Programme Policy Officer - Social Protection, NOB

Vacancy Announcement

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WFP encourages female candidates and people with disabilities to apply.

WFP seeks candidates of the highest integrity and professionalism who share our humanitarian principles. Selection of staff is made on a competitive basis. We are committed to promoting diversity and the principle of equal employment opportunity for all our employees and encourages qualified candidates to apply irrespective of religion or belief, ethnic or social background, gender, gender identity and disability.

TERMS AND CONDITIONS

WFP offers a competitive benefits package including salary, pension, leave plus a medical insurance.

JOB PURPOSE

As part of Strategic Outcomes 1 and 2, WFP Cambodia will work with the Royal Government of Cambodia and development partners to enhance the shock responsive social protection system in Cambodia. The Programme Policy Officer will coordinate these efforts together with the Social Protection team. This position falls under the overall supervision of the Head of Programme, and directly supervised by the Social Protection team leader.

Job Title: Programme Policy Officer - Social Protection   

Grade: NO-B

Type of contract: fixed term appointment                                           

Duration: one year (with possibility of extension)

Duty Station: Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Vacancy Number: One

Date of Publication: 16 January 2024

Deadline of Application: 29 January 2024

This vacancy announcement is for Nationals from Cambodia Only.

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES (not all-inclusive)

1. Contribute to the development of a wide variety of projects, plans and processes, ensuring alignment with wider programme policies and guidance.
2. Provide project management support to specific and defined programmes and projects of considerable size/complexity, ensuring a coordinated approach with wider programmes that complies with WFP standards and procedures.
3. Develop and coordinate data gathering and monitoring systems ensuring that rigorous quality standards are maintained.
4. Research and analyse a range of policy and operational issues to inform the development of policies, programmes and activities.
5. Contribute to the preparation of accurate and timely reporting on programmes and activities that enable informed decision making and consistency of information presented to stakeholders.
6. Liaise with internal and external counterparts to ensure effective collaboration, monitor ongoing projects and highlight potential risks to project delivery.
7. Support the identification, development and management of potential partnerships to collaborative working leading to improved food assistance packages.
8. Support the capacity building of WFP staff, partners and national government to prepare for and respond to food assistance needs, e.g. through providing inputs into training materials.
9. Guide and supervise more junior staff, acting as a point of referral and supporting them with analysis and queries.
10. Other as required.

OTHER SPECIFIC JOB REQUIREMENTS

Partnerships and coordination:

1. Identify, establish and maintain partnerships with the National Social Protection Council (NSPC), Ministry of Social Affairs, Veterans and Youth Rehabilitation (MoSVY), National Social Assistance Fund (NSAF), National Committee for Disaster Management (NCDM), and other relevant government entities, United Nations agencies, development partners, research partners and academic institutions etc. to support the Government in strengthening its social protection system, including enhancing the implementation of shock responsive social protection framework and integrating food security and nutrition considerations.
2. Participate and support the WFP Country Office’s contribution to broader national level discussions and policy/strategy development for social protection and bridging the humanitarian-development divide in technical working groups/forums by providing inputs to technical discussions, sharing experiences and knowledge, and identifying collaboration opportunities.
3. Support capacity strengthening of WFP staff, government institutions and staff at both national and subnational levels and relevant partners in technical skills in social protection related topics, in particular how to consider the impact of shocks.

Policy, research and analysis:

1. Collaborate with government and development partners to identify a research agenda for generating evidence for social protection.
2. Undertake/coordinate research, and compile and analyze information to support the research agenda.
3. Distill lessons learned and good practices from other countries with social protection programming, identify implementation challenges and results.
4. Provide written inputs into research/policy papers, reports and strategy documents on social protection in Cambodia, and in particular the expansion of social protection programming to protect vulnerable populations from shocks and the inclusion of food security and nutrition considerations.

Knowledge and information sharing:

1. Coordinate and liaise with functional and Strategic Outcome teams, regional bureau and headquarters to ensure effective collaboration and share learning related to social protection, in particular shock-responsive social protection.
2. Maintain a knowledge and information sharing platform to update and communicate with relevant stakeholders on the social protection area in Cambodia.
3. Assist in organizing and facilitating workshops and seminars.

Operational support/project management:

1. Coordinate and liaise with relevant government organizations, United Nations partners and NGOs on standard operating procedures and delivery models, including for cash assistance during shocks.
2. Draft relevant sections of project documents, fundraising proposals and progress reports.
3. Coordinate and liaise with functional and Strategic Outcome teams and external stakeholders to explore the utilization of risk and impact analytics to inform national social protection programme design.
4. Support WFP Country Office in organizing project planning missions, meetings and briefings in relevant areas of expertise and engagement.
5. Coordinate the various workstreams around social protection, link them with government agreements, and support in the management of the broader programme under the Social Protection Team Lead.

Other Duties:

1. Undertake other related duties, as may be assigned by the line manager and/or the Strategic Outcome Manager.
2. Ensure gender is considered throughout all areas of work under the post, as relevant.

