TDY - Business Support Associate (G6) - School Meals Accelerator

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.

ORGANIZATIONAL CONTEXT
 

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 Business Support Associate will provide essential operational and administrative coordination to ensure the smooth functioning of the School Meals Accelerator, a new initiative hosted by WFP to help countries scale and strengthen national school meal programmes. Working within the Rome-based Accelerator team, the Associate will manage a full range of business support services - including front office operations, logistics, resource tracking, and mission support—while proactively solving operational challenges and maintaining high standards of efficiency. By enabling effective delivery across the Accelerator's core pillars, the Associate contributes directly to its goal of helping countries reach 100 million additional children with nutritious school meals by 2030.
 

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES (not all-inclusive, nor exhaustive):

• Provide dedicated executive assistant support to the Accelerator team, including calendar management, travel arrangements, and coordination of high-level meetings with governments and partners.
• Prepare and consolidate reports, documentation, correspondence, and briefing materials related to Accelerator activities, including technical assistance missions and partner engagement.
• Actively seek and use feedback to improve business processes and procedures, contributing to the efficient delivery of Accelerator support across its core pillars.
• Respond to complex business support queries from internal and external stakeholders, ensuring timely and accurate resolution aligned with SMA's operational priorities.
• Oversee the maintenance of records and databases related to Accelerator operations, ensuring information is well-organized, accessible, and compliant with relevant policies.
• Review and revise correspondence and documentation, providing quality assurance and timely delivery of materials that support SMA's country engagement and learning functions.
• Assist managers in planning, monitoring, and reconciling budgets linked to Accelerator activities, ensuring effective use of financial resources.
• Assess and recommend improvements to administrative procedures and practices to enhance the delivery of business support services within the Accelerator's dynamic, multi-partner environment.
• Provide a full range of complex business support services to the Accelerator team, contributing to the smooth functioning of technical assistance, partnership coordination, and knowledge exchange.
• Provide advice, support, and informal training to junior support staff, fostering a collaborative and high-performing support team.
• Coordinate tasks of junior colleagues to ensure consistent delivery of support services to the required standards across Accelerator operations.

STANDARD MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE:

Education: Completion of secondary school education. A post-secondary certificate in the related functional area.

Experience: Six or more years of progressively responsible work experience in the relative business stream with experience in general administrative work.
 

Essential Requirements:

• Business Process Expertise: Familiarity with standard workflows such as procurement, travel, HR transactions, finance, and administrative procedures, combined with the ability to apply practical tools and techniques for scheduling, document management, reporting, and data entry.
• Systems Proficiency: Strong knowledge of organizational platforms and ERP systems (e.g., SAP, Workday), document tracking tools, and other business applications to ensure accurate and efficient support services.
• Ability to analyze and interpret financial data and monitor budgets, with ability to reconcile budget allocations, staffing costs, and service-related expenses.
• Communication & Coordination: Excellent communication and coordination skills to deliver specialized business support services to a wide range of stakeholders. Proven skills in managing and organizing senior managers' schedules.
• Collaboration & Confidentiality: Ability to build relationships across functions, and maintain strict confidentiality in handling sensitive information.
• Ability to organize, prioritize and manage a complex set of tasks with competing deadlines remaining calm under time pressure.
   

Desirable Requirements:

• Experience in coordinating the work of others and self and training and supporting others.
• Experience in organizing and coordinating large-scale events involving a significant number of participants, ensuring smooth logistics, effective communication, and adherence to timelines.
• Ability to proactively identify and recommend improvements to specialized services.
• Openness to testing ideas in uncertain environments.

Language: Fluency (level C) in English language.

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.

• 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.