully with people of different national and cultural backgrounds.

Language:
Fluency in both oral and written communication in English. Knowledge of the local language is an added advantage.

DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS

29 November 2023

.

WFP has a zero-tolerance approach to conduct such as fraud, sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to WFP’s standards of conduct and will therefore undergo rigorous background verification internally or through third parties. Selected candidates will also be required to provide additional information as part of the verification exercise. Misrepresentation of information provided during the recruitment process may lead to disqualification or termination of employment

WFP will not request payment at any stage of the recruitment process including at the offer stage. Any requests for payment should be refused and reported to local law enforcement authorities for appropriate action.