UN WFP Programme Policy Officer (Agribusiness) Job in Nairobi, Kenya

United Nations World Food Programme
 

Job Vacancy: Programme Policy Officer (Agribusiness)

Nairobi, Kenya

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.

 

Organizational Context: We are seeking to fill an Agribusiness Officer’s post that seeks to provide technical expertise in developing opportunities and supporting smallholders to access markets.

Under the Agricultural Market Access and Linkage (AMAL) activity WFP is providing market capacity development support to households that have developed assets to enhance crop and livestock production in arid and semi-arid counties in Kenya.

WFP endeavours to improve access to for smallholders to both public and private markets through strategic and policy engagement with national and county governments expand opportunities for smallholders, partnerships with the private sector, providing technical support to county governments and other partners and direct capacity development for smallholders.

Job Purpose: Under direct supervision of the Programme Policy Officer (Agricultural Market Access and Linkages) the Agribusiness Officer will plan project activities in collaboration with the Rural Resilience Team (RRT), field offices and partners in counties, provide technical support to WFP field offices and cooperating partners to deliver quality support to smallholders market their produce competitively.

Key Accountabilities

• Provide project management support for Agricultural Market Access and Linkage activities, ensuring a coordinated approach with other WFP programmes such as resilience building, school meals and supply chain interventions among others while complying with WFP standards and procedures.


• Provide technical support to field offices and cooperating partners on design and implementation of market access and linkage activities for targeted producers, based on capacity needs assessments and in line with country office and cooperate guidance. This will also entail engaging closely with actors involved in production, aggregation, transport – the entire value chain to optimize benefits for smallholders.


• Develop terms of reference and provide support in planning and conducting market assessments and related studies to determine the structure, conduct and performance of markets and to identify business opportunities for smallholders and appropriate areas for intervention by WFP.


• In collaboration with WFP Field Offices, work with county governments to study the opportunities available for smallholders in each target county inorder to develop strategies for linking farmers to both private and public procurement opportunities.


• Provide support to field offices and County government in market monitoring and provision of market information to farmers.


• Promote leverage with other development partners’ production and marketing inputs through coordination at the county with partners such as County government, WFP’s cooperating partners, civil society organizations (CSOs), financial institutions etc. to achieve optimal results.


• Manage Field Level Agreements with cooperating partners. This will entail reviewing technical proposals from potential partners, negotiating and drafting, monitoring and evaluation Field Level Agreements.


• Ensure that reporting, data gathering and monitoring systems for AMAL are in place and maintain quality standards are maintained.  This will entail design of reporting and data collection tools and systems in close collaboration with the Monitoring and Evaluation unit, timely review and feedback on technical reports submitted by cooperating partners.


• Research and analyse policy and operational issues to support senior colleagues in the development of policies, programmes and activities.


• Contribute to the preparation of accurate and timely reporting on programmes and activities that enable informed decision making and consistency of information presented to stakeholders.


• Support the identification, development and management of potential partnerships to collaborative working leading to improved food assistance packages.


• Identify needs, plan capacity and support in building capacity for WFP staff, NGO and government county partners and national government.


• Provide guidance to support staff, acting as a point of referral and assisting them with analysis and queries.


• Represent WFP during donor meetings and missions to field sites.


• Any other duties as assigned by supervisor.

Minimum qualifications & education

• University Degree in one or more of the following disciplines: Agriculture/Agronomy, Horticulture, Agriculture Economics, Agribusiness, Agricultural Extension, Agricultural Education Range management, and equivalent qualification from a recognized institution


• Served in comparable and relevant position in the public service or private sector with an International Organisation for at least five (5) years.


• Possess excellent communication skills with ability to discuss and train farmers in a respectful, clam and composed manner.


• Good knowledge of key functions of the Ministries of Agriculture, Livestock, Water and irrigation and other related departments under agri-business including social services.


• Skills and experiences in public sector management, development projects, emergency assistance and/or operational aspects of multilateral food assistance.


• Advanced analytical skills, resourcefulness, maturity of judgement, negotiating skills and ability to communicate effectively in written and spoken English.


• Ability to work in a multi-cultural team and cope with difficult situations, demonstrated ability to develop and maintain effective work relationships with counterparts and staff within the office, host population, donors, NGOs and other UN agencies.


• Ability to establish priorities and to plan, coordinate and monitor own work plan.


• Excellent computer skills in MS Outlook, Word, Excel and PowerPoint.

Terms and Conditions

WFP does not charge fees at any stage during the recruitment process.

WFP has zero tolerance for discrimination and does not discriminate on the basis of HIV/AIDS status.
 

Deadline for application is 8 October 2017.