JOB TITLE: Localization Specialist
TYPE OF CONTRACT: Consultant level II
UNIT/DIVISION: Gender Protection and Inclusion Unit/ PO
DUTY STATION (City, Country): Rome, Italy
DURATION: 11 months
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE OF THE ASSIGNMENT:
The World Food Programme (WFP) is the world’s largest humanitarian agency, fighting hunger and malnutrition worldwide. In June 2025, WFP’s Executive Board approved the Localization Policy, and its costed implementation plan to operationalize and guide implementation. The policy affirms WFP’s commitment to placing local and national actors at the center of our work. This means recognizing local and national actors, not as transactional partners, but as leaders and owners of humanitarian response and other efforts to combat food insecurity and malnutrition. Localization is defined as “a process that shifts the way that WFP’s humanitarian and development work is designed, delivered, and funded to better support locally led efforts that are responsive to the unique needs and priorities of affected people.” Key localization actors are identified as both state and non-state actors, with a focus on local and national NGOs (specifically NGO cooperating partners), community-based organizations, private sector enterprises and entrepreneurs in local supply chains and markets, and government (national and sub-national). The policy is guided by principles of mutual respect and trust, and supports the goals of the humanitarian reset by enhancing programme quality and efficiency, and by elevating local and national actors as frontline leaders, supporting a more devolved humanitarian system. WFP’s commitment to localization is further reflected in the WFP Strategic Plan, where promoting localization has been elevated as a cross-cutting priority across the organization’s work.
The policy includes four main objectives, including:
Progress from transactional to collaborative partnerships with local and national non-state cooperating partners. Strengthen engagement with community-based organizations as technical partners in food security and nutrition. Increase the roles of local entrepreneurs and small enterprises in supply chains and markets. Strengthen the influence of local and national actors in shaping policies, operations and coordination spaces.
Across each objective, the policy also identifies key pathways of change: leveraging, strengthening and sharing capacities; strengthening participatory approaches and systematic inclusion; facilitating agile partnership models and flexible funding; and promoting mutual accountability and risk sharing.
At present, work under Objective 2 has been operationalized through a 2-year US funded programme to create systems for better and more efficient on-boarding of CBOs. Under this project, foundational research involving 111 CBOs across 3 varied contexts was completed in 2025. Stemming from this research, a “menu of options” for strengthening CBO engagement and partnership was developed, and 12 countries were identified for piloting a range of activities related to contractual modalities, financial mechanisms, and partnership models.
The purpose of this assignment is to provide technical level leadership, steering, and coordination to implement Objectives 2, as well as support wider localization policy coordination as needed.