Description
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1.Introduction and Background
In 2005, the Government of Ethiopia together with Development Partners, designed and commenced implementation of the Productive Safety Net Programme (PSNP) to address rural food insecurity, build resilience, and reduce the need for humanitarian appeals. The PSNP seeks better response to the needs of food insecure households and creates productive investments to underpin rural economic growth and environmental rehabilitation. This is achieved through: (i) the predictable provision of adequate food and cash transfers to targeted beneficiary households, thus allowing effective consumption smoothing and avoiding asset depletion; (ii) the creation of productive and sustainable community assets that contribute to the rehabilitation of severely degraded areas and increase household productivity; and (iii) direct support and training for increased livelihoods diversity and jobs. The PSNP is embedded and contributes to a number of Government policies and strategies (social protection, disaster risk management, climate resilient economic growth, nutrition). The PSNP is delivered through existing government structures at all levels. The program is housed in the Ministry of Agriculture where it is managed by the Food Security Coordination Office (FSCO). The program currently supports 7.9 million extremely poor and vulnerable clients in 485 rural woredas.
The presently implemented fifth phase of the PSNP (PSNP5) builds on experiences and lessons learned from early phases of implementation and seeks to make key enhancements to the program. PSNP5’s objective, which all PSNP interventions are collectively designed to achieve is stated as: “Enhanced resilience to shocks of extreme poor and vulnerable rural households in PSNP woredas”.
The PSNP5 expected outcome will be achieved through the combined effect of six outputs through which PSNP5 will focus its efforts.
These are as follows:
● Output 1: Timely and adequate transfers received by eligible core caseload of PSNP clients.
● Output 2: Shock-responsive transfers received by eligible clients when needed.
● Output 3: Public Works respond to community livelihood needs and contribute to disaster risk reduction, climate change adaptation and mitigation.
● Output 4: Linkages to available social services facilitated for core PSNP clients.
● Output 5: Tailored livelihood options accessed by eligible PSNP clients.
● Output 6: PSNP management and capacity enhanced.
Donor arrangements:
Since the commencement of the PSNP in 2005, approximately eleven donors have harmonised around the programme, and have aligned their investments behind the Government-led programme. Donors have recommitted to continue these efforts, in line with global commitments around Aid and Development Effectiveness. The Donors meet regularly (as a Donor Working Group – DWG) to discuss on-going issues in the PSNP and to ensure harmonisation of positions. The agenda for this meeting frequently covers strategic, policy and operational details. Donors collaborate to commission analytical work which is the basis of providing coordinated advice. The DWG is led by a Donor Chair, which rotates among donor agencies every six months.
The DWG and donor chair are supported by a Donor Coordination Team (DCT) to ensure that PSNP support is coordinated and harmonised as much as possible.
The DCT’s function is fourfold:
• The DCT provides the core analytical work informing donor-Government dialogue. This includes monitoring the implementation of the programme’s main principles, key commitments, as well as collaborating with relevant sector technical experts/groups to ensure a tight link between financing and results. For example, this entails coordinating external assessments, that seek to gather objective rigorous evidence about program performance and promising new directions.
• Towards the end of enhancing Government implementation capacity, the DCT provides advice, training, and hands-on technical assistance on a range of operational matters, including financial reporting, auditing, procurement, and monitoring and evaluation.
• The DCT takes primary responsibility for collaborating with the Government in planning regular joint Donor – Government activities in the programme, including 6-monthly joint supervision missions.
• The DCT plays a key role in coordinating among the members of the DWG and works to harmonise donors’ policy and practice positions viz-a-vis their interface with the Government of Ethiopia.
The functions, roles, and responsibilities of the DCT have evolved commensurate with the design and requirements of the fifth phase of the programme and will continue to be adjusted based on any future engagements.
The Bank is supporting the PSNP5 through the Strengthen Ethiopia’s Adaptive Safety Net (SEASN) project. Contributions from various donor partners are pooled in a Multi-Donor Trust Fund attached to SEASN, which funds the DCT and other operational activities including impact evaluations. In addition, USAID directly funds the PSNP through NGO partners and supports DCT financing and operation.
2. Objectives of the Senior Social Protection (SP) Specialist/Donor Coordinator
The objectives of the post are to lead the DCT, ensuring:
i.Effective support to the Donor Working Group and continued coordinated donor communication with the Government.
ii.Implementation support to the GOE as well as technical and operational oversight and quality control of all contractor and DCT-produced outputs.
iii.Experience and evidence-based technical and strategic advice on all aspects of the PSNP to the DWG.
iv.Work closely and support the Donor Chair to deliver required engagement and oversight in PSNP operations and deliverables by the GOE
3.Scope of Work
The scope of work that the Senior SP Specialist/Donor Coordinator will be required to undertake includes:
● Coordinate the engagement of the DWG with Technical Committees, working groups, and taskforces, and provide technical advice to the DWG on all issues impacting program effectiveness.
● Support the GOE to identify bottlenecks and constraints in the effectiveness of the programme, including capacity constraints, and make proposals to the Coordination and Management Technical Committee and the Joint Strategic Oversight Committee concerning ways to address these constraints.
