DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS

ABOUT THE SCHOOL MEALS ACCELERATOR

School Meals Accelerator (the Accelerator) is the fifth and newest initiative underthe School Meals Coalitionoperating as an independent initiative while being hosted by the World Food Programme (WFP). It is designed to support governments to scale and strengthen their national school meal programmes and turn their ambitions into real impact. Acting as a network catalyst and convenor the Accelerator mobilizes resources andexpertisefrom the right partners to deliver strategic technicalassistancewhere it matters most.

The Accelerators mission: unlock the full potential of national school meal programs by improving design scaling investment and fostering collaboration across education health and food systems. It embraces a systems-thinking approach adapts to country priorities and thrives in deep collaboration among global regional and local actors. The Accelerators ambition: to help low- and lower-middle-income countries reach anadditional100 million children by 2030 making school meals a cornerstone of human capital development and a global standard of care.

The Acceleratoroperatesin conditions of high complexity. Because itoperatesas a network facilitator rather than a traditional organization its work spans multiple countriesorganisationsand institutional logics andseeksto support system-level change rather than the delivery of predefined solutions.


For this reason the Accelerator has adopted a systemic leadership approach which accepts that pathways to change are non-linear and progress depends on learningadaptationand collaboration across boundaries. Working in this way places ongoing demands on those involved and requires leaders whoare able towork productively with uncertainty difference and incomplete authority whilemaintainingaccountability for results. Joining the Accelerator team therefore means being part of a first-of-its-kind development enterprise: a systems-focused effort to drive lasting country-led change that requires a willingness to learn adapt and be shaped by the work as it evolves.

ABOUT THE SCHOOL MEALS ACCELERATOR:

School Meals Accelerator (the Accelerator) is the fifth and newest initiative under the School Meals Coalition designed to support governments to scale and strengthen their national school meal programmes and turn their ambitions into real impact. Acting as a network catalyst and convenor the Accelerator mobilizes resources and expertise from the right partners to deliver strategic technical assistance where it matters most.
The Accelerators mission: unlock the full potential of national school meal programs by improving design scaling investment and fostering collaboration across education health and food systems. It embraces a systems-thinking approach adapts to country priorities and thrives in deep collaboration among global regional and local actors. The Accelerators ambition: to help low- and lower-middle-income countries reach an additional 100 million children by 2030 making school meals a cornerstone of human capital development and a global standard of care.
The Accelerator operates in conditions of high complexity. Because it operates as a network facilitator rather than a traditional organization its work spans multiple countries organisations and institutional logics and seeks to support system-level change rather than the delivery of predefined solutions.
For this reason the Accelerator has adopted a systemic leadership approach which accepts that pathways to change are non-linear and progress depends on learning adaptation and collaboration across boundaries. Working in this way places ongoing demands on those involved and requires leaders who are able to work productively with uncertainty difference and incomplete authority while maintaining accountability for results. Joining the Accelerator team therefore means being part of a first-of-its-kind development enterprise: a systems-focused effort to drive lasting country-led change that requires a willingness to learn adapt and be shaped by the work as it evolves.

PURPOSE OF THE ROLE:

This role is part of the Country Support Team which coordinates and supports all country-facing activities. This team functions as the core integrative hub of the Accelerator where technical expertise partnerships evidence learning and country engagement converge to support impact at country level.
The Regenerative Supply Chain Expert is a core technical and strategic leader within the School Meals Accelerator. Embedded in the Country Support Team the Advisor has a dual role: 1) as a technical expert to strengthen the enabling environment for resilient localized and regenerative supply chains for school meal programs and; 2) as a member of the Country Support Team to support two (or more) designated country teams to access coordinated highquality assistance from across the Accelerator.

The Regenerative Supply Chain Expert provides global leadership on homegrown and regenerative supply chains ensuring that national school meal programs can transition toward climateresilient ecologically sustainable and locally anchored sourcing models. Engagement is grounded in country priorities across education agriculture nutrition and related sectors strengthening the broader enabling environment for sustainable and inclusive supplychain systems.

The postholder is also expected to coordinate closely with the School Meals Coalition Secretariat and other global initiatives to ensure aligned approaches shared messaging and coherent support to countries.

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES (not all-inclusive within delegated authority):

Technical Backstopping & Resource Development

• Mobilize and coordinate technical partners to deliver supplychain diagnostics procurement design regenerative agriculture inputs climaterisk modelling and other contextappropriate assistance ensuring timely access to the right expertise through a maintained roster.

