Partnerships & Ecosystem Development Analyst

School Meals Accelerator (the Accelerator [link removed]) is the fifth and newest initiative under the School Meals Coalition, [link removed] operating as an independent initiative while being hosted by the World Food Programme (WFP). It is designed to support governments to scale and strengthen their national school meal programmes and turn their ambitions into real impact. Acting as a network catalyst and convenor, the Accelerator mobilizes resources and expertise from the right partners to deliver strategic technical assistance where it matters most.   

The Accelerator’s mission: unlock the full potential of national school meal programs by improving design, scaling investment, and fostering collaboration across education, health, and food systems. It embraces a systems-thinking approach, adapts to country priorities, and thrives in deep collaboration among global, regional, and local actors. The Accelerator’s ambition: to help low- and lower-middle-income countries reach an additional 100 million children by 2030, making school meals a cornerstone of human capital development and a global standard of care.  

The Accelerator operates in conditions of high complexity. Because it operates as a network facilitator rather than a traditional organization, its work spans multiple countries, organisations and institutional logics, and seeks to support system-level change rather than the delivery of predefined solutions.  
 

For this reason, the Accelerator has adopted a systemic leadership approach, which accepts that pathways to change are non-linear, and progress depends on learning, adaptation and collaboration across boundaries. Working in this way places ongoing demands on those involved and requires leaders who are able to work productively with uncertainty, difference and incomplete authority while maintaining accountability for results. Joining the Accelerator team therefore means being part of a first-of-its-kind development enterprise: a systems-focused effort to drive lasting, country-led change that requires a willingness to learn, adapt and be shaped by the work as it evolves.

School Meals Accelerator (the Accelerator) is the fifth and newest initiative under the School Meals Coalition, designed to support governments to scale and strengthen their national school meal programmes and turn their ambitions into real impact. Acting as a network catalyst and convenor, the Accelerator mobilizes resources and expertise from the right partners to deliver strategic technical assistance where it matters most.  
The Accelerator’s mission: unlock the full potential of national school meal programs by improving design, scaling investment, and fostering collaboration across education, health, and food systems. It embraces a systems-thinking approach, adapts to country priorities, and thrives in deep collaboration among global, regional, and local actors. The Accelerator’s ambition: to help low- and lower-middle-income countries reach an additional 100 million children by 2030, making school meals a cornerstone of human capital development and a global standard of care. 
The Accelerator operates in conditions of high complexity. Because it operates as a network facilitator rather than a traditional organization, its work spans multiple countries, organisations and institutional logics, and seeks to support system-level change rather than the delivery of predefined solutions. 

For this reason, the Accelerator has adopted a systemic leadership approach, which accepts that pathways to change are non-linear, and progress depends on learning, adaptation and collaboration across boundaries. Working in this way places ongoing demands on those involved and requires leaders who are able to work productively with uncertainty, difference and incomplete authority while maintaining accountability for results. Joining the Accelerator team therefore means being part of a first-of-its-kind development enterprise: a systems-focused effort to drive lasting, country-led change that requires a willingness to learn, adapt and be shaped by the work as it evolves.

This role is part of the Country Support Team, which functions as the core integrative hub of the Accelerator, where technical expertise, partnerships, evidence, learning, and country engagement come together to support impact at the country level.
As part of the Country Support Team, the Partnership & Ecosystem Analyst supports two main functions: (1) to contribute to strengthening the partnership ecosystem and helping ensure that partner engagement aligns with country priorities; and (2) to provide operational and coordination support to two or more country teams so they can access the full range of the Accelerator’s service offering.
In the Accelerator, “partnerships” are not about fundraising; they focus on supporting the establishment and maintenance of strategic and technical relationships with organizations working alongside the Accelerator to meet country needs. The postholder helps maintain a diverse, high‑quality network of actors whose expertise, tools, and resources align with government‑defined needs, working collaboratively with national, regional, and global partners to promote coherence, avoid duplication, and link global platforms with country realities.
Working with the Country Support Team, the postholder supports the implementation of partnership approaches aligned with country priorities, coordinates multisectoral engagement efforts, and contributes to preparing materials that reinforce country-led agendas. The postholder also helps ensure timely, fit‑for‑purpose technical and strategic support for country teams and contributes to learning and adaptive approaches that keep partnership models responsive and sustainable.
The postholder is also expected to assist in coordinating with the School Meals Coalition Secretariat and other global initiatives to maintain aligned approaches, shared messaging, and coherent support to countries.
 

