DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS
9 September 2026-23:59-GMT+01:00 Central European Time (Berlin)
WFP celebrates and embraces diversity. It is committed to the principle of equal employment opportunity for all its employees and encourages qualified candidates to apply irrespective of race, colour, national origin, ethnic or social background, genetic information, gender, gender identity and/or expression, sexual orientation, religion or belief, HIV status or disability.
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.
At WFP, people are at the heart of everything we do and the vision of the future WFP workforce is one of diverse, committed, skilled, and high performing teams, selected on merit, operating in a healthy and inclusive work environment, living WFP's values (Integrity, Collaboration, Commitment, Humanity, and Inclusion) and working with partners to save and change the lives of those WFP serves.
To learn more about WFP, visit our website: https://www.wfp.org and follow us on social media to keep up with our latest news: YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok.
WHY JOIN WFP?
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WFP is a 2020 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate.
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WFP offers a highly inclusive, diverse, and multicultural working environment.
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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.
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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.
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We offer an attractive compensation package (please refer to the Terms and Conditions section of this vacancy announcement).
JOB TITLE: Innovative Finance Consultant
TYPE OF CONTRACT: Consultancy
UNIT/DIVISION: WFP Innovation Accelerator (INNA)
DUTY STATION (City, Country): WFP Munich, Germany
DURATION: 6 months (Extendable)
ABOUT WFP
The World Food Programme (WFP) is the United Nations frontline agency fighting hunger. WFP
reaches more than 100 million people every day - delivering food assistance in emergencies and
working with smallholder farmers, communities, and governments to improve nutrition and build
resilience. WFP does this through its presence in over 120 countries and territories globally, working with local governments, grassroots ecosystems, public and private sector donors, to save lives and change lives through food assistance and resilience building.
Food insecurity is expected to remain at alarming levels as we enter 2026. In countries where WFP operates and data is available, 318 million people are facing acute food insecurity – more than double pre-pandemic levels in 2019. Among them, 41.1 million people are in Emergency or worse levels of acute food insecurity (Integrated Food Security Phase Classification Phase 4+), a 20 percent increase since late 2020.
As the leading humanitarian organisation delivering food assistance in emergencies and working with communities to improve nutrition and build resilience, WFP fosters and drives innovation. WFP’s long history of innovation is evident in some of the major shifts it has made over the years, such as wide-scale implementation of cash-based transfers and mobile assessment systems. In 2020, WFP was the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize.
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE OF THE ASSIGNMENT
The WFP Global Accelerator and Ventures was launched in 2015 in Munich, Germany, with support from the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), the German Federal Foreign Office (GFFO) and the Bavarian State Ministry of Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Tourism (StMELF).
Its mission is to source, pilot and scale new innovations that could reshape the fight against food insecurity and bring us closer to SDG2: Zero Hunger. Today, it works hand in hand with WFP’s vast global network, spanning innovation hubs, regional and country offices in over 120 countries and territories, to develop solutions that are deeply rooted in local needs and designed for real-world impact.
In 2025 alone, the WFP Global Accelerator and Ventures supported 85 innovations, reaching 132.5 million people across 90 countries and territories. These initiatives addressed critical challenges including climate change, healthcare access, gender equality and emergency response. To fund our work, the Accelerator works with donors from the public and private sectors, and collaborates with actors across the UN and multilateral system. For the past three years, we have maintained a solid funding base of around USD 20 million in the face of significant cuts to humanitarian funding elsewhere.
ACCOUNTABILITIES/RESPONSIBILITIES:
The Consultant, reporting to the Head of Innovative Finance and Venture Launchpad, is expected to:
Foster the development and implementation of innovative financing models, with a particular focus on helping to build the Accelerator’s and WFP’s impact investing mechanisms to fund impact at scale:
Contribute to the development and implementation of new impact investing mechanisms to attract additional funding towards investable and scalable innovations creating social impact at scale.
Support the development and management of processes and tools for the impact investing mechanisms, including impact measurement and management, reporting and monitoring of investments facilitated by WFP.
Develop a robust pipeline of investable and scalable innovations in the Accelerator and beyond, covering all aspects of deal origination from market research to investment proposal.
Conduct landscape mapping to further inform WFP impact investing activities and support relationship building with external investor partners to help with fundraising efforts for the WFP funding mechanisms as well as direct capital raising by the innovations.
Support impact businesses in the Accelerator portfolio and/or affiliated with other WFP teams with investment readiness activities to accelerate their path to scale advancing towards Zero Hunger and other Sustainable Development Goals:
Provide investment readiness support and lead continuous refinement of a toolkit to be used across the Accelerator and WFP.
