DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS

24 September 2026-23:59-GMT+01:00 Central European Time (Rome)

WFP celebrates and embraces diversity. It is committed to the principle of equal employment opportunity for all its employees and encourages qualified candidates to apply irrespective of race, colour, national origin, ethnic or social background, genetic information, gender, gender identity and/or expression, sexual orientation, religion or belief, HIV status or disability.

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.

To learn more about WFP, visit our website: https://www.wfp.org and follow us on social media to keep up with our latest news: YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok.

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: Programme Policy Officer—SRSP

TYPE OF CONTRACT: International Consultant (11 months) CST Level 2

UNIT/DIVISION: Nutrition, School Meals and Social Protection Service

DUTY STATION: WFP Headquarters, Rome, Italy (based remotely)

BACKGROUND

As a global leader in fighting hunger and malnutrition worldwide, often in very difficult contexts, the World Food Programme (WFP) works widely with governments to support the extension of the coverage, comprehensiveness, adequacy and quality of national social protection systems and programmes. WFP aims to ensure that more people have access to strong national social protection systems that help them to meet their food security, nutrition and associated essential needs; and manage the risks and shocks they face. In 2023 WFP partnered with governments on this work in 98 countries, making this an integral part of WFP’s activities in most of the countries where it operates.

The increase of climate related shocks and economic crises are now further driving food insecurity and vulnerability at a higher rate around the world. This is triggering the growing requests from governments for WFP to support them on immediate response needs and on the provision of strategic advice and technical support so that national systems and communities are better prepared to respond to these crises.

PURPOSE OF THE ASSIGNMENT

As part of WFP’s implementation of the social protection strategy, a key priority is to boost technical capacity in WFP’s regional and country offices on shock-responsive social protection so that governments are better equipped in responding to major shocks. Strategic and technical support will be focused on advancing programme opportunities, engaging with strategic partners, and negotiating, developing and delivering on programme needs. Functions include:

1. The provision of strategic and technical advisory and guidance to national actors to design and deliver national responses to crisis through their national social protection systems, ensuring positive impact on food security and nutrition are considered. Focus will be given to problem analysis, emergency response plans and protocols development and support for the implementation of shock-responsive social protection interventions;
2. The support to the delivery of nationally branded programmes, if necessary, on governments’ behalf;
3. The enhancement of WFP’s emergency responses, to understand whether, when and how emergency responses should relate to/use national social protection systems;
4. The building of WFP’s technical and communications capacity to support WFP’s corporate engagement with global partners on social protection in response to major covariate crises.

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES

This position aims to provide operational and strategic support on shock-responsive social protection, in preparedness and response to major shocks. The role involves duty travels to country offices (COs) and regional offices, reporting to the senior shock-responsive social protection advisor. In this role, the incumbent will be responsible for providing technical support on shock-responsive social protection based on demand to cover a variety of activities including:

1. Strengthening the capacities of WFP COs & regional offices to support the development of nationally owned shock-responsive social protection interventions, protocols and standard operating procedures (SOPs), with an emergency preparedness perspective, to be activated by governments in response to covariate and multi-faceted shocks.
2. Finetuning the step-by-step SRSP country capacity strengthening methodology and toolkit to support governments in using their national social protection systems & schemes to complement and/or improve their emergency responses.
3. Linking and sequencing WFP’s technical support, tools and activities in support of the strengthening of national social protection systems with shock-responsive mechanisms.
4. Improving WFP’s contribution to global knowledge and learning agenda on shock-responsive social protection through documentation of experiences, lessons, and best practices.
5. Reinforcing key linkages and coordination with Emergency Preparedness and Response Service to ensure synergy between WFP emergency operations and social protection efforts.
6. Promote the integration of nutrition-sensitive social protection, anticipatory action and disaster risk financing within SRSP strategies, preparedness efforts, and government systems. This includes support for social protection-related activities initiated by COs under the Global Shield Financing Facility.
7. Strengthen linkages between SRSP and the Global Shield against Climate Risks to enhance risk-informed and financially sustainable shock responses.
8. Perform other duties as required to support WFP’s efforts in social protection, crisis response, and emergency preparedness.

QUALIFICATIONS & EXPERIENCE REQUIRED:

Education:

Advanced University degree in Public Policy, Public Administration, International Development, International Relations, Sociology, or other fields relevant to social protection, or a first university degree with additional years of related work experience and/or training/courses.

Experience:

6 to 10 years of professional experience related to national development programmes, policies, strategies or plans and institutional structures, preferably in relation to social protection and/or revolving around food security and/or nutrition and/or emergency responses or with national or local government:

• Worked with government agencies with experience across the policy cycle
• Experience working across the policy and programme cycle management.
• Experience managing substantial components of a complex programme.
• Has experience leading a substantive team.
• Has taken leadership in implementing humanitarian or developmental projects.

Knowledge & Skills:

Understanding of Agenda SDG 2030 and respective targets – particularly SDG1, SDG2 and SDG17 - and how the work of WFP can contribute to achieving them.

Understanding of WFP’s mandate, Country Strategic Planning process, intervention modalities, programme and project lifecycle tools, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation desirable.

Knowledge of the WFP Strategy for Support to Social Protection – 2021.

Knowledge of current thinking and developments in the field of social protection and public policy.

Knowledge of current thinking in country capacity strengthening and effective knowledge transfer models, concepts, and principles.

Aptitude for supervising, guiding and empowering staff.

Ability to develop and maintain relationships with a variety of stakeholders, conveying an informed and professional demeanour toward partners.

Learning and teaching agility, and appetite for exploring and experimenting with new ideas and approaches.

Demonstrated ability to produce high-quality written outputs and ability to present in English and the working language.

Languages:

International Professional: Fluency (level C) in English language. Intermediate knowledge (level B) of a second official UN language is an asset: Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian, Spanish, and/or WFP’s working language, Portuguese.

WFP LEADERSHIP FRAMEWORK

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

Click here to access WFP Leadership Framework

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.