Targeting and Prioritization Specialist for Social Protection System Reform

DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS

27 November :59-GMT+03:00 Arabian Standard Time (Baghdad)

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ABOUT WFP

The World Food Programme is the world's largest humanitarian organization 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.

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WHY JOIN WFP? 

• WFP is a 2020 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate.

• WFP offers a highly inclusive, diverse, and multicultural working environment.

• WFP invests in the personal & professional development of its employees through a range of training, accreditation, coaching, mentorship, and other programs as well as through internal mobility opportunities.

• A career path in WFP provides an exciting opportunity to work across the various country, regional and global offices around the world, and with passionate colleagues who work tirelessly to ensure that effective humanitarian assistance reaches millions of people across the globe.

• We offer an attractive compensation package (please refer to the Terms and Conditions section of this vacancy announcement).

As part of its broader social protection reform agenda, the Government of Iraq has recognised the importance of establishing evidence-based targeting and prioritisation criteria to guide service delivery, especially when resources are constrained. A clear prioritisation framework ensures that assistance reaches those most in need and that resources are used effectively to achieve policy goals.

In this context, WFP has been selected as a strategic partner to support the reform of Iraq's national social protection system, with a particular focus on the PDS. The PDS, which is increasingly fiscally unsustainable and misaligned with Iraq's evolving food security and nutrition landscape, is a key area of reform. WFP leads a technical working group (TWG) on targeting and prioritisation under the EU-funded programme—the EU's largest investment in social protection for a single country.

WFP provides technical advisory and research expertise to develop a robust targeting and prioritisation framework, grounded in an understanding of the socio-economic, geographic, and intersecting inequalities that drive vulnerability and exclusion. This includes mixed-methods research, combining quantitative analysis of national census and household survey data with qualitative studies and community consultations to ensure the approach is both data-driven and locally grounded.

Effective collaboration with partners such as the World Bank is essential to align efforts, identify shared priorities, and enhance the coherence and impact of social protection interventions. Joint analysis will help identify gaps, reduce overlaps, and strengthen targeting across programmes. Within WFP Iraq's broader social protection engagement, Workstream 6 focuses on promoting effective targeting and prioritisation, anchored in a rights-based approach that ensures support is tailored to people's specific needs and risks. This workstream is central to building a responsive, inclusive, and equitable social protection system.
To advance this agenda, WFP Iraq seeks a Targeting and Prioritisation Specialist for Social Protection Reform. This role will provide technical leadership to the government-led TWG, support the development of data-driven methodologies, and ensure alignment with food security and nutrition outcomes. The specialist will also facilitate cross-partner collaboration and contribute to refining national strategies that promote fairness, efficiency, and inclusion.

The role is also critical to WFP's engagement in piloting the Economic Empowerment Pathways (EEP) companion to the Social Safety Net (SSN) programme. Funded by WFP's Changing Lives Transformation Fund (CLTF), the EEP pilot relies on sound targeting to link beneficiaries to sustainable livelihoods. The Officer will support the institutionalisation of the pilot by developing guidance, providing training to national counterparts, and supporting monitoring and evaluation efforts in collaboration with C4ED.

The recent completion of the Iraq Household Socioeconomic Survey (IHSES III) offers a rich dataset for this work. Representative at the district level, the survey includes indicators on food security, income, expenditure, coping strategies, and social protection, among others.

The Officer will lead the development of a prioritisation strategy for the PDS, using a mixed-method approach. Responsibilities include conducting quantitative analysis to design criteria, validating findings through qualitative research, engaging stakeholders to refine the approach, and producing comprehensive documentation on methodology and implementation.

The ideal candidate will have experience in analysing large-scale household surveys, a strong grasp of targeting and prioritisation in social protection, and skills in qualitative research and reporting. They should be capable of operationalising an intersecting inequalities approach and applying inclusive, evidence-based strategies across national programmes. The Specialist will work closely with government counterparts, UN partners, and technical experts to ensure Iraq's social protection system is equitable, responsive, and capable of addressing complex vulnerabilities. Job Description

1. Strategic Leadership and Technical Advisory

·       Lead the operationalisation and implementation of WFP Iraq's Targeting and Prioritisation workstream objectives, ensuring alignment with national priorities, WFP's global frameworks, and the 2025–2029 Social Protection Strategy in alignment between RAM and the SP unit.

·       Advise on the Economic Empowerment Pathways (EEP) pilot, ensuring targeting and M&E frameworks reflect multidimensional poverty, food insecurity, and social exclusion.

·       Backstop the value chain assessment informing the Economic Empowerment Pathways (EEP) pilot, collaborating with the ILO and World Bank as well as the Ministries of Agriculture, Labour and Social Affairs as well as Ministry of Planning and its Central Statistics Office.

·       Technically backstop and coordinate targeting and prioritisation policy discussions, evidence-based efforts and capacity building with the government on the PDS, particularly in the context of the Technical Working Group led by the Ministry of Planning.

·       Provide technical leadership on shock-responsive and adaptive social protection (SRASP), food security and nutrition (FSN)-sensitive social protection, integrating intersecting inequalities (II) social inclusion and vulnerability metrics into programme design and delivery.

·       Support the development of targets, indicators, and performance metrics for national social protection strategies, contributing to policy coherence and strategic planning, backstopping the social protection system performance assessment (SPSP) and subsequent analyses on FSN, SRASP and II.

2. Operationalise the Intersecting Inequalities Approach

·       Co-develop a tailored framework on intersectional inequality and vulnerability with DAI, the Ministry of Planning, and other stakeholders.

·       Integrate the framework into targeting, profiling, and benefit design across key programmes

·       Embed equity and inclusion into digital systems (e.g., Single Registry, MIS), ensuring data disaggregation and differentiated support strategies.

