Youth in Work Programme Policy Officer

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE OF THE ASSIGNMENT:

WFP is partnering with the Mastercard Foundation (MCF) for a five-year 130 million USD partnership titled ‘Strengthening food systems to promote increased value chain employment opportunities for youth’ (Youth in Work). This partnership, which aims to strengthen local food systems and making them more efficient, sustainable and inclusive for youth, in particular young women, will be implemented in eight Country Offices, in three different regions: East Africa (Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda); Southern Africa (Tanzania, Mozambique) and West Africa (Ghana, Nigeria, and Senegal). In each of these countries, the programme will adopt an integrated value chain approach to implement context-specific interventions aimed at reaching the following outcomes:

• Young people, especially women, have improved employment opportunities along the value chain
• Smallholder farmers, especially youth and women, increase the value of their sales, resulting in improved income
• Smallholder farmers, especially youth and women, reduce post-harvest losses and improve the quality for targeted crops
• Improved inclusiveness of marginalized groups in agricultural value chains
• Improved value chain efficiency for young people, in particular women

The programme focuses on reducing post-harvest losses, increasing access of smallholder farmers to reliable and remunerative market opportunities and creating income opportunities across value chains for different crops. In complement to those core intervention areas, the partnership supports access to relevant finance solutions to the benefit of key value chain actors, as well as a range of other innovative digital solutions to strengthen the performance of those actors and improve the overall efficiency of the targeted value chains.

• To manage the programme and the associated Trust Fund, a Programme Coordination Team (PCT) was set up under PPGR to support delivery and measurement of results by COs, facilitate the integration of the Programme within CSPs and regional strategies, build synergies with other corporate areas of work, learn from COs, RBs and other HQ youth engagement pathways, help document the importance of investing on youth and inform a potential youth engagement agenda, coordinate the partnership by maintaining a continuous dialogue with the Foundation’s PanAfrican (PANA) team.
• The partnership has a strong learning agenda with the purpose of facilitating evidence-based learning across countries through the monitoring, documentation and dissemination of results, lessons learned and good practices.

Purpose of the consultancy:

• The consultant will be part of the HQ/RB Programme Coordination Team on the general coordination of the Programme with specific roles in channelling appropriate technical support in a variety of areas such as access to market, innovative financing and youth & women employment in agriculture value chains to RBx and COs, reporting, knowledge management and communications of the Youth in Work Programme.
• The consultant will operate under the direct supervision of the Global Programme Coordinator and overall guidance of the Head of the Programme Themes and Integration Unit under PPGR. The consultant will work in close coordination with the WFP PCT, the Climate and Resilience service technical teams, the regional bureaus’ project focal points and focal points in target Country Offices.

ACCOUNTABILITIES/RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Draw upon relevant technical expertise across the Smallholder Agricultural Market Support, inclusive finance, asset creation, livelihoods and regenerative practices portfolio in the organization, to support COs through RB coordinators in the PCT.
• Following PCT decisions, coordinate inputs for and produce strategic documents, including remarks, talking points, presentations, briefing notes, concept notes, proposals for overall signoff from the coordinator;
• Under overall guidance of the coordinator, lead the PCT preparation of consolidated reporting to the Foundation and oversee the preparation of the global and country reports, including generating evidence and producing quality narrative reports in a coordinated manner across different Country Offices;
• Organize the Global Programme Meeting and lead on the knowledge management and comms area;
• Collaborate with external research programmes, including leading the engagement and coordination with relevant researchers, to ensure that the research plan is in tune with country M&E plan and results integrated in country M&E framework;
• Implement the communication and knowledge management strategy, in order to enhance the visibility of the Programme and partnership in the programme areas;
• Create contents for and manage a range of different communication platforms and channels to support global and country fundraising activities, ensuring consistency with corporate messages;
• Provide ad-hoc support to WFP Regional Bureaux and Country Offices related to the Programme;
• Any other duties as required.

QUALIFICATIONS & EXPERIENCE REQUIRED:

• Education: University degree in one of the following disciplines: agricultural economics, economics, agricultural and rural development, international relations, development studies, communications, journalism, social sciences, or other related fields
• Experience: 10 years of post-graduate, progressively responsible professional experience in Agriculture, Agriculture Economics, International Development, International Relations, or other fields relevant to rural development and food systems, or a First University Degree with additional years of related work experience and/or training/courses. Field experience is desirable.
• Languages: Fluency in English is required. Intermediate knowledge intermediate/level B) of French and/or Portuguese is desired.

Source: https://wd3.myworkdaysite.com/en-US/recruiting/wfp/job_openings/job/Rome-Italy/Youth-in-Work-Programme-Policy-Officer_JR107119