DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS

27 September 2026-23:59-GMT+07:00 Indochina Time (Phnom Penh)

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ABOUT WFP

The World Food Programme is the world’s largest humanitarian organization saving lives in emergencies and using food assistance to build a pathway to peace, stability and prosperity, for people recovering from conflict, disasters and the impact of climate change.

At WFP, people are at the heart of everything we do and the vision of the future WFP workforce is one of diverse, committed, skilled, and high performing teams, selected on merit, operating in a healthy and inclusive work environment, living WFP's values (Integrity, Collaboration, Commitment, Humanity, and Inclusion) and working with partners to save and change the lives of those WFP serves.

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WHY JOIN WFP?

WFP is a 2020 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate.

WFP offers a highly inclusive, diverse, and multicultural working environment.

WFP invests in the personal & professional development of its employees through a range of training, accreditation, coaching, mentorship, and other programs as well as through internal mobility opportunities.

A career path in WFP provides an exciting opportunity to work across the various country, regional and global offices around the world, and with passionate colleagues who work tirelessly to ensure that effective humanitarian assistance reaches millions of people across the globe.

We offer an attractive compensation package (please refer to the Terms and Conditions section of this vacancy announcement).

JOB TITLE: Fellow – Nutrition and Food Systems

TYPE OF CONTRACT: Fellowship

UNIT/DIVISION: Asia and the Pacific Regional Office (APARO), Cambodia

DUTY STATION (City, Country/Homebased): Phnom Penh, Cambodia

DURATION: 12 October 2026 to 10 September 2027

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE OF THE ASSIGNMENT:

As Cambodia experiences rapid economic growth, the country's nutrition landscape is undergoing significant change. Over the past decade, there has been remarkable progress—child stunting rates have dropped from 32% in 2014 to 22% in 2022. But this progress reveals a stark divide: while stunting among the poorest children remains high at 31%, it’s just 12% among the wealthiest. Despite these gains, malnutrition continues to affect many families, with 9.6% of children under five suffering from wasting.

At the same time, a different set of challenge is emerging: overweight and obesity among women aged 15 to 49 have nearly tripled, rising from 11% to 32%, with rates increasing as women age. While the country’s economy flourishes, 8% of households still struggle to afford a nutrient-adequate food basket, and another 8% are forced to take out loans to access nutritious food.

A shift toward promoting healthy, nutrient-rich diets is crucial, with an emphasis on increasing fruit and vegetable consumption, reducing unhealthy snacks and sugary drinks, and promoting fortified foods. WFP Cambodia is working to ensure nutrition is integrated across our portfolio to address this complex landscape.

The Fellow will provide key technical support to WFP and the Royal Government of Cambodia on promoting healthy diets and preventing malnutrition. The Fellow will contribute to WFP’s commitment to generating evidence, strengthening policies, and translating them into actionable programs.

ACCOUNTABILITIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

Under the supervision of the Head of Food Systems and Nutrition, the incumbent will:

1. Contribute to the development of policy processes and programmes related to nutrition and healthy food systems, ensuring alignment with wider policy objectives and corporate guidance.
2. Provide technical assistance and project management support, ensuring a co-ordinated approach with wider programmes/projects that complies with WFP standards and procedures.
3. Develop and coordinate data gathering and analysis of a range of nutrition and food systems issues and contribute to the design and strengthening of monitoring systems to measure progress against set targets.
4. Contribute to the preparation of accurate and timely reports for different stakeholders to enable informed decision making and consistency of core messages presented to stakeholders and to inform advocacy.
5. Liaise with internal and external partners, particularly Government and UN partners to ensure effective collaboration and provision of timely inputs and project delivery.
6. Support the identification, development and management of potential partnerships on food systems and nutrition.
7. Support the capacity building of WFP staff, partners and national government related to food systems for healthy diets and nutrition to effectively respond to nutrition needs for example the production and review of training material.
8. Guide and supervise more junior staff, acting as a point of referral and supporting them with analysis and queries.
9. Other tasks as required.

SPECIFIC JOB REQUIREMENTS:

Strategic Engagement

Participate in government and development partner coordination fora on food security and nutrition

Support convening and management of the WFP-chaired UN Nutrition network and liaise with UNN members (UNICEF, FAO, WHO)

Support the facilitation and revival of the Scaling up Nutrition Business Network

Assist in developing agendas, coordinating with presenters, and organizing opportunities for strategic partner engagement

Technical Assistance

Support roll-out of the 3rd National Strategy for Food Security and Nutrition and associated Food Systems Roadmap

Design an engagement strategy with the Ministry of Health to support a common approach to addressing all forms of malnutrition.

