Programme Policy Officer (Transitions), SC8

JOB TITLE:

Programme Policy Officer, Transitions

TYPE OF CONTRACT:

Service Contract, SC8 

UNIT/DIVISION:

Programme

DUTY STATION (City, Country):

Malakal, South Sudan

DURATION:

12 months (Renewable) 

Country Context  

South Sudan has been in protracted crises since 2013. Independence in 2011 gave hope for national unity, peace, oil revenue and socio-economic development. Yet, by the end of 2013, the country descended into war again. After several violent incidents, ceasefires and peace attempts, the Revitalized Agreement on the Resolution of Conflict in South Sudan (R-ARCSS) was signed in 2018. The agreement has brought renewed hope, and there has not been a national-level violent incident. However, the implementation of R-ARCSS chapters has been delayed; thus, South Sudan remains in a fragile state, especially with growing levels of subnational and localized violence.

An estimated 12.5 million people, close to 60 percent of the population, in South Sudan are facing acute levels of food insecurity in 2024. The number of people in acute food insecurity has been on the rise since independence, particularly over the past few years due to persistent communal violence, economic shocks triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic, Russia-Ukraine war, Sudan crisis, and mass flooding along the Nile and other riverine systems. Traditionally, people in South Sudan have community safety nets and locally adapted coping strategies for shocks. Yet, compounded effects of the years of war and conflict, deep-seated poverty, climatic events, and limited investments in social and economic services and sustainable natural resource management have significantly or completely depleted household and community capacities to restock their livelihoods to withstand future stocks. The situation of severe acute food insecurity is more pronounced in hard-to-reach areas, especially the Greater Upper Nile region.

WFP South Sudan

The World Food Programme’s (WFP) vision in South Sudan is to address entrenched inequity and isolation, with the goal of leaving no-one behind and fostering unified, interconnected, and peaceful communities. This builds on the recognition that in pre- and post-independence, the regions of South Sudan have had different access to social and economic opportunities, with much of the country having been left out from development or resilience-building assistance. As a result, inequity and isolation remain a threat to achieving zero hunger and lasting peace and stability in South Sudan.

To achieve this vision, WFP has been co-locating and integrating its programmes to increase their efficiency, quality, and impact on targeted communities to restore livelihoods, strengthen resilience to shocks, and rebuild social cohesion and self-reliance increasingly in hard-to-reach areas. While continuing to deliver assistance directly to communities, WFP is also engaging the government to support national and subnational institutions to develop and or increase the coverage and quality of social services and stimulate economic activities over time.   

Under the 2023 to 2025 Country Strategic Plan, WFP’s Food Systems and Resilience (FSR) portfolio plays a key role to stay on the strategic direction to increase programme presence in acutely food-insecure hard-to-reach areas and further position WFP as an enabling actor, especially in agri-food and social protection systems strengthening. The portfolio is comprised of three interdependent programmes: Community Asset Creation and Livelihoods (ACL), Smallholder Agricultural Market Support (SAMS), and Urban Safety Nets (USN). The FSR programme teams are responsible for thought leadership, national engagement, support to the Field Offices, strategic partnerships, and resource mobilization, amongst others. Malakal field office oversees seven (7) counties in Upper Nile State and two (2) counties in Jonglei. The position is part of strengthening resilience programming at the field level by bringing strategic, managerial, and operational capacities.

Job Purpose

The Programme Policy Officer, Transitions, will report to Malakal field office Head of Programme. The incumbent will lead implementation, monitoring, and documentation of ACL and SAMS activities in Malakal field office coverage areas, in line with WFP South Sudan’s strategic direction in resilience building and reducing humanitarian needs.

Key Accountabilities

• Strengthen programme integration to maximize outcomes in climate adaption, sustainable natural resource management, gender, nutrition, and social cohesion across the Malakal field office portfolio.
• Support strategic engagement with line ministries at the Upper Nile state level, particularly related to livelihoods and resilience, to define WFP’s capacity strengthening objectives, implement actions, and document results for knowledge sharing and evidence-based advocacy and policy dialogue.
• Establish and strengthen strategic partnership with other and livelihood and resilience actors through meetings and coordination fora to achieve complementarity, avoid duplication of efforts, and provide coordinated support to subnational institutions.   
• Contribute inputs to WFP South Sudan’s strategic engagement, including the design of joint programming, with UN agencies and other humanitarian, development, and peace actors to strengthen co-location, layering, sequencing and linkages with ACL, SAMS and other WFP programmes.
• Contribute to the preparation of donor meetings, proposals, field visits, reports, and visibility materials to highlight and advocate for ACL and SAMS.
• Ensure that ACL and SAMS are increasingly leveraged to transition communities and households from humanitarian support and layered with other WFP programmes in Malakal field office coverage areas.
• Contribute to the preparation of the annual ACL and SAMS operational plans and track implementation in coordination with the Country Office.
• Coordinate with the Country Office to select and develop quality non-government organization (NGO) cooperating partnerships for ACL and SAMS and integrate with other WFP assistance as appropriate.  
• Lead daily operational management of ACL and SAMS activities including the management of cooperating partnerships and coordination with service providers (e.g., banks and retailers)
• Provide capacity support (training, mentorship, and feedback) to WFP programme associates and monitors and cooperating partner staff to ensure their good understanding of WFP’s resilience approach, program guidance, corporate policies, and use of assessment, program, and monitoring tools,            
• Conduct site visits, provide feedback and guidance to WFP staff and cooperating partners, document good practices, and ensure that improvement action are implemented.    
• Participate in WFP’s evidence generation and learning activities and initiatives. Ensure credible evidence is used to inform decision making for programme adaptation.
• Provide quality input into corporate, country and donor reports, briefs, and presentations on ACL and SAMS.
• Represent WFP Malakal at Food Security and Livelihoods (FSL) cluster, food security taskforce, and Inter-cluster coordination meetings and contribute to field and national level coordination to improve affected community resilience and transition initiatives.
• Collaborate with humanitarian actors to conduct FSL assessments and contribute to knowledge generation on the food security situation in Upper Nile State as well as the development of durable solutions for resilience, reintegration and return for conflict affected populations.
• Conduct any other duties, as required.

Deliverables

• Unit and individual work plans.
• Joint workplan/s with subnational institutions. 
• Collaborating and strategic partnerships.
• Timely and quality program implementation with and reporting from cooperating partners.
• Timely and quality internal program and operational updates, data, presentations, reports, and communication and visibility products.
• Documentation of internal and external planning and review meetings and assessments.
• Introduction of innovative approaches for durable solutions.     

QUALIFICATIONS & EXPERIENCE REQUIRED

Education:

Advanced University degree in Agriculture, Environmental Science, or other field relevant to food systems and resilience in complex settings, or First University Degree with additional years of related work experience in complex settings.

Experience:

At least one year post graduate professional experience in relevant field in complex settings of rural development, resilience, agriculture, programme management, or related disciplines.

Language:

Fluency (level C) in English language and the duty station’s language.