International Consultant - Programme Policy… at World Food… · Kabul

DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS 23 August 2026-23:59-GMT+04:30 Afghanistan Time (Kabul)

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:

Afghanistan continues to face a severe food security and nutrition crisis. According to the latest IPC analysis, 13.8 million people (28 percent of the population) were experiencing Crisis or worse (IPC Phase 3+) levels of acute food insecurity in September–October 2025, including 2.9 million people in Emergency (IPC Phase 4). Food insecurity is projected to worsen during the lean season, with 17.4 million people (36 percent) expected to face IPC Phase 3+ outcomes between November 2025 and March 2026, before improving seasonally to 13.8 million people during April–September 2026. Persistent drought, economic fragility, large-scale population returns, declining livelihoods, and reductions in humanitarian assistance continue to drive vulnerability across the country.

Acute malnutrition remains alarmingly high. The latest IPC Acute Malnutrition analysis projects that 3.7 million children under five, including 942,000 cases of severe acute malnutrition (SAM), and 1.2 million pregnant and breastfeeding women will require treatment in 2026. Poor dietary diversity, disease outbreaks, inadequate water and sanitation services, climatic shocks, and reduced access to health and nutrition services continue to exacerbate malnutrition risks.

WFP’s food security monitoring further highlights the deteriorating situation. Between March and June 2026, nearly two-thirds of communities (1,926) experienced worsening food security conditions despite seasonal improvements in food availability. Instability driven by returnee influxes, displacement, conflict, natural hazards, and declining household access affected 76 percent of communities, while health and nutrition conditions deteriorated in 70 percent due to persistent malnutrition, disease outbreaks, poor water quality, weak health services, and the cumulative impacts of prolonged drought.

In this context, WFP requires a Programme Policy Officer capable of strengthening early warning systems and translating food security and nutrition analysis into timely, evidence-based programming and operational responses for vulnerable populations across Afghanistan.

DUTIES

WFP-Afghanistan requires a Programme Policy Officer (Early Warning Analyst) to lead in the development of an early warning strategy and methodologies that incorporates famine early warning, disaster early warning and nutrition early warning. This role is intended to design a practicable and operational early warning workstream that is responsive to the complex and evolving Afghanistan context and suited to WFP operations and mandate. This staff member is also expected to provide expert guidance and early warning analysis for internal and external operations, including to support geographical targeting using near real-time monitoring of drivers of food security and nutrition, with an understanding of impact around immediate humanitarian needs and longer-term resilience.

This staff member is expected to lead the management and implementation of a comprehensive early warning and GIS workstream, expanding on the current early warning portfolio. It includes the management of an early warning and GIS unit, operational partnerships and external representation, and project management including of innovations within the portfolio. This role is also expected to strengthen early warning capacities for WFP and its partners, and support in informing context analysis and monitoring for external contributions. This position is required to operate with considerable independence, driving the early warning and GIS workstream without significant supervisory support or guidance, with initiative and with coordination and engagement from other units.

This staff member will produce integrated context and food security analysis and coordinate its application to programming and operations across different units and teams. This staff member is responsible for ensuring that analysis drives concrete changes in programming with client units and teams. These efforts will be both reactive – responding to issues and requests as they arise – and proactive – utilizing wide-ranging context analysis to prevent and mitigate programmatic and operational issues and to anticipate analytical needs within the organization. In addition to CO units and teams, the Analyst also supports all Area Offices (AOs) from within the country RAM unit. They are also expected to work across all relevant units and teams, including collaborating heavily with Gender & Protection, Security, Access, and others.

The Programme Policy Officer also functions as a further link between the Country Office and a wide range of stakeholders as relevant to food security and context analysis in Afghanistan. These may include research organizations like International Crisis Group or academic institutions like Tufts University.

Under the supervision of the Head of Research, Analysis, Monitoring, and Evaluation (RAME), this position shall perform the following tasks:

ACCOUNTABILITIES/RESPONSIBILITIES:

ACCOUNTABILITIES/RESPONSIBILITIES:

Targeting for emergency and development programmes

1. Provide expert advice and support WFP and its partners on matters pertaining to early warning analysis on food security and nutrition and ensure the timely and productive use of related outputs in a manner that complies with WFP standards and processes.

2. Provide analysis to support strategic thinking for programming and operations.

3. Lead and conduct complex early warning analysis on food security, nutrition, markets and resilience to inform and influence programs and operations.