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

• Support and help implement partnership approaches and strategies—mapping country priorities to partner expertise and coordinating coherent, multisectoral collaboration.

• Facilitate two‑way learning by adapting global insights to country contexts and documenting lessons to inform communities of practice.

• Provide and adapt tools, diagnostics, and collaboration models, and support capacity‑building in systems thinking and partnership management for country teams and partners.

• Monitor ecosystem dynamics and contribute insights that inform adjustments to partnership approaches, and prepare concise analyses, briefs, and inputs for leadership engagement or resource‑mobilization efforts when relevant.

• Assist Governments to design or update multisectoral national school meals plans by identifying sectors beyond education (e.g., health, nutrition, agriculture, social protection, finance, local governance) and diagnosing cross‑sector gaps, bottlenecks, and opportunities.

• Support broadening and strengthening of the national school meals ecosystem by engaging additional actors—local governments, civil society, farmer organizations, private‑sector suppliers, academia, and community groups—and clarifying roles and contributions.

• Support Governments in translating priorities and technical needs into concrete partnership opportunities by matching them with the right expertise and partners and testing collaboration models for coordinated, effective support.

• Follow up on technical assistance with partners, including supporting agreements/contracting aligned with Government priorities, facilitating feedback loops on implementation, and compiling progress updates.

• Help establish or strengthen national and subnational coordination platforms by supporting Governments to convene and align ministries, local authorities, civil society, private‑sector actors, and academia around shared school meals goals.

• Contribute to building systems‑leadership capacity by supporting Government and country‑team skills in systems thinking, coordination, relational practice, and multisectoral problem‑solving to reinforce long‑term ownership.

• Monitor multisectoral ecosystem performance and partner coordination around national plans, generating insights that support adaptive learning and inform SMA’s global strategy and partnership model.

• Support knowledge exchange, peer learning, and collaboration across countries, partners, and teams by connecting insights, helping facilitate feedback loops and after‑action reflections, and adapting tools and approaches to strengthen ways of working.

• Contribute to updating and maintaining guidance, tools, and resources, ensuring they remain accessible, relevant, and aligned with country needs, and helping to promote clear communication and coordinated teamwork across SMA.

• Synthesize insights and emerging trends from partnership and country engagement, contributing them to SMA’s learning, strategy, and decision‑making processes and supporting ongoing improvements to partnership tools, models, and engagement approaches.

• Contribute to knowledge products, learning resources, and cross‑team learning, ensuring operational lessons are captured, shared, and integrated to support adaptive implementation across SMA teams and partners.

This role operates within the School Meals Accelerator’s systemic leadership approach. All SMA roles are expected to be enacted in line with the SMA Systemic Leadership Framework, which sets out six shared leadership mindsets, core leadership practices and more systemically demanding practices, that guide how we work in complex, fast-changing environments. The Framework also describes “ways of engaging with complexity”, which reflect how individuals make sense of and act in uncertain, interdependence situations.

While developmental maturity and role seniority are independent, the SMA sets minimum developmental expectations by grade to support clarity and fairness in recruitment and early employment.

For this P2 role, the minimum expectation is:
Habitual engagement with complexity: “Staff members tend to respond to situations through familiar roles, routines, and immediate reactions. What is felt or thought in the moment often drives action, with limited separation between observation, interpretation, and response, particularly under pressure”.

