Programme Policy Officer

Volunteering Crisis & Emergency Response Programme & Policy

Overview

Support school meals and ACL programmes in Myanmar.

You have:

• Minimum 3 years of experience in managing humanitarian and development projects.
• Excellent verbal and written English language and communication skills.
• Proficiency in Windows MS Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook).
• Willingness to work in an unpredictable and high intensity humanitarian environment.
• Behavioural competencies: leads by example, drives results, fosters teamwork, applies strategic thinking, builds sustainable partnerships.

Contract

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WFP delivers lifesaving assistance to vulnerable populations across Myanmar while strengthening their resilience through nutrition support, school meal, and asset creation and livelihoods interventions. WFP operates with more than 200 staff across seven offices nationwide.

WFP’s school meal programme in Myanmar supports more than 200,000 pre-school and primary school children across the country. Due to the political instabilities in 2021-22, our school meal programme needed to adopt a more flexible approach with two main modalities: where schools are functioning, school snacks are delivered online, or school meals can be prepared onsite. In communities affected by conflict, where the schools have closed, WFP implements a humanitarian, community-based distribution whereby voluntary school meal committees prepare a nutritious \ school lunch to address the socio-economic hardship and to ensure continuation of education even during conflict.

WFP’s asset creation and livelihoods (ACL) programme empowers marginalised, shock-affected food-insecure populations to invest in their livelihoods and communities by rehabilitating or creating community assets and infrastructure. In 2025, WFP reached more than 350,000 people across the country, through more than 900 short-term microprojects. Livelihood support to smallholder farmers and conflict-affected people remains central to WFP’s approach. projects range from sustainable, climate-smart agricultural practices through terrace land development, improved water and irrigation management, rural farm road rehabilitation, and the establishment of home gardens. Looking forward, WFP will be enhancing a component that aims to stimulate household income and family livelihoods improvements to strengthen their capacity to withstand shocks, In this context, the WFP Country Office in Myanmar is looking for an UNV programme policy officer to support the school meals and ACL programmes in Myanmar with a focus on the following key areas: 1) Support the Country Office in the ongoing implementation and operation of the school meal and ACL programme from robust management mechanism of the resources. 2) Retain and enhance the donor relations and fundraising for the programme and contribute to enhanced operational partnerships among education, livelihoods and food security stakeholders. 3) Support the Country Office in designing and implementing the programme interventions for the 2027 to 2029 period

Under the direct supervision of the Head of Programme, the UN Volunteer will undertake the following tasks:

Operational Support:

• Provide technical and operational support to the Country Office (CO) and Area Offices (AOs) for the effective implementation of the school meal programme and the ACL programme across Myanmar. • Support timely monitoring and analysis of programme performance, including tracking fund utilization, commodity and cash delivery, and beneficiary reach to ensure align-ment with workplans and donor commitments. • Strengthen the capacity of Area Office teams to manage Field Level Agreements (FLAs), the contract between WFP and partnering NGO, with cooperating partners, ensuring compliance with WFP policies, guidelines, and quality standards. • Provide guidance to AOs on the adoption and rollout of new approaches within school meal and ACL, including community engagement practices, resilience‑building methodologies, and programme integration approaches. • Facilitate troubleshooting of operational bottlenecks and contribute to improving efficiency, accountability, and programme quality.

Reporting/Information Management:

• Design, establish, and maintain a comprehensive tracking mechanism that enables the CO to regularly monitor planned versus actual achievements related to financial expenditure, beneficiary number and management, commodity stock and pipeline flows. • Support the production of briefs, dashboards, situation reports, and programme updates for internal and external stakeholders.

Partnerships: • Engage with key stakeholders, including but not limited to UNICEF, UNESCO, UNDP, World Bank, FAO, ICRC, UNOPS, UNODC, local and international NGOs and Private sector actors, to enhance collaboration, identify operational synergies, and support coordinated delivery of services to vulnerable communities. • Act as WFP focal point for strengthening partnerships with Japanese entities, including JICA, the Embassy of Japan, Japan‑funded development initiatives, and Japanese private sector organizations, with the aim of enhancing programmatic collaboration and complementary investments. • Support the CO in mapping, analysing, and expanding partnership opportunities that contribute to improved programme outcomes and sustainability.

