Back Programme Officer – School Feeding Consultant

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

Since 1979, WFP has provided support to the Cambodian people to meet their emergency needs and enhance the long-term food and nutrition security of vulnerable households and communities. Across Cambodia, WFP has supported the building and rehabilitation of rural infrastructure and productive assets, implemented programmes to improve maternal and child nutrition, provided nutrition care and support for people living in HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis, supported humanitarian coordination and assisted disaster-affected households, and promoted social assistance through its school meals programme and scholarships to children from poor households.

The current WFP Country Strategic Plan (2019-2023) in Cambodia aims to complement and contribute to the Royal Government of Cambodia’s (RGC) efforts to achieve zero hunger through supporting school based programmes, strengthening resilient local food systems, enhancing government capacities on emergency preparedness and response and enhancing food security, nutrition and social protection governance. 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 2021, 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 from 2025.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE OF ASSIGNMENT:
To coordinate and further develop its work in providing safe and nutritious school meals and enhancing the transition to a national school feeding programme, WFP is seeking to recruit an International Consultant - School Feeding Operations (ICST-I). The Consultant will report to the Programme Policy Officer -Head of School Feeding and manage a small team focusing on operational aspects of school based programmes, whilst working closely with WFP country office and area office teams, government and NGO partners and other education and social protection stakeholders. Specific areas of responsibility include as follows:

JOB TITLE: Programme Officer – School Feeding Consultant

TYPE OF CONTRACT: Consultant/Regular (CST Level I)

UNIT/DIVISION: Cambodia

DUTY STATION: WFP Country Office

DURATION: 11 months (starting May 2021)

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES (not all-inclusive, nor exhaustive):

1. Coordinate WFP’s school feeding programme operations (school meals, logistics, CS activities, WASH and nutrition in schools, food safety etc) to ensure school feeding operations run smoothly and programme accountability and assurance is consistent.
2. Provide guidance to a small team to plan and implement WFP’s school based programmes, including accountability to donors (USDA, KOICA, RGC).
3. Support the scale up of Home Grown School feeding (HGSF) as a school feeding model in Cambodia – including building links between school feeding demand and supply chains.
4. Support in designing and implementing emergency programmes related to school feeding as dictated by the context and need.
5. Work across teams to enhance the planning, delivery and measurement of programme quality, including the implementation of oversight and evaluation related actions, strong programme documentation and the identification of gaps and solutions.
6. Participate in Country Office coordination mechanisms to strengthen operational coordination for effective implementation.
7. Coordinate and participate in regular field missions to provide oversight and support to school feeding operations in the field.
8. Manage WFP’s school feeding operational partnerships to support cohesive results, including operational partnerships with NGOs, government and UN agencies.
9. Engage with Country Office, Regional Bureau and HQ colleagues on initiatives and guidance to ensure that school based programmes in Cambodia benefit from new learning, tools and models.
10. Support compliance with donor and corporate requirements (USDA, KOICA, Japan etc) including regular donor reporting, workplans , missions and other requests.
11. Support the enhancement of WFP’s school based programmes through the integration of gender, AAP, disability, environment as cross cutting themes.
12. Identify and develop opportunities for innovation and new partnerships to enhance the strategy and operation of HGSF in Cambodia.
13. Other tasks as required.

STANDARD MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS
Education: Advanced University degree in one of the following fields: social sciences, statistics, development economics, international development, nutrition or other related fields, or First University degree with additional years of relevant work experience and/or training/courses.

Language: Fluency (level C) in English language both oral and written.

DESIRED EXPERIENCES FOR ENTRY INTO THE ROLE
• Minimum of five years postgraduate professional experience in a relevant field of work, with a background and interest in international humanitarian development.
• Minimum of two years of experience in project management/coordination – including working on multi-sectoral, multi stakeholder programmes in development contexts.

KNOWLEDGE & SKILLS:
• Technical skills and experience in designing food security and nutrition programmes, preferably those focusing on school feeding/home grown school feeding.
• Strong operational experience, including a strong understanding of the project cycle and its implementation in the framework of effectiveness and accountability (including to affected popultaions).
• Excellent written and oral communications and reporting, presentation/facilitation skills.
• An understanding of food systems and how they relate to Home Grown School Feeding models and value chains.
• Experience working with and reporting to USDA funded programmes - in a WFP or partner capacity.
• Significant experience in mainstreaming gender into programme design, implementation and learning.
• Desirable: Experience/expertise with managing nutrition sensitive programmes.
• Ability to work in a multi-cultural team and establish an effective working relationship with persons of different national and cultural backgrounds.
• Excellent understanding of national and UN institutional frameworks, including financial management frameworks.
• Experience in implementing UN operational programmes, while WFP programmatic and partnership experience is preferred.