Bangladesh: Food for Peace (FFP) Advisor for the Rohingya Refugee Response

Mar 28, 2019 | USAID Office of Food for Peace
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Alleviating global hunger is critical to U.S. national security: where hunger persists, instability grows. By supporting the world's most vulnerable, Food for Peace is building a more stable world and ensuring that people have the opportunity to lead healthy, productive lives.

The FFP Advisor (“the incumbent”) will serve as part of the OFDHA team, and be responsible for managing and monitoring FFP’s food assistance programs for the Rohingya refugee response effort. The incumbent will ensure the effective management of FFP resources provided for the response, including for both refugees and host communities. The primary responsibility of the incumbent is to coordinate and monitor ongoing FFP-funded emergency food assistance programs and report on their implementation to FFP/Washington, the FFP Regional Mission/RDMA, the USAID Mission and Embassy in Bangladesh, and other USG stakeholders in the U.S. and neighboring countries, as appropriate. The incumbent will be expected to help planning and programming integration of HA with development and conflict prevention efforts. At present, FFP-funded food assistance programs devoted to the crisis are primarily implemented by WFP and UNICEF. The full range of specific duties, some of which are in direct support of FFP-funded programs and some in support of general FFP office responsibilities, will include the following:

• Represent FFP and USG interests as they relate to emergency food and nutrition security for the refugee response effort.
• As appropriate/assigned, serve as a point of contact for all issues pertaining to FFP emergency food and nutrition assistance for implementing partners, the USAID Mission and Embassy/Dhaka, FFP/Washington and other parts of the USG, host nation government ministries and agencies, donors, and other relevant stakeholders.
• Support the USAID Bangladesh Mission, notably OFDHA, in providing emergency food and nutrition strategic direction. This includes short-, medium- and long-term humanitarian assistance planning for refugee assistance as well as the broader host community.
• Participate in and contribute to regular OFDHA staff meetings, weekly calls with FFP/Washington and other Mission meetings as required.
• Report on all food security issues, including changes in the food security situation and food assistance requirements, government policies, and actions affecting food assistance programs, including donor pledges and programs to FFP/Washington and USAID Bangladesh Mission.
• Coordinate and collaborate with USG counterparts including USAID/Bangladesh, U.S. Embassy/Dhaka, the State Department’s Bureau for Population, Refugees and Migration (PRM), USAID’s Office for Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA), host government counterparts, implementing partners, donors and others to promote integration of food assistance with other HA programs and increase the effectiveness of programs overall.
• Understand how the humanitarian assistance relates to development assistance, identify gaps where USAID development assistance could complement other efforts and be able to serve as the subject matter expert for HA programming for the Mission’s combined HA and development assistance programming for the Rohingya effort.
• Undertake and report on meetings, monitoring trips and assessments to inform FFP-funded food assistance funding decisions or modifications to ongoing programs, progress and problems encountered by implementing partners, as well as to inform development assistance support to the Rohingya response. Provide information and guidance to current and potential FFP assistance award recipients on related regulations, policies, and procedures.
• Provide capacity building support to OFDHA and other USAID staff in emergency food and nutrition response.
• Coordinate public messaging on USAID’s HA efforts related to the Rohingya response with other Embassy, Mission, and FFP/Washington personnel as part of a larger Mission communications effort on the Rohingya response.
• Coordinate high-level and other USG delegations visits to CXB, and serve as the point of contact and/or Control Officer for the visiting delegations focused on HA programming.
• Provide surge assistance to support other Rohingya response, emergency food and nutrition response efforts, as needed, and with consultation from FFP/Washington.
• As requested by the USAID Mission and in consultation with FFP/Washington, provide support for the execution of programs that support the overall USG humanitarian assistance objectives responding to the refugee crises.
• Directly manage one or more Foreign Service National (FSN) OFDHA Staff (LES staff), as needed.

Supervisory Controls: The incumbent reports to the USAID/Bangladesh Mission Director or his/her Designee.

 The incumbent’s supervisor will set the overall management structure and work objectives and the incumbent will consult with the supervisor to develop deadlines, projects, and work to be performed. The incumbent is responsible for planning and carrying out assignments and ensuring clear and consistent communication with FFP/Washington

The incumbent is a member of the OFDHA team. As such, s/he will coordinate closely with the OFDHA Office Director and will represent him or her when in CXB.

 The incumbent is expected to take initiative and act independently with little direction, but will have no authority to make financial commitments on behalf of the U.S government unless such authority is specifically delegated. The incumbent should relay financial needs to FFP/Washington and provide a recommendation for action.

Guidelines: Pertinent sources of information consist of: the Title II Food for Peace Act, the Foreign Assistance Act, the Farm Bill, and other legislative initiatives; USAID Agency, DCHA Bureau, other USG rules and regulations; FFP rules, policies, guidelines and Information Bulletins.

 In addition, the incumbent must be conversant in USAID’s humanitarian programming principles, procedures, and regulations, especially as they reflect food and nutrition assistance in refugee situations. S/he must be knowledgeable of humanitarian and program management topics, including familiarity with the mandates of such humanitarian actors and partners as WFP, UNICEF, and their international and local NGO counterparts. S/he must understand broader USG humanitarian response efforts (for example, those of State/PRM and USAID/OFDA) and be familiar with other donors’ humanitarian and development programming in CXB. An understanding of the political context of the humanitarian crisis is essential.

 The incumbent is required to advise FFP, OFDHA and other USAID/Bangladesh technical offices about HA programs and activities that benefit refugees and host communities. The incumbent interacts with officials at the highest levels in the USG, the Government of Bangladesh, other donors, UN agencies, and NGOs.