As set out in the Framework, these expectations represent floors, not ceilings. Ways of engaging with complexity are descriptive rather than evaluative, are not tied mechanically to seniority or performance management, and are used to support reflection, learning and development over time, rather than ranking or judgement.

All roles in the School Meals Accelerator are expected to be enacted in line with the Systemic Leadership Framework. In recruitment and selection, the Framework supports informed conversations about how candidates make sense of complexity, uncertainty and systemic change, alongside assessment of technical expertise and role fit.

In ongoing work, the Framework provides a shared orientation to “how we work here” and supports individual and collective learning over time.
 

Education: Advanced University degree in Political Science, International Development, Development Economics, International Relations, Law, Marketing, Communications or other relevant field; or a first university degree with additional years of relevant professional experience and/or advanced training.

• At least 3 years of experience working in complex, multistakeholder settings, including exposure to government led processes, multisectoral coordination, or ecosystem building across public, private, or social sectors, with a demonstrated commitment to supporting country owned approaches.

• Demonstrated international experience collaborating with diverse partners (governments, International Financial Institutions, UN agencies, civil society, private sector, academia) across regions and organizational levels.

• Experience supporting country facing work, including contributions to diagnostics, coordination processes, strategy discussions, or cross sector planning, with an emphasis on listening to country priorities and reinforcing national ownership.

• Experience contributing to the coordination of diverse actors around shared priorities, using relational skills, curiosity, and constructive engagement to support joint problem-solving and collective understanding.

• Ability to help identify how partner mandates and comparative advantages relate to government defined needs, including navigating differing incentives and interests with sound judgment and awareness of political dynamics.

• Experience supporting the design, adaptation, or implementation of collaboration approaches in contexts where pathways to change are non linear and require ongoing learning, experimentation, and reflection, consistent with the SMA’s systemic leadership approach.

• Demonstrated understanding of systems thinking concepts, with the ability to notice patterns, interdependencies, incentives, and power dynamics across actors and sectors, and to help translate these insights into practical approaches.

• Strong relational skills, including the ability to build trust, work productively with different perspectives, manage tension constructively, and contribute to partnerships grounded in shared purpose.

• Ability to support facilitation and convening processes, including multisectoral dialogue, collaborative problem solving, the surfacing of diverse viewpoints, and government led coordination and learning.

• Adaptive and reflective working style, comfortable adjusting plans based on emerging learning, iterating approaches, and reflecting on assumptions and reactions to strengthen work overtime.

• Strong sense making and synthesis abilities, able to summarize complex stakeholder insights, system dynamics, and country realities into clear, useful information, tools, and options for decision making.

• Collaborative mindset aligned with SMA’s systemic leadership values, demonstrating curiosity, humility, shared responsibility, and commitment to supporting teams and governments to learn, experiment, and work intentionally in evolving environments.

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

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 rotational Fixed-Term Contract, acceptance of an offer with the School Meals Accelerator will be subject to the contractual terms outlined in Annex 3 (Staffing Management), under the Fixed-Term Contractual Modalities described in Section 1.1. This includes provisions related to return rights and other applicable conditions.
WFP offers an attractive compensation and benefits package in line with ICSC standards (http://icsc.un.org) 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.
 

The School Meals Accelerator (SMA) works in conditions of high complexity, spanning multiple countries, organisations and institutional logics, and seeks to support system-level change rather than the delivery of predefined solutions.

To support effective leadership in this context, the SMA has articulated a Systemic Leadership Framework. The Framework provides a shared language and reference point for how leadership is understood and enacted across the organisation and is used across recruitment, onboarding, feedback and learning.

This annex provides a high-level overview of the content of the Framework.

At the heart of the SMA Systemic Leadership Framework are six leadership mindsets.

These mindsets describe shared orientations that shape how situations are interpreted, what is treated as data, and what kinds of action feel legitimate or possible in system-level change work.

They are not competencies or values statements, but shared ways of making sense of complex situations that shape leadership practice, particularly under pressure or uncertainty.