● Monitor the progress made in the Joint Review & Implementation Supervision (JRIS) action plans.
● Follow up on and provide timely and detailed implementation status reports and other relevant deliverables to the DWG such that donors can strategically engage in dialogue with GOE on the PSNP.
● Liaise with relevant government stakeholders on the process to enhance management capacity.
● Participate in government meetings that focus on strategic collaboration and coordination across GOE development and humanitarian programming, such as RED and FS.
● Provide support to GOE in implementing the PSNP program management guidelines.
● Work with the DCT and DWG to facilitate unified responses to programme challenges and opportunities.
● In all meetings it is expected that the Donor Coordinator would represent the best interests of the PSNP program and present the agreed view of the DWG, not just one particular donor view. When participating in events and meetings, the Donor Coordinator is expected to communicate the position of the collective DWG, but not serve as a representative of any individual donor.
● Provide cross-support to the World Bank operations and analytic portfolio under the Social Protection and Jobs (SPJ) Global Practice dedicating up to 15 percent of her/his time for such assignments and relevant learning that specifically supports PSNP strategy and operations. .
4.Responsibilities and reporting
Though the DWG may revise and reconsider the specific tasks of the post-holder depending on the development of the PSNP program, the successful candidate should expect to be responsible for the following indicative tasks:
a) To contribute to ongoing coordination and harmonisation among the members of the PSNP Donor Working Group.
b) To facilitate the working relationships between the Donor Working Group and the Government.
c) To facilitate clarification of donor positions and priorities on specific issues within the implementation process.
d) To establish and maintain contact with relevant government institutions – especially the Ministry of Finance (MoF), the Food Security Coordination Office (FSCO), Natural Resources Management Directorate (NRMD), the Ministry of Women and Social Affairs (MWSA), the Ethiopian Disaster Risk Management Commission (EDRMC) and the Ministry of Health (MOH) – to ensure regular information sharing and coordination.
e) To arrange and facilitate meetings between relevant stakeholders (Government, NGOs, Donors, etc) on key technical issues.
f) To review, discuss and comment on quarterly reports and year-end reports.
g) To prepare Terms of References for continuing research elements of the PSNP.
h) To manage consultants/consultancy firms to complete various pieces of work contracted through the SEASN Multi-Donor Trust Fund.
i) To produce regular documentation of the PSNP implementation process – identifying outstanding issues and lessons learnt to inform the PSNP DWG.
j) To participate in regular meetings (such as the Donor Working Group meetings, GOE meetings, the Joint Strategic Oversight Committee, etc) and to report to these meetings on PSNP-related activities to Donor Chair and DWG.
k) Draft memos, minutes, letters and reports as and when required.
l) Any other responsibilities/duties decided by the Donor Chair of the DWG. In general, such responsibilities would relate to the planning and management of projects and activities of PSNP.
The Senior Social Protection Specialist will be based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. He or she will lead the Donor Coordination Team. H/she will report to the Social Protection and Jobs Practice Manager for East and Southern Africa (HAES1) and will work on a day-to-day basis with the Donor Coordination Team.
5.Duration of contract
The duration of recruitment of a Senior Social Protection Specialist will be for a period of 3 years, with the possibility of extension.
Selection Criteria
| Area |
Criteria for Consideration |
| Experience |
●Education: Minimum of an MSC degree in Development, Economics, Social Sciences, or any relevant discipline.
●Experience: At least 10 years of relevant work experience
●Experience with large scale, multi-sectoral programming and multiple partners preferred.
●Demonstrated international experience, including within low- capacity environments |
| Technical Ability |
●Understands relevant cross-sectoral areas and how they are interrelated; ability to undertake issues and assist in building systems and institutional linkages to promote effective delivery
●Ability to leads in the sharing of best practices, trends, knowledge and lessons learned
●Strong expertise in pastoral livelihoods, food security or social protection related areas.
●Understanding on key themes such as governance, social accountability. |
| Client Orientation |
●Ability to maintain client relationships in the face of conflicting demands or directions andprovideevidence-based advice and solutions based on sound diagnosis and knowledge.
●Ability to advise, influence and promote consensus among different stakeholders.
●Experience working in a multi-donor environment. Experience in managing diverse and sometimes competing interests and perspectives to arrive at consensus |
| Team Leadership, Collaboration, and Inclusion
|
●Shows leadership in ensuring the team stays organised and focused, and actively seeks and considers diverse ideas and approaches.
●Proven ability to identify and develop new and creative partnerships with a wide variety of agencies and organisations.
●Proven ability to work in teams and as a team member, showing sensitivity in diverse cultural settings.
●Proven track record of multi-tasking, managing competing demands and effectively time-manage tasks.
●Proven ability to delegate responsibilities as appropriate and build team member capacity as needed.
●Willingness to travel |
| Communication |
●Evidence of strong interpersonal skills, judgement.
●Evidence of sharing and conveying complex technical issues, in accessible format: written, spoken.
●Native or near-native proficiency in written English |
World Bank Group Core Competencies
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