Career Opportunities: Logistics Officer (Food Technologist)

WFP seeks candidates of the highest integrity and professionalism who share our humanitarian principles.

Selection of staff is made on a competitive basis, and we are committed to promoting diversity and gender balance.

Job Title: Logistics Officer (Food Technologist)

Type of Contract & Level: Service Contract (SC); level_8

Reporting to: Logistics Officer (Food Technologist)

Duty Station: Kigali Office

Duration: 1 year renewable

ORGANIZATIONAL CONTEXT

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is the world’s largest humanitarian agency, fighting hunger worldwide. WFP Rwanda works in partnership with the Government and other stakeholders through the direct implementation of integrated programmes targeting the most vulnerable people and will progressively shift towards building national capacity to formulate, manage and implement programmes for achieving zero hunger. In implementing its activities, WFP will bridge the humanitarian–development nexus and leverage its extensive experience and the contributions it has made in Rwanda over many decades in order to achieve five strategic outcomes:

• Refugees and returnees in Rwanda always have access to adequate and nutritious food.
• Vulnerable populations in food-insecure communities and areas have improved access to adequate and nutritious food all year.
• Children under 5, adolescents and pregnant and nursing women and girls in Rwanda have improved access to nutritious foods and services that enable them to meet their nutrition needs all year.
• Smallholder farmers, especially women, have increased marketable surplus and access to agricultural markets through efficient supply chains by 2030.
• The Government of Rwanda and the humanitarian community is provided with adequate, timely, cost-efficient and agile supply chain services and expertise necessary to effectively respond to emergency crisis.

WFP Rwanda, Under Strategic Outcome 2, has close engagement in the national school feeding agenda. WFP provides school feeding in food insecure areas and, at the same time, acts as a key technical partner of the Government of Rwanda in developing and expanding the National School Feeding Programme (NSFP) that was launched in 2021, providing school meals in all public schools from pre-primary to the secondary level funded from the national budget. This builds on long-standing collaboration between WFP and the Ministry of Education (MINEDUC) and other ministries on the design of the Programme and its decentralized procurement model. This procurement model empowers schools to take the lead in procuring the ingredients for school meals in their local markets, with a preference given to smallholder cooperatives as suppliers. WFP’s technical assistance has a specific focus on strengthening this procurement model through periodic reviews, technical advice and capacity strengthening at the central and decentralized levels.

COUNTRY CONTEXT AND RESPONSE

In the 2020/2021 school year, the Ministry of Education (MINEDUC) rolled out a nationwide scale up of the government school feeding Programme that now reaches 3.3 million pre-primary, primary and secondary students in public schools in the 2021/2022 school year. The national strategic vision of school feeding in Rwanda is for all school children to achieve their full development potential through a sustainable school feeding program that provides adequate and nutritious meals at school. The MINEDUC/WFP School Feeding Operational Guidelines, along with Fill the Nutrient Gap Study, and the 2019 Regulations on Food Fortification in Rwanda positioned fortified food items (such as fortified maize flour, wheat flour, oil, sugar and salt), and biofortified foods (orange flesh sweet potato, and high iron beans) as a key modality to increase access of nutritious meals and improve micronutrient status of school aged children and households. However, even with these guidelines and regulations, the majority of schools do not have access to fortified or biofortified food products.

The National School Feeding Programme has led to a need to better understand the barriers to production and consumption of fortified and biofortified food products in Rwanda in schools.

JOB PURPOSE

This position will work closely with the WFP School Feeding, Procurement, and Nutrition team, to support in fortification research and advocacy activities under the PP4N grant. Incumbent will provide technical expertise and guidance on the following key areas:

• Collaborate with government entities (RSB, FDA, MINICOM) to revise whole grain standard in Rwanda.
• Capacity building for millers through knowledge dissemination and training of fortification regulations, standards, and procedures.
• Integrate fortification content into a SBCC Strategy for Households to promote the consumption of nutritious foods.
• Support in analysis for fortified food and biofortified crops consumption survey in households with school children

This position will be based in WFP Rwanda Country Office, Kigali Duty Station, and the incumbent will work will working closely with WFP Procurement staff, Nutrition team and the School Feeding team under Strategic Outcome 2. Incumbent will be under the overall supervision of the WFP Food Technologist.

