Programme Policy Officer (Gender) - NOB

Job Title: Programme Policy Officer (Gender) - NOB

TERMS AND CONDITIONS

Position Title: Programme Policy Officer (Gender)

Grade: National Officer - Level B  (NOB)

Contract: Fixed-term - One-year renewable

Duty Station/travel: Kabul, Afghanistan with travel inside Afghanistan and occasionally internationally

Pension: USD denominated pension plan

Medical Plan: International valid medical plan valid also for staff, spouse and dependents children under 18 years

Annual leave: 30 working days per annum
Application Deadline: 9 January 2022

ABOUT WFP

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is the world's largest humanitarian agency, fighting hunger worldwide. WFP has been working in Afghanistan since 1963. WFP food assistance aims to help the most vulnerable, food-insecure Afghans, including women and children, and families affected by conflict and natural disasters. In the approved Country Strategic Plan (2018-2022), WFP Afghanistan is well placed to provide comprehensive support to the country in achieving Zero Hunger by 2030 via its six closely interrelated outcomes, which range from emergency response to livelihoods creation, as well as nutrition Programmes based on a life-cycle approach, and the strengthening of national food systems.

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate. We are the world's 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.

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, disability.

ORGANIZATIONAL CONTEXT

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is the world’s largest humanitarian agency, fighting hunger worldwide. More than half the population of Afghanistan – a record 22.8 million people – will face acute food insecurity from November 2021. The combined effects of drought, conflict, COVID-19, and the economic crisis, have severely affected lives, livelihoods, and people’s access to food. 

Since the beginning of 2021, WFP has provided food, cash, and nutrition assistance to 10.3 million people, including malnutrition treatment and prevention programmes for nearly 400, 000 pregnant and breastfeeding women, and 790 000 children under-five. 

WFP is committed to ensuring that assistance provided reaches all affected persons including women, girls, men and boys of diverse needs. Research indicates that women and girls have unique challenges in reaching food and nutrition security. The WFP Afghanistan Country Office has an established gender, protection and accountability team that focuses on ensuring that food assistance is inclusive and adaptive to the needs and capacities of affected populations. 

The Country Office is seeking a Gender Officer to work as part of this team, supporting the country office to scale-up delivery of life-saving assistance. The incumbent will focus on enhancing women’s participation in the programme life cycle to ensure that assistance is informed by and responsive to their needs and capacities. 

JOB PURPOSE

The successful candidate will operate with a high degree of independence to ensure that programme and policy objectives are achieved in full. The incumbent will be involved in a wide variety of programme and policy activities and analytical work, some of which may be of considerable complexity. As this level, jobholders are expected to contribute to performance improvement.

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES (not all-inclusive)

Provide technical support to the Country Office
•    Provide strategic and technical support for the integration of women’s participation and gender equality across WFP operations in the country.
•    Analyze primary information from stakeholders (affected populations, INGOs, UN agencies and others) on the situation and experience of crisis affected populations and apply gender lens in the interventions;
•    Lead the implementation of the WFP Gender Policy and ensure that the project goals, objectives, processes and activities are gender sensitive and meet the needs and priorities of women, men, girls and boys of all diversities. 

Monitoring and Reporting on Gender issues
•    Ensure systematic gender analysis and provide policy advice on specific gender issues that impact on WFP humanitarian operations. 
•    Monitor and report on programme activity and implementation of gender issues. 
•    Review and input to monitoring, evaluation and analysis frameworks, activities and outputs produced by country office from time to time, to ensure that gender considerations are fully integrated. 
•    Provide assistance in data collection, compiling lessons learnt and establishing indicators to support knowledge sharing on gender. 
•    Ensure gender issues can be captured through the Beneficiary Feedback Mechanism.

Networking and Coordination
•    Establish working relationships with relevant local and regional non-state actors, key domestic political and civil state actors, think tanks, academic institutions, human rights organizations, UN, development and donor partners to coordinate and enhance principled humanitarian protection and gender impact. 
•    Support the development of relationships with protection mandated agencies and inter-agency for a to strengthen coordination and advancement of gender, protection and accountability to affected populations as related to food and nutrition security.
•    Represent WFP in interagency working groups, conferences, and seminars as necessary. 

Training and capacity growth
•    Develop and implement gender training including gender analysis, gender-based violence, protection from sexual exploitation and abuse, for WFP staff and partners.
•    Strengthen WFP workforce and partners’ gender analysis capacities to improve their ability in gender mainstreaming throughout project cycle. 

DESIRED EXPERIENCES FOR ENTRY INTO THE ROLE

•  Strong analytical, writing and communication skills
  •    Sound knowledge and skills in training and facilitation
  •    Knowledge of UN system policies and functions pertaining to promotion of women’s and girls’ empowerment and gender equality
  •    Strong capacity in establishing and sustaining relationships with diverse stakeholders 
  •    Capacity to innovate solutions for women’s participation based on local norms

STANDARD MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS

Education:    Advanced University Degree in one of the following disciplines: Social Sciences, International Development, Gender Studies, Political Science, Law or related field; must have specialization in gender-related fields

Experience:    5 years or more of professional experience focussing specifically on Gender in humanitarian contexts 

Knowledge & Skills:  

•  In-depth knowledge of gender-transformative approaches to humanitarian assistance, application of humanitarian protection principles; understanding of PSEA and other forms of gender-based violence in emergency and other humanitarian settings; understanding of gender components of access relations; and other humanitarian policy issues and its linkages within humanitarian assistance. 
  •    Ability to work in a team, and establish effective working relations with persons of different national and cultural backgrounds
  •    Flexibility in accepting work assignments
  •    Innovative and self-driven with strong commitment to results focused work

Languages:    Oral and written working knowledge of English. Fluency in either Dari or Pashto.

WFP Work Environment

WFP is committed to ensuring that all its workplaces are free from abuse, offensive behaviour, harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. WFP is also committed to promoting a work culture in which every employee understands, and is able to carry out, his/her personal responsibilities for maintaining the dignity of work colleagues. WFP seeks to promote gender equality and the empowerment of women. We believe our mission of fighting global hunger worldwide can only be achieved if women, men, girls and boys are offered equal opportunities in terms of access to resources and services and participation in decision making roles.

 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.