Programme Policy Officer - Strategic Coordination and Emergency, CST II

Role Overview

This role sits at the centre of a regional office’s strategic decision-making, bridging operational realities with senior leadership priorities. You will turn complex data, field input, and emergency signals into clear recommendations that shape how country offices respond to crises and pursue long-term regional goals. Your day-to-day work combines analytical writing, coordination across teams, and proactive tracking of urgent humanitarian issues, ensuring nothing critical slips through the cracks.

Key Responsibilities

• Translate operational data, contextual analysis, and expert input into concise options and action-oriented recommendations for the Deputy Regional Director and other senior leaders.
• Coordinate strategic follow-up across global and regional functional teams, making sure emerging information reaches the right decision-makers in a usable format.
• Support the Deputy Regional Director and Senior Advisor on partnership and innovation initiatives, validating that new opportunities are grounded in actual operational needs.
• Provide dedicated backstopping for emergency preparedness and response priorities, including tracking evolving crises and maintaining continuity when temporary emergency teams are deployed elsewhere.
• Prepare coordination meetings, consolidate action points, and monitor decisions to keep regional and country-level emergency responses moving forward.
• Identify operational risks, cross-border dynamics, resource constraints, and management decisions that require escalation to regional leadership.
• Develop high-quality analytical products and talking points for priority emergency files, supporting clear communication between field teams and headquarters counterparts.
• Deliver remote or mission-based support to country offices on emergency planning, management engagement, and coordination with technical units as required.

Requirements & Qualifications

• Advanced university degree in International Relations, International Development, Political Science, Social Sciences, or a closely related field.
• At least six years of progressively responsible professional experience, including a minimum of two years in field-based emergency operations.
• Strong working knowledge of the international humanitarian response architecture, inter-agency coordination mechanisms, and United Nations systems.
• Proven experience in strategy development, policy work, programme planning and management, with familiarity in research methodologies and data visualization.
• Exceptional ability to synthesize complex operational, political, humanitarian, and food-security information into brief, decision-ready products for senior audiences.
• Demonstrated sound theoretical understanding of humanitarian and development principles, including best practices and current techniques.
• Flexibility to travel for extended periods and to adjust plans rapidly as emergencies evolve.
• Ability to organise a demanding workload with minimal supervision while maintaining accuracy and timeliness.
• Familiarity with UN policies, WFP emergency operations, and the East and Southern Africa region is strongly desirable.
• Fluency in English (level C; proficient or native) is essential.