Programme Policy Officer (Gender and Social Protection)

JOB TITLE & GRADE LEVEL: Programme Policy Officer (Gender and Social Protection), SC8
TYPE OF CONTRACT: Service Contract
UNIT/DIVISION: Programme Unit – Gender and Social Protection
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.

Gender equality and social protection are central to the CSP. The CSP carries a gender and age marker of 3, more than 50 percent of direct beneficiaries are women, and approximately 5.91 percent of the portfolio is allocated to gender equality and gender-responsive interventions mainstreamed across all outcomes. Malawi ranks 145 of 188 countries on the Gender Inequality Index, and women face persistent disadvantages in literacy, education, land access, agricultural inputs and technology, participation in cash and export crop value chains, and exposure to gender-based violence. The country office gender assessment has identified harmful social norms and gender roles as barriers to equitable access to WFP programmes, and WFP’s resilience interventions have shown measurable shifts in household and community decision-making power for women.

WFP also works through national social protection systems, promoting the use of the unified beneficiary registry and other government systems for targeting, registration and transfer delivery, and linking social protection with climate change and disaster risk management. This work spans CSP Activity 1 (shock-responsive assistance), Activity 5 (resilience and livelihoods), and Activities 6 and 7 under CSP Outcome 4 on national systems strengthening, in support of the Malawi National Social Support Programme and related national policies.

JOB PURPOSE:

To advance this agenda, WFP Malawi seeks to recruit a Programme Policy Officer – SC8 (Gender and Social Protection) to support the mainstreaming of gender equality and women’s empowerment across the CSP portfolio, and to support WFP’s engagement with national social protection systems, contributing to analysis, programme design, capacity strengthening, monitoring and reporting 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 activity managers, the Human Capital Development, Resilience, Crisis Response, RAM/M&E, Partnerships and Protection teams, and the sub-offices, the Programme Policy Officer (Gender and Social Protection) will:

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES (not all-inclusive, within delegated authority):

A. Gender mainstreaming across the CSP

• Support the implementation and periodic update of the country office gender action plan, ensuring that CSP activities respond to the different needs of women, men, girls and boys and address identified gender-related risks.
• Provide technical inputs into programme design, concept notes, field level agreements and work plans so that interventions are gender-transformative, including measures that reduce women’s unpaid work burden, expand women’s participation in value chains and support women’s leadership in community structures.
• Support the tracking and reporting of the gender and age marker and of resources allocated to gender equality, and contribute to corporate gender reporting requirements.
• Contribute to social and behaviour change communication activities that address harmful gender norms, and support their integration into crisis response, nutrition, school meals and resilience activities.

B. Social protection support

• Support WFP’s technical engagement with national social protection systems, including the use of the unified beneficiary registry and other government systems for targeting, registration and transfer delivery.
• Contribute to analysis and documentation on shock-responsive and nutrition-sensitive social protection, and on linkages between social protection, climate change adaptation and disaster risk management.
• Support capacity strengthening activities for national and district social protection actors, including preparation of training materials, workshops and technical briefs.
• Support the design and monitoring of complementary (“cash plus”) interventions that link WFP transfers to national programmes and services.

C. Protection, accountability and disability inclusion

• Support the mainstreaming of protection, accountability to affected populations (AAP) and disability inclusion across activities, in line with WFP corporate commitments and the United Nations Disability Inclusion Strategy.
• Support the functioning of the community feedback mechanism, including analysis of feedback trends by sex, age and disability, and follow-up on issues affecting women and other at-risk groups.
• Contribute to the prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse through awareness-raising for staff, partners and communities, and support safe referral pathways for gender-based violence and child protection cases.

D. Analysis, monitoring, evidence and reporting

• Support gender and social protection analysis, including secondary data reviews, assessments and consultations, to inform programme design and advocacy.
• Work with RAM/M&E to ensure sex-, age- and disability-disaggregated data collection, and support the monitoring of cross-cutting indicators on protection, accountability, gender equality and women’s empowerment.
• Prepare timely and accurate inputs into reports, including Annual Country Report contributions, donor reports, briefing notes and case studies, ensuring consistency of information presented to stakeholders.

E. Partnerships, coordination and capacity building

• Liaise with internal and external counterparts, including the Ministry responsible for gender, community development and social welfare, UN agencies, NGOs, civil society and women’s and youth organisations and organisations of persons with disabilities.
• Represent WFP, as delegated, in gender and social protection technical working groups and coordination platforms, and highlight risks or issues affecting programme delivery.
• Support the capacity building of WFP staff and cooperating partners on gender, protection, AAP and social protection, including inputs into training materials and guidance notes.
• Support resource mobilisation by contributing gender and social protection content to concept notes and proposals.
• Perform other related duties as required.

OTHER SPECIFIC JOB REQUIREMENTS:

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

• Updated country office gender action plan, with progress tracking.
• Gender, protection and disability inclusion inputs provided to all new programme designs, concept notes and field level agreements.
• Analysis of community feedback and monitoring data disaggregated by sex, age and disability, with follow-up actions documented.
• Capacity-building sessions delivered for WFP staff or cooperating partners on gender, protection or social protection.
• Technical inputs to social protection capacity strengthening activities with government counterparts, documented in briefs or workshop reports.
• Quality and timely gender and cross-cutting inputs into the Annual Country Report and donor reports.

The position requires periodic travel to districts and field offices.

DESIRED EXPERIENCES FOR ENTRY INTO THE ROLE:

• Has gained experience of gender, protection or social protection work within humanitarian or development programmes.
• Has supported programme implementation and contributed to programme design or review processes.
• Has contributed to analysis, monitoring or reporting using disaggregated data.
• Has worked with government counterparts, cooperating partners or civil society organisations.

STANDARD MINIMUM ACADEMIC QUALIFICATIONS:

• Education: Advanced university degree in Gender Studies, Social Sciences, Development Studies, Economics, Public Policy, International Affairs 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 one (1) to two (2) years of post-graduate professional experience in gender equality, social protection, protection or related programme work, with an interest in international humanitarian and development assistance.

KNOWLEDGE & SKILLS:

• Knowledge of gender equality and women’s empowerment concepts and of gender mainstreaming approaches in food security, nutrition and resilience programming.
• Understanding of social protection systems and instruments, including shock-responsive social protection and beneficiary registries.
• Familiarity with protection, accountability to affected populations, PSEA and disability inclusion standards.
• Basic analytical ability to compile, maintain and analyse data, prepare reports and draw initial conclusions in support of programme decisions.
• Good communication and facilitation skills, with the ability to work with a wide range of internal and external counterparts.
• Knowledge of, or the ability to quickly assimilate, UN/ processes and systems.

Language: Fluency (level C) in English language

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