Programme Policy Officer (AAP – Accountability to Affected People) Vacancy-Job Ref: ACAFWFP/2501/202465

Programme Policy Officer (AAP – Accountability to Affected People) Vacancy-Job Ref: ACAFWFP/2501/202465
Kabul (Afghanistan)

JOB DESCRIPTION

The World Food Programme (WFP) is the leading humanitarian organization saving lives and changing lives, delivering food assistance in emergencies and working with communities to improve nutrition and build resilience.

ORGANIZATIONAL CONTEXT
The hunger crisis in Afghanistan is unfolding at a rapid pace, with 15 million of population now facing acute food insecurity. Work opportunities are shrinking, with most households now reporting just one day of work per week. This comes on top of the worst drought in years, which is especially concerning for the 85 percent of the population who rely on agriculture for livelihoods.

Preventing and mitigating a drastic increase in hunger and malnutrition is the aim of WFP in Afghanistan which can only be achieved through the scaled up and sustained complementary food security and nutrition interventions, combined with a scale-up of resilience interventions to safeguard gains. WFP has embarked on a significant month-on-month scale-up of its crisis response and resilience programmes across the country, ensuring that the programme is delivered at the right scale and time, targeted to the right areas. WFP is also actively following up on evolving trends to pre-empt hotspots, while guaranteeing quality and maximum impact of the programme through the monitoring of these hotspots to be able to support continued donor advocacy.

In its work, “WFP is first and foremost accountable to the people it serves; accountability, participation and empowerment through meaningful and consistent engagement are the key principles for mainstreaming protection” (WFP Protection and Accountability policy 2020).

In line with the IASC’s definition of AAP, WFP has an active commitment to give account to, take account of, and be held to account by the people it assists and people impacted by its interventions. WFP’s commitment to AAP is founded on two main principles: a) Affected people have a right to be actively involved and have their needs and preferences reflected in the decisions that affect their lives. b) Meaningful engagement – that results in informed and empowered populations – makes food security and nutrition interventions more effective. For WFP Afghanistan, systematic engagement with affected populations is essential to meeting WFP’s strategic objectives of people centred humanitarian response.

JOB PURPOSE

The Accountability to Affected People (AAP) Officer will be responsible to operationalise and foster WFP’s commitments on AAP and adapt them to the Afghanistan context and programmes. This will include:

Fostering inclusion and engagement with diverse communities
Overseeing an effective Community Feedback and Response mechanism; and
Consult with communities, provide information, and ensure that feedback is effectively used for learning and informed decision-making.
KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES (not all-inclusive)
Advisory and technical support

Provide strategic advice and technical support for the integration of AAP elements outlined in the Protection and Accountability Policy (2020) and aligned with humanitarian and human rights normative frameworks across WFP operations in Afghanistan.
Support relevant units to incorporate AAP considerations, including community engagement, into planning, design and implementation, including ensuring assessments are inclusive and monitoring covers corporate indicators for AAP.
Ensure that AAP considerations are integrated into all relevant programmatic tools, including monitoring and research frameworks, and operational guidelines and SOPs.
Implement and, when required, update the Afghanistan Community Engagement Action Plan.
Organize and lead regular community consultations focused on AAP, using participatory methods including focus group discussions. Report outcomes, including relevant recommendations.

Community Feedback Mechanisms (CFM)

In close collaboration with the CFM Manager, and informed by participatory processes, oversee the management of the community feedback mechanisms.
Enhance existing CFM systems and introduce innovative approaches as needed.
Analyze the different communications pathways and preferences for affected people considering age, gender, abilities, ethnicities, languages, and other forms of diversity within the cultural context to inform CFM channels and community sensitization and outreach.
Capacity strengthening

Rollout an AAP capacity strengthening agenda for WFP and CP staff. This will require ensuring that programmes can evidence how feedback from affected populations has informed decision making throughout the programme cycle.
Facilitate workshops, briefings and inductions on AAP, provide mentoring to CFM Focal Points and Trainer of Trainers for partners.
Partnership and coordination

Establish partnerships to strengthen AAP with a particular focus on ensuring meaningful inclusion of marginalized groups in WFP decision making.
Collaborate with donors, UN and I/NGO agencies, affected populations directly and relevant representative groups, (e.g. persons with disabilities, women’s civil society groups, youth, ethnic and religious minorities indigenous populations) to support WFP activities.
Participate in key interagency forums to ensure consistency and collaboration in communication across the humanitarian sector, particularly in the AAP Working Group and its relevant project working groups.
Team Management

Supervise staff working on AAP, including the Community Engagement and Translation Officer and the CFM Manager, within the Protection and AAP team.
Prepare and/or contribute to relevant reports, policy position papers, guidelines, talking points and tools in support of AAP.
Participate in planning and preparation of any relevant section of the budget and workplan.

STANDARD MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS
Education:

Advanced university degree in Communication, Media, International Relations, Development Studies, Political Science, Social Science, Sociology, Humanitarian Affairs, Law, Human Rights or related topics.
Or First University degree with additional specialized training and additional two years of most related professional work experience
Minimum Work Experience:

At least 3 years of experience in humanitarian assistance, of which at least 2 on areas relevant to the role (e.g AAP, CFM, Protection, Gender, Disability Inclusion and other cross cutting areas).
Desirable Work Experience:

Has experience in AAP projects implementation, strong background in communications work, preferably specifically in Communicating with Communities and preferably in a developing country context, but alternatively experience in managing a call centre or customer relationship management department
Has experience in analyzing cross-cutting issues such as protection, gender, migration, conflict sensitivity, data protection and/or complaints and feedback mechanisms,
Has experience in managing complex monitoring and/or evaluation activities spanning a range of policies and programme initiatives in international development or humanitarian contexts.
Has applied experience in Accountability to Affected Populations, community engagement and working with diverse populations.
Has working experience with organizations that have food security and/or nutrition programming.

Knowledge and Skills:

Research, data analysis, reporting and writing skills, including proven ability to develop quality reports and analyses with minimal direction
Knowledge of community engagement/accountability to affected populations, including feedback mechanisms, information sharing and participatory approaches;
Understanding of protection and gender dimensions of AAP including beneficiary safety, dignity, gender equality and women’s empowerment;
Knowledge of humanitarian assistance and development practice including general knowledge of UN system, policies, rules, regulations and procedures governing administration;
Knowledge of the political, economic and social situation in Afghanistan;
Community engagement skills and an ability to work in a culturally sensitive manner;
Strong analytical and communication skills, including public speaking, workshop facilitation and focus group discussions; and
Proven ability to network effectively with multiple work units;
Willingness to build capacity of others through formal and informal training processes;
Competency in use of MS Office (Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, Publisher, Teams). Use of databases such as customer relations management tools, and softward such as Tableau, is desirable.
Language:

Fluency (level C) in English

Written and spoken proficiency in both Dari and PashtoPlease click on the button below to Apply.