Duration of the consultancy: June – September 2023

WORK CONTEXT / BACKGROUND

West Africa region is home to cyclical food insecurity and malnutrition due to extreme poverty and collapsed livelihood systems under the combined effects of climate change, record-high food prices, and grave security deterioration. Most recent available data (UN, March 2023) report that more than 42 million people across the region will be Food Insecure (IPC[1] 3 and above) during the pastoral and agricultural lean seasons 2023 (June-September). Half of this vulnerable population are children and numbers are expected to rise as indicated by the exponential increase in countries such as Mauritania, Central African Republic, Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso.

To address the above, WV is implementing a wide range of food security and livelihoods interventions as part of its development and relief programs. Efforts range from climate-resilient farming and other resilience-building initiatives to agricultural support, saving for transformation, and women empowerment, food and cash/vouchers assistance, to name a few. The agency runs this within its long term Area Programs (AP) in stable settings and humanitarian responses in disaster affected contexts in Burkina Faso, Chad, Central African Republic, Mali, Niger, Mauritania, Sierra Leone, Ghana and Senegal.

PURPOSE OF THE CONSULTANCY

The Food Security & Livelihood consultant is recruited to provide technical support and guidance to WV food security, livelihoods, and resilience-building activities to field offices in the region. S/he will be working closely with country sector leads, the global food assistance and cash senior advisors. The FSL consultant is expected to perform the following tasks during her/his period of assignment:

• Review of policies on food security in the region, identify what’s working and what’s not, make recommendations for advocacy initiatives
• Identify promising programmatic practices (within WV) that have produced positive results for scale up in West Africa
• Review the ongoing food and cash-related interventions against World Vision/internationally recognized sectoral standards and provide recommendations
• Support as required Field Offices in the design and start-up of Food Security and Livelihoods interventions
• Lead the design of Food Security and Livelihoods components of concept notes and project proposals
• Ensure quality review of major donor project reports, particularly paying attention to food and cash-related activities
• Support World Vision participation in food security, resilience and cash regional working groups, ensuring periodic attendance to those groups as required
• Lead the livelihoods impact assessments planned by World Vision and UNHCR in Chad
• Support the measurements of standardized indicators, compilation of impact report and data for the Regional Office and Global Centre
• Lead the advocacy needs related to Food Security and support partner engagements

DURATION OF THE CONSULTANCY

The duration of the consultancy will be four months from June 1 to September 30th 2023 inclusive.

REQUIRED PROFILE

Advanced university degree in Agriculture, Economics or related field. At least five years of working experience at a senior level in the Food Security, Livelihoods and Resilience sector, including in humanitarian settings. Good understanding of and experience in cash/market-based interventions Excellent technical understanding of sustainable livelihoods approach, economic development and resilience Experience in designing and facilitating capacity-building activities and training Good understanding of both development and humanitarian architecture. Good experience in drafting concept notes and project proposals Work experience in West Africa would be an asset. Effective in written and verbal communication in French and English

MAIN DELIVERABLES

A work plan with clear actions and timelines to deliver on the above-mentioned objectives A report outlining the actions completed and recommendations for improvement related to:

• Policies on food security and livelihoods in the region
• The Ongoing or projected FO food and livelihoods-related schemes or activities
• Grants acquisition and reporting to donors on food and cash-related activities
• FOs compliance with sector standards and donor requirements
• WV participation in relevant technical working groups in the region

A capacity-building plan for country technical staff outlining the strengths and areas for improvement A report on World Vision’s impact assessment on the UNHCR livelihoods interventions in Southern Chad during the past five years (ToR available)