Programme Policy Officer (Nutrition)

BACKGROUND  

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has been actively involved in addressing food security and related challenges in The Gambia. WFP's interventions include supporting food assistance programs, school feeding initiatives, nutrition programs, and resilience-building efforts to help communities adapt to changing environmental conditions. The organization collaborates closely with the Gambian government, local partners, and other stakeholders to achieve its objectives in the country. 

PURPOSE 

Job holders will work with minimum supervision, in the Programme Unit to effectively deliver WFP programmes and activities in the Gambia CO. Specifically, the job holder will work  to deliver results under Strategic Outcome 1 ( Crisis affected population can meet their basic food and nutrition requirement), 2 (People have better nutrition, health & education outcomes) and 4 (Social Protection). S/he will ensure that WFP’s activities (1) incorporate a nutrition objective, outcomes and indicators; (2) are informed by a comprehensive gender and nutrition situation analysis and focus on key nutritionally vulnerable groups across the life cycle; (3) include deliberate nutrition actions and/or provide appropriate delivery platforms to ensure the project will contribute to achieving the identified nutrition objective; (4) Tackle lack of nutrition knowledge; (5) are aligned with national nutrition plans; 6) ensure partnerships and policy engagement to foster a more nutrition-sensitive enabling environment. 

ACCOUNTABILITIES/RESPONSIBILITIES: 

Under the direct supervision of Deputy Country Director and Head of Programme, the Programme Officer will undertake the following tasks:  

Design and strategy: 

• Contribute towards the development of a wide variety of projects, plans and processes, ensuring alignment with wider programme policies and guidance. 

• Translate WFP policies and other relevant policies into nutrition and social protection strategies, programme design, implementation modalities and operations adapted to the Gambian context 

• Ensure that WFP nutrition and social protection programmes are consistent with WFP policies as well as relevant national or international guidance.  

• Provide technical and strategic advice on programme design for nutrition specific and sensitive programming, including assessment and analysis, the choice of relevant objectives, activities (including community engagement), transfer modalities, and commodity to maximized impact on nutrition outcomes.  

• Contribute to the preparation of accurate and timely reporting on programmes and activities that enable informed decision making and consistency of information presented to stakeholders. 

• Explore and develop strategic partnership and linkage with the global initiatives. 

Implementation and coordination:  

• Work with senior management and relevant in-house units to ensure effective advocacy, design and delivery of WFP nutrition and social protection interventions.  

• Oversee operational and strategic partnerships, including inter-agency collaboration with key agencies such as UNICEF, and FAO and engagement with government and the donor community to ensure a strong multi-sectorial response to nutrition.  

• Represent WFP at national and regional meetings to contribute to technical discussions, exchange experiences, and identify advocate for areas of potential collaboration.  

• Contribute to emergency preparedness actions, providing technical recommendations on contingency planning, risk analysis and early warning related to nutrition risks for host and refugee communities, respectively.  

Capacity strengthening:  

• Manage the nutrition team providing guidance and coaching as required to ensure appropriate career development and enable high performance.  

• Strengthening the capacity of WFP staff, partners, national and regional governments to prepare for and respond to nutrition problems.  

• Provide technical support on the Government of the Gambia on national nutrition related initiatives, including development nutrition policies, strategies, action plans, protocols and guidelines as well as policy development in areas complimentary to nutrition (e.g. social protection, health, agriculture, and education) in line with international guidance and current evidence.  

Operational research, knowledge management and M&E:  

• Support the monitoring and evaluation of WFP’s nutrition activities, including selection or development of appropriate M&E indicators, technical analysis and interpretation of process and outcome monitoring results to ensure programme quality.  

• Advice on the design, technical analysis and interpretation of Food Security and Nutrition assessments, Joint Assessment Missions and other information to assessment the impact of nutrition activities.  

• Manage and provide technical support on nutrition-related operational research and evidence building. 

SKILLS AND PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE:  

Education: Advanced University degree in International Affairs, Economics, Nutrition/Health, Agriculture, Environmental Science, Social Sciences or other field relevant to international development assistance, or First University Degree with additional years of related work experience and/or trainings/courses. 

Experience:  Three (3) to five (5) years  of relevant post-graduate professional experience. 

Languages:  International Professional: Fluency (level C) in English language. Intermediate knowledge (level B) of a second official UN language is an asset: a good knowledge of Japanese will be highly appreciated. 

Desired Expériences and skills:  

• Has deepened technical knowledge through exposure to technical teams.  

• Has taken leadership of implementing programmes.  

• Has provided input into policy discussions and decisions.