• Advance and refine shared tools and standardsprocurement guidelines supplier onboarding farmertransition strategies monitoring frameworks templates and training modulesintegrating forecasting climaterisk and aggregation/storage insights into national and subnational models.

• Guide governments in defining sourcing standards and compliance pathways by strengthening technical alignment across ministries advising on procurement rules and incentives and connecting teams with expertise to support coherent technical and policy decisionmaking.

The type and level of technical support provided to each country will be tailored based on government priorities national capacities and contextspecific needs. As such country support packages may draw on one or more of the thematic areas outlined in this section rather than following a uniform or prescriptive set of activities.

Policy engagement at country level

• Drive crossministerial policy alignment for localized and regenerative sourcing by building shared understanding of benefits tradeoffs and implementation pathways and positioning supplychain reforms within broader national priorities.

• Translate technical insights into actionable policy guidance by advising procurement and regulatory navigation identifying bottlenecks and reform opportunities and shaping clear narratives for senior government leaders.

• Strengthen systemlevel connectivity by linking governments with global and regional actors and anchoring regenerative and localized sourcing priorities within national decisionmaking structures.

Country Support

• Lead governments to design or update multisectoral national school meals plans by defining priority sectors beyond education and overseeing diagnostics of crosssector gaps bottlenecks and opportunities.

• Strengthen the national school meals ecosystem by convening additional actorslocal governments civil society farmer organizations privatesector suppliers academia and community groupsand clarifying roles and contributions.

• Enable governments to translate priorities and technical needs into concrete partnership opportunities by connecting them with the right expertise and testing/validating collaboration models for coordinated effective support.

• Oversee technical assistance with partners ensuring agreements align with government priorities instituting feedback loops on implementation and securing timely progress updates.

• Establish and reinforce national and subnational coordination platforms by enabling governments to convene and align ministries local authorities civil society privatesector actors and academia around shared school meals goals.

• Champion systemsleadership capacity by strengthening government and countryteam skills in systems thinking coordination relational practice and multisectoral problemsolving.

• Oversee multisectoral ecosystem performance and partner coordination around national plans synthesizing insights that drive adaptive learning and inform SMAs global strategy and partnership model.

People Leadership Ways of Working & Culture

• Steward cohesive ways of working across SMA SFI country teams ministries and partners by ensuring clear interfaces disciplined coordination transparent information flows and timely resolution of crosssector challenges.

• Model SMAs systemic leadership culture by demonstrating inclusive solutionsfocused systemsoriented engagement; foster trust reflective practice and adaptive problemsolving across diverse stakeholder groups; strengthen capability and onboarding to reinforce shared standards and communication flows.

Learning Continuous Improvement & Knowledge

• Drive crosscountry learning by surfacing insights and innovations from SMA country work and synthesizing evidence that informs SMAs global learning agenda tools and strategic decisions.
• Strengthen continuous improvement by updating supplychain tools diagnostics models and guidance with country feedback; tracking emerging priorities in regenerative/localized sourcing; and maintaining concise practical knowledge products that support adaptive countryled implementation.

Individual developmental expectations within the SMA Systemic Leadership Framework

This role operates within the School Meals Accelerators systemic leadership approach. All SMA roles are expected to be enacted in line with the SMA Systemic Leadership Framework which sets out six shared leadership mindsets core leadership practices and more systemically demanding practices that guide how we work in complex fast-changing environments. The Framework also describes ways of engaging with complexity which reflect how individuals make sense of and act in uncertain interdependence situations.

While developmental maturity and role seniority are independent the SMA sets minimum developmental expectations by grade to support clarity and fairness in recruitment and early employment.

For this P4 role the minimum expectation is:
Reflective engagement with complexity: Staff members are increasingly able to step back from experience and notice their assumptions and reactions often after the event. Reflection supports learning and adjustment over time though it is not yet consistently available in the moment.

As set out in the Framework these expectations represent floors not ceilings. Ways of engaging with complexity are descriptive rather than evaluative are not tied mechanically to seniority or performance management and are used to support reflection learning and development over time rather than ranking or judgement.

What the Systemic Leadership Framework Means for Your Recruitment and Role

All roles in the School Meals Accelerator are expected to be enacted in line with the Systemic Leadership recruitment and selection the Framework supports informed conversations about how candidates make sense of complexity uncertainty and systemic change alongside assessment of technical expertise and role fit.