The six SMA leadership mindsets are:

• We see systems change as starting with us: We notice and work with how our roles, assumptions and responses shape what becomes possible in the system.

• We experiment our way forward: We use disciplined experimentation and learning to make progress in conditions of uncertainty.

• We value different perspectives: even when they clash: We work productively with difference, tension and disagreement to support learning and systemic change.

• We put countries’ needs first: We orient our work around the priorities, contexts and capacities of countries, rather than organisational convenience or external agendas.

• We teach and learn from one another: We treat learning as a shared, ongoing responsibility and use every day work as a source of individual and collective development.

• We are intentional about how and when we act: not simply defaulting to urgency: We treat pace and timing as deliberate leadership choices, choosing actions that support learning and lasting change rather than activity for its own sake.

The mindsets are mutually reinforcing rather than sequential. Effective systemic leadership involves working across all of them, rather than privileging one at the expense of others.

Within each mindset, the Framework identifies leadership practices that describe observable ways of working — how leadership shows up in action.

The Accelerator has 30 core leadership practices (5 per mindset), which are foundational practices expected of everyone working in the Accelerator, regardless of role or grade. They support effective participation in complex, multi-stakeholder environments.

Two broad categories of practice are described:

• Core leadership practices. These are foundational practices expected of everyone working in the Accelerator, regardless of role or grade. They support effective participation in complex, multi-stakeholder environments.

• More systemically demanding leadership practices. These practices place greater demands on attention, reflexivity and systemic awareness. They often involve working across boundaries, engaging with power and conflict, and staying in learning under conditions of ambiguity or risk.

The distinction is not hierarchical or prescriptive. It exists to make visible differences in demand, not differences in worth, permission or status.

The Framework also describes different ways of engaging with complexity, drawing on adult development theory.

Ways of engaging with complexity describe how leadership practices are enacted, not which practices are permitted. They are descriptive rather than evaluative, are not tied mechanically to seniority or role, and are context sensitive.

The Framework describes four broad ways of engaging with complexity:

• Habitual engagement. People tend to respond to situations through familiar roles, routines and immediate reactions. What is felt or thought in the moment tends to drive action, with limited separation between observation, interpretation and response, especially under pressure.

• Reflective engagement. People are increasingly able to step back from experience and notice their assumptions and reactions, often after the event. Reflection supports learning and adjustment over time, though it is not yet consistently available in the moment.

• Intentional engagement. People actively work with their assumptions, emotions and roles as part of ongoing practice. They are better able to pause, make deliberate choices about how to respond, and adapt their actions in real time under conditions of uncertainty.

• Systemic engagement. People understand their actions as part of wider system dynamics shaped by relationships, power, history and context. They act with awareness of timing, ripple effects and shared responsibility, and are able to support learning and capacity beyond their own role.

These ways of engaging with complexity do not represent a linear progression or a single “ideal” endpoint. Individuals may operate in different ways in different situations.

To support clarity and fairness, the SMA sets minimum developmental expectations by grade, which represent floors, not ceilings.

The SMA Systemic Leadership Framework is:

• a shared developmental reference for leadership practice;

• a basis for reflection, feedback and learning;

• a way of embedding systemic leadership expectations into everyday work.

It is not:

• a competency framework;

• a performance rating system;

• a leadership pipeline;

• a tool for ranking or scoring individuals.

As the School Meals Accelerator is generously hosted within the World Food Programme’s facilities and administrative systems, we benefit from—and uphold—WFP’s strong commitment to integrity, inclusion, safety, and respect.

All hiring decisions are based on role requirements, merits, and the strengths each candidate brings, including their alignment with the Accelerator’s core mindsets and behaviors as per its Systemic Leadership Framework. In line with WFP—our hosting organization—the Accelerator is committed to fostering an inclusive, respectful, and safe work environment, free from discrimination, harassment, abuse of authority, and any form of sexual exploitation or abuse. As part of this commitment, all selected candidates will undergo rigorous reference and background checks.

Lastly, 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.