DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS

27 August 2026-23:59-GMT+03:00 East Africa Time (Mogadishu)

WFP celebrates and embraces diversity. It is committed to the principle of equal employment opportunity for all its employees and encourages qualified candidates to apply irrespective of race, colour, national origin, ethnic or social background, genetic information, gender, gender identity and/or expression, sexual orientation, religion or belief, HIV status or disability.

ABOUT WFP

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.

At WFP, people are at the heart of everything we do and the vision of the future WFP workforce is one of diverse, committed, skilled, and high performing teams, selected on merit, operating in a healthy and inclusive work environment, living WFP's values (Integrity, Collaboration, Commitment, Humanity, and Inclusion) and working with partners to save and change the lives of those WFP serves.

To learn more about WFP, visit our website: https://www.wfp.org and follow us on social media to keep up with our latest news: YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok.

WHY JOIN WFP?

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).

Background and Purpose of the Assignment:

In fragile and conflict-affected settings, school meals programmes play a critical role in supporting vulnerable children’s food security, nutrition, and education. Beyond these core functions, there is growing interest in their potential to promote peace and social cohesion through conflict-sensitive programming. In fact, emerging evidence shows that in these contexts, school meals, by incentivizing school attendance, not only reduce exposure to risks such as recruitment into armed groups, child labor, and early marriage, but also act as a stabilization tool. By addressing food insecurity and promoting inclusive education, school meals help reduce drivers of fragility and foster social cohesion, creating conditions less conducive to conflict.

Building on an emerging evidence base, WFP has begun to explore this potential more systematically. In 2022, WFP’s PPGS and PPGE services developed an internal technical briefing note outlining pathways through which school meals could contribute to peace (CtP) and social cohesion, highlighting risks and opportunities, and providing guidance for conflict-sensitive programming.

In 2023, with funding from Luxembourg, WFP partnered with the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) to produce a framing paper—launched in 2025 at the School Meals Coalition (SMC) Summit—that situates school meals within a conflict-sensitive approach. The paper reviews existing evidence on how school meals can strengthen social cohesion, expands potential pathways of change to support peace, identifies knowledge gaps, and establishes a foundation for future research.

With continued support from Luxembourg, WFP and IDS advanced this work in 2025 through forthcoming country insight reports in Somalia and Mali. The Somalia report, focused on school feeding in Galkayo, examines the relevance of selected pathways of change for contributing to peace and identifies practical entry points for enhancing social cohesion through school meals programmes. Based on its recommendations, Luxembourg funding will now be used to integrate conflict-sensitive approaches into Somalia School Meals Programme (SMP), alongside Mali, and to ensure school feeding activities contribute to secondary peace and social cohesion outcomes through a dedicated Senior Programme Policy Officer.

Building on the report’s recommendations, WFP will begin integrating conflict-sensitivity approaches and social cohesion considerations more systematically across school meals programmes. This includes applying a newly released crosscutting indicator on social cohesion, strengthening Country Office capacities to implement conflict sensitive SMPs, and positioning school feeding, showcasing Somalia and Mali examples, as a flagship for peace and stabilization in global fora. The intention is for Somalia’s experience, together with insights emerging from other pilot contexts, starting with Mali, to serve as a model for replication in other fragile and conflict affected settings.

Accountabilities and Responsibilities:

Integration of Conflict Sensitivity, Contributions to Peace and Social Cohesion in School Feeding Programming

Support Somalia Country Office (SOCO) in implementing recommendations from the WFP-IDS Somalia insight report to strengthen conflict-sensitivity and promote social cohesion through school meals, including but not limited to:

• Supporting SOCO in identifying opportunities to conduct a country-wide conflict analysis across CSP activities and mainstreaming school meals considerations in the analysis
• Engage SMP programme & M&E teams to design a SOCO school meals theory of change which articulates, among others, pathways of change for promotion of CtP and social cohesion and which translates clear pathways into targeted and corresponding key indicators embedded in the CO results framework. To ensure these additions are actionable, pilot the updated ToC, specific activities and indicators in a sample of schools before considering scale‑up.
• Ensure that the pilot phase bundles SMP with complementary interventions, such as SBCC, and leverages coordination within relevant education cluster partners, to reinforce CtP and social cohesion outcomes.
• Review and strengthen conflict-sensitivity within school targeting frameworks and CFM structures
• Support the SOCO in applying the newly released cross-cutting indicator on social cohesion at the CSP activity level (Country Office Social Cohesion Integration Score) starting with school meals. This includes ensuring:
• Activities are informed by relevant conflict analysis.
• School feeding integrates secondary social cohesion outcomes.
• Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) frameworks include indicators to capture perceived or measured changes in social cohesion.
• Support integration of protection and AAP principles when applying the social cohesion integration score and designing school feeding activities
• Provide technical support to Global HQ (GHQ) in ensuring the consistent and coherent application of the new corporate social cohesion indicator.
• Support GHQ in strengthening the contribution of school meals to peace and social cohesion, positioning Somalia as a corporate/global best practice and enabling replication of Somalia’s approach across other operations.
• Provide strategic direction for the development of operational guidance to ensure that WFP humanitarian response incorporates conflict sensitivity and early-entry resilience activities (e.g. asset creation, community-based preparedness) tailored to livelihoods zones and targeting the most vulnerable populations affected by shocks, further leveraging schools and HGSF as platforms for community development.

Coordination and Liaison

Serve as the key liaison between WFP GHQ and the CO to ensure effective coordination for the development and submission of proposal for a second phase of the Luxembourg-funded initiative.

