Programme Policy Officer – INTEGRATED CLIMATE RISK MANAGEMENT – World Food Programme (WFP) – Mogadishu

Vacancy Announcement No. 000/2022

Job Title: programme policy officer – INTEGRATED CLIMATE RISK MANAGEMENT

Contract Type/Grade: Consultant, Level II

Duty Station: Mogadishu, Somalia

Contract Duration: 11 Months

Date of Issue: 17th May 2023 | Closing Date: 31st May 2023

Background and Purpose of the Assignment

Food insecurity across Somalia has persisted due to recurrent shocks experienced by the country adversely impacting vulnerable population of internally displaced persons, rural populations and urban poor. The challenges of rebuilding infrastructure, providing basic services, promoting social cohesion, creating jobs, and progressing towards gender equality whilst maintaining security have impeded the country’s efforts to make progress on the Sustainable Development Goals, including SDG 2: Zero Hunger.

Climate change will affect the production and suitability of major crops in Somalia. Extreme weather conditions such as floods, droughts, increasing temperatures, and irregular seasonal patterns are

already leading to livelihood losses and resource scarcity. This, in addition to violence caused by political instability and armed conflicts, form the prominent pathways leading to migration. As a result, Somali towns and cities are receiving large waves of displaced people and rural-urban migrants, leading to increased competition for resources and high levels of urban poverty.

WFP Somalia’s four-year Country Strategic Plan 2022-2025 focuses on a strategic shift towards strengthening resilience of communities and building human capital; recognizing the interconnected nature of nutrition, safety nets, food systems, capacity strengthening and partnerships, and developing these within the context of chronic drought, climate change and frequent climate and conflict-related shocks.

Position Overview

The Programme Policy Officer will work as part of the climate smart food systems team within the Somalia Country Office (CO) Programme unit. The incumbent will be responsible for managing the growing climate risk management portfolio and cross-cutting integration of transformative partnerships. Positioning the CO in the climate space (including environment, energy and water, and initiatives such as early warning systems and anticipatory action) with the government, donors, civil society organizations and other actors, conceptualizing and designing integrated packages of activities and establishing and nurturing partnerships will be primary responsibilities, along with helping raise and secure multi-year funding. Additional responsibilities will be to design and manage programmes of moderate size or complexity that effectively meet food assistance needs, contribute to policy formulation and/or provide technical advice or oversight on programme strategy and implementation.

The PPO, Integrated Climate Risk will report to the Smart Climate Food Systems Lead with technical support and engagement with the WFP Somalia head of programme.

What will you do?

• Define the WFP value proposition in terms of climate risk management around the food security-water-energy-climate nexus.
• Support improved programmatic integration, synergies and cross-linkages for WFP resilience programming, including disaster risk reduction (DRR), emergency preparedness and response (EPR) including early warning early/anticipatory action, shock responsive social protection, school feeding, institutional capacity strengthening and vulnerability assessment and mapping (VAM).
• Establish and nurture partnerships with relevant institutional & international stakeholders, ministries, stakeholders, UN agencies, civil society organizations and local private sector.
• Conceptualize and design integrated packages of activities and joint programmes that include climate risk management.
• Lead the development of project concept notes and funding proposals for climate interventions to secure multi-year funding.
• Actively work on integrating youth, gender and social inclusion strategies.
• Actively contribute to national inter-agency processes and working groups related to climate, environment, energy and water.
• Prepare evidence-based and story-telling communication materials, conduct briefings on initiatives and projects, and organize after-action reviews, document lessons learnt and best practices.
• Travel regularly to the field to meet with the teams responsible for programme implementation and monitoring and provide advice, guidance and recommendations for improvement