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Programming Policy Officer - School Meals (International Consultant), Bangkok, Thailand

Bangkok

  • Organization: WFP - World Food Programme
  • Location: Bangkok
  • Grade: Consultancy - International Consultant - Internationally recruited Contractors Agreement
  • Occupational Groups:
    • Political Affairs
    • Legal - Broad
    • Education, Learning and Training
    • Information Technology and Computer Science
    • Children's rights (health and protection)
  • Closing Date: Closed

 

TERMS AND CONDITIONS

Organization Name: The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP)

Duty Station: WFP Regional Bureau for Asia and the Pacific (RBB), Bangkok, Thailand

Position Tite: Programming Policy Officer (School Meals)

Duration of Assignment: To start as soon as possible until 31 December 2018 (with possibility of extension)

Type of Contract:  International Consultancy

ABOUT WFP

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 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.

BACKGROUND

WFP is well known for its ability to deliver food assistance rapidly to people in need. In order to continue responding effectively to challenging contexts while also contributing to longer-term efforts to end hunger, WFP is in the process of reshaping its engagement and support to national safety nets and social protection systems, so as to help host governments with their hunger-fighting strategies.

In 2014, an estimated 1.9 billion individuals participated from social safety nets globally; of the 14 million planned beneficiaries for WFP in the Asia and Pacific region, 2.4 million are school feeding beneficiaries, spread across 10 of the 14 countries where WFP operates. School feeding continues to be an important programmatic tool in the WFP portfolio, as hunger and malnutrition remain major factors in the rapidly developing region. In many of the countries in this region, school feeding and school meal programmes are also an integral part of the social protection/social safety nets programmes of the national governments.

Organizationally, the WFP Revised School Feeding Policy (2013) continues to advocate for the universal adoption of school feeding programmes that help increase children’s access to learning opportunities and improve their health and nutrition status. For this WFP has established a School Feeding Division and is increasingly focused on helping countries to establish and maintain nationally owned programmes, working on putting in place clear transition strategies, including engaging in policy dialogue and providing technical assistance, using its own experience and that of individual countries through sub-regional networks (South Asia and Southeast), the WFP Centres for Excellence, and other South–South initiatives.

REGIONAL CONTEXT

The Regional Bureau for Asia and the Pacific (RBB) provides strategic guidance, technical support and direction to WFP country operations in the region. As Asia Pacific region continues its dynamic transformation, WFP is assessing its relevance and strongly positioning its role in the region. This is imperative not only due to the transition of many countries to Lower Middle/Middle Income status in the Asia Pacific region, but also because of the recurring and increasing ferocity of natural disasters. Against this background, the emerging post-2015 sustainable development agenda and other global frameworks at play call for a shared vision and common goals, with partnerships taking centre stage to support implementation at the national level as well as ensuring that resources for achieving Sustainable Development Goals are optimally used to achieve high impact results.

The Regional Bureau in Bangkok (RBB) is looking to reshape and/or expand its support for nutrition-sensitive school feeding/school meals programme, including working in partnership to promote home grown school feeding and contributing to the educational outcomes and addressing through school meals programmes short-term food security in the immediate aftermath of emergencies. This position is intended to ensure dedicated expertise in the Regional Bureau on school feeding/school meals with a view to strengthen support to country offices in the region, as well as the integration of the work of relevant technical teams in the Bureau on school feeding, nutrition and cash based transfers. Further, in the context of the implementation of the Integrated Road Map (IRM) for the region, this position will support the country offices with the relevant analytics to make the shift towards low cost high impact sustainable hunger-smart and nutrition-sensitive solutions to achieve food security and educational goals of the SDGs.

SPECIFIC TERMS OF REFERENCE

Under the direct supervision of the Regional Programme Policy Advisor, the main responsibilities of the Programming Policy Officer (School Meals) will include:

Technical Support & Programme Input

  • Provide advice to WFP country offices (CO) in the Asia region and mobilize technical expertise in programme design, development and troubleshooting of school meals programmes (targeting, nutrition-sensitive, HGSM, etc.), as well as in strategic engagement with and capacity development of host governments for school feeding implementation. This can include assessments (SABER, ABDN-SF), fund proposals, strategy development, and review of critical programme design documents, including drafting and finalization of Country Strategic Reviews (CSRs) and Country Strategic Plans (CSPs).
  • Lead the formulation of a regional school feeding strategy that addresses the unique aspects and challenges of school feeding programmes in LMIC/MIC countries in Asia and articulates the role of the Regional Bureau to support WFP school meals implementation and capacity strengthening for national school meals programmes.
  • Lead the development of effective partnerships at the regional and country level with key partners, such as USDA, USAID, World Bank, UNICEF, and FAO, to enhance WFP’s ability to effectively contribute to strengthening national school feeding programmes in the region.
  • Coordinate and where relevant, lead, CO-level proposal development, programme implementation, evaluations, and reporting requirements from donors, in particular, the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service for McGovern-Dole programmes.
  • Coordinate activities, partnerships, and initiatives with OSZIS unit in HQ to actively contribute to corporate school feeding agenda from the RBB perspective including country case studies and global survey data for State of School Feeding Worldwide 2018. Liaise and provide necessary support to communicate requests and information between OSZIS and COs.

Capacity Development and Knowledge Management

  • Stay up-to-date and inform Country Offices of new and existing information on WFP’s School Meals Policy and key research and information on school meals programmes produced by major partners, such as the World Bank, USAID, INGOs, and other UN partner agencies (UNICEF, UNESCO, FAO).
  • Research, collect and consolidate lessons learned and best practices from Asia region WFP school meals programmes for knowledge management and sharing. Work with COs to produce and share evidence-based input on School Meals programme implementation, to include targeting, HGSM, and McGovern-Dole activities.
  • Contribute to the operational research on school feeding capacity development in a number of County Offices to develop improved school feeding models operated by national governments.
  • Manage research partnerships and opportunities on innovative approaches and practices in school feeding that focuses on challenging issues such as early childhood development, retention, secondary school continuation, and out-of-school children with competing labour demands.
  • Motivate the regional team of CO-based school feeding focal points to enable high performance.
  • Ensure satisfactorily any additional duties, as required by his/her supervisor.

QUALIFICATIONS & EXPERIENCE REQUIRED:

Minimal qualifications:

  • Education: Advanced University degree (Master's degree or higher) in International Affairs, Economics, Nutrition/Health, Agriculture, Environmental Science, Social Sciences or other field relevant to international development assistance, or First University Degree (Bachelor's degree) with additional years of related work experience and/or trainings/courses.
  • Language: Fluency in English language.
  • Working experience: At least six years in international humanitarian and/or development assistance.

Desired Experience:

The ideal candidate has:

  • Experience in school feeding programmes;
  • Experience in one or more other areas of WFP’s programme portfolio, preferably in WFP Headquarter (HQ) as well as Country Offices;
  • Engaged in programme policy discussions and programme design;
  • Experience in working with partnership issues.

DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS

Sunday, 27 May 2018 (Midnight Thailand time)

Only short-listed candidates will be contacted

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WFP seeks candidates of the highest integrity and professionalism who share our humanitarian principles.

Selection of staff is made on a competitive basis, and we are committed to promoting diversity and gender balance.

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Female applicants and qualified applicants from developing countries are especially encouraged to apply

WFP has zero tolerance for discrimination and does not discriminate on the basis of HIV/AIDS status.

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.

 
This vacancy is now closed.
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