Budget and Programming Officer - NOB

Afghanistan CO has gone through a staffing realignment in November 2025.

With a more and more complex operational environment in AFG, with an unprecedented number of unfolding emergencies leading to significant increases in budget requirements, the level of staffing has never been proportional to the size and complexity of the operation. To address the situation, the AFG CO took several steps which ranged from elevating the grades, building staff capacity and increasing the number of positions and their grades. Yet these measures did not address the issues, the BPU in Afghanistan continued to operate with limited staffing even at the peak of operations in 2022 when other units expanded. This gap led to the establishment of separate Planning and Pipeline units within Programme and Supply Chain, a well-intentioned measure that ultimately increased fragmentation.

Against this backdrop, the Staffing Realignment Committee has endorsed the recruitment of additional staff at NOB level.

To deliver budget and resource analysis and programming activities, typically with a level of complexity, partnering with and supporting managers in the application of best practice approaches for the efficient, effective and compliant utilization of funds.

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

• Contribute to the implementation of plans and policies by setting clear goals; coordinate processes for budget and programming activities in compliance with WFP and functional strategies.

• Review budgets for accuracy, appropriateness, cost containment/effectiveness and completeness in line with available guidelines, flagging any shortcomings and providing comprehensive feedback to the main stakeholders as needed.

• Review and release budgets in WFP’s corporate systems ensuring that all budget-supporting documents are available, and address received comments and recommendations before relevant resource data is recorded in internal systems for reference.

• Support the preparation of funding proposals through donor trend analysis against operational shortfalls, proposing fund prioritisation options by activity and modality as necessary.

• Analyze CSPs/RBPs closure activities, ensuring actions are taken for the receiving of resources transfers and the timely start and closures of activities.

• Review and analyze commodity pipeline requirements including Advance Financing requests in collaboration with stakeholders at the operational level to ensure timely shortfall coverage and efficient utilization of contributions.

• Review monthly pipelines, participate in meetings and provide feedback to the CO/RB teams on resource allocations and corporate stock replenishments to maximise operational effectiveness, escalating based on severity of pipeline shortfalls and using relevant pipeline management tools.

• Coordinate and consolidate information for the monthly, cross-functional, pipeline working group, (across Area Offices, Sub Offices and Field Offices as needed), that proactively discusses resource availability and upcoming shortfalls, while recommending timely mitigation measures.

• Participate in meetings with internal stakeholders to discuss the utilization of foreseen contributions and support the process of developing funding proposals.

• Where needed, contribute to the activation/deactivation and management of Global Commodity Management Facility (GCMF) supply lines, participate in knowledge transfer activities in support of the facility and facilitate decision-making for the allocation of corporate stocks.

• Advise spending units on the timely and appropriate programming and utilization of funds, to align with funding proposals and donor conditions, proposing timely recommendations and possible corrective actions that enable reporting in close collaboration with the Partnerships teams.

• Monitor fund sub allotments as per available procedures and guidelines, to avail funds to spending units for timely commitment.

• Coordinate and consolidate inputs for the CO/RB Resource Management Committee (RMC) which reviews and prioritizes resources against the Country Portfolio Budget (CPB) implementation plans, as per agreed timelines.

• Contribute to the preparation of interim, progress and final reports as stipulated in various contribution agreements between WFP and specific donors, particularly for those locally negotiated contributions, in close collaboration with CO, RB and HQ counterparts as required.

Education: Advanced university degree in Business Administration, Statistics, Finance, Economics or other relevant field.

Language: Fluency (level C) in English language and the duty station’s language, if different.

• Experience performing analytics of medium complexity and presenting the information to meet various audience needs.

• Experience preparing, managing and reporting on operational budgets.

• Experience in working with large datasets, extracting information from them in an easy to interpret manner.

• A demonstrated and adequate understanding of information and financial systems and how those support the implementation of operations.

• Thorough understanding of operational planning and business processes, rules and procedures and applying them consistently in the implementation and support of programme interventions.

• Adequate knowledge of programme operational requirements and how these translate into resource management requirements, enabling the proposition of recommendations for improvement in a proactive rather than reactive manner.

• Experience coordinating operational planning and fostering discussions around resource projections and implications on a programme-wide level, integrating trend analyses and ongoing discussions to drive the way forward.

• Ability to consolidate and share resource management information in a way that supports decision making and emphasizes accuracy and consistency in numbers across teams.

• Ability to coach, train and mentor a team of staff to deliver at expected levels.

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

This position is a National Officer role and UN Common System VA