Programme Policy Officer (Nutrition) Noa United Nations World Food Programme

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 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.

ORGANIZATIONAL CONTEXT
In July 2023, the World Food Programme (WFP) Zambia commenced a new five-year Country Strategic Plan (CSP), informed by and aligned with national and United Nations priorities and global commitments under the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It embraces the Government’s long-term Vision 2030; aligns with 16 key strategic areas of the 8th National Development Plan (NDP8); and contributes to the joint Zambia-United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF).

WFP Zambia’s integrated and pragmatic CSP shifts away from unsustainable localized and micro-level interventions, to embrace more effective advocacy and engagement with national policies, systems, and programmes to achieve national impact on SDG2. Given the Government’s commitment to budgetary support for nutrition, social protection, and agriculture, despite the constraints in the country’s fiscal position, WFP’s overarching strategy seeks to strengthen the government’s capacities to meet its national priorities through stronger systems, expertise, and resources for implementation. This means a decisive shift of WFP’s country positioning towards the provision of innovative, sustainable, and upstream technical assistance to support nationally owned solutions.

Advancing the global WFP Strategic Plan (2022-2025), the CSP addresses both SDG2 and SDG17, and WFP’s Strategic Results 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. WFP will implement seven activities to achieve five Strategic Outcomes (SO) under the CSP. These SOs include: (SO1) responding to crises and shocks ensuring that crisis-affected people, including refugees, are able to meet their urgent food and nutrition needs; (SO2) addressing the root causes of malnutrition; (SO3) building the resilience, enabling environment and market access for smallholder farmers, especially women; (SO4) supporting government institutions to provide social protection systems (including home grown school meals) and disaster preparedness and response; and (SO5) improving access to supply chain services for humanitarian and development actors.

JOB PURPOSE
Reporting to the Nutritionist (Strategic Outcome 2 Manager), the post holder will act as the Activity 2 Manager and be primarily responsible for providing technical support to WFP’s nutrition portfolio, including designing, planning, implementing, and reporting on WFP’s nutrition activities and providing technical assistance to the government on nutrition policies and programmes.

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES (not all-inclusive)

Support and engage in the identification of opportunities that will inform the design and planning of nutrition programmes.
Support the design (projects/proposals and strategies) of nutrition specific and sensitive programmes in line with WFP and government priorities and policies.
Ensure an annual workplan/implementation plan for the nutrition sensitive and specific programming (in line with CSP priorities) is in place, as well as regularly reviewed, updated, and reported on, over the course of CSP implementation.
Support design, planning and implementation of nutrition specific activities, including supplementary feeding and management of acute malnutrition.
Develop and roll out strategies/plans and field level implementation of nutrition sensitive and specific programming.
Develop tools and aids, including checklists on nutrition sensitive, specific programming and report on progress, as required.
Support the SO Manager in representing WFP in national nutrition forums, including the Nutrition Cooperating Partners, nutrition cluster, and other relevant working groups.
Coordinate with staff in RAM, procurement, logistics, finance, other programme units and other divisions to ensure effective design and delivery of WFP nutrition programming.
Provide technical support on nutrition to sector actors, including National Food and Nutrition Commission (NFNC), Office of the Vice President (OVP), Ministry of Health, Ministry of Community Development and Social Services, among others.
Provide technical capacity internally with WFP Country Office and Field Office units and externally with Government, cooperating partners, and other stakeholders.
With the VAM unit, support the design and implementation of assessments and/or research as necessary, including Fill the Nutrient Gap (FNG) analysis, nutrition surveys, among others.
DESIRED EXPERIENCES FOR ENTRY INTO THE ROLE

Practical experience in business strategy and business processes.
Experience in managing and working with cross-functional teams.
Gained broader exposure across areas within a function (i.e., nutrition policy, nutrition programmes, nutrition M&E).
Has experience managing small to mid-size financial budgets, and balancing priorities effectively.
Has experience leading a small to mid-size team to ensure the effective delivery of objectives.
Participated in a vendor/government/cooperating partner negotiation within the area of focus.
STANDARD MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS
Education: Master’s degree in public health, nutrition, or other related fields

Experience:

At least 5 years’ experience in nutrition programme management with proven results in achieving programme milestones.
At least 2 years’ experience working with an NGO or UN agency in a role that focuses on mainstreaming nutrition and/or nutrition-sensitive programming.
Language:Fluency in written and spoken English.

TERMS AND CONDITIONS
THIS POSITION IS OPEN TO ZAMBIAN NATIONALS ONLY.

DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS
Applications must be submitted no later than 14th June 2024 23:59hrs Zambian time.

Qualified Persons with Disabilities and Female candidates are especially encouraged to apply!
WFP has a zero-tolerance approach to conduct such as fraud, sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to WFP’s standards of conduct and will therefore undergo rigorous background verification internally or through third parties. Selected candidates will also be required to provide additional information as part of the verification exercise. Misrepresentation of information provided during the recruitment process may lead to disqualification or termination of employment

WFP will not request payment at any stage of the recruitment process including at the offer stage. Any requests for payment should be refused and reported to local law enforcement authorities for appropriate action.