National Program Policy Officer (Emergency Preparedness and Response) – Emergency Response Coordination

Job Description

Chargé(e) des politiques de programme (Responsable de l’Activité 1) – NOA | World Food Programme

The Tone:
This is a national administrator (NO-A) role at the World Food Programme, located in Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo, with frequent travel. The World Food Programme is the world’s largest humanitarian organization, dedicated to saving lives in emergencies and using food assistance to build pathways to peace, stability, and prosperity for people recovering from conflict, disasters, and extreme weather shocks. This role is crucial for designing, coordinating, and implementing the WFP’s emergency preparedness and response efforts, ensuring timely assistance, and strengthening national systems.

The TL;DR
• Role: Full Time
• Type: Contract (12 months, renewable)
• Location: In-person Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo, with frequent travel to Nkayi, Ouésso, and Pointe-Noire
• Team: Programme Unit, reporting to the Head of Programme or Deputy Country Director
• Mission: Design, coordinate, and implement WFP’s emergency preparedness and response activities, ensuring timely assistance to affected populations and strengthening national capacities and social protection systems.
• Tech Stack: SCOPE (beneficiary management platform)

What You’ll Actually Do
• Preparedness: Maintain and update WFP’s Emergency Preparedness and Response Plan (EPRP), country emergency profile, contingency plans, and Concepts of Operations (CONOPS) to address national risks like floods, epidemics, and agricultural shocks.
• Early Warning: Analyze food security and early warning information, including river levels, climate forecasts, and cross-border movements, to generate timely updates, practical recommendations, and triggers for anticipatory action.
• Emergency Response: Design, coordinate, and monitor emergency and early recovery assistance, such as interventions following floods and population displacements, utilizing appropriate transfer modalities like food or cash transfers.
• Social Protection: Support the design, development, harmonization, and operationalization of adaptive and shock-responsive social protection systems, including the Unified Social Registry (RSU), to enhance vulnerability-based identification, targeting, and assistance.
• Coordination & Partnerships: Represent or support WFP’s participation in the Food Security Cluster and relevant UN coordination mechanisms, while coordinating joint work plans with government ministries and local partners to advance humanitarian objectives and build national capacities.

The Must-Haves
• Background: Advanced university degree in international relations, economics, nutrition/health, agriculture, environmental sciences, social sciences, public policy, disaster risk management, or a related field; or a first university degree with an additional two years of relevant work experience and/or advanced training.
• Experience: At least one year of relevant post-graduate professional experience with an advanced university degree, or three years with a first university degree, in program management, emergency preparedness and response, food assistance, or social protection. Experience in implementing or coordinating emergency response, shock-responsive social protection, early recovery programs, or food assistance.
• Skills: Proven experience in emergency preparedness and response, early warning, shock-responsive programming, or social protection; practical knowledge of in-kind and cash transfers and familiarity with digital beneficiary or transfer management tools; strong coordination skills and experience working with government counterparts, UN entities, and technical working groups; ability to translate analyses into concise operational recommendations, quality reports, concept notes, and funding proposals.
• Bonus: Experience with SCOPE; prior experience within the WFP or the UN system.