The United Nations World Food Programme 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.

ORGANIZATIONAL CONTEXT

The achievement of international and national development targets hinges on capacities of individuals, organizations and societies to transform to reach development objectives. The World Food Programme (WFP) Ethiopia framework for capacity strengthening recognizes that without supportive laws, policies, strategies and procedures (enabling environment), well-functioning organizations (organizational domain), and educated, skilled people (individual domain), state and non-state duty bearers cannot effectively plan, implement and review their efforts to deliver intended products and services to their target groups. Effective Country Capacity Strengthening (CCS) support must therefore address all three domains, recognizing the interdependencies between them.

In Ethiopia, WFP Supply Chain manages supply chain-specific capacity strengthening interventions of which includes the long-standing Food Management Improvement Project (FMIP) with the Ethiopian Disaster Risk Management Commission (EDRMC), the emergency food relief branch of the Government of Ethiopia. The purpose of FMIP is to make the management of the food assistance supply chain more efficient, effective, and visible through training and IT solutions, including the Commodity Allocation Tracking System (CATS). CATS links different stages of the federal food assistance supply chain to allow commodities received from donors to be tracked and distributed to communities in need. Other large-scale partnerships and projects are executed by the WFP Supply Chain team and extend to other government ministries and the private sector.

JOB PURPOSE

This position is located at the WFP Ethiopia Country Office in Addis Ababa and will work within the Supply Chain Capacity Strengthening team alongside the Ethiopian Disaster Risk Management Commission, specifically, and other entities as require. Close collaboration and partnership with the Government is envisaged to achieve the strategic outcomes of the WFP Country Strategic Plan (2020 – 2025). As FMIP is drawing to a close and at a critical implementation juncture, this position is essential to steadily guide the handover of the project. While the incumbent’s main role will be in project management of FMIP and monitoring of its implementation, the Project Manager will also be exposed to all capacity strengthening initiatives and different areas including knowledge management, strategy development, assessments, and evidence-based reports.

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES (not All-inclusive)

• Provide overall project coordination with the Government of Ethiopia to obtain strategies that ensure long-term sustainability of the Food Management Improvement Project.
• Identify funding opportunities, advocate for FMIP, and develop communications materials accordingly with Government stakeholders and others as required.
• Liaise with appointed government focal points to ensure that process changes/supply-chain improvements are fed back into FMIP products. Manage the relationship with government counterparts by conducting a day-to-day level liaison to facilitate communication between the different project stakeholders.
• Participate in high-level meetings on behalf of the FMIP team, with the technical committee and other representatives as required.
• Coordinate with the FMIP team and ensure that the different project components / outcomes are achieved in a timely manner and that the overall project goals are attained.
• Establish and manage project controls by establishing a monitoring and evaluation mechanism to ensure the success of FMIP products against key performance indicators on a monthly or quarterly basis as deemed appropriate.
• Lead Technical Committees with the Government monthly and report on progress.
• Develop a logistical framework from a country capacity strengthening viewpoint, provide technical feedback, and ensure frequent reporting and data management.
• Work with Headquarters and the Regional Bureau to better measure capacity strengthening works, for the unit and for the FMIP project.
• Assist with building templates and sample terms of reference for M&E capacity strengthening engagements.
• Oversee the CATS utilization and challenges and provide way forward accordingly. Develop a handover plan document.
• Oversee the implementation of the handover plan.
• Any other duties as required.

Requirements

Standard Minimum Qualifications

• Education & Experience: Advance university degree in development studies, political science, and development economics, with more than five to eight years of professional experience in project management, monitoring, and evaluation, capacity strengthening, or supply chain management OR a university degree in relevant field with an additional professional experience in relevant field.
• Experience in project management and understanding of project cycles to ensure performance management and reporting.
• Language: Fluency in both oral and written communication in English and Amharic. Other languages are an added asset.

Desired Experiences For Entry Into The Role

• Experience working with UN agencies, or the humanitarian and development sector is an added advantage.
• Excellent communication skills and diplomatic approach.
• Ability to operate and work independently.
• Detailed oriented and strong organizational skills.
• Strong analytical skills, problem solving, communication, and interpersonal skills.
• Experience in analysing operational context and trends;
• Experience in supporting analytical and conceptual work on supply chain strategy and implementation;
• Experience in designing plans and operational scenarios in collaboration with key internal and external stakeholders.
• Experience in analysing end-to-end supply chain operations;
• Experience working with supply chain information systems;
• Experience in troubleshooting and solving operational issues.

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.

Functional Capabilities

• Capability Name Description of the behaviour expected for the proficiency level
• Supply Chain Strategy Demonstrates understanding of supply chain strategies and corporate frameworks. Supports analytical and conceptual work on supply chain strategy and implementation.
• Supply Chain & Networks Management Demonstrates robust understanding of end-to-end supply chain management. Supports the design and implementation of supply chain, retail and partnership networks.
• Supports the design and integrated delivery of supply chain services.
• Supply Chain Capacity Strengthening Demonstrates robust understanding of supply chain capacity strengthening in operational contexts. Implements capacity development initiatives in own area of responsibility.
• Supply Chain Performance & Development Supports integrated supply chain information management and conducts advanced Supply Chain and performance analytics. Contributes to supply chain improvement and innovation initiatives.
• Supply Chain Planning Demonstrates robust understanding of supply chain planning in operational contexts. Designs plans and operational scenarios in collaboration with key internal and external stakeholders. Leverages expert intelligence and system data to conduct planning analytics.