Support engagement with Ministries of Health and Commerce on regulation on Sugar Sweetened Beverages

Calculate and develop costing scenarios for the gradual adoption of Nutrition Guidelines and Standards within the National Home-Grown School Feeding Programme (NHGSFP).

Offer advisory support on healthy diets within food systems programmes and future investments.

Research

Support the cost of malnutrition study, working closely with the Research Assessment and Monitoring Unit (RAM), Mahidol University, WFP’s Regional Bureau and local research partners.

Research food-based wasting prevention strategies, including prevention strategies in the event of a shock (flood or drought).

Design studies to assess effectiveness of pilots including integration of fortified rice in factory canteens and cash top ups/cash plus approaches to prevent wasting in the case of shocks (floods or droughts).

Programme support

Backstop the fortification lead to implement the commercialization of fortified rice pilot in garment factories where large share of women of reproductive age are employed including managing partnerships and overseeing formative research.

Design wasting management/prevention approaches following new WHO guidelines through existing platforms such as social protection and shock responsive social protection.

Design a strategy to address and prevent wasting among pre-primary age school children who are also receiving daily school meals.

Support the design of the Country Office’s Social Behavior Change for Healthy Diets strategy, ensuring alignment with national policies and WFP priorities.

Advocacy

Develop succinct reports, visualizations and easy-to-digest materials for internal and external audiences on nutrition and healthy food systems

Produce communications products to support in positioning WFP’s technical assistance within the nutrition sector

Translate guidelines, assessments, and research related to nutrition into advocacy and communications materials

Utilize data analysis and visualization to tell impactful stories

Incorporate up-to-date data and evidence in advocacy and communications materials

Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning

Serve as reporting officer for the nutrition unit

Resource Mobilization and Proposal Development

Support the development of project proposals where appropriate including to promote healthy food systems, scale up SBC for healthy diet campaigns.

Mobilize resource to pilot on cash-plus to improve the impact of social assistance interventions on nutrition.

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS:

Education:

An advanced university degree in nutrition, food systems, development studies or a related field with experience in food/nutrition desirable.

Language:

Fluency in both oral and written communication in English.

WFP LEADERSHIP FRAMEWORK

WFP Leadership Framework guides to the common standards of behavior that guide HOW we work together to accomplish our mission.

REASONABLE ACCOMMODATION

WFP is committed to supporting individuals with disabilities by providing reasonable accommodations throughout the recruitment process. If you require a reasonable accommodation, please contact: global.inclusion@wfp.org

NO FEE DISCLAIMER

The United Nations does not charge any application, processing, training, interviewing, testing or other fee in connection with the application or recruitment process. Should you receive a solicitation for the payment of a fee, please disregard it. Furthermore, please note that emblems, logos, names and addresses are easily copied and reproduced. Therefore, you are advised to apply particular care when submitting personal information on the web.

REMINDERS BEFORE YOU SUBMIT YOUR APPLICATION

All applications must be submitted exclusively through our online recruiting system. We do not consider CVs or applications sent by email, LinkedIn, or any other channel.

We strongly recommend that your Workday profile is accurate and complete, and that all sections are filled in, including your employment history, academic qualifications, language skills, and UN grade (if applicable). Once your profile is completed, please apply, and submit your application.

If you experience technical issues while submitting your application, you may contact us at global.hrerecruitment@wfp.org. Please note that this email is only for technical issues with an application - unsolicited applications or documents sent to this inbox will not receive a reply.

At the application stage, the only required documents are your CV and Cover Letter. Additional documents (passport, certificates, recommendation letters, etc.) may be requested later in the process.

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and invited to proceed to the next stage of the recruitment process.

All employment decisions are made on the basis of organizational needs, job requirements, merit, and individual qualifications. WFP is committed to providing an inclusive work environment free of sexual exploitation and abuse, all forms of discrimination, any kind of harassment, sexual harassment, and abuse of authority. Therefore, all selected candidates will undergo rigorous reference and background checks.

No appointment under any kind of contract will be offered to members of the UN Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ), International Civil Service Commission (ICSC), FAO Finance Committee, WFP External Auditor, WFP Audit Committee, Joint Inspection Unit (JIU) and other similar bodies within the United Nations system with oversight responsibilities over WFP, both during their service and within three years of ceasing that service.