Programme Policy Officer (Human Capital Development)

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.

JOB PURPOSE:

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.

THE ROLE:

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 malnutrition among children under two, pregnant and breastfeeding women and girls, adolescents and people living with HIV.
• Oversee nutrition-specific and nutrition-sensitive programming, including malnutrition prevention transfers, nutrition top-ups within crisis response (Activity 1) and refugee assistance (Activity 2), and social and behaviour change communication (SBCC).
• Strengthen partnerships with food system actors, including the private sector, to increase the availability, affordability and use of diverse, nutrient-dense and fortified foods, and document evidence on food-based approaches.
• Drive nutrition integration across the CSP, working with the Resilience, Crisis Response and Social Protection teams so that transfers, asset creation and livelihood activities contribute to improved diets.

D. Government engagement, policy and capacity strengthening

• Serve as WFP’s principal technical counterpart to the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Health’s Department of Nutrition, HIV and AIDS, and other relevant ministries, including those responsible for agriculture, gender, community development and local government.
• Provide evidence-based inputs into national policies and strategies, including the national multisectoral nutrition policy and strategic plan, the national education sector investment plan, the national strategic plan for integrated ECD and the Malawi National Social Support Programme.
• Design and implement institutional capacity strengthening plans for national and district actors in school meals and nutrition, based on capacity needs assessments, and track progress towards national self-sufficiency.
• Represent WFP in relevant coordination platforms, including Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN), nutrition and education sector and cluster coordination and the School Meals Coalition.

E. Partnerships and resource mobilisation

• Identify and develop partnerships with donors, international financial institutions, foundations, the private sector and academia to diversify funding for school meals and nutrition.
• Lead the preparation of concept notes, proposals and donor briefs, and support Government advocacy for increased domestic financing of school meals and nutrition.
• Oversee cooperating partner management for the portfolio, including partner selection, field level agreements (FLAs), performance evaluations and joint spot-checks with Finance.

F. Monitoring, evidence and reporting

• Ensure robust monitoring of Outcome 2 indicators (e.g., enrolment, attendance, retention, dietary diversity, minimum acceptable diet, programme coverage and adherence, and smallholder sales to schools), and complete the shift to digital data collection in school feeding.
• Lead evidence generation and learning and contribute to the centralised CSP evaluation planned for 2027.
• Prepare accurate and timely reports, including Annual Country Report inputs, donor reports, briefing notes and knowledge products, ensuring consistency of information presented to stakeholders.

G. Cross-cutting priorities and risk management

• Mainstream gender equality, protection, disability inclusion, accountability to affected populations (AAP) and prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse (PSEA), including child safeguarding in school settings.
• Maintain the portfolio risk register and ensure fiduciary and cash assurance measures for transfers to schools and partners are applied and audit-ready.
• Perform other related duties as required.

OTHER SPECIFIC JOB REQUIREMENTS :

The incumbent is expected to deliver the following during the contract period:

• Approved 2027 annual work plan and budget for the HCD portfolio, with quarterly progress reviews.
• An integrated nutrition and school meals operational approach agreed within WFP and shared with Government counterparts.
• Updated school meals handover plan with milestones agreed with the Ministry of Education.
• Timely donor reports, Annual Country Report inputs and quarterly monitoring dashboards for Outcome 2.
• A capacity strengthening plan for national and district school meals and nutrition actors implemented and documented.
• Resource mobilisation proposals, knowledge products and policy briefs produced.

The position requires regular travel to districts and sub-offices (approximately 30 percent of the time).

DESIRED EXPERIENCES FOR ENTRY INTO THE ROLE:

• Has deepened technical knowledge through exposure to technical teams in school feeding, nutrition, education or public health.
• Has taken leadership of implementing programmes of considerable size and complexity, preferably school feeding/HGSF and/or nutrition programmes.
• Has provided input into policy discussions and decisions with government counterparts.
• Has managed or supervised staff and cooperating partners.
• Has managed donor-funded programmes, including reporting and compliance, and has experience with cash-based transfers.

STANDARD MINIMUM ACADEMIC QUALIFICATIONS:

• Education: Advanced university degree in Nutrition, Public Health, Education, Agriculture or Food Science, International Development, Economics, 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.
• Experience: At least three (3) years of post-graduate, progressively responsible professional experience in school feeding, nutrition, education or food security programming; five (5) or more years is desirable. Experience working with the Government of Malawi is an advantage.

KNOWLEDGE & SKILLS:

• Sound technical knowledge of school feeding and HGSF models, and of nutrition-specific and nutrition-sensitive programming, including SBCC and food-based approaches.
• Good understanding of Malawi’s education, health and nutrition policy environment and government structures at national and district levels.
• Knowledge of cash-based transfers, local and smallholder procurement, and food safety and quality standards.
• Programme cycle management skills, including planning, budgeting, monitoring and evaluation.
• Demonstrated ability to lead and motivate a team and to work effectively with government, donors and partners.
• Strong analytical, writing and communication skills, with the ability to produce high-quality reports and policy briefs.
• Knowledge of, or the ability to quickly assimilate, UN/WFP processes and systems (e.g., COMET, WINGS, SCOPE).

Language: Fluency (level C) in English language and the duty station’s language (Chichewa).

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