Vulnerability Analysis & Mapping Officer

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is the world's largest humanitarian agency, fighting hunger worldwide. The mission of WFP is to end global hunger. Every day, WFP works around the globe 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.

We are building a Vulnerability Analysis & Mapping (VAM) Officer Talent Pool that will be comprised of highly competent professionals who can play a key role in helping achieve zero hunger. All applicants will go through a comprehensive selection and assessment process to demonstrate their technical and organisational capabilities and the potential to grow and work across different field locations. Successful applicants will remain in the Talent Pool for 12 months, and can be considered for short or long-term international professional employment opportunities at entry and mid-management levels (P2, P3 and P4), in Country Offices, Regional Bureaux and Headquarters.

Strategic Purpose of the Function

WFP's food security analysis work is commonly known as VAM (Vulnerability Analysis and Mapping), which is a critical global function for WFP to understand the food security situation before provide programmes of intervention.  VAM works closely with national governments, UN partners and NGOs. Their work informs the policies and programmes that WFP and its partners adopt in order to fight hunger in different operational context.  Food security analysts do a wide range of assessments in order to identify hungry and food insecure populations and to establish the underlying causes.

Job Purpose

·      P2 level: VAM Officers at the P2 level 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).

·      P3 level: VAM Officer at the P3 level generate and/or 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).

·      P4 level: VAM Officers at the P4 level are operating in an environment where the complexity of VAM analysis is high. They are more likely to be leading or supporting analysis; whereby analysis results are used to inform relatively large or high profile operations. They have responsibility for the overall quality control, finalizing and publishing analysis, and the management of any potential corporate risk. They need a greater level of experience and knowledge to credibly influence at senior levels in complex situations including responsibility for team management and they lead and/or manage the generation of 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).

Qualification Requirements

Education:

·      Advanced University degree in Economics, Food Security, Statistics, Data Science, Public Health/Nutrition, Geography or other related field, or First University degree with two additional years of relevant work experience from the minimum experience requirement stated below.

Experience:

·      P2 level: At least three years of postgraduate progressively responsible professional experience in the relevant field.

·      P3 level: At least five years of postgraduate progressively responsible professional experience in the relevant field.

·      P4 level: At least eight years (of which three international) of postgraduate progressively responsible professional experience in the relevant field.

Functional Capabilities (scope of capabilities will vary by grade level):

·      Food Security Analysis - Applies advanced analytical knowledge to lead the management, design and implementation of food security and vulnerability analysis activities. Ensures that analysis remains the backbone of programmatic interventions through its lifecycle, ultimately contributing towards making communities food secure and resilient.

·      Food Security Monitoring - Leads management, design and implementation of food security monitoring systems. Ensures that such analysis is timely and responsive to programmatic needs and adjustments. 

·      Technical Specialized Knowledge (e.g., Economics, Statistics, Public Health, Remote Sensing, GIS, etc.) - Provides managerial and technical guidance for designing and conducting analyses, including computation, interpretation, and presentation of results for food security surveys and key indicators (comprehensive food security and vulnerability surveys, food security monitoring, implementing mobile surveys, market analysis, food consumption scores, coping strategies indices. data disaggregation, etc.).

·      Food Security Assessment - Leads all aspects of surveys including design, implementation, analysis, findings and reporting. Ensures that assessment findings are easily translated into operational programmatic response.

·      Strategic Operational Understanding - Demonstrates strong understanding of country operations to participate in response analysis exercises to improve the cohesion between analytical findings and programmatic response. Constructs evidence base underlying technical and policy advice given to stakeholders.

Organisational Capabilities:

·      Purpose – ability to align individual purpose to WFP’s mission.

·      People - support our people to be the best equipped to serve our beneficiaries.

·      Partnership – lead across boundaries to deliver the best for our beneficiaries.

·      Performance – deliver practical, sustainable, solutions to achieve WFP’s mission.

Language:

·      Fluency in oral and written English.

·      Although intermediate knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian and Spanish) or Portuguese (one of WFP’s working languages) is mandatory for fixed-term posts, for some roles exceptions may be considered on a case-by-case basis.

Desirable Requirements (scope of requirements will vary by grade level):

·      Experience in collecting geospatial and socioeconomic food security data, conducting quantitative and qualitative analyses, and reporting findings to senior leaders.

·      Experience in leading surveys, multiple assessments in countries, including the design, data collection and analysis.

·      Experience in participating in the design and implementation of programmes focusing in food security.

Terms and Conditions

For fixed-term appointment, 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, pension plan and medical insurance. For more details about the UN grading system and the compensation package, please visit icsc.un.org

Application Procedures:

Go to: http://bit.ly/1AIbQl4

Step 1: Click on “Description” to better understand the actual accountabilities and requirements at different levels.

Step 2: Click on “Apply” to create an online CV and answer application questions to submit your application.

Deadline for applications: 31 January 2015