Programme Policy Officer (Gender and Protection Officer) P4 – Juba, South Sudan at World Food Programme

COUNTRY CONTEXT/ ORGANIZATIONAL CONTEXT:

South Sudan continues to face a political crisis manifested in violent conflict & insecurity associated with an economic crisis & a protracted humanitarian crisis. WFP manages the largest humanitarian response in the country, reaching almost 5 million beneficiaries in 2020. The country is a protection crisis, where deeply engrained gender inequalities expose women and girls to material deprivation and limit sustainable outcomes of humanitarian assistance to them. Other vulnerable groups, like the disenfranchised, and/or people living with disabilities face increasing protection risks, particularly in the context of climate and conflict shocks.

WFP Programming covers the full range of emergency & recovery interventions, several new innovations & covers all modalities of assistance. To respond effectively, sound knowledge of the fundamentals of food assistance programming & skills in several cross-cutting & specialized areas is required. These include gender, protection, accountability to affected populations, conflict sensitivity, peacebuilding & humanitarian principles, especially in relation to access & UN integration. Specialized capacity is required to support management with positioning WFP to advance protection & gender objectives & targets as a member of the Humanitarian Coordination Team & Interagency WG, & to ensure that programming appropriately facilitates community empowerment to better position WFP to achieve sustainable impact.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE OF THE ASSIGNMENT:

Under the supervision of the Head of Programme, the Head of Gender & Protection will be responsible for providing strategic guidance, technical support and direction to WFP country operations and activities. This post is intended to ensure dedicated expertise in protection, gender and AAP for Senior Management, support impact focused programming design and delivery and to supervise the Protection and Gender Unit and staff within. The post will also focus on providing technical guidance to the various Field Offices and therefore requires extensive travel throughout South Sudan.

MAIN ACCOUNTABILITIES/RESPONSIBILITIES:

Adherence to normative frameworks – Provide technical advice and guidance to Senior Management to ensure WFP’s presence, operations and implementation are consistent with, and advance, humanitarian, human rights and gender equality frameworks. This includes ensuring consistency with WFP policies and procedures as well as development of localized interpretations and approach to meet normative standards.
Centrality of protection and gender transformation – Support programmes and operational leads through technical advice and development of related tools to address issues such as Housing, Land and Property Rights, conflict sensitivity, do no harm, gender-based violence in the design, implementation and review of WFP programmes. This includes supporting WFP engage with emerging and time sensitive issues such as relocations and reintegration, peacebuilding and the peace-development-humanitarian nexus. **
Programmatic integrity and exit strategies – Support the Country Office, especially the Head of Programme, to develop and implement programmes that meaningfully facilitate community empowerment (across all demographics and abilities) to advance the capacity of WFP to achieve sustainable impact and independence from assistance for the people of South Sudan.
Gender transformative programming – Lead the Country Office to develop and action evidence-based and ambitious gender transformative programming across all areas of WFP operations in collaboration with key stakeholders, both internal to WFP (e.g. Human Resources and programme units), community and UN, development, government, national agencies, donors and others.
Evidence based programming – Facilitate context specific research, data, analysis and data on protection and gender to inform the Country Strategic Plan and related programme and activity design and implementation. This includes informing targeting criteria and methodology and programming modality and approach.
Coordination and Partnerships – Develop and maintain relationships with authorities (state-based and traditional) and communities, UN agencies, and other humanitarian actors and international stakeholders to promote WFP protection and gender priorities and concerns. This includes developing country-level cooperation instruments with relevant humanitarian and development partners to achieve integration and mainstreaming of protection, gender and accountability to affected populations in food and nutrition security.
Management – Lead the development, review and implementation of the Gender and Protection Unit Annual Plan, facilitate capacity and provide day-to-day supervisory support to the national and international staff within the Gender and Protection Unit. **
Safe delivery of assistance and conflict sensitivity – In collaboration with the Head of the Programme Unit, Access Unit, Head of Logistics and Head of Security provide advice, guidance and follow-up in relation to any protection problems related to the safe delivery of food, cash or vouchers to beneficiaries, either before, after or during distribution. Additionally, take lead in supporting capacity of Country Office to understand and implement within a conflict sensitive approach.
Advocacy – Support Country Management to advocate and raise awareness on protection, conflict and gender issues, both emerging and protracted, as related to food and nutrition security. Audience may include: UN General Assembly and/or Security Council, WFP HQ, Donors, Political audiences, South Sudan based interagency forums and agencies.
Other duties: Undertake or contribute specialized knowledge to Country Director, Deputy Country Directors and Head of Programme as needed. This includes providing technical support to the Country Director in preventing, protecting and responding to Sexual Exploitation and Abuse.

SPECIFIC QUALIFICATIONS & EXPERIENCE REQUIRED:

Education:

Advanced University degree Political Science, International Development, Development Economics, Social Sciences, Gender, or other relevant fields, or a First University degree with additional years of related work experience and/or training/courses.

Experience:

At least eight years of progressively responsible and relevant professional experience demonstrating high performance and leadership capacity in protection and gender programming, and establishing accountability mechanisms towards affected populations
Demonstrated field experience working on either protection, human rights or gender programming and in-depth knowledge of humanitarian protection, sexual- and other forms of gender-based violence, civil-military relations and other humanitarian policy issues, and its linkage with humanitarian assistance.
Proven leadership and management capacity to build and foster inclusive and high performing teams in a multi-cultural environment
Experience working with government or international agencies in policy development.

Language:

Fluency (level C) in English language. Intermediate knowledge (level B) of a second official UN language: Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian, Spanish, and/or WFP’s working language, Portuguese. Arabic is highly desirable.

DESIRED EXPERIENCES FOR ENTRY INTO THE ROLE

Inter-agency experience
Field experience within a range of contexts (emergency, conflict, and transition)
Experience in Policy Development, including within the field of Protection, Gender, and Accountability to Affected Populations.

TERMS AND CONDITIONS

The selected candidate will be employed on a fixed-term contract with a probationary period of one year. He/she will be required to travel abroad, sometimes to remote and challenging locations.
Mobility is and continues to be a core contractual requirement in WFP. These positions are rotational, which means that the incumbent shall be subject to the regular reassignment process unless the position is reclassified as non-rotational. Professional-level positions are rotational over a period of 2 to 4 years.
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 children, a pension plan, and medical insurance.
Please visit our website for detailed information on working with WFP: http://www.wfp.orgClick on: “Our work” and “Countries” to learn more about WFP’s operations.