Regenerative Supply Chain Expert

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 coordinates and supports all country-facing activities. This team functions as the core integrative hub of the Accelerator, where technical expertise, partnerships, evidence, learning and country engagement converge to support impact at country level.  
The Regenerative Supply Chain Expert is a core technical and strategic leader within the School Meals Accelerator. Embedded in the Country Support Team, the Advisor has a dual role: 1) as a technical expert, to strengthen the enabling environment for resilient, localized, and regenerative supply chains for school meal programs and; 2) as a member of the Country Support Team, to support two (or more) designated country teams to access coordinated, high‑quality assistance from across the Accelerator.

The Regenerative Supply Chain Expert provides global leadership on home‑grown and regenerative supply chains, ensuring that national school meal programs can transition toward climate‑resilient, ecologically sustainable, and locally anchored sourcing models. Engagement is grounded in country priorities across education, agriculture, nutrition, and related sectors, strengthening the broader enabling environment for sustainable and inclusive supply‑chain systems.

The postholder is also expected to coordinate closely with the School Meals Coalition Secretariat and other global initiatives to ensure aligned approaches, shared messaging, and coherent support to countries.

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

• Mobilize and coordinate technical partners to deliver supply‑chain diagnostics, procurement design, regenerative agriculture inputs, climate‑risk modelling, and other context‑appropriate assistance, ensuring timely access to the right expertise through a maintained roster.

• Advance and refine shared tools and standards—procurement guidelines, supplier onboarding, farmer‑transition strategies, monitoring frameworks, templates, and training modules—integrating forecasting, climate‑risk, and aggregation/storage insights into national and subnational models.

• Guide governments in defining sourcing standards and compliance pathways by strengthening technical alignment across ministries, advising on procurement rules and incentives, and connecting teams with expertise to support coherent technical and policy decision‑making.

The type and level of technical support provided to each country will be tailored based on government priorities, national capacities and context‑specific needs. As such, country support packages may draw on one or more of the thematic areas outlined in this section, rather than following a uniform or prescriptive set of activities.

• Drive cross‑ministerial policy alignment for localized and regenerative sourcing by building shared understanding of benefits, trade‑offs, and implementation pathways, and positioning supply‑chain reforms within broader national priorities.

• Translate technical insights into actionable policy guidance by advising procurement and regulatory navigation, identifying bottlenecks and reform opportunities, and shaping clear narratives for senior government leaders.

• Strengthen system‑level connectivity by linking governments with global and regional actors and anchoring regenerative and localized sourcing priorities within national decision‑making structures.

• Lead governments to design or update multisectoral national school meals plans by defining priority sectors beyond education and overseeing diagnostics of cross‑sector gaps, bottlenecks, and opportunities.

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

• Enable governments to translate priorities and technical needs into concrete partnership opportunities by connecting them with the right expertise and testing/validating collaboration models for coordinated effective support.

• Oversee technical assistance with partners, ensuring agreements align with government priorities, instituting feedback loops on implementation, and securing timely progress updates.

• Establish and reinforce national and subnational coordination platforms by enabling governments to convene and align ministries, local authorities, civil society, private‑sector actors, and academia around shared school meals goals.

• Champion systems‑leadership capacity by strengthening government and country‑team skills in systems thinking, coordination, relational practice, and multisectoral problem‑solving.

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

• Steward cohesive ways of working across SMA, SFI, country teams, ministries, and partners by ensuring clear interfaces, disciplined coordination, transparent information flows, and timely resolution of cross‑sector challenges.

• Model SMA’s systemic leadership culture by demonstrating inclusive, solutions‑focused, systems‑oriented engagement; foster trust, reflective practice, and adaptive problem‑solving across diverse stakeholder groups; strengthen capability and onboarding to reinforce shared standards and communication flows.

• Drive cross‑country learning by surfacing insights and innovations from SMA country work and synthesizing evidence that informs SMA’s global learning agenda, tools, and strategic decisions.
• Strengthen continuous improvement by updating supply‑chain tools, diagnostics, models, and guidance with country feedback; tracking emerging priorities in regenerative/localized sourcing; and maintaining concise, practical knowledge products that support adaptive, country‑led implementation.

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 P4 role, the minimum expectation is:
Reflective engagement with complexity: “Staff members 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”.

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 Nutrition, Public Health, Food Policy, Agricultural Development, International Development, Economics, Social Sciences, or other relevant field; or a first university degree with two additional years of relevant experience and/or advanced training.

• At least eight years of senior experience in agrifood supply chains—across private sector, nonprofit, INGO/IGO, or hybrid environments—engaging directly with smallholder farmers and addressing market‑access barriers, infrastructure constraints, and localized supply‑chain challenges.

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

• Extensive experience supporting government counterparts on fiscal, agricultural, procurement, nutrition/food‑systems, or multisectoral policy processes, including alignment across ministries and practical implementation support.

• Track record shaping supply‑chain design and procurement systems, particularly for smallholder‑inclusive or institutional markets (preferably school meals), and translating lessons across multiple country contexts through peer learning or portfolio approaches.

• Experience contributing to system‑level learning agendas, theories of change, or implementation strategies, including familiarity with monitoring, evaluation, and sourcing‑related metrics for adaptive management.

• Strong systems‑leadership mindset, able to work with uncertainty, integrate multiple perspectives, and support collaborative problem‑solving across food, agriculture, education, nutrition, climate, and procurement systems.

• Deep technical knowledge of localized and regenerative food systems, including agroecological and climate‑resilient approaches, and the capacity to guide governments in aligning these with national school‑meals sourcing models.

• Advanced capability to steward multistakeholder learning, synthesizing insights across countries and shaping actionable guidance, tools, and playbooks grounded in SMA’s practical fieldwork.

• High‑level facilitation and relationship‑building skills, enabling trust‑based engagement with governments, multilateral agencies, private‑sector actors, and community stakeholders, with sensitivity to political and cultural dynamics.

• Ability to assess, vet, and connect credible partners (UN agencies, multilaterals, NGOs, private sector) and to orchestrate coordinated technical contributions rather than deliver services directly.

• Exceptional communication and knowledge‑translation skills, able to produce clear, accessible, government‑friendly materials—including briefs, templates, case studies, and guidance—for decision‑making and implementation support.

 
Languages: Fluency (level C) in English; intermediate (level B) in 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 put countries’ needs first: We orient our work around the priorities, contexts and capacities of countries, rather than organisational convenience or external agendas.

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

• We teach and learn from one another: We treat learning as a shared, ongoing responsibility and use everyday 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.
 
What the Framework is used for

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.