In ongoing work the Framework provides a shared orientation to how we work here and supports individual and collective learning over time.

QUALIFICATIONS:

Education: Advanced university degree in Nutrition Public Health Food Policy Agricultural Development International Development Economics Social Sciences or other relevant field; or a first university degree with two additional years of relevant experience and/or advanced training.

Experience:

• At least eight years of senior experience in agrifood supply chainsacross private sector nonprofit INGO/IGO or hybrid environmentsengaging directly with smallholder farmers and addressing marketaccess barriers infrastructure constraints and localized supplychain challenges.

• Demonstrated international experience collaborating with diverse partners including governments International Financial Institutions UN agencies civil society private sector and academia across regions and levels of influence.

• Extensive experience supporting government counterparts on fiscal agricultural procurement nutrition/foodsystems or multisectoral policy processes including alignment across ministries and practical implementation support.

• Track record shaping supplychain design and procurement systems particularly for smallholderinclusive or institutional markets (preferably school meals) and translating lessons across multiple country contexts through peer learning or portfolio approaches.

• Experience contributing to systemlevel learning agendas theories of change or implementation strategies including familiarity with monitoring evaluation and sourcingrelated metrics for adaptive management.

Knowledge & Skills:

• Strong systemsleadership mindset able to work with uncertainty integrate multiple perspectives and support collaborative problemsolving across food agriculture education nutrition climate and procurement systems.

• Deep technical knowledge of localized and regenerative food systems including agroecological and climateresilient approaches and the capacity to guide governments in aligning these with national schoolmeals sourcing models.

• Advanced capability to steward multistakeholder learning synthesizing insights across countries and shaping actionable guidance tools and playbooks grounded in SMAs practical fieldwork.

• Highlevel facilitation and relationshipbuilding skills enabling trustbased engagement with governments multilateral agencies privatesector actors and community stakeholders with sensitivity to political and cultural dynamics.

• Ability to assess vet and connect credible partners (UN agencies multilaterals NGOs private sector) and to orchestrate coordinated technical contributions rather than deliver services directly.

• Exceptional communication and knowledgetranslation skills able to produce clear accessible governmentfriendly materialsincluding briefs templates case studies and guidancefor decisionmaking and implementation support.

Languages: Fluency (level C) in English; intermediate (level B) in a second official UN language (Arabic Chinese French Russian Spanish)

TERMS AND CONDITIONS

This is an International Professional position open to candidates of all nationalities.
The selected candidate will be appointed on a fixed-term contract for an initial period of two years with the possibility of renewal based on operational requirements performance and the availability of funding. The probationary period will be one year.
This position is open to both internal and external applicants. For candidates currently employed at WFP on a rotational Fixed-Term Contract acceptance of an offer with the School Meals Accelerator will be subject to the contractual terms outlined in Annex 3 (Staffing Management) under the Fixed-Term Contractual Modalities described in Section 1.1. This includes provisions related to return rights and other applicable conditions.

WFP offers an attractive compensation and benefits package in line with ICSC standards () including basic salary post adjustment relocation entitlement visa travel and shipment allowances 30 days annual leave home leave an education grant for dependent children a pension plan and medical insurance.
The selected candidate will be required to relocate to Rome Italy to take up this assignment.

ANNEX: OVERVIEW OF THE SMA SYSTEMIC LEADERSHIP FRAMEWORK

The School Meals Accelerator (SMA) works in conditions of high complexity spanning multiple countries organisations and institutional logics and seeks to support system-level change rather than the delivery of predefined solutions.
To support effective leadership in this context the SMA has articulated a Systemic Leadership Framework. The Framework provides a shared language and reference point for how leadership is understood and enacted across the organisation and is used across recruitment onboarding feedback and learning.

This annex provides a high-level overview of the content of the Framework.

Leadership mindsets

At the heart of the SMA Systemic Leadership Framework are six leadership mindsets.
These mindsets describe shared orientations that shape how situations are interpreted what is treated as data and what kinds of action feel legitimate or possible in system-level change work.

They are not competencies or values statements but shared ways of making sense of complex situations that shape leadership practice particularly under pressure or uncertainty.

The six SMA leadership mindsets are:

• We see systems change as starting with us: We notice and work with how our roles assumptions and responses shape what becomes possible in the system.