STANDARD MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS

Education: Advanced University degree in International Affairs, Economics, Public Health, Nutrition, Agriculture, Environmental Science, Social Sciences or other field relevant to international humanitarian and development assistance, or First University Degree with additional years of related work experience and/or trainings/courses.

DESIRED EXPERIENCES FOR ENTRY INTO THE ROLE

• At least four (4) year of postgraduate professional experience with bachelor’s degree or two (2) year with master’s degree in technical assistance, policy analysis and guidance, and/or operational experience in the field of (shock-responsive) social protection, humanitarian assistance, and/or disaster preparedness and response;
• Experience working with United Nations, donor organizations, non-governmental organizations and/or government;
• Sound understanding of policy-making processes and the ability to distil operationally relevant recommendations/lessons for government institutions and other partners;
• Proven experience in managing cross-agency collaboration work along social protection;
• Ability to manage and prioritize complex workloads;
• Excellent communication skills in both written and spoken English;
• Experience working on cash-based transfer schemes is desirable;
• Experience working in disaster management or emergency preparedness work is desirable.

KEY COMPETENCIES

Programme Lifecycle & Food Assistance: Displays ability to identify the main hunger problem at the national or subnational level to design and implement context-specific programmes that integrate complex analysis and the full range of food assistance tools.

Transfer Modalities (Food, Cash, Voucher): Demonstrates ability to analyze and consolidate quantitative and qualitative information from different sources (e.g., market studies) to inform transfer modality selection and programme development.

Broad Knowledge of Specialized areas (i.e. Nutrition, VAM, etc.): Demonstrates the ability to interpret basic data in the context of WFP specialised fields   to   contribute   to   technical   programme   design, implementation, and monitoring.

Emergency Programming: Displays ability to translate understanding of programme principles in emergencies and protracted conflict situations into relevant, effective, and context specific approaches.

Strategic Policy Engagement w/ Government: Develops thorough recommendations using multiple inputs (e.g., government counsel, research, own experience) to strengthen national or subnational entities and government owned food and nutrition security programmes.

LANGUAGE: Fluency (level C) in English language and Khmer language.

All WFP Employees are expected to demonstrate the competencies and standards of behavior aligned with our core values and defined in the WFP LEADERSHIP FRAMEWORK, namely:  

1. Leading by example with integrity,  
2. Driving results and delivering on commitments,  
3. Fostering inclusive and collaborative teamwork,  
4. Applying strategic thinking,  
5. Building and maintaining sustainable partnerships.  

HOW TO APPLY

To be considered, interested candidates are invited to apply via (https://www.wfp.org/careers/job-openings). Only short-listed candidates will be contacted.

Request for Disability related Reasonable Accommodations: 

It is important to WFP to create an accessible and inclusive workplace for everyone.  Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable qualified individuals with disabilities to perform essential job functions. 

WFP is committed to an accessible, inclusive recruitment process. Please contact us at global.inclusion@wfp.org to advise us of any disability related reasonable accommodation or accessibility requests you may have. A member of the reasonable accommodation team will contact you to confidentially discuss your needs.

This email is only to be used for any disability related accessibility requirements and not for sending the application itself. Due to the volume of applications, any applications or CVs sent through this email address will not be considered a formal application and will not receive a reply from WFP. 

ABOUT WFP

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is the world’s largest humanitarian organization, 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

WFP’s mission is to help the world achieve Zero Hunger by 2030 as per Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 2. It works to ensure that the poorest and most vulnerable, particularly women and children, can access the nutritious food they need.

Through the Country Strategic Plan 2019-23 (CSP), WFP Cambodia is contributing to achieving Zero Hunger through a combination of direct implementation and systems capacity strengthening at national sub-national level. Through the CSP, WFP promotes access to nutritious diets through home grown school feeding and improving climate smart food production and transformation capacities of small holder farming communities, whilst strengthening standards and guidelines for food transformation to satisfy the increasing demand for nutritious processed and convenient foods. WFP supports national and subnational disaster and climate change risk management and to the national strategic direction and coordination on food security, nutrition and social protection through enhanced information systems, knowledge management, and public-private and south-south partnerships. WFP also responds to the acute food security and early recovery needs of vulnerable women, men, girls and boys impacted by recurrent disasters.

Starting in 2024, WFP will shift to a new CSP (2024-28), which is structured along two broad priorities: human capital development with a focus on nutrition and social protection, and systems strengthening with a focus on the national food systems and the disaster risk management system. All of WFP’s activities are underpinned by strong evidence generation efforts to effectively establish needs, advocate for certain programmes or policies, and demonstrate the effects of assistance programmes. In addition, evidence and knowledge generation is becoming an important offering by WFP to its national counterparts

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WFP is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce. WFP has zero tolerance for sexual exploitation and abuse, any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment, abuse of authority or discrimination. 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.