4. Provide advice and guidance on the development of program activities, technical analysis, interpretation and recommendations to enable food assistance needs to be met effectively.

5. Inform or develop analysis to conduct geographical targeting that is contextualized to Afghanistan and reflect near real-time realities impacting food security.

6. Optimize geographical and beneficiary targeting to ensure maximum efficiency and equity in resource allocation, minimizing inclusion and exclusion errors.

7. Provide comprehensive analysis inputs for IPC and national assessments to enable evidence-based decision-making and coordinated responses.

8. Provide technical analysis to support strategic efforts including anticipatory action and shock-responsive social protection.

Early Warning Workstream

1. Implement a fully operational early warning system addressing famine, disaster, and nutrition risks to directly inform WFP’s programmatic decisions.
2. Develop and implement an early warning strategy including the multiple aspects of early warning mentioned above.
3. Coordinate and provide technical analysis, recommendations and learnings to continuously improve the early warning workstream.
4. Build capacities of WFP partners and external actors around early warning analysis.
5. Lead the production of high-quality products on early for internal and external purposes.
6. Overall management of service providers contributing to the early warning workstream.
7. Lead innovations around early warning to ensure WFP Afghanistan’s systems are cutting-edge and responsive to needs.

Anticipatory Action component

1. Develop and validate early warning systems and thresholds to activate anticipatory actions, ensuring alignment with WFP's operational capacities and partnerships.
2. Engage communities in co-designing context-specific response plans, incorporating diverse needs, and ensuring equitable access to anticipatory support.
3. Foster collaboration with stakeholders, train WFP staff and partners, and standardize best practices to improve the coordination and effectiveness of anticipatory actions.
4. Co-create localized preparedness plans with communities to enhance resilience and reduce reliance on humanitarian assistance during crises.
5. Enhance crisis mitigation through early warning and anticipatory action systems, reducing the impact of food security shocks and improving community resilience.
6. Strengthen inter-agency and national collaborations, ensuring WFP plays a leading role in shaping food security and nutrition interventions.

Fundraising Responsibilities

1. Identify potential funding opportunities for early warning and anticipatory action projects.
2. Support the preparation of concept notes, proposals, and fundraising materials with technical inputs and evidence.
3. Contribute to donor engagement by providing project data, success stories, and impact information.
4. Assist in documenting results and lessons learned to strengthen resource mobilization and donor reporting.

Cross-cutting and other duties

1. Represent WFP during meetings with partners to contribute to technical discussions, knowledge and experience exchanges, advocacy for appropriate interventions (based on an evidence base), and identifying areas of collaboration.
2. Take responsibility for incorporating gender perspectives in all areas of work, to ensure equal participation of women and men.
3. Ensure recommendations for programs are conflict-sensitive in its approach.
4. Act in an assigned emergency response capacity as required to meet emergency food assistance needs.
5. Perform other related duties as required.

Qualifications Required

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 2 additional years of related work experience and/or trainings/courses.

Experience and Knowledge Skills Desired

• At least 6 years professional experience, including in famine early warning and general context analysis • Displays ability to identify the main hunger problem at the national or subnational level to design and implement context-specific programmes that integrate complex analysis and the full range of food assistance tools • Displays ability to translate understanding of programme principles in emergencies and protracted conflict situations into relevant, effective, and context specific approaches • High familiarity with WFP programming and ways of working as well as food security, and major contextual issues generally, in Afghanistan and/or demonstrated ability and willingness to rapidly acquire such in-depth knowledge • Advanced knowledge of food insecurity and vulnerability measurement and analysis • Demonstrated experience in humanitarian and other data collection, management, and analysis • Advanced knowledge of the Integrated Food Security Classification (IPC) framework, related processes, and outputs; IPC certification an asset. • Strong initiative and independence, maturity of judgement, tact, and interpersonal skills • Ability to communicate effectively orally and in writing • Ability to deliver on responsibilities with minimal guidance • Ability to establish and work within teams and build effective working relationships with persons of many national and cultural backgrounds • Ability and willingness to cope with situations which may threaten health or safety and to live in challenging environments • General knowledge of humanitarian principles, UN rules, regulations and procedures • Flexibility in accepting work assignments outside normal desk description or outside Terms of Reference

Languages:

Working knowledge of English (Level C); knowledge of major languages in Afghanistan advantageous.

Type of Contract: CST II

Duty Station: Kabul, Afghanistan

Duration: 6 Months

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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 http://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.