Programme & Policy Consultant

DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS

14 February 2026-23:59-GMT+03:00 East Africa Time (Addis Ababa)

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 Ethiopia, WFP is working with the Government and humanitarian partners to strengthen the resilience of people, communities, and systems and to chart a more prosperous and sustainable future for the next generation. Our interventions are highly contextualized and adapted to the specific needs of our beneficiaries, including smallholder farmers, pastoralists, refugees, and host-communities who are most vulnerable to climate shocks.

 WFP-supported resilience-building interventions in the drought-prone lowland areas in Ethiopia are focused on supporting vulnerable beneficiaries with an integrated climate-smart package that includes cash for work, indexed insurance, financial services, nature-based disaster risk reduction, restoration of degraded agricultural and range lands, improved access to water through watershed management, fodder production, and livelihood strengthening activities. We work with both pastoral and agropastoral beneficiaries, supporting sustainable natural resource management while enabling restoration of degraded rangelands and agriculturally productive riverine areas to increase local productivity and strengthen market systems in support of diversified, nutritious diets. We simultaneously focus on strengthening capacities of national and local institutions for improved early warning systems, gender transformation, and climate resilient diversified food systems.

The purpose of this assignment is to develop adequate in-house capacity and necessary technical expertise to support the commissioning, development and handover of the irrigation infrastructure developed under the SIDNDANIDA project the more Infrastructure that will be constructed under IFTIIN project in the target 6 woredas (Dolobay, Dollo Ado, Bokolmayo, Gode, East Imey and Adadle) for both Dolo Ado and Gode Sub-offices, Somali Region. This entails developing and designing irrigation and water harvesting infrastructure, designing irrigation schedules, water-use regulation, soil testing, mobilizing and organizing communities into farmer groups/associations and training. In addition, the position will also integrate into an immediate activity funded by the Spanish Government intended to increase food production, incomes and nutrition among affected refugee and host communities using the existing irrigation infrastructure and the Kfw funded project-Climate Proofing Food security project for the drought prone lowlands in Ethiopia.

The Programme Policy Officer (agricultural engineer) will be responsible for providing strategic guidance and operational support for the implementation of interventions aimed at enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of the use of the irrigation infrastructure developed.

ACCOUNTABILITIES/RESPONSIBILITIES: (not all-inclusive, nor exhaustive):

Under the technical guidance and supervision of the Head of Engineering, ETCO and overall supervision by the Head of Programme, Somali Region, the Programme Policy Officer (Agricultural Engineer) will be responsible for providing strategic guidance and operational support for the implementation of interventions aimed at enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of the use of the irrigation infrastructure developed. The position requires knowledge of sustainable practices for irrigation operation and maintenance, water management and proactive risk mitigation, farm planning and layout design, community mobilization and engagement.

The Programme Policy Officer (Agricultural Engineer) will be responsible for providing strategic guidance and operational support for the implementation of interventions. 

Specific tasks and responsibilities will include: 

• Under the overall guidance and technical supervision of Head of Engineering in ETCO, provide engineering and project management support, apply best practices, standards and innovative technologies that comply with WFP standards and processes to ensure that all infrastructural development activities have acceptable standards, and all agribusiness initiatives are of meaningful profitability to the targeted beneficiaries. 
• Provide technical guidance in design, development, planning, implementation, and capacity building for agriculture in particular and resilience in general. Including (but not limited to) food security programming; household food access; household and community resilience; poverty reduction; rural economic development, agricultural development, agribusiness, or value chain development.
• Work collaboratively with WFP Engineering team in ETCO and manage the irrigation projects in the region as assigned by the Head of Area office, Head of Engineering and Head of Changing Lives.
• Support men, women and youth to increase their knowledge and awareness on gender equality, women economic empowerment and women’s participation in project design, implementation and decision making to advance enterprise development, value addition and agro processing activities.
• Contribute to the collection, documentation and dissemination of relevant data and information related to agriculture, agribusiness, food value chains and systems, including for example, trends and developments, approaches, impacts, lessons and good practices. Contribute to preparation of accurate and timely reporting on outputs to facilitate informed decision-making and consistency of information presented to stakeholders including information for a database and website.
• Provide specialized analytical expertise, technical and operational advisory support to partners and stakeholders to enable the highest possible quality in design and effectiveness of activities related to (agro)pastoralist livelihoods ensuring integration of context relevant, evidence-based, climate smart, environmentally, and socio-economically sustainable options that are more resilient to shocks and stressors. 
• Enable synergistic approaches with external partners and other WFP programmes including Refugees, Relief, Nutrition and supply chain interventions to maximize impact.
• Undertake capacity gap needs assessment of the partners and organize capacity building programmes (workshops, training, exchange visits etc.) to address these gaps, especially focusing on storage facilities, construction of irrigation canal and other rainwater harvesting systems.
• Under the overall guidance of Head of Engineering, contribute towards analysis of project proposals from Cooperating partners to enable effective decision making on project technical feasibility.
• Monitor the implementation of the projects through field visits and provide necessary technical support.
• Participate in technical or design review, exchange of knowledge and experience keeping abreast of Irrigation, water harvesting technologies and engineering technologies in general, to facilitate implementation of innovative engineering solutions.
• Review weekly, biweekly and monthly reports submitted by the cooperating partners as well as irrigation consultants and contractors and provide valuable comments and suggestions.
• Where necessary draft and prepare reports of the projects and submit to the Head of Area office and Head of Engineering for their review and comments.
• Perform other related duties as required.

STANDARD MINIMUM ACADEMIC QUALIFICATIONS:

Education: Bachelor’s Degree in the following fields: Irrigation Engineering, Water Engineering, or Agricultural Engineering, from a recognized university. Competent in MS Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.

Experience: At least three years of postgraduate professional experience working at field level implementing community-based irrigation development projects. 

Languages: Fluency in both oral and written communication in English. Knowledge of the local language is added advantage.

Knowledge & Skills:

• Ability to carry out survey and designing of irrigation and water harvesting infrastructure and supervision of construction of the same to the desired quality and standard.
• Ability to support small holder farmers in designing irrigation water schedules based on the crop water requirements and cropping pattern.
• Understanding of community based participatory planning approaches.
• Ability to conduct capacity gaps needs assessments and design programmes to fill these gaps.
• Experience in working in arid and semi-arid parts of Africa, working in Ethiopia will be an added advantage. 
• Familiarity with Irrigation, water harvesting technologies and pastoral livelihood approaches.
• Experience in working with communities, cooperatives and groups on enterprise development, gender and agriculture, agro processing, and value addition • Excellent communication skills - both written and oral in English 
• Skills in workshop facilitation.
• Strong organization and planning skills coupled with good interpersonal skills.
• Good analytical skills; resourcefulness, initiative, maturity of judgment, tact, negotiating skills. 
• Ability to work in a team and establish effective working relations with persons of different national and cultural backgrounds.
• Ability to deal patiently and tactfully with people of different national and cultural backgrounds.

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 recruitment system. We do not accept CVs or spontaneous applications by email.
• If you experience challenges while submitting your online application, please contact us at global.hrerecruitment@wfp.org for technical support only.
• Please note that applications sent to this email address cannot be considered.
• We strongly recommend that your profile is accurate, complete, and includes your employment records, academic qualifications, language skills and UN Grade (if applicable).
• Once your profile is completed, please apply, and submit your application.
• Kindly note the only documents you will need to submit at this time are your CV and Cover Letter
• Additional documents such as passport, recommendation letters, academic certificates, etc. may potentially be requested at a future time
• Only shortlisted candidates will be notified

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.