Budget & Programming Officer (NOB) Vacancy-Job Ref: ACSYWFP/2106/202484
WFP
Budget & Programming Officer (NOB) Vacancy-Job Ref: ACSYWFP/2106/202484
Damascus (Syria)
JOB DESCRIPTION
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
Over more than a decade, Syria has faced a relentless crisis that has driven hunger and humanitarian needs to unprecedented heights. The convergence of ongoing insecurity, widespread displacement, economic deterioration, infrastructural damage, and inadequate basic services has severely heightened vulnerability among men, women, and children. According to the 2023 Humanitarian Needs Overview (HNO), a staggering 12.9 million people, or 55% of the population, are food insecure, including 3.1 million facing severe food insecurity. Additionally, 2.6 million people are at imminent risk of becoming food insecure. In today’s Syria, the minimum wage can only afford a fifth of a family’s food needs.
In this dire context, the presence of the World Food Programme (WFP) remains vital. Under its current Country Strategic Plan (2022-2025), WFP continues to provide life-saving and transformative assistance through emergency and targeted food assistance, nutritional support for vulnerable women, girls, and children, early recovery efforts, school feeding programmes, and support for humanitarian partners. Additionally, WFP is innovating service delivery mechanisms to ensure additional transparency and accountability to the communities it serves. Faced with reduced funding, WFP is transitioning to a prioritized assistance framework and seeks energetic, self-driven, and passionate individuals to support its vision of an agile, responsive, and above all person-centric operation.
JOB PURPOSE
This person will lead the Budget & Programming team, overseeing employees and related budget and programming processes including the delivery of budget, resource analysis, and programming activities, and provide technical support in the country office, partnering with managers to apply best practice approaches that support the efficient, effective, and compliant utilization of resources.
KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES (not all-inclusive)
1. Create and review project budget plans and monitor ongoing project performance against budget, ensuring adherence to guidance and policies, and providing financial analysis and advice to optimize resources.
2. Create and review budget and project documentation and ensure relevant resource data is recorded in internal systems for reference, in line with WFP standards and procedures.
3. Monitor and provide advice on actions related to project closure and resource transfer.
4. Monitor and provide advice on fund utilization, advance financing, loan and borrowing/repayment, and refinancing arrangements; alerting Country Director to approaching deadlines for unassigned funds and potential resource shortfalls/surpluses and proposing appropriate solutions.
5. Monitor the resource pipeline to maximize operational effectiveness, follow standards and processes, and provide advice on resource allocations based on the severity of pipeline shortfalls using relevant pipeline tools.
6. Support the preparation of food-demand plans to support management and usage of the corporate Global Commodity Financial Facility and provide information to guide Regional Bureau/HQ decision-making when multiple projects compete for the same stock.
7. Collate and analyze data for the preparation of accurate and timely reports, to enable informed decision-making and consistency of information presented to senior management and external stakeholders.
8. Contribute towards the development of plans, processes, and procedures ensuring compliance with wider Budget & Programming policies and WFP standards.
9. Proactively contribute ideas to senior managers for improvements to systems, techniques, tools, processes, and procedures to better monitor and manage budgets and funds.
10. Build the capacity of staff in budgeting, fund management, and operational planning, through preparing and delivering training, coaching, guidelines, and manuals.
11. Represent the unit at internal meetings/committees/working groups as required, to contribute to the discussion of key issues from a budget and resource programming perspective.
12. Manage junior officers/staff to ensure appropriate development and enable high performance.
13. Follow standard emergency preparedness practices and contribute to technical recommendations and guidance and monitor the management of financial risks.
14. Other as required.
STANDARD MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS
Education:
Master’s Degree in Business Administration, Finance, Economics, or other relevant field, or First University Degree with two additional years of related work experience and/or training/courses.
Experience:
At least three (3) years of professional experience in public sector management, development projects, emergency assistance, and/or operational aspects of national, bilateral, or multilateral food aid or commercial transactions with a Master’s Degree, or First University Degree with two (2) additional years of related work experience and/or training/courses.
Has contributed to the development of operational or office-related budgets.
Has contributed to the production of planning/budgetary reports or other analytical reports to support decision-making.
Has demonstrated successful team management skills, ability to coach and mentor, empower and lead people, acting as a role model for more junior staff and supervisees.
Has demonstrated broad understanding of WFP’s financial architecture and how it supports the implementation of operations is desirable.
Languages:
Fluency (level C) in English and Arabic languages.
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