PROGRAMME POLICY OFFICER (SCHOOL MEALS) - NOA

ABOUT THE JOB

Job Title: Programme Policy Officer (School Meals)

Grade: NOA

Type of contract: Fixed Term

Duration: 12 Months (with possibility of extension)

Duty Station: Islamabad, Pakistan

This Vacancy Announcement is for Pakistani Nationals Only.

Note: This vacancy announcement will also be used to build a roster of prequalified applicants for future opportunities for the same job profile at the current or lower grade in Pakistan.

TERMS & CONDITIONSWFP offers a competitive benefits package including salary, pension, medical insurance, annual leave, parental leave, among other benefits.

Important: All educational documents must be verified/attested by the Higher Education Commission (HEC). Appointment will be subject to submission of HEC-verified degrees.

ORGANIZATIONAL CONTEXT:Out of the 71 million school aged children in Pakistan, 26 million are out of school. In response to this staggering number, and the associated widespread deficiencies in learning outcomes, the Government of Pakistan declared an education emergency in 2024, and a number of provincial governments, who hold the responsibility for school meals, are slowly beginning to launch school meals pilot projects. Sindh is one of these provinces. The World Food Programme (WFP) is launching a five-year school meals program to target 100,000 children from 614 government schools in the impoverished and peri-urban districts of Melir and Keamari in greater Karachi, starting in 2026. The programme will provide daily hot cooked meals while also providing complementary literacy and water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) interventions. Based on lessons learned from previous attempts at setting up school meal programs using the approach of cooking meals at schools, WFP will use the central kitchen modality where the meals are prepared in commercial kitchens and then lunchboxes are dispatched to schools on a daily basis. This method controls food safety and quality, ensures consistency.

This project’s objectives are twofold: at the school level, it focuses on improved enrollment and attendance, increased literacy, improved access to safe drinking water, safe sanitation and hygiene practices, and improved health and nutrition of primary school children. At the provincial government level, the project provides targeted capacity strengthening aimed at process and systems strengthening and ultimately, creating an adaptable and scalable school meals program which can be financed and managed by the Government of Sindh.

JOB PURPOSE:The Programme Policy Officer will be based in WFP Country Office in Islamabad. This position is vital for ensuring the operational excellence of the McGovern-Dole School Meals programme with a focus on supporting provincial level operational planning, ensuring timely implementation and supporting monitoring and evaluation and reporting functions to WFP Headquarters and WFP Washington offices. The incumbent will be reporting to the Programme Policy Officer/Head of School Meals in the WFP Country Office with regular interactions with the Project Manager and the Programme Policy Officer (School Meals) in Karachi.

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES (not all-inclusive, within delegated authority):1. Support the Project Manager and the Head of School Meals in CO towards the development of plans and processes around school meals, ensuring alignment with WFP and USDA programme policies and guidance.2. Provide project management support to the Head of School Meals for all school meals activities, ensuring alignment and complementarity of approaches and for reporting their results.3. Support the Karachi and Country Office M&E teams to develop data gathering and monitoring systems for the school meals programme, ensuring that rigorous quality standards are maintained and there is harmonization across the different school meals programmes.4. Support the research and analysis of a range of policy and operational issues to inform the development of policies and governance documents to support the governments to manage their school meals programmes.5. 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 such as the School Education and Literacy Department, the US Department of Agriculture (UDSA) and WFP global offices.6. Liaise with the WFP Country Office Supply Chain teams for call forward, commodity tracking, procurement requests, etc.7. Support the identification, development and management of potential partnerships at the CO level for school meals work.8. Support the capacity building of WFP staff, partners and provincial government to develop policies, guidelines and governance mechanisms to manage provincial school meals programmes.9. Any other task in line with the position level and expertise.

DESIRED EXPERIENCES FOR ENTRY INTO THE ROLE:• 1 year of post-graduate professional or managerial experience working in a government ministry or department.• Experience of preparing technical documents such as MoUs, SOPs and guidance materials.• Previous experience of working for UN or other international agency in Pakistan is desirable.• Excellent writing skills and ability to lead the preparation of documents and guidelines; be diplomatic, tactful and a skilled negotiator.

STANDARD MINIMUM ACADEMIC QUALIFICATIONS:Education: Advanced University degree in Political Science, International Development, Development Economics, International Relations, Law, Marketing, Communications or other relevant field, or First University degree with additional 2 years of related work experience and/or trainings/courses.Language: Fluent in English and Urdu

HOW TO APPLY

To be considered, interested candidates are invited to apply via (https://www.wfp.org/careers/job-openings) or apply through https://wd3.myworkdaysite.com/recruiting/wfp/job_openings/job/Islamabad-Pakistan-The-Islamic-Rep/Programme-Policy-Officer-School-Meals-NOA-Islamabad_JR119413-1

Only short-listed candidates will be contacted.

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REASONABLE ACCOMMODATION

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