DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS

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).

BACKGROUND:

The United Nations World Food Programme is the world's largest humanitarian agency fighting hunger worldwide. The mission of WFP is to help the world achieve Zero Hunger (SDG 2). 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. WFP has been present in Sri Lanka since 1968 and helped the country in emergency response, protracted recovery interventions and development work. The scope remains for progress in strengthening food security and nutrition given Sri Lanka’s continued status on nutrition, especially high wasting levels, addressing micronutrient deficiencies realizing gender equality, and eliminating geographic and socio-economic disparities.

The WFP country strategic plan for 2023–2027 seeks to provide protective food assistance and other support as required in the short term and to restore and improve food security and nutrition by developing in-country capacity and reducing vulnerability through an integrated social protection and nutrition-specific and sensitive approach that layers and sequences programming. This aims to improve food security and nutrition by empowering vulnerable communities and individuals to cope with shocks, diversify livelihood and strengthen government capacity through technical support to ensure that gender-informed risk- sensitive planning is integrated into public investment policies and local development initiatives, redressing structural and socio-cultural inequalities.

School meals are a sound investment in a nation’s human capital development; by feeding the potential of future generations, the School Meal Programme contributes towards children’s learning and health and increases their productive potential later in life. The government of Sri Lanka has been conducting the National School Meal Programme (NSMP) since 1931, providing children with the nourishment needed to learn and grow. The meals also help address high rates of malnutrition among children. Under the current school meal modality, delivers daily meals to nearly 1.5 million students in grades 1-5.

In Sri Lanka, WFP is providing leading technical support to the capacity strengthening of the NSM programme and also WFP, jointly with the government, developed country specific home- grown school feeding model in which provides locally source food items to the SMP.

JOB PURPOSE:

The Consultant will provide technical and coordination support to strengthen the work related to national school meal programme and Home grown school feeding programme specially to carry out the identified special tasks in coordination with the Programme Policy Officer (Nutrition), World Food Programme. The role will focus on the tasks of supporting the completion of the studies, system strengthening, and enhancing policy and operational guidance and linkages with government and other key stakeholders.

ACCOUNTABILITIES/RESPONSIBILITIES:

Knowledge Management and Learning

• Document good practices, lessons learned, and success stories from programme implementation.

Contribute to the development of knowledge products and dissemination materials.

Deliverables

Continued support to the Completion of Value for Money Study with dissemination

• Identifying the gaps in the data collection by discussing with the Consultants and supporting to  fill the gaps
• Ensure the availability of the compiled  clean set of collected data along with the Consultants 
• Availability of the plan for the report writing discussing with the Consultants and stakeholders 
• Plan for the review by the stakeholders and Consultants and approval  for the document  
• Internal review of the second draft of the report
• External Reviewing the report
• Meeting to finalize the report
• Plan for dissemination consulting with the assigned consultants 
• Organizing and supporting to conduct dissemination meeting

Fortified rice Distribution monitoring and support 

• Monitoring the distribution and guiding the payment recovery process

Support to Clean Energy for School Meal Programme implementation

• Identifying the schools in the selected districts
• Field observations
• Discussions with the officers
• Facilitate the submission of the estimates and financial requests

Supporting the ongoing work including attending internal meetings , discussions on partnerships, programmatic decisions transitioning planning and proposal development inputs with WFP internal staff

• Meetings and discussions , documentation and reporting

QUALIFICATIONS & EXPERIENCE REQUIRED:
Education:
Advanced University degree (Masters) in Education, Nutrition/Health, Agriculture, Environmental Science, Social Sciences or other field relevant to international development assistance, or with additional years of related work experience and/or trainings/courses.

Experience:
Minimum of eight years of relevant professional experience at a national or an international organizational experience in school health and nutrition or school feeding related projects
Strong experience in working with the higher-level officers of the Government agencies of Sri Lanka and with wide range of other partners
Experience in working with WFP or other UN agencies would be an advantage.

Languages:

Fluency in English language and working knowledge of Sinhala and/or Tamil

Position Title: Programme Policy Officer - School Based Programme (WAE)

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 recruitment system. We do not accept CVs or spontaneous applications by email.

• If you experience challenges while submitting your online application, please contact us at global.hrerecruitment@wfp.org for technical support only.

• Please note that applications sent to this email address cannot be considered.

• We strongly recommend that your profile is accurate, complete, and includes your employment records, academic qualifications, language skills and UN Grade (if applicable).

• Once your profile is completed, please apply, and submit your application.

• Kindly note the only documents you will need to submit at this time are your CV and Cover Letter

• Additional documents such as passport, recommendation letters, academic certificates, etc. may potentially be requested at a future time

• Only shortlisted candidates will be notified

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.