Senior Programme Officer Value Chain Development Specialist

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• WFP is a 2020 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate.

• WFP offers a highly inclusive diverse and multicultural working environment.

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• 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).

JOB TITLE: Senior Programme Officer/ Value Chain Development Specialist
TYPE OF CONTRACT: Regular Consultant
UNIT/DIVISION: Climate and Resilience Service (Youth in work Programme)
DUTY STATION (City Country): Remote working modality home based
DURATION: 11 months

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE OF THE ASSIGNMENT: WFP is partnering with the Mastercard Foundation (the Foundation) on a five-year 130 million USD partnership titled Strengthening food systems to promote increased value chain employment opportunities for youth. 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 WFP Country Offices (COs) 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 creating youth jobs through reducing post-harvest losses improving the quality of crops and increasing the value of sales by smallholder farmers and broadly improving value chain efficiency for young people.
Using a value chain development approach the programme will focus on reducing post-harvest losses and increasing the access of small-holder farmers to reliable and remunerative market opportunities for a range of different complement to those core intervention areas the partnership will introduce innovative access to 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 overall the overall efficiency of the targeted value chains.

Purpose of the consultancy:
The eight WFP COs conducted a Value Chain Analysis (VCA) in 2022 to identify constraints that affect selected VCs and to identify opportunities that could support women and youth employment. The VCAs have provided recommendations for upgrading the selected VCs with focus on areas that could potentially create employment for women and youth. One of the main outcomes of the VCAs is that youth and women are attracted to new business areas such as processing trading and services which are more lucrative than traditional farming.
Each country has identified a number of opportunities for creating employment for target segments. The opportunities will constitute the entry points for implementation during the 4 years programme timeframe. The identified opportunities are commercial in nature and respond to market demand and potential growth. The COs are currently reviewing the identified opportunities and selecting the most relevant to develop their respective implementation strategies. It is expected that the majority of opportunities will undergo analysis to ensure their commercial feasibility as well as to identify strategic partners in their development.
The consultant is leading the process of developing and assessing the opportunities to evaluate their commercial viability. The consultant will also advise the COs on the structuring of the business models and supporting the Country teams during the process of proposal readjustment and project implementation.

The WFP Programme Coordination team based in HQ with representations in 3 regional bureaus hence requires the support of a value chain development specialist to:
1. Provide strategic and technical support to COs in the eight countries where the Youth in Work programme is being implemented to: develop Value Chain Development strategies to create employment opportunities for young men and women; identify commercial opportunities that have the potential to create youth jobs; design and develop business models for identified opportunities.
2. Provide support during the design and implementation of the different opportunities and other key interventions related to value chain development as well as help COs to identify and foster effective partnerships to execute these initiatives.
3. Closely collaborate with other WFP Divisions and Programme Units (e.g. Supply Chain and Procurement School Feeding Nutrition Cash Based Transfers etc.) that contribute to generate demand for high value commodities to foster programmatic linkages that have the potential to build synergies between different WFP interventions;
4. Help COs to interact and build connections with private sector entities at national level that contribute to achieve the Programme Objective. Advise COs on the correct internal procurement and legal procedures for building formal partnerships and/or contractual agreements with private sector entities if any.

The consultant will report to the Youth in Work Programme Global Coordinator and will work as part of the Programme Coordination Team including the regional bureaus regional coordinators and in close coordination with focal points in target country offices and when required with colleagues in the Programme Support Unit under the Climate and Resilience Service. The position involves substantial travel to the 8 countries where the Youth in Work Programme operates and may require periodic missions to WFP HQ.
In its support to the COs the consultant should be aware and adapt its methods and tools to the internal capacities of COs and to the nature of the activities that are the backbone of the Programme in the respective particular the consultant should understand how the objective of creating youth jobs can be integrated into respective Country Strategic Programmes (CSPs) and help COs draw the appropriate connections between the process the consultant should contribute to increasing CO capacity in analysis and development of opportunities including if necessary by advising the CO on the recruitment of additional human resources in key technical areas.
During the assignment the consultant will consult WFPs new Local and Regional Food Procurement Policy (LRFPP) which offers a framework for addressing bottlenecks in value chains in particular detecting inefficiencies and imbalances that may prevent actors along the chain from benefiting from food procurement. The Policy aims at boosting WFPs local regional and pro-smallholder procurement by complementing the cost-efficiency considerations that guide its procurement decisions and introducing additional principles and parameters including programme objectives and analysis of local value chains. This will contribute to improving the participation of smallholders in existing and new food and agriculture value chains.

