Regional Programme and Policy Officer

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE OF THE ASSIGNMENT:

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) envisions a world with zero hunger where everyone has equal opportunities, equal access to resources and an equal voice in the decisions that shape their lives including as individuals within households, communities and societies. The pursuit of gender equality and women’s empowerment, disability and social inclusion is central to WFP’s mission to reduce vulnerability, improve food and nutrition security, build resilience to shocks, and support governments to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.

• In the Asia and Pacific region, exposure to climate change, conflict, and economic shocks intersect with structural inequality in access to services, livelihood opportunities, and resources – resulting in uneven and inequitable growth, risking leaving millions behind. Groups at high risk of being excluded include women and girls, sexual and gender minorities, indigenous peoples (with the region home to two-thirds of the world’s indigenous peoples), and the 700 million persons with disabilities who reside in the region. Despite the substantial expansion of social protection systems across the region over the past decade, significant coverage gaps persist particularly across South and South East Asia and the Pacific, and across different demographic groups.
• WFP is uniquely positioned to accelerate progress towards gender equality, women’s empowerment, disability and social inclusion in Asia and the Pacific. In 2023, WFP’s seventeen (17) country offices worked to provide direct assistance to 32 million people. WFP’s technical assistance and capacity strengthening to enhance government policies and national social protection systems, including school-based health and nutrition programmes, presents a powerful platform to accelerate progress for the billions of men, women, girls and boys across the region. Today, WFP is working across the region to support governments to enhance the quality, coverage, effectiveness, and accountability of these programmes by leveraging WFP capacities in areas such as assessment and research, partnership with civil society and specialized agencies, programme support and digital solutions, and policy formulation and institutional capacity building.
• The Regional GEDSI Advisor will support WFP regional and country office efforts to advance the priorities set out in WFP’s Global Gender Policy and the Global Disability Inclusion Roadmap, and work at regional level to advance GEDSI opportunities within WFP’s Regional Social Protection, Climate, and School-Feeding priorities. The Advisor will provide technical support to enhance GEDSI mainstreaming in programme design and monitoring; provide strategic advice to management in policy guidance; and enhance strategic, operational and financial partnerships with civil society, UN partners, governments and regional bodies, International Financial Institutions, Foundations and Climate financing.   
• The Advisor may be required to undertake field missions to emergency and hardship duty stations as part of this role.

ACCOUNTABILITIES/RESPONSIBILITIES:

Within the programme team, the Regional GEDSI Advisor will be responsible for providing technical guidance and support to country offices including in their engagement and advocacy with government stakeholders, building strategic partnerships, and advancing WFP’s global knowledge and capacities. Responsibilities and activities will include:

• Provide technical guidance and support to Country Offices [remote and in-person] to strengthen GEDSI across the programme cycle and in WFP’s advisory role with governments, including:
• Provide guidance to strengthen disaggregated data collection and integrated context analysis, recognizing intersectional vulnerabilities (gender, disability, indigeneity and other affiliations);
• Enhance country office advocacy and technical assistance to advance GEDSI outcomes in government systems, policy formulation, budgeting and frameworks, in partnership with specialized ministries, partners, and civil society;
• Provide strategic guidance and technical support to countries to design, inform, and operationalize GEDSI mainstreamed and/or targeted programmes;
• Guide the roll out of new corporate results and accountability frameworks including WFP’s Gender, Protection and Inclusion Accountability for Results framework; and
• Provide guidance to country offices (and their partners / government counterparts) on GEDSI considerations when budgeting programmes.
• As part of the above, the Advisor will work to integrate and action jointly with the respective regional counterparts, recommendations from related WFP regional evidence pieces, including: Disability Inclusive School Feeding Practice Guide for Asia and the Pacific (2023); Cash Transfers and Digital Financial Inclusion in the Asia-Pacific region (2023); Disability Inclusion in Emergency Preparedness and Response (2024); and Gender Transformative Approaches in School-Based Health and Nutrition Programmes in Asia and the Pacific (2024).

Guide strategic advocacy and partnerships including:

• Support country offices to identify meaningful research and partnerships to guide programme and policy design/refinement, such as building evidence on who is being left behind or the cost of exclusion;
• Support WFP management at Country and Regional levels to articulate WFP’s value proposition externally, including in WFP’s engagement and advocacy with governments and financial partners (IFIs, private sector and foundations, and climate financing);
• Support country offices to advance localization commitments in partnership with civil society organizations (including women-led/women’s rights organizations, organizations of persons with disabilities, indigenous peoples organizations) and related government machineries;
• Identify and build meaningful regional partnerships with UN agencies; and
• Internally, enhance opportunities to achieve GEDSI commitments across WFP’s systems and processes including human resources and procurement.

Advance knowledge and capacities of country and regional teams: 

• Generate knowledge management and learning products on best practices from the region for internal and external consumption, and support targeted advocacy efforts;
• Support the contextualization of corporate guidance, tools and trainings, including new corporate results framework indicators and accountability frameworks; and
• Coordinate WFP’s internal regional cross-cutting network and support the onboarding and upskilling of GEDSI staff across the region at country level.

Other duties as required.

QUALIFICATIONS & EXPERIENCE REQUIRED:

Education:

• Advanced degree in one or more of the following disciplines: social sciences, development studies, public policy / administration, international relations, gender studies, sociology or other relevant field.

Experience:

Required:

• Minimum 8 (eight) to 10 (ten) years of professional experience in relevant areas including at least 4 (four) years progressively responsible professional experience in international development and/or humanitarian contexts;
• Experience in various facets of GEDSI programming relevant for WFP work in the region, including explicit experience in disability inclusion and other relevant areas touched upon in this ToR (eg: digital financial inclusion, inclusive social protection, etc);
• Familiarity with qualitative data collection, social behavioral change communication, and related engagement approaches; and
• Experience in influencing/advising government policy / frameworks.

Knowledge & Skills:

• Understanding of WFP’s work and GEDSI mainstreaming approach;
• Strong analytical, written and oral communication skills are essential;
• Capacity to influence others and to pitch at a strategic level (or to support / advise senior management to this end);
• Client orientation with excellent interpersonal skills, demonstrated ability to build partnerships and influence the work of others;
• Experience in building capacity for technical staff as well as supporting senior managers in implementing new concepts;
• Proven ability to produce outputs independently; and
• Flexibility to travel when necessary.

Languages:

• Excellent command of English (written and spoken) is essential.
• Must be willing to live / relocate to Bangkok, Thailand.

Source: https://wd3.myworkdaysite.com/en-US/recruiting/wfp/job_openings/job/Bangkok-Thailand-The-Kingdom-Of/Regional-Programme-and-Policy-Officer—Gender-Equality–Disability-and-Social-Inclusion-Advisor—Asia—the-Pacific_JR107912