Programme Policy Officer - School Feeding Transition, NOA

Vacancy Announcement

.

WFP encourages female candidates and people with disabilities to apply.

WFP seeks candidates of the highest integrity and professionalism who share our humanitarian principles. Selection of staff is made on a competitive basis. We are committed to promoting diversity and the principle of equal employment opportunity for all our employees and encourages qualified candidates to apply irrespective of religion or belief, ethnic or social background, gender, gender identity and disability.

TERMS AND CONDITIONS

WFP offers a competitive benefits package including salary, pension, leave plus a medical insurance.

Job Title: Programme Policy Officer - School Feeding Transition

Grade: NO-A

Type of contract: fixed term appointment

Duration: one year (renewable)

Duty Station: Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Vacancy Number: One

Date of Publication: 18 October 2023

Deadline of Application: 31 October 2023

This vacancy announcement is for Nationals from Cambodia Only.

JOB PURPOSE

Central to its Cambodia programme, WFP has been working with the Royal Government of Cambodia (RGC) to implement school feeding since 1999 through the provision of hot-served, nutritious meals in schools and cash/food scholarships to vulnerable primary and pre-school children. From 1999 to 2022, this social assistance programme has benefited over two million school children with much work already done to transition school feeding to a nationally managed and funded programme. The programme currently reaches over 300,000 children in Cambodia and has an increasing focus on supporting the scale up of the government’s school feeding programme.

WFP is seeking to recruit a dynamic and experienced National Programme Policy Officer – School Feeding Transition to support the process of development of the National Home-Grown School Feeding Programme (NHGSFP). A key focus of the role will be to ensure that systems, processes and guidelines are in place to enable national and sub-national stakeholders to guide, implement, manage and monitor school feeding in Cambodia.

This position reports to the School Feeding Policy Officer (Operations). This position will be based in the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports (MoEYS) as part of WFP’s school feeding team whilst working closely with government counterparts.

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES (not all-inclusive)

1. Contribute towards the development of a wide variety of projects, plans and processes, ensuring alignment with both national policies and strategies, and WFP corporate and regional programme policies, strategies and guidance.
2. Provide project management support to specific and defined programmes and projects of considerable size/complexity, ensuring a coordinated approach with wider programmes that complies with WFP standards and procedures.
3. Develop and coordinate data gathering and monitoring systems ensuring that rigorous quality standards are maintained.
4. Research and analyse a range of policy and operational issues to inform the development of policies, programmes and activities.
5. Contribute to the preparation of accurate and timely reporting on programmes and activities that enable informed decision making and consistency of information presented to stakeholders.
6. Liaise with internal and external counterparts to ensure effective collaboration, monitor ongoing projects and highlight potential risks to project delivery.
7. Support the identification, development and management of potential partnerships to collaborative working leading to improved food assistance packages.

SPECIFIC POST REQUIREMENTS

• Support strengthening the NHGSFP with a focus on the design, management system and implementation to ensure efficiency, consistency, and alignment with social assistance, education and health and nutrition objectives.
• Support the development and roll out of a capacity strengthening strategy for the NHGSFP, including capacity strengthening mechanisms (training, meeting, workshop, study visit, etc.), tools and a monitoring and evaluation framework linked to all school-based food and nutrition programmes.
• Support the MoEYS and relevant key stakeholders to operationalize the school meals sub-decree and policies, including support on the development of inter-ministerial PRAKAS, PRAKAS, update the NHGSFP operational guidelines, update school meals policies action plan and set up a cross sector coordination mechanism at both national and sub-national levels.
• Work with relevant institutions to operationalise the national school feeding transition strategy and continue to work with relevant stakeholders to identify capacity gaps and opportunities and lead capacity assessments and plans to address these programmes.
• Coordinate collaboration with government partners, including various departments within MoEYS, relevant ministries, WFP, development partners (DPs) and other key stakeholders to establish and enhance national school feeding coordination and management structures, lessons learnt from national programme implementation, and the emerging roles and responsibilities of various actors in the social assistance environment.

• Contribute to research and evidence generation initiatives linked to capacity strengthening. Additionally, facilitate discussions within WFP and with the Government on action needed based on this evidence, and subsequently to national capacity strengthening priorities.

• Contribute to building and maintaining relationships with external partners including government, UN, NGOs and other DPs in support of programme strategy, implementation, enhanced coordination and resource mobilization.

• Support and promote representation in relevant events on school-based programme themes, ensuring that the school feeding programmes, policies and frameworks are well elaborated and represented.
• Support in documentation lessons learnt from transition processes and NHGSFP life cycle, prepare relevant reports, facilitate internal and external discussions on lessons learnt on capacity strengthening and proactively propose actions to programme adjustments based on this learning.
• Ensure inclusion of gender, protection, accountability for affected population, and consideration for people with disabilities are considered throughout all areas of work under the post, as relevant.
• Other as required.

