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Has adopted a robust and proactive approach to social protection, as outlined in its 2021 Corporate Strategy for Support to Social Protection. As part of this support, provides technical advisory services in areas such as food security and nutrition, social inclusion, shock-responsive and adaptive social protection, supply chain, and digitalisation. Explicit requirements include Fluency in English (written and verbal) is required and 10 years of relevant experience.
Last checked: 1 hour ago
Closing date: Saturday, 1 August 2026
Country: Iraq
Duty station: Baghdad, Iraq
Contract type: Full time | Fully Remote
Grade: Not specified
Applicant eligibility: Not explicit in source
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DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS
31 July 2026-23:59-GMT+03:00 Arabian Standard Time (Baghdad)
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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.
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WHY JOIN WFP?
Job Title: Economic Empowerment Pathways policy and programming (SSTA)
Type of Contract: Consultant, CST II - WAE
Unit / Division: Social Protection
Duty Station: Remote, with targeted mission to Iraq
Duration: 11 months (maximum of 20 working days per month)
Organisational and Country Context:
The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is the largest humanitarian organisation globally, dedicated to saving lives in emergencies and supporting sustainable futures for people recovering from conflict, disasters, and the impacts of climate change. WFP assists vulnerable populations by providing essential food, skills development, and enhanced social protection, thus bolstering the Government of Iraq's efforts to enhance food security and resilience. For further details, visit our webpages at wfp.org/countries/Iraq and ar.wfp.org/countries/Iraq.
WFP has adopted a robust and proactive approach to social protection, as outlined in its 2021 Corporate Strategy for Support to Social Protection. This approach is a key pillar of WFP's 'changing lives' agenda, prominently featured in the Strategic Plan for 2022-2025.
Social protection, as a rapidly expanding focus area, is prioritised across all regions and in more than 98 countries, including Iraq, highlighting its critical importance on both national and global scales. In 2023, WFP supported nationally led social protection systems and programmes in 98 countries throughout all operational regions, marking an increase from 88 countries in 2022. This expansion highlights WFP's dedication to strengthening social protection as a core element of its global strategy, aimed at achieving Zero Hunger under Sustainable Development Goal 2 (SDG2).
Iraq boasts a comprehensive social protection system, underscored by the Public Distribution System (PDS), one of the world's largest food assistance programmes. With the highest per capita coverage globally, the PDS serves approximately 96% of the Iraqi population.
Committed to extensive reforms, the governments of federal and the Kurdistan region of Iraq (KRI) continues to enhance this system's capabilities. In partnership with the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), under the European Union-supported UN Joint Programme "Leveraging Effective Response and Accelerating Reform for Social Protection in Iraq," WFP is delivering technical and operational support to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of Iraq’s social protection mechanisms.
As part of this support, WFP provides technical advisory services in areas such as food security and nutrition, social inclusion, shock-responsive and adaptive social protection, supply chain, and digitalisation. These efforts aim to strengthen the national social protection system, including establishing and operationalising Iraq’s first single registry, the first school meals policy, the first national social protection strategy, and modelling and piloting of economic empowerment pathways. These pathways are designed to help individuals transition from chronic poverty and vulnerability to social security, with improved access to active labour market programmes, entrepreneurship, and employment opportunities.
As part of its broader social protection system reform agenda, the Government of Iraq has recognised the need to establish evidence-based prioritisation criteria to guide the delivery of services and assistance, particularly when resources are limited. A clear prioritisation approach can help identify those most in need and ensure that available resources are used effectively to achieve key policy objectives.
WFP is supporting the government by providing technical advisory and research expertise to develop this prioritisation framework and deepen understanding of the socio-economic, geospatial, and intersecting inequalities that drive vulnerability and social exclusion. This support includes mixed-methods research, combining quantitative analysis of national census and household survey data with community-level qualitative studies and consultations to ensure the approach is both data-driven and locally grounded. Thus, WFP Iraq is amining to advance a transformative social protection (TSP) agenda that goes beyond targeting and prioritisation approaches and promotes social inclusion, economic empowerment, and systemic reform. This includes pioneering work on economic inclusion, disability inclusion, adaptive systems, and the interface between social protection, labour markets, and food systems for enhanced food security and nutrition outcomes at scale.
Purpose of the Assignment:
The STA will support two main areas of work:
1. To support the Government of Iraq in co-designing, modelling, and piloting the Economic Empowerment Pathways (EEPs) interventions to foster sustainable self-employment and wage employment among the Social Safety Net (SSN) beneficiaries and supporting the integration of integrated economic inclusion models into the existing social assistance system - WFP Iraq is recruiting a Senior Strategic Technical Advisor (STA) on social protection, gender and economic empowerment pathways to support this critical workstream.
2. Capacity building of the national Economic Empowerment Officer to ensure sustainability of the programme in the medium to long term. This involves designing and implementing a structured capacity development approach that combines strategic planning, hands-on learning, and targeted knowledge transfer.
