Programme Policy Officer – School Feeding – Country Capacity Strengthening, NOB

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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.

This post is open to Cambodian Nationality only

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 AND PURPOSE OF ASSIGNMENT:

Central to its Cambodia programme, WFP has been working with the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport (MoEYS) to implement school feeding since 1999 through the provision of hot, nutritious meals in schools and cash/food scholarships to vulnerable primary and pre-primary 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. School feeding currently reaches 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 Capacity Strengthening to play a key role in supporting transition to a national School Meals Programme. This position will be based between WFP’s Country Office and the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport (MoEYS) as part of WFP’s school feeding team whilst working closely with government counterparts.

ORGANIZATIONAL CONTEXT

WFP’s mission is to help the world achieve Zero Hunger by 2030 as per 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.

Through the Country Strategic Plan 2019-23 (CSP), WFP Cambodia is contributing to achieving Zero Hunger through a combination of direct implementation and systems capacity strengthening at national and sub-national levels. Through the CSP, WFP promotes access to nutritious diets through home grown school feeding and improving climate smart food production and transformation capacities of small holder farming communities, whilst strengthening standards and guidelines for food transformation to satisfy the increasing demand for nutritious processed and convenient foods. WFP supports national and subnational disaster and climate change risk management and the national strategic direction and coordination on food security, nutrition and social protection through enhanced information systems, knowledge management, and public-private and south-south partnerships. WFP also responds to the acute food security and early recovery needs of vulnerable women, men, girls and boys impacted by recurrent disasters.

The CSP aims to contribute to six Strategic Outcomes that are aligned to four corporate Strategic Results of SDG 2 (Zero Hunger) and SDG 17 (Partnerships for Development). These are:

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES (not all-inclusive)

1. Contribute towards the development of a wide variety of projects, plans and processes, ensuring alignment with wider programme policies 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.
   8. Support the capacity building of WFP staff, partners and national government to prepare for and respond to food assistance needs, e.g. through providing inputs into training materials.
   9. Guide and supervise more junior staff, acting as a point of referral and supporting them with analysis and queries.
   10. Other as required.

OTHER SPECIFIC JOB REQUIREMENTS

1. Plan and coordinate the national Home-Grown School Feeding transition, including leading a capacity assessment (SABER School Feeding), preparing a capacity strengthening and technical assistance roadmap, supporting government’s budgetary planning process, and supporting the set-up of coordination mechanism with relevant stakeholders.
2. Provide technical assistance to the government on school feeding’s policy and inter-ministerial Prakas development and revision, inter-ministerial coordination, organization of inter-ministerial meetings, study visits, and other school feeding events.
3. Contribute to the development of programme policy, strategies, guidelines, standards and tools to support country capacity strengthening and ownership of hunger solutions at national and sub-national level, including coordinating with the MoEYS for the development of Nutrition Guidelines and Standards.
4. Coordinate collaboration with government, WFP and UN /NGO partners to identify and prioritise capacity strengthening activities to be implemented at national and sub-national level based on the overall strategy, context, budget and feasibility.
5. Lead WFP’s research and evidence generation initiatives linked to building national school feeding systems, including studies, research, assessments and other work related to the policy framework of the national HGSF programme.
6. Support regular risk analysis and programme adjustments linked to programme operations and national handover of school-based food and nutrition programmes in the context of COVID-19 and other risks.
7. Contribute to building and maintaining relationships with external partners including government, UN, NGOs and other development partners in support of programme strategy, implementation, enhanced coordination and resource mobilization.
8. Represent WFP in national, regional and global coordination and partnership fora related to school-based programme themes, ensuring that Cambodia’s school feeding programmes, policies and frameworks are well elaborated and represented.
9. Ensure gender is considered throughout all areas of work under the post, as relevant

STANDARD MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS

Education: Advanced University degree in International Affairs, Economics, 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.
Language: Fluency (level C) in English language and Khmer.

DESIRED EXPERIENCES FOR ENTRY INTO THE ROLE

• Has a minimum of three years of relevant work experience in one or more of the following areas: programme management, public policy/administration, country capacity strengthening, coordination, school-based programmes, food security.
• Has deepened technical knowledge through exposure to technical teams in one or more of the above areas.
• Has taken leadership of implementing programmes in one or more of WFP’s programme areas (e.g. food security, nutrition, agriculture, education or similar) ideally with a focus on government handover and/or systems building.
• Has engaged in strategic programme/policy processes to inform programme design and implementation.
• Has provided input into policy discussions and decisions across sectors.
• Has experience working with different types of stakeholders (government, UN, research bodies, external experts) at national and sub-national level – particularly the Government.
• Has experience utilizing computers, including Microsoft Office package (e.g. Word, Excel) and other standard software packages and systems.

HOW TO APPLY

• Create an account on the WFP Career Website: http://www1.wfp.org/careers/job-openings
• Under Filter By “Country”, type “Cambodia” and select the position you want to apply to.

DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS

The vacancy will be closed on Tuesday, 27 September 2022 at 17:00 GMT+7

Female applicants and individuals with disabilities are encouraged to apply.

WFP is committed to an inclusive working environment which values diversity

and has zero tolerance for discrimination, harassment and abuse of any kind.

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• WFP recognizes the positive potential of flexible working arrangements to enable staff members the opportunity to select and alter their work schedules to better fit personal needs and help balance work, personal, and family responsibilities whenever operationally possible.
• WFP is committed to gender equality and parity (50% women and 50% men) and to diversity more generally, among employees across all grades, functions and contract modalities.
• WFP offers an attractive salary and other benefits, including annual leave, parental leave and health insurance for staff and eligible dependents.
• WFP Work Environment: WFP is committed to ensuring that all its workplaces are free from abuse, offensive behaviour, harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. WFP does not discriminate on the basis of HIV/AIDS and disability status. WFP is also committed to promoting a work culture in which every employee understands, and is able to carry out, his/her personal responsibilities for maintaining the dignity of work colleagues. WFP seeks to promote gender equality and the empowerment of women. We believe our mission of fighting global hunger worldwide can only be achieved if women, men, girls and boys are offered equal opportunities in terms of access to resources and services, and participation in decision making roles.

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