·       Develop SOPs, tools, and guidance materials to mainstream equity across the programme cycle.

·       Lead capacity strengthening efforts for government on inclusive and equity-focused delivery.

 

3. Design and Lead Prioritisation Strategies

·       Oversee the development of prioritisation criteria for the PDS and other national programmes using mixed-methods research.

·       Coordinate econometric analysis of IHSES III, complemented by qualitative field consultations.

·       Backstop through an evidence-based approach and robust research agenda Social and Behaviour Change Communication (SBCC) strategies with expert support to ensure transparency, dignity, and accountability in beneficiary communications under the Economic Empowerment Pathways Pilot.

4. Inform Targeting Across the Social Protection System

·       Lead WFP's targeting, monitoring and evluation exercises for the EEP pilot, ensuring alignment with SSN reforms and broader system goals.

·       Provide technical inputs to PWD and School Meals programmes, applying inclusive, vulnerability-sensitive, and nutrition-sensitive lenses.

·       Develop a guiding framework for targeting and prioritisation data and decision-making to be embedded in the Single Registry and used in digital simulations.

·       Collaborate with partners to define and integrate system performance metrics: coverage and inclusion, adequacy, comprehensiveness, quality, sustainability, responsiveness and adaptiveness.

5. Evidence-Based Monitoring, Evaluation, and Policy Reform

·       Work with the M&E team and C4ED to ensure inclusive and equity-sensitive indicators for the EEP pilot and other initiatives.

·       Support the development of people-centred system performance assessments, including baselines, targets, and progress narratives.

·       Apply insights from behavioural science, Fill the Nutrient Gap (FNG), and monitoring data to support adaptive design and policy responsiveness.

6. Promote Transformative and Inclusive Approaches

·       Identify and advocate for evidence-based tools and approaches, and thus structural and transformative policy measures that address vulnerability and social exclusion

·       Contribute to defining what transformative social protection means for Iraq, from ana analytical and evidence-based framework, aligning global evidence with national priorities and vulnerability, food security and nutrition metrics.

·       Facilitate cross-programme linkages between social protection, labour, and food systems to promote holistic and opportunity-driven responses.

7. Stakeholder Engagement and Coordination

·       Engage with the Technical Working Group on Targeting and Prioritisation and relevant sectoral platforms, including the Institute of Development Studies to conduct regular discussions and training.

·       Work with government counterparts to institutionalise inclusive and prioritised approaches within national systems and processes.

·       Support alignment with donor priorities and inter-agency coordination mechanisms, strengthening joint advocacy and policy engagement.

8. Quantitative and Qualitative Research

·       Conduct quantitative analysis using IHSES III to assess household-level determinants of food insecurity and programme coverage.

·       Test prioritisation criteria for the PDS, evaluating accuracy, coverage, and gaps.

·       Lead participatory qualitative research to validate prioritisation criteria, assess beneficiary perceptions, and refine targeting approaches.

9. Documentation and Knowledge Management

·       Prepare comprehensive documentation of methodologies, findings, decision-making rationale, and implementation guidance.

·       Document the development of technical tools, datasets, models, algorithms, and coding frameworks.

·       Support the team's research agenda, advocacy, and communications on prioritisation.

DELIVERABLES AT THE END OF THE CONTRACT:

1. Strategic Frameworks for Inclusive Targeting and Prioritisation

·       Deliver a unified national framework for targeting and prioritisation across social protection programmes (with priority given to the EEPs pilot and PDS), integrating intersecting inequalities, multidimensional vulnerability metrics, and digital systems (Single Registry, MIS), co-developed with government and development partners.

2. Operationalisation of the Economic Empowerment Pathways (EEP) Pilot

·       Provide a complete EEP pilot package including targeting and M&E frameworks, value chain assessments, SBCC strategy, and inclusive beneficiary profiling, aligned with multidimensional poverty and food insecurity metrics and validated through mixed-methods research.

3. Intersecting Inequalities and Inclusive Systems Strengthening

·       Deliver a national framework and implementation toolkit for equity and inclusion, embedded across programme design and delivery, supported by SOPs, capacity-building modules, and integration into digital systems and benefit design.

4. Social Protection System Performance Assessment and Policy Reform

·       Backstop Iraq's first SPSP report and dashboard, with system-level metrics), informed by IHSES III and qualitative consultations, supporting adaptive policy reform and strategic planning.

5. Evidence-Based Monitoring, Evaluation, and Knowledge Products

·       Establish an inclusive M&E framework and research agenda, including baselines, indicators, and adaptive learning tools for EEP and broader SP initiatives, supported by behavioural insights, FNG data, and comprehensive documentation for policy advocacy and institutional learning.

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REASONABLE ACCOMMODATION

 

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NO FEE DISCLAIMER

 

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REMINDERS BEFORE YOU SUBMIT YOUR APPLICATION

• We strongly recommend that your profile is accurate, complete, and includes your employment records, academic qualifications, language skills and UN Grade (if applicable).

• Once your profile is completed, please apply, and submit your application.

• Please make sure you upload your professional CV in the English language

• Kindly note the only documents you will need to submit at this time are your CV and Cover Letter

• Additional documents such as passport, recommendation letters, academic certificates, etc. may potentially be requested at a future time

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• Only shortlisted candidates will be notified

All employment decisions are made on the basis of organizational needs, job requirements, merit, and individual qualifications. WFP is committed to providing an inclusive work environment free of sexual exploitation and abuse, all forms of discrimination, any kind of harassment, sexual harassment, and abuse of authority. Therefore, all selected candidates will undergo rigorous reference and background checks.

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.

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