Budget and Programming Officer

DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS

The School Meals Accelerator (the Accelerator) is a new initiative under the School Meals Coalition, launching in 2026 to support low- and lower-middle-income countries in scaling up and strengthening their national school meal programs. It responds directly to growing government demand for strategic, high-quality technical assistance that ensures long-term sustainability. The Accelerator builds on the momentum of the Coalition, which has mobilized over 110 countries and 140 partners around the school meals agenda, with more than 60 countries making formal national commitments.

ABOUT THE SCHOOL MEALS ACCELERATOR

Hosted by WFP and supported by a diverse network of partners, the Accelerator will provide demand-led, country-driven support across three core pillars: national program design, partnership alignment, and learning and knowledge. Its goal is to unlock the full potential of school meal programs by enhancing design, scaling investment, and fostering cross-sector collaboration across education, health, agriculture, and food systems. The Accelerator aims to help countries reach an additional 100 million children by 2030 with healthy and nutritious meals in school.

Joining the Accelerator team means being part of a bold, systems-focused effort to drive lasting change. It's an opportunity to work alongside governments and partners to co-create solutions, strengthen national capacity, and help shape the future of school meals as a strategic investment in children, communities, and inclusive development.

ABOUT THE SCHOOL MEALS ACCELERATOR

The School Meals Accelerator (the Accelerator) is a new initiative under the School Meals Coalition, launching in 2026 to support low- and lower-middle-income countries in scaling up and strengthening their national school meal programs. It responds directly to growing government demand for strategic, high-quality technical assistance that ensures long-term sustainability. SMA builds on the momentum of the Coalition, which has mobilized over 110 countries and 140 partners around the school meals agenda, with more than 60 countries making formal national commitments.
Hosted by WFP and supported by a diverse network of partners, the Accelerator will provide demand-led, country-driven support across three core pillars: national program design, partnership alignment, and learning and knowledge. Its goal is to unlock the full potential of school meal programs by enhancing design, scaling investment, and fostering cross-sector collaboration across education, health, agriculture, and food systems. The Accelerator aims to help countries reach an additional 100 million children by 2030 with healthy and nutritious meals in school.
Joining the Accelerator team means being part of a bold, systems-focused effort to drive lasting change. It's an opportunity to work alongside governments and partners to co-create solutions, strengthen national capacity, and help shape the future of school meals as a strategic investment in children, communities, and inclusive development.

THE ROLE

The Budget and Programming role is designed to support and enable SMA operations through the safeguarding and efficient management of resources. It involves risk-informed, end-to-end planning, budgeting, and reporting to help SMA deliver on its key priorities and strategic objectives. The incumbent will operate within an assigned area, working independently and applying technical expertise to analyze data, prepare reports, offer advice and solutions to challenges, and identify opportunities for improvement. The Budget and Programming Officer is expected to deliver budget and resource analysis, as well as programming activities, including those of high complexity, and provide support to the School Meals Accelerator. The role involves partnering with managers to apply best-practice approaches that ensure the efficient, effective, and compliant utilization of resources.

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

Budget Planning and Management

• Identify opportunities to develop and implement policies and procedures for budget and programming activities, aimed at achieving objectives in alignment with SMA operational strategies.

• Proactively support the preparation and review of budgets to ensure accuracy, relevance, cost-effectiveness, and completeness, while monitoring ongoing performance against the operational budget.

• Review and clear submitted funding proposals, making recommendations as needed, in close collaboration with the SMA programme and partnerships teams, as well as SMA activity managers.

• Provide guidance on budgetary adjustments to optimize resource utilization, coordinating inputs from various SMA units and offering regular feedback to the SMA Director and key stakeholders.

• Coordinate with the WFP Budget and Programming function to ensure compliant management and oversight of the SMA Trust Fund, following up on outstanding actions with stakeholders and enabling timely reporting for SMA Trust Fund grants.

Funds and Performance Management, and Reporting

• Collate inputs for the SMA Resource Management/Governance Committee, which reviews and prioritizes resources against SMA's annual budgets and implementation plans, in line with agreed timelines.

• Advise the SMA Director and SMA units on complex programming requests and fund utilization (e.g., appropriateness, timeliness, accuracy), while proactively engaging fund managers to implement recommendations and corrective actions that support reporting against original budgets and approved funding proposals.

