Fellowship - Early Warning and Forecasting Unit (sponsored by ENSAE)
Fellowship - Early Warning and Forecasting Unit (sponsored by ENSAE)
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Job Description
DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS
14 June 2025-23:59-GMT01:00 Central European Time (Rome)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.
ABOUT WFP
The World Food Programme is the worlds largest humanitarian organization saving lives in emergencies and using food assistance to build a pathway to peace stability and prosperity for people recovering from conflict disasters and the impact of climate change.
At WFP people are at the heart of everything we do and the vision of the future WFP workforce is one of diverse committed skilled and high performing teams selected on merit operating in a healthy and inclusive work environment living WFPs values (Integrity Collaboration Commitment Humanity and Inclusion) and working with partners to save and change the lives of those WFP serves.
To learn more about WFP visit our website: follow us on social media to keep up with our latest news: YouTube LinkedIn Instagram Facebook Twitter TikTok.
WHY JOIN WFP
WFP is a 2020 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate.
WFP offers a highly inclusive diverse and multicultural working environment.
WFP invests in the personal & professional development of its employees through a range of training accreditation coaching mentorship and other programs as well as through internal mobility opportunities.
A career path in WFP provides an exciting opportunity to work across the various country regional and global offices around the world and with passionate colleagues who work tirelessly to ensure that effective humanitarian assistance reaches millions of people across the globe.
We offer an attractive compensation package (please refer to the Terms and Conditions section of this vacancy announcement).
Fellow Early Warning and Forecasting Unit
Analysis Performance and Planning Division (APP-FF)
Rome WFP Headquarters (Rome Italy)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DIVISION
Part of WFPs Analysis Planning & Performance Division the Forecasting & Early Warning Unit helps develop tools to forecast food security trends risks and drivers supporting timely data-driven interventions through innovative approaches. The Unit is looking for highly motivated Fellows to join its dynamic team from May on for up to 6 months to support the development of innovative early warning and forecasting products. The incumbents will be working closely with specialized teams dedicated to addressing the challenge of modelling and forecasting food insecurity and its drivers through the application of AI and data science techniques leveraging large heterogenous datasets and advanced algorithms to identify patterns and trends and predict the impact of impending natural and human generated hazards enabling timely interventions and anticipatory actions in vulnerable areas. The work is crucial in facilitating data-driven decision-making for governments and humanitarian organizations allowing proactive strategies in combating food crises and their underlying causes.
GENERAL INFORMATION
- Type of assignment: Fellowship
- Number of available positions: 2
- Country of assignment: Italy
- City of assignment: Rome
- Hiring Unit: APP-FF
- Supervisor: Head of APP-FF
- Working arrangement: On-Site (with possibility of remote work for a part of the assignment)
- Duration of assignment: 3 to 6 months
- Expected Starting Date: End May 2025
DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
The Fellows will be supporting the following activities:
- Contribute to the development of early warning approaches and methodologies including risk analysis scenario building and vulnerability assessments in the context of food security and humanitarian operations.
- Analyze complex data sets to produce actionable insights for early warning and forecasting integrating diverse data sources such as geospatial climatic and socioeconomic information.
- Contribute to the writing of technical papers and reports potentially for peer-reviewed scientific publications.
- Contribute to background research and draft analyses for reports bulletins dashboards presentations and other information and communication materials.
- Support with the implementation of food security forecasting and early warning activities for projects with strategic partners such as Google and participate to project activities.
- Research design and implement AI models for estimating food insecurity and produce early warning of impending crises.
- Support ad-hoc data explorations and analysis by means of traditional statistical analysis as well as state-of-the-art data science methodologies.
- Support the design and the implementation of production-ready data pipelines.
- Participate to workshops meetings and conferences to present technical analyses and methodologies.
- Ensure adherence to WFP policies regarding data including data privacy security management and code documentation.
- Support with the development of analytical and visualization tools for monitoring and evaluation purposes.
- Perform other tasks as required and relevant to the profile.
STANDARD MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS
- Be a masters student or a graduate in data science statistics engineering computer science physics mathematics economics or related field.
- Advanced knowledge of statistics and passion for machine learning with an understanding of algorithms
- Experience in handling large diverse datasets and building and deploying ml models
- Python programming skills and experience with data science libraries (pandas NumPy scikit-learn Keras etc)
- Experience in querying SQL databases
- Experience in git is an asset
- Experience in the following fields is an asset: forecasting Time Series; NLP; Generative AI; Deep Learning Libraries.
- Knowledge of data collection and visualization tools an asset (Kobo ODK Tableau Power BI etc.)
- Language skills: Ability to work in English is required. Working knowledge of another official UN language (French Spanish Arabic Chinese Russian plus Portuguese) is an asset.
HOW TO APPLY
Interested candidates may apply by sending their CV and Cover Letter (both in English) to
TRAINING COMPONENTS
Throughout their assignment WFP Fellows have access to an industry leading learning platform weLearn. Depending on opportunities and availability of funds he/she may participate in WFP workshops or seminars as appropriate.
LEARNING ELEMENTS
At the end of the assignment the Fellow should have an improved knowledge and understanding of:
- WFP and humanitarian work in general by actively participating in project meetings workshops and other events as relevant.
- Early Warning Systems including the code and methodology for generation of the signals.
- The application of AI models for food security forecasting.
WFP LEADERSHIP FRAMEWORK
WFP Leadership Framework guides to the common standards of behavior that guide HOW we work together to accomplish our mission.
Click here to access WFP Leadership Framework
REASONABLE ACCOMMODATION
WFP is committed to supporting individuals with disabilities by providing reasonable accommodations throughout the recruitment process. If you require a reasonable accommodation please contact:
NO FEE DISCLAIMER
The United Nations does not charge any application processing training interviewing testing or other fee in connection with the application or recruitment process. Should you receive a solicitation for the payment of a fee please disregard it. Furthermore please note that emblems logos names and addresses are easily copied and reproduced. Therefore you are advised to apply particular care when submitting personal information on the web.
REMINDERS BEFORE YOU SUBMIT YOUR APPLICATION
We strongly recommend that your profile is accurate complete and includes your employment records academic qualifications language skills and UN Grade (if applicable).
Once your profile is completed please apply and submit your application.
Please make sure you upload your professional CV in the English language
Kindly note the only documents you will need to submit at this time are your CV and Cover Letter
Additional documents such as passport recommendation letters academic certificates etc. may potentially be requested at a future time
Please contact us at in case you face any challenges with submitting your application
Only shortlisted candidates will be notified
All employment decisions are made on the basis of organizational needs job requirements merit and individual qualifications. WFP is committed to providing an inclusive work environment free of sexual exploitation and abuse all forms of discrimination any kind of harassment sexual harassment and abuse of authority. Therefore 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.
Employment Type
Full-Time
