Programme Policy Officer, Lilongwe

## Programme Policy Officer, Lilongwe - Organization:WFP - World Food Programme 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. 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. - 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 theTerms and Conditionssection of this vacancy announcement). JOB TITLE & GRADE LEVEL:Programme Policy Officer, SO2 Manager (Human Capital Development - Nutrition and School Meals), NOB TYPE OF CONTRACT:Fixed Term UNIT/DIVISION:Programme Unit - Human Capital Development DUTY STATION (City, Country):Lilongwe, Malawi REPORTS TO:Deputy Head of Programme DURATION:12 months (Renewable) ORGANIZATIONAL CONTEXT: The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is the world's largest humanitarian agency, fighting hunger worldwide. WFP Malawi is undergoing a strategic repositioning aimed at strengthening its alignment with national priorities, enhancing inter-agency collaboration, and supporting the Government of Malawi in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030, with a particular emphasis on Zero Hunger (SDG 2), in line with Malawi Vision 2063 and its first ten-year implementation plan (MIP-1). WFP's Malawi Country Strategic Plan (CSP) 2024-2028 seeks to ensure the food and nutrition security of vulnerable people and communities while building resilience through the transformation of food systems. Aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF) 2024-2028, the CSP sets out five mutually reinforcing outcomes and continues WFP's strategic shift from direct implementer to enabler of nationally owned, sustainable systems, with phased handover of interventions informed by capacity assessments. Under CSP Outcome 2, WFP supports the Government to improve nutrition, health and education outcomes for enhanced human capital development in line with national targets by 2028. The outcome brings together Activity 3, which promotes optimal nutrition practices and strengthens partnerships with food system actors to increase the availability and use of diverse, nutrient-dense foods, and Activity 4, which provides safe, nutritious and diversified meals to pre- and primary school children, linked to local production and markets through Home-Grown School Feeding (HGSF). Malawi's nutrition challenges remain significant: stunting remains around 35 percent, only 8 percent of children under two consume a minimum acceptable diet, and micronutrient deficiencies, including anaemia and zinc deficiency, are major public health concerns. At the same time, the Government is advancing a nationally owned school meals programme, creating an opportunity for WFP to use schools and communities as integrated platforms for nutrition, education and local food system development, while progressively transferring programmes to national ownership. To advance this agenda, WFP Malawi seeks to recruit a Programme Policy Officer (Human Capital Development) to lead the design, implementation, quality assurance and progressive national handover of WFP's nutrition and school meals portfolio, ensuring the two workstreams are programmed together as one coherent human capital development offer to the Government of Malawi and partners, in line with WFP corporate priorities. Under the overall supervision and guidance of the Deputy Head of Programme, and in collaboration with the country office leadership, the Resilience, Crisis Response, Research Assessment and Monitoring (RAM), Supply Chain, Partnerships, Finance and Gender & Protection teams, and the sub-offices, the Programme Policy Officer will lead the Human Capital Development team and will: KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES (not all-inclusive, within delegated authority): A. Strategic leadership and portfolio management - Provide strategic and technical leadership for CSP Outcome 2 (Activities 3 and 4), ensuring alignment with the WFP Strategic Plan, the CSP, WFP's school meals and nutrition policies, the UNSDCF and national frameworks. - Develop an integrated human capital development approach that uses schools, early childhood development (ECD) centres and communities as platforms for nutrition interventions, following a life-cycle approach that covers the first 8, 000 days of life and beyond. - Lead annual work planning, target setting, budgeting and expenditure tracking for the portfolio; contribute to CSP budget revisions, needs-based plans and prioritisation scenarios in the event of funding shortfalls. - Supervise, coach and manage the performance of the HCD team (school meals and nutrition staff), and provide technical guidance to sub-office programme staff to ensure consistent, quality implementation. B. School meals and Home-Grown School Feeding (Activity 4) - Oversee the direct implementation and expansion of HGSF in targeted primary schools and ECD centres, including cash transfers to schools, local procurement from smallholder farmers, food safety and quality, and school-level governance. - Lead WFP's technical support to the Ministry of Education and its School Health and Nutrition structures on the coordination of the national school meals programme, including support to the national roadmap, financing strategy, costing and operating standards. - Lead the development and roll-out of the operational plan for the phased handover of school feeding, including alternative, community-driven school meals models and the use of SABER findings to inform improvements. - Ensure linkages with Activity 5 on supply-side support to farmer organisations supplying schools (production, aggregation, quality, e-vouchers for inputs) and promote clean and efficient energy solutions for school kitchens. - Oversee the delivery of donor-funded school meals programmes, including ensuring contractual compliance, quality reporting and visibility, and manage the final decentralised evaluations. - Coordinate take-home rations or emergency school feeding where required as part of crisis response, in liaison with the Crisis Response team. C. Nutrition (Activity 3) - Lead WFP's support to the Government in preventing and managing the triple burden of maln