Programme Policy Officer – School Feeding

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• 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 the Terms and Conditions section of this vacancy announcement).

This vacancy announcement is open to non-Cambodian nationals only.

POSITION TITLE: Programme Policy Officer – School Feeding

TYPE OF CONTRACT: International Consultant – Regular

LEVEL: CST I

UNIT/DIVISION: School Feeding Programme

DUTY STATION: Phnom Penh, Cambodia

DURATION: 11 months

REPORTING LINE: This position reports to the Programme Policy Officer – School Feeding Technical Assistance Lead

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE OF THE ASSIGNMENT

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 date, this social assistance programme has benefited over two million schoolchildren with much work already done to transition school feeding to a nationally managed and funded programme. The programme currently reaches over 300,000 children in Cambodia and has an increasing focus on supporting the scale up of the government’s school feeding programme, whilst WFP shifts towards technical assistance. In September 2024, the legal framework for National Home-Grown School Feeding programme (NHGSFP) was strengthened through the Prime Minister’s approval of the School Feeding policy (2024 – 2035). Building on this milestone and with technical support from WFP, MoEYS endorsed the School Feeding Policy Action Plan (PAP) in October 2025, outlining six multi-sectoral strategies to operationalize the policy.

WFP is seeking to recruit a dynamic and experienced Programme Policy Officer – School Feeding who will play a key role in providing technical assistance to the National Home-Grown School Feeding Programme (NHGSFP). The incumbent will support technical assistance activities for NHGSFP, including coordination, advocacy, evidence generation and strengthening national systems, processes and review of programme design, based on national and global evidence, best practices and approaches. This work will contribute directly to the implementation and scaleup of a high quality, sustainable, and nationally owned school feeding programme that is progressively led and financed by the Government

ACCOUNTABILITIES/RESPONSIBILITIES:

The overall objective of this position is to provide dedicated technical, coordination, and project management support to WFP's School Feeding Donor Reporting, Donor coordination, and Technical Assistance workstream.

The incumbent will support the School Feeding Technical Assistance Lead in two interconnected areas: (i) donor project management and cross-unit coordination, including oversight of performance tracking, reporting, budget monitoring, grant compliance, and stakeholder engagement for major school feeding investments such as the United States Department of Agriculture McGovern-Dole Programs (FY22 and FY26), KOICA Home-Grown School Feeding Project Phase II, and other donor-supported initiatives; and (ii) technical assistance and system-strengthening support, including implementation of the School Feeding Policy Action Plan (PAP), cross-sectoral and inter-ministerial coordination, evidence generation, programme innovation, and capacity strengthening to support Cambodia's transition towards a sustainable, government-owned school feeding programme.

The incumbent will work closely with the WFP School Feeding team, WFP secondment Officer at the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport (MoEYS), Reporting Programme Associate, Literacy & Technical Assistance Officer, and relevant country and field office units to ensure effective coordination, planning, reporting, performance monitoring, government engagement, and implementation of both donor-funded projects and technical assistance priorities supporting Cambodia's National Home-Grown School Feeding Programme.

A specific focus of the assignment will be on the following:

Technical Assistance, Policy Support and System Strengthening

1. Support the implementation of Cambodia's School Feeding Policy Action Plan (PAP) and broader technical assistance workstreams aimed at strengthening the sustainability, quality, scale, and government ownership of the National Home-Grown School Feeding Programme (NHGSFP).

2. Facilitate cross-sectoral and inter-ministerial coordination among MoEYS, Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF), General Secretariat of National Social Protection Council (GS-NSPC), development partners, academia, and other stakeholders involved in the implementation of the School Feeding Policy and PAP.

3. Lead and coordinate technical pilots and system-strengthening initiatives, including procurement models, local procurement mechanisms, community-led approaches, model school standards, and other innovations identified under the PAP, while ensuring lessons learned are documented and disseminated for policy engagement and programme improvement.

4. Develop concept notes, technical papers, implementation plans, partnership proposals, and other knowledge products to support technical assistance initiatives and resource mobilization efforts aligned with national priorities.

5. Consolidate and translate evidence from studies, evaluations, costing exercises, return-on-investment analyses, assessments, and pilot initiatives into practical recommendations to inform programme design, policy implementation, targeting approaches, supplier selection modalities, and programme scale-up strategies.

6. Support stakeholder engagement, advocacy, and accountability processes, including the integration of gender, accountability to affected populations (AAP), disability inclusion, environmental sustainability, and protection considerations into programme design and implementation.

