Targeting Analyst Consultant

at  World Food Programme

DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS

28 October 2024-23:59-GMT+01:00 Central European Time (Rome)
WFP celebrates and embraces diversity. It is committed to the principle of equal employment opportunity for all its employees and encourages qualified candidates to apply irrespective of race, colour, national origin, ethnic or social background, genetic information, gender, gender identity and/or expression, sexual orientation, religion or belief, HIV status or disability.

QUALIFICATIONS & EXPERIENCE REQUIRED:

Education:

• Advanced University degree in social science, public health, statistics, geography, economics or related field.

Experience:

• At least 5 years mixed experience in conducting assessments, analysis, targeting, monitoring as well as programme implementation in humanitarian and development contexts.

Knowledge & Skills:

• Experience from policymaking processes in targeting-related areas of the humanitarian/development sector
• Background in technical targeting advisory role for humanitarian/development programme design
• Strong skills in one or more statistical software (SPSS, Stata, R, etc.) required and background in advanced statistical analysis for targeting is desired
• Experience in planning, conducting and overseeing participatory qualitative data collection methods, including through Focus Group Discussions, key Informant Interviews etc.
• Experience working in dynamic and innovative environments
• Ability to work independently, interacting with a diverse set of internal and external stakeholders;
• Willingness to travel to hardship duty stations as allowed and required; and
• Competencies: Cognitive Capacity, Teamwork, Action Management, Innovation, Partnerships, Client Orientation

Languages:

• Strong written and oral English skills (proficiency/level C), working knowledge in a second UN language is an advantage.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE OF THE ASSIGNMENT:

Assisting over 100 million people in more than
80 countries
each year, the World Food Programme (WFP) is the leading humanitarian organization saving lives and changing lives, delivering food assistance in emergencies, working with communities to improve nutrition and build resilience, and partnering with governments to strengthen social protection systems. To be effective in this mandate WFP must ensure that it reaches the right people and that it manages its relationship with those individuals and their communities in a responsible, accountable, and effective manner.
As a result of conflict, climate change and the impact of COVID-19, hunger has been on the rise globally over the past years. While WFP thanks to increasing donor contributions has been able to significantly scale up its response, the gap between needs and resources available to address those needs is growing. This stresses further the importance of robust targeting and prioritization processes, ensuring that the most destitute and vulnerable people are assisted timely.
With more pressure on country offices to conduct sophisticated targeting and prioritization exercises, there is rapidly growing demand for support from Regional Bureaux (RBx) on targeting-related issues. Moreover, within the framework of the Global Assurance Project (GAP), country offices are required to strengthen targeting processes in order to meet predefined, time-bound benchmarks for which the support of the Regional Bureaux is necessary.
To better meet demand HQ is now recruiting a Targeting officer who will be responsible for technical support in design and implementation of targeting and prioritization as well as providing oversight in the implementation of GAP-Targeting measures to strengthen in country processes. Reporting to the Head of Targeting within the Needs Assessment and Targeting Unit, and under overall guidance of the Director Food Security and Nutrition Analysis Service (APP Division), the targeting officer will support country offices to better implement, monitor and document targeting decision-making across WFP operations. The Analyst will also establish strategic points of contact with other units, to explore potential links with targeting across WFP’s programmatic areas, such as social protection. The Targeting officer will also play a key role in the development, testing and evaluation of targeting methodologies, and translation of research findings and operational lessons learned into guidance, tools and learning materials for practitioners in the field.

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

The Targeting officer will work in close collaboration with Programme and other units at regional‐ and country office levels, the Joint UNHCR/WFP Programme Excellence and Targeting hub and other external stakeholders, and be responsible for the following activities:

• Coordinate and support drafting of key policy and technical documents, including but not limited to operational targeting guidance, policy briefs, and technical notes.
• Provide strategic and operational targeting support to priority operations as per principles of engagement, including but not limited to:
• establishing targeting strategies on basis of e.g. the operational and political context, programme objectives, data availability, humanitarian access, etc.
• conducting advanced statistical, geospatial and other relevant forms of analysis to enhance geographic and household level targeting, including the validation of different targeting methods and approaches.
• developing methodologies for high quality and people‐centered targeting approaches, including participatory qualitative data collection across WFP’s portfolio; and
• establishing systems for regular monitoring of processes and outcomes for assisted and non‐assisted populations to refine targeting and prioritization decisions.
• Lead/support targeting‐related research and innovation efforts for the advancement of targeting processes and methods.
• Ensure that research findings, operational best practices and lessons learned are documented in a manner that allows for translation into strategic and policy recommendations, operational guidance and tools, and learning materials.
• Advise and support RAM efforts for data standardization as relevant to targeting.
• Produce learning materials and facilitate of targeting‐related capacity strengthening workshops, webinars and other means of learning.
• Continuously review and monitor new and existing corporate strategic and policy frameworks, with the view to ensure alignment with targeting policies and operational guidance.
• Through desk reviews, remote and on-site missions, support the generation and compilation of operational lessons learned and policy-level recommendations.
• Support the roll-out and continuous refinement of corporate targeting guidance, providing actionable technical advice on targeting covering the broad range of WFP programmatic areas.
• Provide direct support to the Global Assurance Project, working flexibly with teams in HQ, Regional Bureaux and Country offices in the focus area of targeting, to advance the development of benchmarks, indicators, and enhance tracking of country office progress towards key standards.