Programme Policy Officer (Gender, Protection & Inclusion Community Engagement) SSAP L9

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).

ABOUT WFP

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is the world’s largest humanitarian agency working to end global hunger. In Nigeria, WFP has been providing life-saving food and nutrition assistance to internally displaced persons (IDPs) and vulnerable host communities across Borno, Adamawa, and Yobe (BAY) States since 2016. Assistance is delivered through both in kind food distributions and cash based transfers (CBT), including e vouchers, enabling crisis affected households to meet their essential food and nutrition needs with dignity, flexibility, and choice. Beyond emergency response WFP is also advancing medium to long term resilience programming through integrated interventions that combine food assistance with livelihood recovery, environmental adaptation, and social cohesion support. These interventions often include agricultural asset creation, land rehabilitation, community-based water management, skills development for women and youth, and the promotion of climate smart agriculture to improve productivity in fragile ecosystems.
WFP work in both Northeast and Northwest is grounded in strong commitment to Accountability to Affected People, ensuring that people receiving assistance have meaningful opportunities to participate in decision that affect their lives. WFP promotes inclusive community engagement by facilitating accessible feedback and complaint mechanisms, strengthening two-way communication channels, and ensuring that programme design and implementation reflect the diverse needs, preferences, and protection concerns of women, men, girls, boys, persons with disabilities, and marginalized groups.

ORGANIZATIONAL CONTEXT

The Nigeria Country office is entry a pivotal period of strategic realignment. 2026 operational priorities emphasizing hyper-prioritization of food assistance for the most vulnerable, strengthen resilience pathways enhanced government ownership, improved quality programming, and deeper localization. Central to achieving this is a strong, coherent and context-driven Community Engagement (CE) approach that places the affected population at the centre of decision making toward food and nutrition security. WFP Community Engagement for Accountability to Affected People Action Guidance (2023) outlines the organizational expectation that Country offices develop structured CE Action Plans that ensure inclusion, two-way communication, and systematic use of community feedback to shape programme decisions. Simultaneously, the global Strategic Plan (2026- 2029) calls for “doing better with less,” prioritizing quality, accountability, and strengthened national systems while ensuring that WFP work is people-centered, conflict sensitive and advance equality. Likewise, the Integrated (2025) assessment highlights risks related to exclusion, gender norms, targeting bias, community tension, Sexual Exploitation, fraud, and market effects, all which underscore the need for a robust, evidence-based CE approach that integrates gender equality, protection and conflict sensitivity. Against this backdrop, WFP Nigeria seeks an experienced consultant to lead a comprehensive community engagement assessment and develop.
The consultant will report to the Head of Programme, with technical oversight from the Gender and Protection unit in close coordination with other units, including the Research Assessment and Monitoring Team, Communication, and Partnership NGO.

OBJECTIVE

The objective is to conduct a comprehensive Community Engagement Assessment that maps community structures, information flows, participation barriers, gender and power dynamics, and related risks across WFP intervention areas, generating the evidence base needed to develop the Community Engagement Action Plan, the Community Communication Strategy, and the Community Gender Norm Dialogue Manual.

SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES
•Community Engagement Assessment: The consultant will lead a focused assessment that involves, review WFP current sensitization messages, communication channels, mapping on how communities are structured, who hold influence, examine how information currently flows, barriers and communication channels messages that community members trust. The assessment will look closely at risks tied to exclusion, gender norms, conflict dynamics and power relations while reviewing how WFP and partners currently approach CE, AAP, CFM and gender with clear recommendations that strengthen community engagement.
•Community Engagement Action Plan: Building on the assessment, the consultant will develop a practical CE Action Plan tailored to WFP Nigeria operation. The plan will define the CE objectives, expected outcomes, and indicators and outline action along the CE spectrum, from informing, to empowering communities. The CE action plan will be in line with WFP CO activities around IT SCOPE, General food distribution, nutrition, livelihood, gender and protection and inclusion, Research, Assessment and Monitoring, Identity management and articulate roles, responsibilities, and timelines.
•Community Communication Strategy: The consultant will design a communication strategy that strengthens communication with affected population. This includes identifying the right mix of communication channels, community engagement messages on programming, including targeting, entitlements, programme changes, rights while ensuring communities know how to use the CFM and receive timely feedback. The strategy will also address misinformation, gatekeeping and local power dynamics to ensure communication is clear, inclusive and trusted.
•Community Gender Dialogue Manual: Finally, the consultant will develop a practical manual to guide community-level dialogues. The manual will offer structured sessions that help communities reflect on and address harmful gender norms affecting food and nutrition security. The manual will promote shared household decision-making, integrate conflict-sensitive and protection-aware approaches, and provide facilitation tools that WFP, cooperating partners, and community structures can use confidently and consistently.

