Programme Policy Officer at World Food Programme

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.

WFP Zambia has designed a five-year Country Strategic Plan (CSP) as the result of rigorous consultations with government, donors and other stakeholders, and reflects their appetite to support and partner with WFP in the country. It is informed by, and strongly aligns 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 its current 7th National Development Plan (NDP7); and contributes to the joint Zambia-UN Sustainable Development Partnership Framework (UNSDPF). The CSP is informed by WFP’s long-standing and broad experience in the country, embracing lessons from evaluations and reviews which call for greater synergy, a consolidation of ‘pilot’ initiatives, and improved gender-sensitive approaches to programme design. Finally, it is guided by the Zero Hunger Strategic Review (ZHSR).

In a break with past approaches, both the ZHSR and the NDP7 recognise that hunger and nutrition issues are multi-faceted, and require well-integrated, collaborative, multi-sectoral national approaches, that draw on the skills and resources of key stakeholders.

These key strategies point to an increasing national consensus on food and nutrition security, which has created a strong opportunity for WFP to re-focus its investments and efforts to areas of genuine comparative advantage, and give effect to maximum impact. 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 budget support for nutrition, social protection, and agriculture, despite the country’s constrained fiscal position, WFP’s overarching strategy seeks to enable the government to meet its policy aspirations with better systems, expertise and resources for implementation. This means a decisive shift of WFP’s country positioning towards the provision of upstream technical assistance for nationally-owned solutions.

Advancing the WFP Corporate Strategic Plan (2017-2021), the CSP addresses both SDG2 and SDG17, and WFP’s Strategic Results 1, 2, 3 and 5. WFP will implement six activities to achieve four Strategic Outcomes (SO).  These SOs will: respond to crises and shocks including support to refugees (SO1); address the root causes of malnutrition (SO2); build the resilience, enabling environment and market access for smallholders, especially women (SO3); and support government institutions to provide social protection systems (including home grown school meals) and disaster preparedness and response (SO4).

STANDARD MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS

Education: Advanced University degree in Economics, International development, Social sciences or other relevant area, or First University degree with additional relevant experience and/or advanced training/courses.

Language: Fluency (level C) in English language. Working knowledge of a second official UN language is desirable.

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES (not all-inclusive)

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