Finance & Innovation Capital Expert (p4)

Organizational Context

The School Meals Accelerator (SMA), hosted by WFP, supports governments in scaling national school meal programs. Operating as a network catalyst, it mobilizes resources and expertise to deliver strategic technical assistance. The SMA aims to unlock the full potential of school meals by improving design, scaling investment, and fostering collaboration across education, health, and food systems, ultimately helping low- and lower-middle-income countries reach an additional 100 million children by 2030.

Job Purpose

The Finance & Innovation Capital Expert will lead efforts to strengthen the financial foundations of national school meal systems, ensuring countries can establish credible, sustainable, and investment-ready financing architectures. This involves positioning school meals within long-term, domestically sustainable public financing and attracting concessional and commercial capital from diverse sources like MDBs, DFIs, and impact investors. The role anchors system-level engagement across key ministries and financial institutions, aligning public and private actors to enhance the financing ecosystem. By ensuring macroeconomic credibility and supporting long-term financial sustainability, the expert contributes to country-led system transformation and helps coordinate with global initiatives for aligned support to countries.

Responsibilities

The School Meals Accelerator, hosted by the World Food Programme, aims to bolster national school meal programs in low- and lower-middle-income countries. Its mission is to enhance program design, increase investment, and foster collaboration across education, health, and food sectors. The Accelerator acts as a network catalyst, mobilizing resources and expertise to provide strategic technical assistance. A key responsibility is to help governments strengthen the financial underpinnings of their school meal systems, ensuring credibility and sustainability. This involves positioning school meals within long-term public financing frameworks and attracting diverse capital, including concessional and commercial funding from various financial institutions and investors. The role requires engaging with ministries and financial institutions to align public and private actors, thereby strengthening the financing ecosystem. Responsibilities include leading fiscal strategy development, conducting public expenditure reviews, and identifying financing gaps. Additionally, the role involves mobilizing private sector and innovative finance, structuring blended finance approaches, and developing investment cases. It also entails guiding governments in designing national plans, strengthening the school meals ecosystem by convening stakeholders, and overseeing technical assistance to ensure alignment with government priorities. The position emphasizes systemic leadership, fostering collaboration across diverse actors, and promoting adaptive learning to drive country-led system transformation towards reaching an additional 100 million children by 2030.

Work Experience

Requires at least eight years of progressively senior experience in public finance, development finance, blended-finance structuring, investment analysis, or sovereign/public-sector financing. Must have extensive experience engaging ministries on fiscal strategy and budget planning, and a demonstrated track record mobilizing capital from diverse partners like MDBs, DFIs, and impact investors. Experience translating complex financial analysis into actionable strategies and investment cases is essential.

Skills

Public Finance Management, Fiscal Strategy Development, Macro-Fiscal Analysis, Investment Analysis, Blended Finance Structuring, Innovative Financing Mechanisms, Stakeholder Engagement, Systems Thinking, Cross-Sectoral Collaboration, Project Management, Risk Analysis, Budget Planning, Financial Modeling, Investment Case Development, Policy Recommendation, Negotiation, Partnership Development, Adaptive Leadership, Knowledge Management, Communication

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