Senior Budget & Programming Associate

World Food Programme - برنامج الأغذية العالمي

الوصف الوظيفي

Over the past five years, socioeconomic conditions in the State of Palestine have deteriorated and a protracted protection and humanitarian crisis has undermined the food security of millions of Palestinians. 1.8 million people are food insecure across Palestine and the aid dependency ratio is increasing. Rising inflation, linked to the COVID-19 pandemic and now also spurred by the Global Food Crisis, has contributed to reductions in the purchasing power of Palestinians and increased food insecurity. For Palestinians engaged in agriculture and herding, climate-related obstacles, including droughts and rising temperatures, increasingly impede productivity.

Building on the strengths of its 2018-2022 country strategic plan, WFP Palestine’s new plan for 2023–2028 will address the needs of Palestinian communities through a humanitarian‑development–peace nexus approach, responding to immediate humanitarian needs and simultaneously addressing longstanding socioeconomic vulnerability.

While food assistance, through cash-based transfers and in-kind food to meet essential needs, remains WFP’s largest activity, this will be complemented by livelihood and resilience building interventions to address issues of poverty and poor labour-force participation, which have been identified as one of the key drivers of poor access to food, and to strengthen resistance to shocks. Nutrition integration will be integrated throughout the programme, to address immediate and underlying causes of micronutrient deficiencies.

WFP Palestine has demonstrated longstanding commitment and contribution to the strengthening of capacity at the national level, through strategic partnerships with various government line ministries, to enhance the consideration of food security, shock-responsiveness and nutrition-sensitivity in national systems, programmes, policies and plans. WFP is engaged in joint programming and implementation with other United Nations agencies. Under the new CSP, WFP is expanding its enabling services – in the form of a CBT platform, CFM, logs sector – to continue supporting the wider humanitarian community to achieve collective outcomes and continue supporting the people we serve.

These jobs are found in Headquarters (HQ), Regional Bureaux (RBs) and Country Offices (COs). Job holders typically report to the Budget & Programming Officer.
At this level job holders have independent responsibility for technical, specialized work including planning, organization and coordination, and setting objectives. They deal with issues that are often undefined and involve areas of uncertainty and complex inter-relationships. The instructions received are broad and the job holders are expected to consistently demonstrate a high degree of personal responsibility and initiative to respond independently to queries. Job holders have a level of expertise and knowledge to adapt and develop systems and processes in order to continually improve the level of support provided. They are expected to motivate and develop a team of support staff and/or are responsible for specialized support service(s) where the work is undertaken with the help of specially designed techniques, methods and processes.

To coordinate and deliver a full range of specialised support services for efficient planning, monitoring and analysis of project financial performance to enhance optimal use of financial resources.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES (not all-inclusive, nor exhaustive):

Function as an escalation point in providing procedural and technical support to staff within the areas of budget and programming, to ensure compliance with WFP financial policies, rules and regulations.
Review budget plans, monitor and conduct comprehensive analysis of project financial performance and make recommendations in compliance with WFP financial policies and procedures and best practices, to support financial analysis and optimization of resources.
Review and provide comprehensive analysis on fund and grant balances identifying surpluses and deficits, and suggest corrective measures, to support maximum fund utilization and decision-making process.
Support pipeline management ensuring efficient planning and monitoring, to prevent and address pipeline breaks and maximize operational effectiveness.
Actively participate and contribute to the improvement of internal processes, enhancement of corporate systems and design of tools, to facilitate the overall planning, expenditure forecasting, and budget management and monitoring of resource utilization.
Review and/or enter project budget plans and revisions in the corporate systems, to ensure data is timely and accurately captured enabling easy access to information and supporting planning and decision-making.
Review and analyze complex data, and prepare comprehensive periodic and ad hoc reports, to support accuracy and efficiency of information presented to internal and external stakeholders.
Communicate with a wide range of stakeholders regarding complex project funds management matters and related processes, to resolve any current/potential issues preventing from optimization of funds.
Co-ordinate and supervise work of other support staff, and support their learning and development in budget planning, fund management and operational planning, to ensure continued development and consistency in services delivered.
Follow standard emergency preparedness practices, to ensure WFP is able to quickly respond and deploy needed resources to affected areas at the onset of the crisis.
Review and analyze complex data and prepare comprehensive periodic and ad hoc reports in relation to the On demand cash services.
Liaise with Head quarter and related counterparts on the budget creation and expenditure of this activity.