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.
Mozambique, with an estimated population of 25.8 million people, is classified as a low-income, food-deficit country, ranked 180 out of 188 countries on the Human Development Index. Mozambique is one of the most disaster-prone countries in the world; while the southern and central regions regularly experience droughts, floods occur every two to three years along the major river basins and in poorly drained urban settlements. The regularity of these events perpetuates a cycle of vulnerability and emphasize the need for adequate disaster preparedness, prevention and management.
The majority of the population of Mozambique is not covered by basic non-contributory social protection mechanisms. The last National Poverty Assessment (IOF report 2014-2015) confirmed economic growth has not been translated into a proportionate reduction of poverty, and that large differences in well-being remain between different socio-economic income groups and geographic areas. This implies that social policies are becoming increasingly critical from both welfare and political economy perspectives.
Positively, the Government of Mozambique recognizes that a renewed focus on and expansion of Social Protection Programmes is needed to protect consumption, enhance resilience and ensure social and economic development for the most vulnerable and has therefore recognized Social Protection as a key tool to ensure sustainable development in policy documents such as the National Development Strategy (ENDE) 2015 -2035, the Five Year Government Plan (PQG) 2015-2019 and the recently endorsed national Social Security Strategy II (ENSSB II) 2016-2024.
Under its new Country Strategic Plan (CSP) 2017-2021, WFP’s overall objective in Mozambique is to support the government in achieving the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 2 – End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture). Based on national development priorities, WFP Country Strategic Plan (CSP) 2017-2021 aims to support long-term recovery and resilience and contribute to addressing the underlying causes of food insecurity and malnutrition in Mozambique.
More specifically, under CSP Activity 2 and in a context of high vulnerability to natural disasters, WFP support aims at reinforcing government capacity to improve access to social protection for the population affected by natural disasters by strengthening the capacity of SP programmes and systems to respond to natural disasters and climate change effect, and eventually increase communities’ resilience.
WFP is supporting the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Action (MGCAS) in operationalizing the National Strategy for Basic Social Security (ENSSB II) 2016-2024. In a context of high vulnerability to climate change and natural disasters, WFP support is focused on strengthening government capacities to improve access to social protection (SP) for the population affected by natural shocks. Thanks to its experience both in SP and humanitarian assistance, WFP is well placed to support MGCAS and the National Institute of Social Action (INAS) in making SP programmes more shock-responsive and foster harmonization between MGCAS and the National Institute for Disaster Management (INGC).
Intense tropical cyclones Idai and Kenneth made landfall in Mozambique on 14 March and 25 April 2019 respectively. To date, 2.2 million people have been provided with food assistance by WFP since March across all affected Provinces. Social Protection is expected to play a key role in the recovery phase in the affected Provinces, transitioning from humanitarian relief to longer-term, government-owned social assistance. WFP has been supporting MGCAS along with social protection partners (World Bank, UNICEF, ILO) in the design and implementation of a social protection recovery strategy in the post-emergency phase.
WFP Mozambique is seeking expressions of interest from professional humanitarian Social Protection consultants wishing to be considered for emergency response consultancies. Deployment will be to Maputo and Field locations within the Country whenever necessary.
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Fluency (level C) in English language. Intermediate knowledge (level B) of a second official UN language: Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian, Spanish. Fluency (level C) in Portuguese, WFP’s working language, will be an asset.
Qualified applicants will be placed in a pool and may be contacted as the needs arise for consultancy positions in Mozambique. Remuneration levels will be based on the specific terms of reference offered. Please note that consultants would most likely be placed in the heart of the response which may involve difficult living and working conditions. Consultants are independent hires and cannot be simultaneously employed by WFP and receive income or honorarium from other organizations, governments, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) or other. Consultants will be required to undertake a full medical clearance prior to being contracted and to undertake the UN related Security Clearances, training and WFP mandatory training on Standards of Conduct. This pool will remain active for 6 months.
Interested individuals meeting the above requirements are requested to apply on the WFP Career Website.
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