STANDARD MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS

Education: Advanced University degree in International Affairs, Economics, Public Administration, Nutrition/Health, Agriculture, Environmental Science, Social Sciences or another field relevant to international development assistance, or First University Degree with additional years of related work experience and/or trainings/courses.

DESIRED EXPERIENCES FOR ENTRY INTO THE ROLE:

• At least two (2) year of postgraduate professional experience with bachelor’s degree or one (1) year with master’s degree in international Affairs, Economics, Nutrition/Health, Agriculture, Environmental Science, Social Sciences or other field relevant to international development assistance.
• Demonstrated knowledge and experience of project management, including design, planning, implementation, monitoring and reporting processes and procedures gained through technical training and/or work experiences.
• Sound solid understanding of development processes and implementing programmes related to food security and nutrition, education and/or social protection and women’s empowerment.
• Demonstrated experience in writing reports, project proposals and other related documents for internal and external audiences.
• Experience in conducting trainings and coaching teams.
• Has engaged in strategic programme/policy processes to inform programme design and implementation.
• Experience in monitoring and evaluation and learning systems, tools and processes.
• Has experience working with different types of stakeholders (government, UN, research bodies, external experts) at national and sub-national level.
• Has provided inputs into policy discussions and decisions.
• Experience utilizing computers, including Microsoft Office package (e.g. Word, Excel) and other standard software packages and systems.

KEY COMPETENCIES

Programme Lifecycle & Food Assistance: Demonstrates ability to identify key variables and contextual factors that affect food assistance problems and programmes throughout the lifecycle to inform quality programme design or re-design.

Transfer Modalities (Food, Cash, Voucher): Demonstrates ability to analyse and consolidate quantitative and qualitative information from different sources (e.g., market studies) to inform transfer modality selection and programme development.

Broad Knowledge of Specialized Areas (Nutrition): Demonstrates the ability to interpret basic data in the context of WFP specialised fields to contribute to technical programme design, implementation and monitoring.

Emergency Programming: Displays capacity to provide inputs into the development, implementation and realignment of high quality emergency programmes.

Strategic Policy Engagement w/Government: Develops thorough recommendations using multiple inputs (e.g., government counsel, research, own experience) to strengthen national or subnational entities and government owned food and nutrition security programmes.

Language: Fluency (level C) in English language and Khmer.

All WFP Employees are expected to demonstrate the competencies and standards of behavior aligned with our core values and defined in the WFP LEADERSHIP FRAMEWORK, namely:

1. Leading by example with integrity,
2. Driving results and delivering on commitments,
3. Fostering inclusive and collaborative teamwork,
4. Applying strategic thinking,
5. Building and maintaining sustainable partnerships.

HOW TO APPLY

To be considered, interested candidates are invited to apply via (https://www.wfp.org/careers/job-openings). Only short-listed candidates will be contacted.

Request for Disability related Reasonable Accommodations:

It is important to WFP to create an accessible and inclusive workplace for everyone. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable qualified individuals with disabilities to perform essential job functions.

WFP is committed to an accessible, inclusive recruitment process. Please contact us at [email protected] to advise us of any disability related reasonable accommodation or accessibility requests you may have. A member of the reasonable accommodation team will contact you to confidentially discuss your needs.

This email is only to be used for any disability related accessibility requirements and not for sending the application itself. Due to the volume of applications, any applications or CVs sent through this email address will not be considered a formal application and will not receive a reply from WFP.

ABOUT WFP

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is the world’s largest humanitarian organization, humanitarian agency fighting hunger worldwide. The mission of WFP is to help the world achieve Zero Hunger in our lifetimes. Every day, WFP works worldwide to ensure that no child goes to bed hungry and that the poorest and most vulnerable, particularly women and children, can access the nutritious food they need.

ORGANIZATIONAL CONTEXT

WFP’s mission is to help the world achieve Zero Hunger by 2030 as per the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 2. It works to ensure that the poorest and most vulnerable, particularly women and children, can access the nutritious food they need.

Under its current Country Strategic Plan (CSP) 2019-23, the World Food Programme (WFP) in Cambodia supports national efforts to achieve the Cambodian Sustainable Development Goals by 2023, especially Zero Hunger (Goal #2) and Partnerships for the Achievement of the Goals (SDG #17). In that, WFP focuses its work on three pillars: food security and nutrition, social protection, and climate change adaptation. In line with increasing government capacities, WFP is increasingly shifting from an implementer of programmes to an enabling role, i.e., an advisor to relevant government counterparts working in the food system, nutrition, social protection and disaster management space. Starting in 2024, WFP will shift to a new CSP (2024-28), which is structured along two broad priorities: human capital development with a focus on nutrition and social protection, and systems strengthening with a focus on the national food systems and the disaster risk management system. All of WFP’s activities are underpinned by strong evidence generation efforts to effectively establish needs, advocate for certain programmes or policies, and demonstrate the effects of assistance programmes. In addition, evidence and knowledge generation is becoming an important offering by WFP to its national counterparts.

WFP is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce. WFP has zero tolerance for sexual exploitation and abuse, any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment, abuse of authority or discrimination. 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.