Provide innovations with capital raising advice to secure most suitable funding either through WFP impact investing mechanisms or external investor partners.
Share impact investing knowledge and best practices with the Accelerator and other WFP teams and to promote and showcase the value of investment readiness activities.
Support other WFP innovative financing initiatives, including in the areas of blended finance, value chain finance, climate finance and other prioritized areas.
Design, test, prototype, validate and implement innovative financing models contributing to WFP’s strategic objectives and delivering meaningful humanitarian and development impact at scale.
Engage with all necessary internal stakeholders on topics related to innovative financing models and support the building of strong external partnerships within the Innovative Financing ecosystem globally.
Provide analysis and content preparation for presentations and management meetings on innovative financing and other priority topics.
Support other core processes of the Innovation Accelerator and, from time to time, support the Head of the Innovation Accelerator and the Director of Innovation with any other activities as required.
DELIVERABLES AT THE END OF THE CONTRACT:
- A pipeline of investable and scalable innovations, leading to investment proposal development and strengthen the portfolio of WFP-facilitated investments.
- Investment readiness and capital raising advice provided to a range of innovations and Accelerator teams.
- Ensure that all work and materials developed during the contract are well documented and available to the WFP Innovation Accelerator team.
QUALIFICATIONS & EXPERIENCE REQUIRED:
Education:
Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Business Administration or equivalent. Master’s degree is a plus.
Experience:
At least 3 years of progressively responsible international experience in the impact investing space, preferably with demonstrable interest in the humanitarian or international development sector.
Knowledge & Skills:
- Ability to conduct detailed research on impact businesses, understand their business models and impact potential, and create financial and non-financial forecasts.
- Understanding of the impact investing sector, ability to identify key trends, conduct market scoping exercise and identify potential external investor partners.
- Understanding of investment processes and ability to advise innovations and Accelerator teams on key aspects of investment readiness and capital raising activities.
- Strong conceptual thinking and analytical skills to develop new innovative financing strategies and models.
- Passion for innovations disrupting hunger, preferably with working knowledge of investing in food system transformation, climate change adaptation and socio-economic resilience (incl. agtech, foodtech, market access platforms, etc.).
- Experience working cross-functionally and getting things done in an agile and hands-on way.
- Able to interact with a broad range of stakeholders and external audience with maturity and tact.
- Excellent communication/presentation skills, with the ability to write strategy documents, to develop business plans and to write and deliver presentations.
- Collaborative spirit, able to partner with a wide range of people at all levels and across different cultures and to act with credibility and diplomacy.
- Self-motivated and able to work with a high degree of autonomy.
- Sets a high-level of ambition for own work to achieve impact for the vulnerable people we serve.
- Fully committed and motivated to achieve the aims of the UN World Food Programme.
Languages:
Fluency in oral and written English is mandatory. Intermediate knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian and Spanish) or Portuguese (one of WFP’s working languages) is a plus.
WFP LEADERSHIP FRAMEWORK
WFP Leadership Framework guides to the common standards of behavior that guide HOW we work together to accomplish our mission.
Click here to access WFP Leadership Framework
REASONABLE ACCOMMODATION
WFP is committed to supporting individuals with disabilities by providing reasonable accommodations throughout the recruitment process. If you require a reasonable accommodation, please contact: global.inclusion@wfp.org
NO FEE DISCLAIMER
The United Nations does not charge any application, processing, training, interviewing, testing or other fee in connection with the application or recruitment process. Should you receive a solicitation for the payment of a fee, please disregard it. Furthermore, please note that emblems, logos, names and addresses are easily copied and reproduced. Therefore, you are advised to apply particular care when submitting personal information on the web.
REMINDERS BEFORE YOU SUBMIT YOUR APPLICATION
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All applications must be submitted exclusively through our online recruiting system. We do not consider CVs or applications sent by email, LinkedIn, or any other channel.
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We strongly recommend that your Workday profile is accurate and complete, and that all sections are filled in, including your employment history, academic qualifications, language skills, and UN grade (if applicable). Once your profile is completed, please apply, and submit your application.
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If you experience technical issues while submitting your application, you may contact us at global.hrerecruitment@wfp.org. Please note that this email is only for technical issues with an application - unsolicited applications or documents sent to this inbox will not receive a reply.
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At the application stage, the only required documents are your CV and Cover Letter. Additional documents (passport, certificates, recommendation letters, etc.) may be requested later in the process.
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Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and invited to proceed to the next stage of the recruitment process.
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.