Resource Mobilization: • Contribute to WFP Myanmar’s resource mobilization efforts by identifying new funding opportunities, preparing inputs for concept notes and proposals, and supporting donor engagement processes. • Provide programme data, analysis, and narratives required for the development of donor communications, briefing materials, and advocacy products.

Programme Management: • Work closely with the Head of Programme and relevant units to support the strategic planning, simplification, and visualization of WFP Myanmar’s programme portfolio. • Contribute to internal processes and review of completed projects aimed at improving programme coherence, integration, and adaptive management across activity areas.

Furthermore, UN Volunteers are required to: • Strengthen their knowledge and understanding of the concept of volunteerism by reading relevant UNV and external publications and take active part in UNV activities (for in-stance in events that mark International Volunteer Day); • Be acquainted with and build on traditional and/or local forms of volunteerism in the host country; • Reflect on the type and quality of voluntary action that they are undertaking, including participation in ongoing reflection activities; • Contribute articles/write-ups on field experiences and submit them for UNV publications/websites, newsletters, press releases, etc.; • Assist with the UNV Buddy Programme for newly arrived UN Volunteers; • Promote or advise local groups in the use of online volunteering or encourage relevant local individuals and organizations to use the UNV Online Volunteering service whenever technically possible.

Accountability, Adaptability and Flexibility, Commitment and Motivation, Creativity, Ethics and Values, Integrity, Leadership, Planning and Organizing, Professionalism, Self-Management.

Minimum experience: 3 years in following working experience in exposure to the international environment either by direct work for an international institution/organization or by interacting with international stakeholders. Field of experiences in managing humanitarian and development projects in developing country contexts, collaborating with a diverse range of stakeholders, including NGOs, UN agencies, and development partners, engaging closely with local communities, including schoolteachers, caregivers, and community representatives. Skills and experience description

• Willingness and appetite to work in an unpredictable and high intensity humanitarian environment

• Excellent verbal and written English language and communication skills

• Proficiency in Windows MS Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook)

• Behavioural competencies: leads by example with integrity, drives results and delivers on commitments, fosters inclusive and collaborative teamwork, applies strategic thinking, builds and maintains sustainable partnerships

Housing Most of the international staffs working for WFP Nay Pyi Taw office are staying at the Mount Pleasant Hotel, Ottrathiri, Nay Pyi Taw. UNV can be used with the option of one bedroom without kitchen, one bedroom with kitchen, two bed-room with kitchen. All the rooms are fully furnished with accessible internet and 24 hours electricity. The hotel also offers free shuttle to office 8:30 in the morning and 17:00 in the afternoon. the monthly average price is about 2,500,000 – 4,200,000 MMK, which is equivalent to USD 630- 1,050.

Cost of Living This totally depends on how UNV would like to spend his cost of living. As an example. Cost of food in Nay Pyi Taw is around USD 100-200 per months, gymnastic costs around USD 120, car rent fee is around USD 200-250. Wifi, Sim-card costs around USD 3-10. Private healthcare, often chosen for better quality, is substantially higher. A cataract surgery in a private clinic in Yangon can cost around 1 million MMK (approx. USD 300). The free shuttle bus to the office will be offered at the Mount Pleasant hotel.

Security and Safety WFP aligns its security policies with the United Nations Department of Safety and Security (UNDSS). The UNV is required to obtain security clearance for every mission or travel, including private trips. WFP Myanmar maintains in‑house security officers who provide guidance on travel and missions, advise on risk mitigation, and support evacuation procedures when necessary. WFP conduct heads-count exercise on a weekly basis and conduct evacuation drill on a regular basis. Regular security situation reports can be accessed at the links below. Travel Advisory

You can check full entitlements at the duty station at https://app.unv.org/calculator. The complete UN Volunteer Conditions of Service is available at https://explore.unv.org/cos.

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Potential interview questions

Added 28 days ago - Updated 2 hours ago - Source: unv.org