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES /RESPONSIBILITIES (not all-inclusive)

This position of the Fortification Associate will be part of the Supply Chain Management team based in WFP’s Country Office in Kigali, Rwanda and will contribute to fortification research and advocacy in Rwanda for schools and households.

1. Support in the development of a national standard for Fortified Whole Grain in Rwanda
2. Support consultations with the government counterparts, partners, and millers to identify challenges and gaps practicing fortification according to the 2019 Regulations on Food Fortification in Rwanda.
3. Support in identification of millers in maize sector and to develop the capacity of local millers to meet fortified regulations
4. Support in knowledge dissemination and training for government institutions and maize sector stakeholders on the fortification regulations, standards, and procedures to enable compliance with the mandatory fortification standards of maize meal.
5. Liase with quality assurance officers at RSB/FDA to ensure quality control practices are included in training sessions.
6. Provide guidance to key government ministries and public agencies to improve availability and access of fortified food products for households and schools.
7. Support in data analysis and report writing for the survey on consumption of fortified foods and biofortified crops.
8. Provide technical expertise and inputs regarding fortification into the developed SBCC strategy to increase awareness on the importance of fortified and biofortified foods and empower behavior change at the household level

STANDARD MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS & EXPERIENCE REQUIRED:

Education:  University degree in Food Science, food technology, or other relevant field, or First University degree with additional relevant work experience and/or training/courses.

Experience:  At least five (5) years of postgraduate professional experience in food science, food fortification. Experience working with government entities is desirable.

Language: Fluency (level C) in English language. Intermediate knowledge (level B) of a second official UN language: French.

DESIRED EXPERIENCES FOR ENTRY INTO THE ROLE

DELIVERABLES AT THE END OF THE CONTRACT:

• Review of fortification and maize sector in Rwanda
• Separate national standard for fortified whole grain
• Trainings for maize sector stakeholders
• Implementation plan for maize meal fortification
• SBCC Strategy for Households (Fortification/biofortified sections)
• Fortified Food and Biofortified Crop Consumption Survey

FUNCTIONAL CAPABILITIES

4Ps CORE ORGANISATIONAL CAPABILITIES

Purpose

• Understand and communicate the Strategic Objectives: Understands WFP’s Strategic Objectives and the link to own work objectives.
•  Be a force for positive change: Flexibly adapts individual contributions to accommodate changes in direction from supervisors and internal/external changes (such as evolving needs of beneficiaries, new requirements of partners).
•  Make the mission inspiring to our team: Recognizes and shares with team members the ways in which individual contributions relate to WFP’s mission.
•  Make our mission visible in everyday actions: Sets own goals in alignment with WFP’s overall operations, and is able to communicate this link to others.

People

• Look for ways to strengthen people’s skills: Assesses own strengths and weaknesses to increase self-awareness, and includes these in conversations on own developmental needs.
•  Create an inclusive culture: Participates in open dialogue, and values the diverse opinion of others, regardless of background, culture, experience, or country assignment.
•  Be a coach & provide constructive feedback: Proactively seeks feedback and coaching to build confidence, and develop and improve individual skills.
•  Create an “I will”/”We will” spirit: Participates in accomplishing team activities and goals in the face of challenging circumstances.

Performance

• Encourage innovation & creative solutions: Shows willingness to explore and experiment with new ideas and approaches in own work.
•  Focus on getting results: Consistently delivers results within individual scope of work on time, on budget and without errors.
•  Make commitments and make good on commitments: Commits to upholding individual accountabilities and responsibilities in the face of ever-changing country or functional priorities.
•  Be Decisive: Makes rational decisions about individual activities when faced with uncertain circumstances, including in times of ambiguity regarding information or manager direction.

Partnership

• Connect and share across WFP units: Seeks to understand and adapt to internal or cross-unit teams’ priorities and preferred working styles.
•  Build strong external partnerships: Demonstrates ability to understand and appropriately respond to and/or escalate needs of external partners.
•  Be politically agile & adaptable: Portrays an informed and professional demeanor toward internal and external partners and stakeholders.
•  Be clear about the value WFP brings to partnerships: Provides operational support on analyses and assessments that quantifies and demonstrates WFP’s unique value as a partner.

TERMS AND CONDITIONS

This position is open for one year with possibility of renewal, depending on fund availability and satisfactory performance.