Programme Policy Officer (Cash Based Transfer)

To lead the Country Office CBT operational lifecycle, oversee technical end-to-end data controls, and manage a team of multi-disciplinary national personnel. The incumbent will standardize distribution mechanisms, drive FSP diversification, govern macro-level reconciliation loops, and steer strategic policy coordination with UN counterparts and government authorities regarding Identity Management architectures, data-minimization rules, and national social protection single registries. KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES (not all-inclusive, within delegated authority): Within delegated authority and under the direct supervision of the Head of CBT/IDM Officer, the National Programme Officer will execute the following core accountabilities: 1. Strategic Leadership & Team Management Team Leadership: Lead and manage the Country Office CBT team, providing clear operational coordination, technical oversight, performance management, and targeted capacity building. Strategic Programming: Advance WFP’s approach to CBT programming in Yemen through cash, value vouchers, and innovative transfer modalities, ensuring assistance remains secure, cost-effective, and fully assured against fiduciary risks. Capacity Strengthening: Assess, design, and implement comprehensive CBT training modules and learning sessions for WFP personnel and cooperating partners to maintain operational excellence across the delivery chain. 2. Operational Controls & Pipeline Assurance SOP Standardization: Author, update, and institutionalize comprehensive Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for CBT business processes, ensuring they are user-oriented, auditable, and fully compliant with corporate headquarters directives. Data Verification & Clearance: Analyze, review, and clear monthly Field Office distribution plans and pipeline requirements. Enforce strict quality control and structural consistency over all beneficiary distribution lists prior to routing them for official Programme clearance. Reconciliation & Accountability Control: Oversee the execution of all CBT assurance and compliance tracking frameworks, guaranteeing that end-of-cycle financial reconciliation reports are delivered by FSPs, rigorously verified, and approved without delay. Pipeline Data Consolidation: Coordinate the systematic gathering, consolidation, and cleaning of monthly transfer data to feed into the centralized Country Office pipeline report, ensuring data integrity and information consistency for senior leadership decision-making. 3. FSP Planning, Innovation & Interoperability FSP Strategic Planning: Formulate and execute a comprehensive FSP diversification strategy to mitigate institutional risks, evaluate market readiness, and pioneer the integration of multi-channel digital payment networks (e.g., PlugPay and blockchain-linked building blocks). Inter-Agency Social Protection Interoperability: Coordinate technical actions and legal clauses required to formalize high-level Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) with UN sister agencies to enable WFP data contribution toward Yemen's future unified Social Protection Single Registry. 4. Identity Management (IDM) & Data Governance IDM Policy Coordination: Coordinate operational and cross-cutting policy decisions with relevant units regarding beneficiary identity management, data minimization principles, and the contextual, safe deployment of biometric verification platforms. Data Protection & Maturity: Formulate operational guidance notes on identity management, establish clear parameters for data collection, secure processing loops, and beneficiary information protection across all active Programme activities. Architecture Alignment: Evaluate and align localized digital systems currently supporting cash, value voucher, in-kind, and commodity voucher tracking against corporately endorsed software modules under WFP’s global IDM Target Architecture.

Desired Candidate Profile

Advanced University Degree (master s or equivalent) in International Affairs, Economics, Public Health, Agriculture, Environmental Science, Social Sciences, or another field relevant to international humanitarian/development assistance. Alternatively, a First University Degree (Bachelor's) combined with a minimum of three (3) additional years of directly related progressive professional work experience. Total relevant 7 years of experience including 3 years of professional experience specifically focused on strategic design, field implementation, and technical evaluation of cash-based assistance programs. Direct experience planning and implementing safety net or emergency response operations at the implementation level in developing countries or complex emergency settings. Desirable: Proven experience establishing corporate standard operating procedures with Financial Service Providers (FSPs) or managing identity management database transfers. Knowledge &

Skills

• Strong technical mastery across the design, delivery, and compliance tracking of multi-modality cash and voucher programs
• Deep technical understanding of food security, livelihoods, and social protection safety net models within fragile states
• Comprehensive understanding of UN and WFP programming requirements, with practical knowledge of Emergency Preparedness and Response (EPR), data assurance protocols, and funds management
• Excellent analytical, negotiation, and diplomatic communication skills (both written and oral), with a demonstrated ability to cultivate relationships with local government authorities, donors, and UN agencies
• Proven leadership capability to direct diverse, multi-cultural teams and monitor complex individual and collective work plans under pressure
• Languages: Fluent in written and oral English and Arabic