Research Assessment and Mapping Officer – P4

Closing date:

BACKGROUND

The Central African Republic (CAR) has one of the most acute humanitarian crises in the world. The country has been afflicted by successive coups and waves of conflict, culminating in the 2013 crisis with unprecedented levels of violence which continues to grip the country. The violence that followed the Presidential/legislative elections in December 2020 ignited the conflict between the Government of Central African Republic (GoCAR) allied forces and the opposition coalition armed groups, causing further displacements. There are 722,101 internally displaced persons (IDPs) across the country, and the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) estimates that over 707,000 CAR refugees reside in neighbouring countries. Several new hotspots have emerged as the population continue to flee the increasing violence and abuses. The flare-up of violence is negatively impacting the already fragile food security situation and triggering a dramatic deterioration in the humanitarian situation in the country.

Nearly half of the population suffers from severe and surging food insecurity as the country reels from the impacts of ongoing armed conflict. The results of the latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC analysis, September 2021) projects that around 2.4 million people (48 percent of the population) will be acutely food insecure and unable to meet their minimum food needs. The 2022 Humanitarian Needs Overview (HNO) indicates that in 2022, 3.1 million Central Africans — 63 percent of the population — will need humanitarian assistance and protection in CAR. Of these, 2.2 million people will have severe humanitarian needs. The recurring violence, persistence of shocks, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the deterioration of essential services have significantly degraded the population’s living conditions in 2021. The people’s resilience continues eroding under the weight of successive crises and economic recession, forcing nearly the entire population to adopt harmful coping mechanisms as food insecurity has worsened due to reduced access to fields, market disruptions and the decline in agricultural production, the primary source of livelihoods.

WFP is supporting the Government of CAR and the humanitarian community in operationalizing gender transformative sustainable safety nets and shock-responsive social protection programmes with a view to address food and nutrition insecurity for early recovery, resilience building, and find durable solutions for peace building and inclusive socioeconomic growth. Through its Interim Country Strategic Plan (ICSP), WFP CAR provides humanitarian food assistance to the most vulnerable people affected by crisis and COVID-19 mainly through general food distributions, nutrition prevention and treatment intervention, school based programmes, and resilience building using in kind food transfer, Cash-based Transfers(CBT) and capacity strengthening.

It is within the background that WFP CAR is looking a Research Assessment and Monitoring Officer who will provide strategic leadership and expert advice to management and peers on vision and direction in relation to food security analysis to enable the generation of the VAM evidence base that supports food security and nutrition policies and programmes (e.g. needs assessment and situation analyses, programme design, targeting, cost effectiveness, and operational efficiency) as well as monitoring of operations to improve performance measurement by demonstrating results at output and outcome level.

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES (not all-inclusive)

Under the overall supervision of the Head of Programme, the RAM officer will be responsible to lead and/or manage the generation of the VAM evidence base that supports food security and nutrition policies and programmes, and measure the operational performance of WFP activities (process/output/outcome monitoring).

• Provide expert advice and support WFP and its partners on matters pertaining to food security and nutrition strategies, policies, programmes, and ensure the timely and productive use of related outputs in a manner that complies with WFP standards and processes.
• Contribute to the development of systems and tools for the monitoring of WFP activities, assessment of food assistance needs in line with innovative methodologies and best practice.
• Lead/conduct complex food security, nutrition, markets and resilience analysis and prepare timely reports on food assessment needs in line with wider VAM policies, processes and guidance to enable effective decision-making on the development of Country strategy, policies and programmes.
• Keep up to date with and advise on food assistance developments and issues and the potential impact upon WFP activities to enable timely and appropriate programme evolution and intervention.
• Provide advice and guidance on the development of programme activities, providing technical analysis, interpretation and recommendations to enable food assistance needs to be met effectively.
• Coordinate and/or provide technical support to the IPC consultations and analysis.
• Lead operational partnerships, including inter-agency collaboration, to ensure a solid VAM/M&E support in both emergency and non-emergency settings.
• Manage VAM and M&E teams, providing coaching and guidance as required to ensure appropriate development and enable high performance.
• Support the monitoring and evaluation of WFP activities, providing technical analysis, PDMs, interpretation and information as required to support the assessment of activity impact.
• Represent WFP during meetings with partners, donors, government to contribute to technical discussions, exchange of knowledge and experience, advocate for appropriate interventions (based on an evidence base), and identify areas for potential collaboration.
• Build capacity of WFP staff, partners and national government to conduct food security, nutrition, markets and resilience analysis to effectively inform preparedness and response activities.
• Provide leadership and support to relevant partners that are focusing on food security and nutrition to enable sharing of experience, lessons learned and best practice.
• Provide leadership and support to relevant partners that are focusing on food security and nutrition to enable sharing of experience, lessons learned and best practice.
• Take responsibility for incorporating gender perspectives in all areas of work, to ensure equal participation of women and men.
• Act in an assigned emergency response capacity as required to meet emergency food assistance needs.
• Perform other related duties as required.

STANDARD MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS

Education: Advanced University degree in Economics, Food Security, Statistics, Data Science, Public Health/Nutrition, Geography or other related field, or First University degree with additional years of related work experience and/or training/courses.

Languages:

  • Fluency (level C) in English language and French.
  • Intermediate knowledge (level B) of a second official UN language (Arabic, Russian, Spanish) or Portuguese (a WFP working language) is desireable

EXPERIENCE REQUIRED

• At least 8 years professional experience in the design, implementation and management of development projects, emergency assistance, and/or operational aspects of national, bilateral or multilateral humanitarian and development assistance.
• Strong experience in the set-up of developing of a high-performing team and management of vulnerability analysis exercises including emergency assessments, and monitoring of WFP activities at country level
• Use knowledge of country and cultural context in assessing food availability, access and utilization, and exposure to risks.
• Has established food security analysis, and monitoring and evaluation systems
• Has led surveys, multiple food security assessments, and supervise the monitoring of WFP activities in countries, including the design, data collection, analysis and reporting.
• Good understanding of targeting, monitoring, and evaluation techniques and their application
• Strong knowledge of food security analysis and the data collection, treatment, and manipulation techniques typically associated with it.
• Proficiency in MS Office (Word, Excel, Access, Outlook) and GIS applications.
• Working knowledge of basic statistics.
• Knowledge of research methods and monitoring and evaluation standards.
• General knowledge of UN system policies, rules, regulations, and procedures governing administration is highly desirable.

CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS

  • Good analytical skills, resourcefulness, initiative, maturity of judgment, 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 high security situations and flexibility in accepting work assignments outside normal job description.
  • Demonstrated ability to develop and maintain effective work relationships with counterparts and staff within the office, government entities, donors, NGOS, other UN agencies and the local population.
  • Ability to establish priorities and to plan, coordinate and monitor own work plan and those under his/her supervision.

TERMS AND CONDITIONS

The selected candidate will be employed on a mobile, fixed term as well as a rotational contract with a probationary period of one year.

WFP offers an attractive compensation and benefits package, including basic salary, post adjustment, relocation entitlement, travel and shipment allowances, 30 days’ annual leave, home leave, an education grant for dependent child, pension plan and medical insurance. For more details please visit icsc.un.org.

The duty station Bangui is on an R&R cycle of every 6 weeks.

How to apply

DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS: Sunday 13 February

Applications must be submitted in English at https://bit.ly/RAMP4Bangui



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