• Coordinate the preparation of interim, progress, and final reports as required by contribution agreements between SMA and specific donors, with particular attention to multi-year contributions.

• Monitor ongoing performance against the approved SMA operations budget, including country-level implementation, through financial analysis, and provide sound advice to the SMA Director on necessary budgetary adjustments to ensure optimal resource utilization in line with WFP financial guidance and SMA operational strategies.

Leadership

• Support the SMA Director in the overall management of the SMA TSMA Trust Fund.

• Develop and document internal business processes, Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), and training materials related to resource management, including onboarding support for new team members.

• Supervise and guide SMA Business Support Assistants by providing coaching and training to build capacity and enhance the quality of operational support, while serving as a point of referral and escalation for complex analyses and queries.

Other

• Coordinate data analysis efforts and develop innovative, SMA-specific reports to meet diverse requirements and support informed decision-making, ensuring consistency in information shared with SMA management and external stakeholders.

• Identify opportunities to enhance systems, techniques, tools, processes, and procedures for improved monitoring, management, and reporting of SMA budgets and resources.

• Represent the unit in internal meetings, committees, and working groups as needed, providing and gathering information from a budget and resource programming perspective.

• Provide technical recommendations and guidance, and support the monitoring and management of financial risks.

• Perform other relevant duties as required.

Functional Capabilities

• Internal Controls & Compliance: Demonstrates in-depth knowledge of internal controls and proper accounting procedures and systems to recommend improvements where necessary to address current weaknesses and mitigate risks in international development setting.

• Performance Budgeting, Reporting and Analysis: Manages budget, business planning, and forecasting discussions on a programme-wide level, integrating financial resource information from a portfolio of projects to analyze effectiveness and financial viability.

• Resource Management: Oversees staffing resources at project and programme level, and ability to analyze resource usage trends and forecasting.

• Performance Management: Applies knowledge of performance management system to manage resources and relationships to undertake monitoring actions or deliver straightforward evaluations of operations, programmes, or processes with a high-quality standard.

• Knowledge of Operation: Demonstrates thorough understanding of international development programmes and financial policies, business processes and applies these in the implementation or support of the programme interventions.

QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE

Education: Advanced university degree in Business Administration, Statistics, Finance, Economics or other relevant field, or First University degree in the same subject(s) plus equivalent relevant work experience.

Additional professional trainings in financial management, project management, statistical analysis and/or operational planning and management is desirable.

Experience: Minimum of 3 years of relevant professional experience in finance, financial management, resource management, and or budgeting.

Successfully managed small to medium-sized operations of moderate complexity, overseeing project performance against available resources and ensuring compliance with established policies and procedures.

Demonstrated experience in cross-functional collaboration to address resource management issues and gaps, effectively influencing Director-level managers to make informed decisions.

Language: Fluency (level C) in English language. Intermediate knowledge (level B) of a second official UN language: Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian, Spanish, and/or Portuguese (a WFP working language).

MORE ABOUT YOU:

• Proven understanding of operational planning, business processes, rules, and procedures, consistently applying them to support and implement programme interventions.

• Possess in-depth knowledge of programme operational requirements and their implications for resource management, enabling proactive recommendations for improvement.

• Specialized expertise in enhancing business planning processes and promoting Value-for-Money principles in alignment with international financial policies and procedures.

• Strong leadership in guiding teams to deliver resource management solutions that improve value for money to beneficiaries, while aligning staff practices with mission-critical priorities.

• Skilled in consolidating and communicating resource management information with a focus on numerical accuracy and consistency across teams, drawing relevant conclusions and recommendations to inform decision-making.

• Openness to testing ideas in uncertain environments.

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 Fixed-Term Contract, specific return rights will be in place and will be shared if your candidacy is short listed.

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.

REASONABLE ACCOMMODATION

The School Meals Accelerator is committed to supporting individuals with disabilities by providing reasonable accommodations throughout the recruitment process. If you require a reasonable accommodation, please contact: 

NO FEE DISCLAIMER

The School Meals Accelerator 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

• 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.

• Please make sure you upload your professional CV in the English language

• 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

• Please contact us at  in case you face any challenges with submitting your application

• 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.