Scope of Work:
1. The STA will support the design, oversight and implementation of the economic empowerment pathways co-financed under the EU Joint Programme and WFP’s CLTF. The STA will focus on the operationalisation of an economic empowerment pathways models. The STA will work in close collaboration with government counterparts, UN partners, CLTF
team, and technical experts to ensure Iraq’s social protection system is equitable, responsive, and capable of addressing layered vulnerabilities. The SSTA will:
• Provide strategic and technical advice to WFP and government counterparts on economic empowerment pathways, inclusive and transformative social protection.
• Lead and contribute to research, evaluation, policy development, programme design, and capacity strengthening.
• Support the institutionalisation of inclusive practices and the development of knowledge products.
• Ensure quality assurance and coherence across WFP’s social protection portfolio in Iraq.
2. Lead on capacity strengthening of the national Economic Empowerment officer with the aim of equipping national staff to fully take over leadership of economic empowerment programmes in Iraq country office in the next 2 years. The STA will:
• Prepare a technical professional development plan.
• Provide on-the-job training and mentorship.
• Provide a structured training and knowledge transfer.
• Embeded learning-by-doing approach.
• Contribute to documentation and institutionalization of knowledge.
Key Roles and Responsibilities:
Economic Empowerment Pathways (EEP) knowledge products and technical support
• Review Project Documents Package for Economic Empowerment Pathways Pilot in Iraq and advise on improvements for final project endorsement.
• Provide technical guidance on operational design of EEPs modalities, especially wage employment pathway (employer engagement, wage subsidy SOPs, and women-friendly work environment), and integration of SBCC strategies.
• Support the launch and rolling out of the Economic Empowerment Pathways Pilot project in Iraq. Provide technical support on the design and facilitation of the simulation exercise with the relevant stakeholders to rehearse the implementation prior to actual field-level roll out.
• Provide support to the Economic Empowerment Officer with regular supervision and monitoring of the EEPs pilot project implementation.
• Undertake After-Action-Reviews (AARs) with WFP team, government staff and contracting partner, and C4ED involved in the EEPs pilot implementation to facilitate and document operational learning emerging from a hands-on delivery of different activities (e.g. pilot launch and outreach, registration and enrolment, training, delivery of assets, coaching etc.) to compile programme design and operational lessons to inform programme refinement and scale-up. The results of the AARs will also inform a development of the EEPs program manual and future capacity building plans. Support dissemination of findings through learning workshops/skill labs/webinars.
• Support the development of the EEPs In Practice Manual to inform the future scale-up and support replication.
• Contribute to required documents, such as a roadmap and business case, for scaling up the Economic Empowerment Pathways programme in Iraq.
• Support the EEPs research agenda across the design, implementation, and reporting phases. Develop policy and operational briefs and guidance materials based on EEPs research (e.g. EEPs learning journeys and monitoring and evaluation agenda).
• Support the development of a Case Study capturing experiences and lessons learned form the pilot.
Capacity Building to National Economic Empowerment Staff
• Development of a Technical Professional Development Plan: Working together with the national Economic Empowerment Officer, develop a technically focused professional development plan to guide capacity strengthening efforts.
• On-the-Job Training and Mentorship: Provide continuous, hands-on technical support to national staff through day-to-day engagement in programme design, implementation, monitoring, and adaptive management. This will include shadowing, and joint problem-solving.
• Structured Training and Knowledge Transfer: Design and deliver targeted training sessions and knowledge transfer on global evidence and international best practices of economic empowerment initiatives covering topics like graduation approaches, livelihoods promotion, market linkages, and shock-responsive programming.
• Inclusion considerations: deliver knowledge transfer and build up expertise on inclusion of women and other vulnerable groups in economic empowerment programs.
• Documentation and Institutionalization of Knowledge: Support the development of practical tools, guidelines, and standard operating procedures (SOPs) that capture global best practices and lessons learned from the pilot, ensuring that knowledge is retained within the country office’s national capacity.
QUALIFICATIONS & EXPERIENCE REQUIRED:
EDUCATION:
Advanced university degree (master’s or equivalent) in Social Policy, Development Studies, Economics, Public Administration, or related field.
EXPERIENCE:
• At least 10 years of relevant experience in social protection, poverty reduction, or inclusive development.
• Proven experience in policy advisory roles, research, and programme design.
• Experience working with governments, UN agencies, or international development organisations.
SKILLS AND COMPETENCIES:
• Strong analytical and writing skills.
• Expertise in economic empowerment, graduation, livelihoods.
• Expertise in inclusive and transformative social protection.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder engagement skills.
• Ability to work independently and deliver high-quality outputs under tight deadlines.
LANGUAGE:
• Fluency in English (written and verbal) is required.
• Knowledge of Arabic and/or Kurdish is an advantage.
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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
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REMINDERS BEFORE YOU SUBMIT YOUR APPLICATION
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.
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