Policy Officer (Food Technologist) at WHO Organization: World Food Program Apply By: 17 Oct 2023 Location: New Delhi (Delhi)

World Food Organization

About the Organization

The United Nations World Food Programme is the world's largest humanitarian agency fighting hunger worldwide.  The mission of WFP is to help the world achieve Zero Hunger in our lifetimes.  Every day, WFP works worldwide to ensure that no child goes to bed hungry and that the poorest and most vulnerable, particularly women and children, can access the nutritious food they need.

Job Description

To provide support to policy and programme activities that effectively assists the Government’s work in nutrition and school meals by providing technical assistance, innovation and capacity strengthening to the National and State governments to increase the nutritional effectiveness of government programmes and systems so that the Government can achieve its targets under SDG 2, by 2030, in line with WFP India’s Strategic Plan.

The position requires a high level of technical competency in food technology, product formulation & research, fortification and innovation and will operate with considerable independence, manage a team to ensure planned objectives are achieved in full.

Job Responsibilities

Under the direct reporting to the Head of Unit for Nutrition and School Meals, WFP India and overall guidance of the Country Director, will provide technical assistance to focus State governments on different aspects of food technology while managing complex and large-scale nutrition and school meal programmes which contribute to meeting the nutritional needs of government beneficiaries of their food based social protection systems:

  • Contribute towards the integration of food technology aspects and details in the nutrition and school meal projects, plans and processes, ensuring alignment with wider policies and guidance ensuring compliance with WFP Food and Safety regulations.
  • Provide project management support to specific and defined nutrition and school meals projects and activities, ensuring a coordinated approach with other units, in compliance with WFP standards and procedures.
  • Track, collate and analyse data to provide input into reporting activities and contribute to the preparation of accurate and timely reporting on nutrition and school meal activities that enables informed decision making and consistency of information presented to stakeholders with a specific focus on food quality and safety.
  • Liaise with implementing partners (internal and external) to monitor ongoing projects, ensuring effective collaboration, timeliness and efficiency, and highlight potential risks to project delivery.
  • Research and analyse a range of policy and operational issues to inform the development of policies, programmes and activities that can strengthen the efficiency and effectiveness of government systems.
  • Support the capacity building of WFP staff, partners and national and state government for national capacity strengthening and food safety/quality related issues.
  • In the event of food safety incidents in any of WFP project on nutrition and school meals, support investigation exercises to enable lesson learned to be documented and shared, to reduce re-occurrence of the incident.
  • Contribute towards the development and/or implementation of protocols and tools relating to food technology issues, ensuring alignment with larger strategy, policies and plans.
  • Guide and supervise staff, acting as a point of referral and supporting them with analysis and queries.
  • Represent WFP at various National and Sub-national meetings and for a on food safety/quality to contribute to technical discussions and reflect WFP experiences.
  • Other as required.

Education Qualification/Required Skills & Experience

  • Minimum 3 years of postgraduate (master’s degree) working experience in areas related to social protection and public systems.
  • Experience of working in nutrition and food quality related activities at National and State level in collaboration with the Government
  • Experience implementing food technology related tools and protocol.
  • Working experience in implementing large and complex nutrition and school meals projects.
  • Experience in working independently with minimum supervision, often in fluid and ambiguous situations will be required.

Minimum academic qualifications:

  • Education: Advanced university degree in Food Technology, Health Sciences, Food Control, Nutrition or other related field, or First University degree with additional five years of related work experience and/or training/courses.
  • Language: Fluency (level C) in English language and Hindi.

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