Job Opportunities at The United Nations World Food Programme WFP in Ramallah

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.

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.

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 Country Offices (COs), Regional Bureaux (RBs), and Headquarters (HQ), and report to the Head of Unit, Chief, or Finance Officer.

At this level job holders are expected to demonstrate responsibility and initiative to respond independently to queries with only general guidance. There is a requirement to use judgment in dealing with unforeseen problems on a daily basis. Job holders are expected to manage resources and coach and coordinate a team of support staff, or specific support service(s).

Education: A bachelor’s degree from a recognized university in accounting, finance, economics, or a relevant field is required for this position.

Language: General Service (Headquarters): Fluency (level C) in English language. Fluency (level C) or intermediate knowledge (level B) of another official language may be required depending on the location of the post or area of responsibility.

General Service (Field): Fluency in both oral and written communication in the UN language in use at the duty station and in the duty station’s language, if different.

Experience: A minimum of six years of relevant experience in a mid-level finance position.

To coordinate and provide finance, budget and administration support services involving the recording and interpretation of financial and budgetary information to ensure the efficient functioning of the support services and inform decision-making.

1. Provide the procedural and technical support to staff within the areas of finance and budget, to ensure compliance with WFP financial policies, rules and regulations.

2. Support the development and implementation of financial policies and procedures, and assist in setup and implementation of proper accounting procedures, systems and cash controls.

3. Monitor the daily cash position in order to optimize the use of surplus cash and maximize returns on investment through the liquidity portfolio.

4. Monitor the centralised registry system in order to process all payments to internal staff and invoices to external suppliers in a timely manner and in accordance with WFP standards.

5. Contribute to the preparation, implementation and monitoring of budgets, monitor expenditure and budget forecasts, to ensure that relevant future funding requirements are met.

6. Co-ordinate with other teams in order to ensure that all financial and administrative services are being performed efficiently and in line with the needs of the wider team.

7. Monitor account balances and process financial transactions in an accurate and timely manner, to avoid the occurrence of an overdraft.

8. Monitor and analyse general ledger accounts in order to initiate and achieve corrective actions.

9. Compile data from the WFP database and systems in order to assist in generating and analysing financial reports on a monthly basis.

Purpose

• Understand and communicate the Strategic Objectives: Coaches team in the most effective ways to communicate WFP’s Strategic Objectives to WFP team and partners in the field.
•  Be a force for positive change: Implements new methods or tools to improve team’s work processes and productivity.

People

• Look for ways to strengthen people’s skills: Identifies skill development opportunities such as training modules or on-the-job experiences for self, colleagues and direct reports.
•  Create an inclusive culture: Facilitates team building activities to build rapport in own unit.
•  Be a coach & provide constructive feedback: Facilitates the pairing of junior colleagues with coaches within own team.
•  Create an “I will”/”We will” spirit: Proactively anticipates potential challenges and develops mitigation plans to ensure that team meets goals and targets.

Performance

• Encourage innovation & creative solutions: Identifies opportunities to be creative in own work and to help team be more innovative and accurate in their respective tasks and areas of work.
•  Focus on getting results: Monitors team’s deliverables and provides feedback to ensure outcomes are delivered consistently and accurately.

Partnership

• Connect and share across WFP units: Facilitates partnerships with other WFP units to accomplish missions in the field.
•  Be politically agile & adaptable: Articulates to colleagues or direct reports the value of contributing to other WFP teams and agency partnerships in fulfilling WFP’s goals and objectives.

DESIRED EXPERIENCES FOR ENTRY INTO THE ROLE

• Has experience assessing financial health and stability of C&V projects and other programming initiatives to verify compliance with in-country local laws.

• Has experience working with auditors and other third party vendors.