METHODOLOGY
The consultant will use mixed methods, participatory approach that brings together desk review, field engagement, and collaborative analysis. The process entails a structured review of existing evidence including the I‑CARA, CE Guidance, CO priorities, and current AAP/CFM practices to establish a baseline understanding of community dynamics and operational realities. This will be followed by field‑level consultations using FGDs, KIIs, community mapping, and observation to capture diverse perspectives across gender, age, disability, displacement status. Stakeholder engagement with government, cooperating partners, organizations of persons with disabilities (OPDs), and community structures will ensure triangulation and validation of findings. Throughout the assignment, the consultant will work closely with Programme, GPI, and RAM to co‑develop practical, context‑appropriate tools and plans that reflect community priorities and operational constraints. The methodology is designed to be inclusive, conflict‑sensitive, and grounded in lived experience.

SCOPE OF WORK
The consultancy will cover WFP’s key intervention locations across Borno, Yobe, Sokoto, Adamawa, Sokoto with primary focus on communities where WFP is implementing General Food Assistance, Resilience and Livelihood activities. The consultant will conduct a comprehensive community engagement assessment and develop the CE Action Plan, communication strategy, and gender dialogue manual through a combination of desk review including the review of existing messages, policies, and field consultations through focus group discussion, key informant interview, and community.

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES (not all-inclusive, within delegated authority):

• Assess community structures, information flows, participation barriers, gender norms, and conflict dynamics across WFP intervention areas.
• Identify risks and opportunities for strengthening CE, localization, and government engagement.
• Develop a practical, context‑appropriate Community Engagement Action Plan aligned with corporate CE guidance and CO 2026 priorities.
• Produce a Community Communication Strategy that strengthens two‑way communication, improves CFM visibility, and addresses misinformation and gatekeeping.
• Develop a Community Gender Dialogue Manual with structured sessions and facilitation tools to address harmful gender norms and promote shared decision‑making in food and nutrition security.
• Facilitate validation sessions with WFP, partners, and community representatives before finalizing deliverables

QUALIFICATIONS & EXPERIENCE REQUIRED:

Education:

Advanced university degree in Social/Behavioral Sciences, Communications, Community Development, Social Work, Humanitarian Studies, or related field.

Experience:

• Minimum 8–10 years in community engagement, gender equality or social behavioral change
• Demonstrated experience in food security, nutrition, or humanitarian programming
• Strong understanding of conflict sensitivity and protection principles
• Experience developing and implementing assessment and research, participatory approaches, community engagement, inclusive communication frameworks or gender guides and manuals.
• Familiarity with WFP or UN is preferred
• Experience working in Northeast Nigeria or similar complex humanitarian settings is an asset.

Skills & Competencies:

Good facilitation skills, strong interpersonal and communication skills, ability to engage sensitively with diverse communities, demonstrated gender and protection expertise, ability to translate complex analysis into practical tools, high cultural and political awareness. Excellent writing and communication skills; ability to localize IEC materials in multiple languages. Data literacy for feedback analysis and dashboard reporting. High ethical standards and ability to operate in insecure environments.

Languages:              English, Hausa and Kanuri (highly desirable)

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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.