Company: World Food Programme (WFP)
Location: Dodoma, Tanzania
Job Requisition ID: JR119463
Application Deadline: 26 January 2026, 23:59 GMT+03:00 East Africa Time (Dar es Salaam)
The World Food Programme (WFP) is the world’s largest humanitarian organization, dedicated to 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. Our vision for 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. We live WFP's values (Integrity, Collaboration, Commitment, Humanity, and Inclusion) and work with partners to save and change the lives of those WFP serves.
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WFP offers a highly inclusive, diverse, and multicultural working environment.
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A career path in WFP provides an exciting opportunity to work across various country, regional, and global offices worldwide, collaborating with passionate colleagues who work tirelessly to ensure effective humanitarian assistance reaches millions globally.
We offer an attractive compensation package.
Type of Contract: Service Contract / SC-9
Unit/Division: Programme Unit
Duty Station: Dodoma, Tanzania
Duration: 12 Months
WFP's Strategic Plan is guided by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly SDG 2 (Zero Hunger) and SDG 17 (Partnerships for the Goals). In Tanzania, WFP’s Country Strategic Programme (CSP 2022-2027) supports the Government in ensuring crisis-affected populations meet essential food and nutrition needs and build resilience to shocks by 2027. WFP provides technical assistance to national government institutions to enhance their monitoring and response capabilities.
Tanzania has made significant progress in its social protection system, with new policies aimed at strengthening services for vulnerable populations. The Tanzania Country Office (CO) is implementing the Adaptive Social Protection Project as part of the Changing Lives Transformation Fund (CLTF), aiming to make social protection programmes more adaptive and responsive to climate shocks by enhancing delivery mechanisms.
This role supports the CLTF Adaptive Social Protection initiative, ensuring effective integration of social protection, resilience, and climate adaptation strategies. The Programme Associate (Social Protection) will be instrumental in delivering capacity strengthening initiatives for government institutions and partners, focusing on WFP’s Social Protection Policy building blocks, including delivery mechanisms, shock-responsive approaches, and linkages to climate resilience.
The Programme Associate will ensure WFP’s support aligns with national policies and systems, strengthening coordination platforms and fostering strategic partnerships. The incumbent will facilitate stakeholder engagement and collaboration with WFP teams and local authorities to ensure coherent implementation and dissemination of CLTF initiatives.
Under the overall guidance and direct supervision of the Social Protection Officer and Activity 2 Manager, the incumbent will leverage technical expertise in social protection programme design and implementation and maintain strong engagement with national actors. The Programme Associate (Social Protection) will be responsible for the following tasks:
Serve as the social protection focal point at WFP’s Liaison Office in Dodoma, ensuring effective communication between field operations and the Country Office.
Represent WFP in relevant technical working groups and forums, fostering strategic partnerships with government institutions, UN agencies, and other stakeholders engaged in social protection.
Design a stakeholder engagement strategy based on an updated mapping of national actors, systems, and programmes relevant to social protection and resilience.
Support collaboration with WFP teams for the design, adaptation, and implementation of social protection programmes integrating food security, DRR, anticipatory action, nutrition, and resilience objectives.
Provide technical inputs to programme frameworks, operational guidelines, and delivery mechanisms, including targeting, financing social protection, cash transfer models, integrated beneficiary registries, digital social protection systems, and public works, ensuring alignment with national social protection strategies and systems.
Contribute to the development of innovative approaches for adaptive and shock-responsive social protection, linking to disaster risk management and climate resilience.
Lead the design and roll-out of national and sub-national training programmes and simulations on social protection.
Support capacity-building initiatives for government institutions, partners, and WFP staff on social protection, adaptive systems, and linkages with resilience and disaster risk management.
Assist government counterparts and social protection coordination groups in assessing gaps and designing evidence-based solutions for inclusive and effective social protection systems.
Contribute to analytical work to inform programme design and policy dialogue, including assessments, feasibility studies, and evaluations.
Prepare and disseminate high-quality reports, policy briefs, and knowledge products that position WFP as a thought leader and trusted partner in social protection.
Support engagement with government, donors, and development partners to strengthen collaboration and mobilize resources for social protection initiatives.
Contribute to the development of proposals and concept notes for funding opportunities.
Perform any other tasks as required to advance WFP’s social protection objectives.
Advanced degree in International Development, Political Sciences, Social Sciences, Anthropology, Sociology, Economics, or other related field, OR a first University Degree with additional years of related work experience.
Minimum of 5 years of experience in social protection programming, including experience with national programmes, policies, strategies, and institutional structures.
Proven experience in the design and implementation of social protection programmes.
Strong technical knowledge of social protection policy frameworks, delivery mechanisms, financing mechanisms, M&E systems, and linkages with food security and resilience.
Experience with adaptive and shock-responsive systems will be valued.
Demonstrated ability to work with national actors, including government ministries, social protection agencies, and development partners.
Additional experience around food security, humanitarian response, and Cash Based Transfer (CBT) will be valued.
Strong analytical and communication skills with the ability to translate complex concepts into actionable strategies.
Ability to lead planning and coordination with multi-stakeholder projects.
Stakeholder engagement and negotiation skills.
Experience guiding multi-sectoral assessments, advocacy, and representation.
Monitoring and reporting skills.
Fluency in English and Swahili.
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