Programme Policy Officer

The World Food Programme is the world’s largest humanitarian organization, saving lives in emergencies and using food assistance to build a pathway to peace, stability and prosperity for people recovering from conflict, disasters and the impact of climate change. Powered by the passion, dedication and professionalism of its 20,000 staff worldwide, the World Food Programme (WFP) works in over 80 countries to bring life-saving food to people displaced by conflict and made destitute by disasters, and help individuals and communities find life-changing solutions to the multiple challenges they face in building better futures.

WFP works to enhance nutrition in women and children, support smallholder farmers in improving productivity and reducing losses, help countries and communities prepare for and cope with climate-related shocks, and boost human capital through school feeding programmes. The link to agencies’ website is here : Who we are | World Food Programme (wfp.org) .

Ethiopia is facing an overlapping humanitarian crisis; due to various hazards, including the conflict induced needs; negative impact of the drought in eastern, south-eastern parts of the country, increase in commodity prices; and floods in the low-lying areas. The humanitarian situation is complex and dynamic, necessitating a coordinated approach to address the diverse needs. WFP utilizes analysis from the seasonal assessments for planning of food distributions in Ethiopia and also conducted regular food security assessments to monitor the food security situation. Some of the food insecure people assisted by WFP includes the drought affected communities in the Somali region, where negative impact of previous drought years contributed to deterioration of the food and nutrition situation, particularly among the pastoralist communities. In Afar and Tigray, WFP is assisting the internally displaced people and returnees, who are facing acute food needs due to the conflict that disrupted livelihoods, including food and income sources.

Through the relief food assistance, WFP is leading on various interventions in the severely food insecure districts in Afar, Somali and Tigray region, where acute food insecure people are being reached through cash and in-kind food assistance. This requires timely planning and allocation of resources to avoid worsening of food and nutrition situation among the vulnerable people, particularly women, children and the internally displaced people. In 2025, WFP is planning to assist 1.34 million people Ethiopia, through emergency food assistance in collaboration with six non-governmental organizations (NGOs). The assisted people are identified through vulnerability-based targeting (VBT) approach, which is led by WFP, and implemented by cooperating partners (CPs).

The Programme Policy Officer, under the overall supervision of Head, Crisis Response and direct supervisor of Head Relief and Refugees, will work with the relief team, to ensure timely allocation of resources to the acute food insecure people in the three regions; and also contribute to monitoring of various parameters that are considered for activation of emergency food response.

Under the direct supervision of Head of Relief, the UN Volunteer will undertake the following tasks:

● Monitoring of humanitarian needs:
• Contribute to WFP’s analysis of humanitarian needs in Ethiopia, focusing on changes in food security situation in vulnerable regions.
• Actively participate in preparation of implementation plans for responding to identi-fied food needs; and engage relevant units to ensure readiness to respond to the
needs.
• Participate in field missions to regions that are affected by various shocks, to con-duct assessments of humanitarian needs.

● Coordinate with cooperating partners, WFP Areas/ Sub Offices:
• Participate in coordination engagements with cooperating partners, including ar-ranging monthly meetings, that are held to discuss monitoring findings and plans for
cash and in-kind food distributions plans.
• Help in mapping of capacity gaps; and contribute to development of training plans for cooperating partners’ staff.
• Assist in arranging meetings with sub offices and areas offices, prepare readouts of the meetings and follow-up on action points.

● Support in developing monthly distribution plans:
• Participate in preparation of monthly distributions plans, based on available re-sources (cash and in-kind) and the assistance framework which is based on evi-dence
from food security assessments.
• Assist in the coordination of area and sub offices activities on their readiness to im-plement food or cash distributions; and follow-up on the with technical units at the
Country Office for any support that will be required by the field teams.

● Monthly reconciliation:
• Support the team in the reconciliation process of cash and in-kind food resources that are allocated by WFP to partners; and prepare a monthly analysis for discus-sion
with management.
• Assist in organizing and facilitating regular meetings with area/sub/field offices to discuss findings from reconciliation analysis; and implement corrective measures in
collaboration with Area and Sub office focal points.
• Help in coordinating reconciliation process, in collaboration with Cooperating Part-ner Management Unit (CPMU) on validation of reports that are submitted in part-ner
connect and COMET.
• Support in liaising with Supply Chain to validate dataset from dispatches and what is handed over to cooperating partners for distributions.
• Contribute to standardization of naming of locations in WFP corporate systems, through implementation of SOPs in collaboration with RAM, Supply Chain and CPMU.

● Pipeline monitoring and reporting:
• Assist in monitoring of allocation of resources for distribution which should follow the prioritization approach; and ensure management is alerted in case there con-
cerns on any projected shortfalls.
• Contribute to regular donor reports that are shared with management for approv-als, including the weekly updates on food distributions.