ACCOUNTABILITIES/RESPONSIBILITIES:
1. Lead the design and development of the Value Chain Development Strategy for the Youth in Workprogramme for each participating COs.
2. Design organise and deliver tools and workshops with the COs to implement the VCD strategy andimplementation modalities.
3. Conduct market assessment and feasibility studies of potential commercial opportunities to evaluate itscommercial viability and develop appropriate engagement strategy.
4. Lead the dialogue with the private sector including SMEs and large corporates to explore collaborationopportunities. The consultant is also expected to identify potential roles of different private sector segments (SMES and Large) in the project and advise COs on the best approach to engage with the private sector under the different business models.
5. Assess and evaluate the business models under implementation to provide feedback and advise onprogress.
6. Build capacity of COs teams in aspects related to design development and implementation of businessopportunities.
7. Develop guidelines training material and FAQ about engagement with the private sector
8. Prepare knowledge management assets related to private sector engagement
9. Provide support on VCA and VCD for other teams in the C&R service as required. This include advisingCOs on VCA methodologies and approaches; Review Value Chain support request forms/expressions ofinterest submitted by RBs and COs to advise on action and provide / assign appropriate support.
10. Participate in - VCA and VCD development workshops and provide technical guidance on the developmentof WFP VCA methodology.
11. Act as a focal point for quality control in HQ for VCA reports review VCA outcomes and reports conductedby COs and provide recommendations.
12. Lead/Contribute to the development of value chain studies and initiatives for a range of foodcommodities acting as link between Procurement and Programme.
13. Participate in the design and implementation of programmes and projects related to agribusiness valuechain development and agricultural and rural development in line with WFPs LRFPP and SAMSframeworks.
14. Liaise with internal counterparts to enable effective collaboration implementation and monitoring ofongoing activities related to value chain development and related ongoing project activities.
15. Identify establish and foster operational local partnerships to implement collaborative initiatives that willcontribute to address some of the inefficiencies identified in the target value chains.
16. As requested provide technical support and/or backstopping to field activities including building collaborations and partnerships.
17. Other duties as required

DELIVERABLES:
1 Eight WFP country offices have implementation plans based on solid evidence backed by strong public and private partners.
2 Contribution on the organization of learning/sharing events on the VCD and PSE results.
3 Prepare reports and data analysis and make recommendations to supervisors.
4. Training sessions organized based on needs.
5. Capacity building missions to COs as required.
6. Draft guidance manual produced at end of assignment to document lessons from implementation in the eight countries.

QUALIFICATIONS & EXPERIENCE REQUIRED:
Education: University degree in one of the following disciplines: agricultural economics economics international relations development studies or other related fields Masters degree is preferred.
Experience: Minimum 10 years of post-graduate progressively responsible professional experience in value chain (analysis and development) Business Development Private Sector and Investment Facilitation market facilitation and smallholder procurement.
Knowledge & Skills: -Knowledge of food value chains analysis and development food systems nutritiongender smallholder agricultural support and/or efficiency/marketing initiatives in developing/transition countries
-Solid experience in working with the private sector in developing and implementing VCD projects.
-Capacity to develop and implement complex value chains initiatives in developing countries which includes skills in working with governments and private sector.
-Extent of experience in conducting value chain assessments and demonstrated ability to provide advice technical support and guidance in value chain analysis and development
-Excellent analytical skills with ability to compile analyse and interpret quantitative and qualitative data prepare reports and draw conclusions and recommendation
-Strong interpersonal skills and ability for perform well in cross-disciplinary teams
-Very good oral and written communication skills to engage experts and liaising with external and internal stakeholders as appropriate
-Ability to establish priorities and to plan coordinate and monitor own work plan and deliver results and meet deadlines
-Ability to write clear and concise technical documents
-A good command of MS Office
-Ability and willingness to take on assignments that require travel and/or appointment to field locations in remote regions if necessary on short notice
-Ability to work under pressure and in stressful situations.

Languages: Working knowledge of English (proficiency/level C) and intermediate knowledge (intermediate/level B) of French and another UN official language is highly desired

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