7. Coordinate learning, knowledge exchange, and South-South and Triangular Cooperation (SSTC) initiatives, including study visits, technical exchanges, peer-learning events, and collaboration with countries seeking to learn from Cambodia's school feeding experience.

8. Support Cambodia's regional and global engagement on school meals, including collaboration with the School Meals Coalition, School Meals Accelerator, Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty, ASEAN processes, WFP Regional Bureau, Headquarters, research institutions, and other technical partners to promote innovation, share experiences, and leverage global expertise.

9. Support the strengthening of monitoring, evaluation, and information systems, including enhancement of the School Feeding Information System (SFIS), M&E frameworks, and tracking mechanisms to monitor programme performance, policy implementation, transition milestones, and technical assistance results.

10. Contribute to strategic planning, policy dialogue, and corporate reporting, including the preparation of briefing notes, talking points, speeches, executive briefs, Annual Performance Planning and Annual Country Report inputs, donor updates, regional submissions, and other materials supporting the School Feeding Technical Assistance Lead and the broader school feeding portfolio.

11. Other tasks as required.

Donor Project Management and Coordination

• Support the overall management and coordination of donor-funded school feeding projects, including KOICA, USDA McGovern-Dole, and other development partner-funded initiatives, ensuring effective collaboration across programme, supply chain, finance, M&E, RAM, partnerships, and field teams.
• Coordinate project performance tracking and donor deliverables across units, ensuring timely and accurate monitoring of outputs, outcomes, beneficiary figures, infrastructure investments, non-food items (NFIs), procurement activities, and other commitments reflected in project agreements and results frameworks.
• Draft, review and quality assure donor reports, work plans, results frameworks, briefing materials, presentations, visibility products, management responses, and other project documentation to ensure accuracy, consistency, compliance, and alignment with donor requirements prior to submission.
• Monitor implementation progress, budget utilization, and grant performance, identify risks, bottlenecks, or deviations from plans, and facilitate timely coordination and corrective actions to ensure achievement of project targets and donor commitments.
• Support donor engagement, grant management, and compliance processes, including donor missions, monitoring visits, evaluations, audits, review meetings, budget revisions, change requests, amendments, and donor communications, while ensuring adherence to donor requirements and WFP corporate standards.
• Perform other duties as required.

DELIVERABLES AT THE END OF THE CONTRACT:

At the end of the contract, the consultant will have delivered:

• Enhanced implementation and coordination of priority actions under the School Feeding Policy Action Plan (PAP).
• Strengthened cross-sectoral collaboration among government institutions, development partners, academia, and other key stakeholders supporting school feeding.
• Strengthened and documented evidence based on the National Home-Grown School Feeding Programme (NHGSFP).
• Documented lessons learned and recommendations from technical pilots and innovations, including local procurement, supplier engagement, and community-led approaches.
• Improved monitoring, performance tracking, and utilization of evidence to support Programme decision-making and transition planning.
• Enhanced support to donor-funded school feeding projects through strengthened coordination, compliance, quality assurance, and performance monitoring.
• Enhanced engagement of the Royal Government of Cambodia and WFP with regional and global school meals initiatives, including the School Meals Coalition, School Meals Accelerator, Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty, and ASEAN-related processes.
• Facilitated South-South and Triangular Cooperation (SSTC), peer-learning exchanges, and study visits to support adoption of good global practices.

QUALIFICATIONS & EXPERIENCE REQUIRED:

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

Experience: 3–5 years of postgraduate professional experience in a relevant field of work, with a background and interest in international humanitarian and development activities. Desirable experience:

• Experience managing social assistance and/or nutrition sensitive programmes.
• Experience working with and reporting to USDA or/and KOICA funded programmes - in a WFP or partner capacity.
• Experience working within/with the government or providing technical assistance to the government.
• Experience in implementing UN operational programmes, while WFP programmatic and partnership experience is preferred.

Knowledge & Skills:

• Technical skills and experience in designing food security and nutrition programmes, preferably those focusing on school feeding/home grown school feeding.
• An understanding of food systems and how they relate to Home-Grown School Feeding models and value chains.
• Significant knowledge in mainstreaming gender into programme design, implementation and learning.
• Excellent written and oral communications and reporting, presentation/ facilitation skills.
• Strong understanding of the project cycle and its implementation in the framework of effectiveness and accountability (including to affected populations).
• 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.

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

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