• We experiment our way forward: We use disciplined experimentation and learning to make progress in conditions of uncertainty.

• We put countries needs first: We orient our work around the priorities contexts and capacities of countries rather than organisational convenience or external agendas.

• We value different perspectives: even when they clash: We work productively with difference tension and disagreement to support learning and systemic change.

• We teach and learn from one another: We treat learning as a shared ongoing responsibility and use everyday work as a source of individual and collective development.

• We are intentional about how and when we act: not simply defaulting to urgency: We treat pace and timing as deliberate leadership choices choosing actions that support learning and lasting change rather than activity for its own sake.

The mindsets are mutually reinforcing rather than sequential. Effective systemic leadership involves working across all of them rather than privileging one at the expense of others.

Leadership practices

Within each mindset the Framework identifies leadership practices that describe observable ways of working how leadership shows up in action. The Accelerator has 30 core leadership practices (5 per mindset) which are foundational practices expected of everyone working in the Accelerator regardless of role or grade. They support effective participation in complex multi-stakeholder environments.

Two broad categories of practice are described:

• Core leadership practices. These are foundational practices expected of everyone working in the Accelerator regardless of role or grade. They support effective participation in complex multi-stakeholder environments.

• More systemically demanding leadership practices. These practices place greater demands on attention reflexivity and systemic awareness. They often involve working across boundaries engaging with power and conflict and staying in learning under conditions of ambiguity or risk.

The distinction is not hierarchical or prescriptive. It exists to make visible differences in demand not differences in worth permission or status.

Ways of engaging with complexity

The Framework also describes different ways of engaging with complexity drawing on adult development theory. Ways of engaging with complexity describe how leadership practices are enacted not which practices are permitted. They are descriptive rather than evaluative are not tied mechanically to seniority or role and are context-sensitive.

The Framework describes four broad ways of engaging with complexity:

• Habitual engagement. People tend to respond to situations through familiar roles routines and immediate reactions. What is felt or thought in the moment tends to drive action with limited separation between observation interpretation and response especially under pressure.

• Reflective engagement. People are increasingly able to step back from experience and notice their assumptions and reactions often after the event. Reflection supports learning and adjustment over time though it is not yet consistently available in the moment.

• Intentional engagement. People actively work with their assumptions emotions and roles as part of ongoing practice. They are better able to pause make deliberate choices about how to respond and adapt their actions in real time under conditions of uncertainty.

• Systemic engagement. People understand their actions as part of wider system dynamics shaped by relationships power history and context. They act with awareness of timing ripple effects and shared responsibility and are able to support learning and capacity beyond their own role.

These ways of engaging with complexity do not represent a linear progression or a single ideal endpoint. Individuals may operate in different ways in different situations. To support clarity and fairness the SMA sets minimum developmental expectations by grade which represent floors not ceilings.

What the Framework is used for

The SMA Systemic Leadership Framework is:

• a shared developmental reference for leadership practice;

• a basis for reflection feedback and learning;

• a way of embedding systemic leadership expectations into everyday work.

It is not:

• a competency framework;

• a performance rating system;

• a leadership pipeline;

• a tool for ranking or scoring individuals.

REASONABLE ACCOMMODATION

The School Meals Accelerator is committed to ensuring an inclusive accessible and supportive recruitment process for all candidates. If you require a reasonable accommodation at any stage of the recruitment process please reach out to: . We will be happy to assist you.

NO FEE DISCLAIMER

The School Meals Accelerator does not charge any fee at any stage of the recruitment process (application processing training interviewing testing or any other). If you receive a solicitation requesting payment please disregard it.

Please note that emblems logos names and addresses may be misused for fraudulent purposes. We encourage you to exercise particular caution when submitting personal information online.

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 . 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.

OUR WORK ENVIRONMENT

As the School Meals Accelerator is generously hosted within the World Food Programmes facilities and administrative systems we benefit fromand upholdWFPs strong commitment to integrity inclusion safety and respect.

All hiring decisions are based on role requirements merits and the strengths each candidate brings including their alignment with the Accelerators core mindsets and behaviors as per its Systemic Leadership line with WFPour hosting organizationthe Accelerator is committed to fostering an inclusive respectful and safe work environment free from discrimination harassment abuse of authority and any form of sexual exploitation or abuse. As part of this commitment all selected candidates will undergo rigorous reference and background checks.

Lastly 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.