Support engagement with the donor – Luxembourg - on progress in integrating social cohesion in SMP and other related pilot efforts.

Capacity Strengthening

Support the development and plan for delivery of capacity-building initiatives, including:

• An online training on conflict-sensitive school meals, contribution to peace and social cohesion, including protection and AAP considerations, including planning for its roll-out across COs.
• An internal online webinar on school meals, social cohesion, and contributions to peace, showcasing insights from the IDS research in Somalia and Mali.
• Dissemination of the technical briefing note on school meals, peace and conflict and offering tailored technical support as needed.
• Training sessions for community members and state authorities (TBC – most likely to be realized at a later stage).

Advocacy and Communications

Support GHQ and SOCO participation in national and global engagement opportunities that showcase efforts, best practices, knowledge products and insights generated on SMP, social cohesion and contribution to peace (including the framing paper and country insight reports for Somalia and Mali), as well as subsequent steps undertaken to integrate social cohesion into SMPs. This includes contributing to the organization of key internal and external events, and supporting participation in high‑level dialogues, and partnership initiatives with relevant UN bodies, member states, and SMC partners.

Provide technical inputs to, and review of, advocacy and communications materials developed by GHQ, CO and the SMC Secretariat (communication & advocacy team) related to SMP, social cohesion, and contributions to peace, as needed.

Deliverables at the end of the contract:

Technical support to SOCO, focusing on implementation of the WFP-IDS insight report recommendations and application of the social cohesion integration score to Somalia’s SMP, with consolidated findings and recommendations, including :

• Support in identification of opportunities to conduct country-wide conflict analysis and integration of school feeding considerations into the analysis;
• Strengthened school targeting criteria and community engagement strategies to improve conflict-sensitive programming across the SMP;
• Revised M&E framework, articulating social cohesion embedded in the school feeding theory of change and link to social cohesion indicators embedded in the results framework;
• Designed pilot phase to test the revised ToC and social cohesion indicators in a selected number of schools, including definition of pilot sites, bundled complementary interventions, monitoring arrangements, and learning objectives to inform future scale‑up;
• Strategic guidance for the development of an operational guidance to institutionalize the integration of conflict sensitivity and early‑entry resilience approaches within WFP humanitarian response design and implementation through the lens of schools and HGSF as platforms for community development;
• Application of the cross-cutting indicator on social cohesion.

Technical support to GHQ in supporting similar pilot efforts across WFP and to other COs interested in replicating Somalia’s approach, as needed.

Brief donor updates (Luxembourg) summarizing progress on integrating social cohesion into Somalia’s SMP and support in draft proposal for next phase.

Support GHQ with development and plan for rollout of capacity‑building products, including an online training module on conflict-sensitive school meals, social cohesion, peace contributions; and internal webinar; and dissemination of technical briefing note on school meals, peace and social cohesion.

Support GHQ and CO participation in global engagement opportunities.

Technical inputs to advocacy and communications materials related to SMPs, social cohesion, and contributions to peace (GHQ, CO, SMC Secretariat)

Qualifications and Experience Required:

Education: Advanced university degree in international relations/affairs, peace and conflict studies, international development, or related field.

Experience: Minimum 8 years of progressively responsible experience in contributions to peace-related work.

Proven experience in programme design related to contributions to peace, capacity building, and stakeholder coordination.

Familiarity with UN system. Knowledge of school meals programmes is an asset.

Languages: Fluency (level C) in English.

WFP LEADERSHIP FRAMEWORK

WFP Leadership Framework guides to the common standards of behavior that guide HOW we work together to accomplish our mission.

Click here to access WFP Leadership Framework

REASONABLE ACCOMMODATION

WFP is committed to supporting individuals with disabilities by providing reasonable accommodations throughout the recruitment process. If you require a reasonable accommodation, please contact: global.inclusion@wfp.org

NO FEE DISCLAIMER

The United Nations does not charge any application, processing, training, interviewing, testing or other fee in connection with the application or recruitment process. Should you receive a solicitation for the payment of a fee, please disregard it. Furthermore, please note that emblems, logos, names and addresses are easily copied and reproduced. Therefore, you are advised to apply particular care when submitting personal information on the web.

REMINDERS BEFORE YOU SUBMIT YOUR APPLICATION

All applications must be submitted exclusively through our online recruiting system. We do not consider CVs or applications sent by email, LinkedIn, or any other channel.

We strongly recommend that your Workday profile is accurate and complete, and that all sections are filled in, including your employment history, academic qualifications, language skills, and UN grade (if applicable). Once your profile is completed, please apply, and submit your application.

If you experience technical issues while submitting your application, you may contact us at global.hrerecruitment@wfp.org. Please note that this email is only for technical issues with an application - unsolicited applications or documents sent to this inbox will not receive a reply.

At the application stage, the only required documents are your CV and Cover Letter. Additional documents (passport, certificates, recommendation letters, etc.) may be requested later in the process.

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and invited to proceed to the next stage of the recruitment process.

All employment decisions are made on the basis of organizational needs, job requirements, merit, and individual qualifications. WFP is committed to providing an inclusive work environment free of sexual exploitation and abuse, all forms of discrimination, any kind of harassment, sexual harassment, and abuse of authority. Therefore, all selected candidates will undergo rigorous reference and background checks.

No appointment under any kind of contract will be offered to members of the UN Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ), International Civil Service Commission (ICSC), FAO Finance Committee, WFP External Auditor, WFP Audit Committee, Joint Inspection Unit (JIU) and other similar bodies within the United Nations system with oversight responsibilities over WFP, both during their service and within three years of ceasing that service.