Vulnerability Analysis & Mapping (VAM) Officer

DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS

All applications should be received no later than Tuesday 13th October 2020.

CONTRACT TYPE & DURATION

Eligibility: Syrian Nationals or Syrian/Palestinian Nationals.
Type of Contract: Service Contract, Level 9 Contract Duration: 12 Months Duty Stations:** Damascus

ABOUT WFP

The United Nations World Food Programme is the world’s largest humanitarian agency fighting hunger worldwide. The mission of WFP is to help the world achieve Zero Hunger in our lifetimes. Every day, WFP works worldwide to ensure that no child goes to bed hungry and that the poorest and most vulnerable, particularly women and children, can access the nutritious food they need.

In Syria, WFP provides food assistance to more than 4.6 million people each month. This includes families who require emergency assistance when affected by conflict and displacement and also those who need help to improve their nutrition and food security. WFP supports children across Syria with healthy meals and snacks at school, mothers with nutritious diets, and families and communities with sustainable livelihood projects.

ORGANIZATIONAL CONTEXT

These roles are found in Headquarters (HQ), Regional Bureaux (RBs) or Country Offices (COs), and report to a more senior VAM or Programme Policy Officer. Job holders operate independently and are involved in operational activities and related analytical work.

JOB PURPOSE

To contribute to 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).

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES (not all-inclusive)

1. Contribute to the development of VAM projects and activities, plans and processes, ensuring alignment with wider WFP policies and guidance.
2. Support the development of systems and tools for the monitoring and assessment of food assistance needs in line with innovative methodologies and best practice.
3. Support the development of food security and vulnerability analysis and the preparation of 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.
4. Provide assistance on the coordination of data gathering and monitoring systems ensuring that rigorous quality standards are maintained.
5. Liaise with implementing partners (internal and external) to monitor ongoing projects, ensuring effective collaboration, timeliness and efficiency and highlight potential risks to project delivery.
6. Support the capacity building of WFP staff, partners and national government to conduct vulnerability analysis to effectively inform preparedness and response activities.
7. Provide support to relevant partners that are focusing on food security and nutrition issues to enable sharing of experience, lessons learned and best practice.
8. Guide and supervise more junior staff, acting as a point of referral and supporting them with analysis and queries.
9. Act in an assigned emergency response capacity as required to meet emergency food assistance needs.
10. Other as required.

4Ps CORE ORGANISATIONAL CAPABILITIES

Purpose

• Understand and communicate the Strategic Objectives: Understands WFP’s Strategic Objectives and the link to own work objectives.
• Be a force for positive change: Flexibly adapts individual contributions to accommodate changes in direction from supervisors and internal/external changes (such as evolving needs of beneficiaries, new requirements of partners).
• Make the mission inspiring to our team: Recognizes and shares with team members the ways in which individual contributions relate to WFP’s mission.
• Make our mission visible in everyday actions: Sets own goals in alignment with WFP’s overall operations, and is able to communicate this link to others.

People

• Look for ways to strengthen people’s skills: Assesses own strengths and weaknesses to increase self-awareness, and includes these in conversations on own developmental needs.
• Create an inclusive culture: Participates in open dialogue, and values the diverse opinion of others, regardless of background, culture, experience, or country assignment.
• Be a coach & provide constructive feedback: Proactively seeks feedback and coaching to build confidence, and develop and improve individual skills.
• Create an “I will”/”We will” spirit: Participates in accomplishing team activities and goals in the face of challenging circumstances.

Performance

• Encourage innovation & creative solutions: Shows willingness to explore and experiment with new ideas and approaches in own work.
• Focus on getting results: Consistently delivers results within individual scope of work on time, on budget and without errors.
• Make commitments and make good on commitments: Commits to upholding individual accountabilities and responsibilities in the face of ever-changing country or functional priorities.
• Be Decisive: Makes rational decisions about individual activities when faced with uncertain circumstances, including in times of ambiguity regarding information or manager direction.

Partnership

• Connect and share across WFP units: Seeks to understand and adapt to internal or cross-unit teams’ priorities and preferred working styles.
• Build strong external partnerships: Demonstrates ability to understand and appropriately respond to and/or escalate needs of external partners.
• Be politically agile & adaptable: Portrays an informed and professional demeanor toward internal and external partners and stakeholders.
• Be clear about the value WFP brings to partnerships: Provides operational support on analyses and assessments that quantifies and demonstrates WFP’s unique value as a partner.

STANDARD MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS

Education: Advanced University degree in Economics, Development, Geography, or any other related subjects, or First University Degree in the same subjects with additional years of related work experience and/or trainings/courses.

Language: Fluency in both oral and written communication in Arabic and English

Experience: Three years post graduate relevant professional experience if holder of a Master’s Degree, or five years of post graduate relevant professional experience if holder of a first University Degree.

DESIRED EXPERIENCES FOR ENTRY INTO THE ROLE

• Demonstrated proficiency in the use of several statistical tools and methods for food security analysis.
• Developed practical expertise in food security analysis and mapping by participating in multiple assessments in countries, including the design, data collection and analysis.
• Demonstrated technical knowledge and understanding of WFP vulnerability mapping systems and emergency assessment standards.