Role purpose

The mission of the Office of the Inspector General is to provide WFP’s stakeholders assurance on the adequacy and effectiveness of WFP’s governance, risk management, and control processes aimed to detect and deter fraud, waste and abuse through the conduct of independent and objective oversight activities; to conduct inspections and investigations into allegations of wrongdoing and misconduct; and to facilitate the adoption and implementation of United Nations, humanitarian agency and private-sector best practices related to assurance and oversight.

The Office of the Inspector General (OIG) operates with full operational independence and reports functionally to the Executive Director. It has unrestricted access to records, personnel, and premises necessary to fulfill its oversight mandate. The OIG comprises the Office of Internal Audit and the Office of Inspections and Investigations, and provides assurance, advisory, and investigative services across all WFP operations.

As an organization of 21,700 staff worldwide, the WFP has a presence in over 120 countries and territories, making OIG’s mandate critical to ensuring accountability and integrity across a complex and decentralized operational landscape.

Major Duties and Responsibilities

The Inspector General and Director of Oversight serves as both the Chief Audit Executive and Inspector General. The Office of the Inspector General (OIG), comprising the Office of Internal Audit and the Office of Inspections and Investigations, oversees a team of approximately 110 staff.

Specific duties include:

• Provide strategic vision and leadership in establishing and meeting the objectives and priorities of the Oversight functions.

• Uphold the independence, objectivity, and professionalism of the oversight function, ensuring adherence to international standards and ethical conduct.

• Maintain a quality assurance and improvement programme, including periodic internal assessments and external reviews to ensure the continued relevance and effectiveness of oversight activities.

• Provide assurance to the Executive Board and Executive Director on governance, policy, risk, resources, operations, and accountability by directing the verification and reporting on the integrity, efficiency, and effectiveness of WFP’s management, administration and operations.

• Report on the findings from internal audit, inspection and investigation to the Executive Board, the Independent Oversight Advisory Committee, and the Executive Director in line with applicable policies and making recommendations to the appropriate stakeholders in order to improve processes and strengthen management throughout the organization.

• Keep the Independent Oversight Advisory Committee informed on significant oversight findings, implementation status of oversight recommendations, and changes to the work plan, including modifications, scope restrictions, or limitations.
• Provide information to the Executive Board through an annual report of OS activities, including a summary of significant oversight findings, the implementation status of oversight recommendations, and status of the organizational independence of OS activities.
• Actively participate in, lead or co-lead UN forums and clusters to ensure delivery of the broader UN mandate and effective WFP leadership in areas of specialization, while collaborating and sharing best practices with oversight entities, donor government counterparts, UN bodies, and international NGOs as appropriate.
• Hold accountability for transparent and efficient people management, and ensure the best use of financial resources for achievement of set objectives

Profile

Education:

• Advanced university degree in business administration, accounting, finance, economics, law or other relevant fields.
• Professional certification from an internationally recognized auditing or accountancy body. Additional certifications in investigation (e.g., CFE), risk management (e.g., CRMA), or internal controls (e.g., COSO) are an asset.

Experience:

• Proven track record (at least 15 years) of progressively responsible professional experience including in audit, investigation and/or oversight with at least 10 years of experience at senior management.
• Demonstrated competence and success in implementing change management and driving strategic improvements in organizational governance and oversight.
• Advanced understanding of audit, internal controls, and investigative processes, with sound knowledge of international auditing and accounting standards and evolving best practices in corporate governance and accountability within complex or regulated organizations.
• Demonstrated competence and success in the areas of technology and financial services, whether through management, audit, or advisory capacities.
• Demonstrated leadership in advancing the use of technology and data-driven approaches.
• Relevant experience from either international organizations including in the UN common system, or from the private sector.

• Strong knowledge of UN system policies, rules, regulations and procedures, and inter-governmental governance is desirable.
• Deep understanding of organizational independence and the role of oversight in safeguarding institutional integrity.
• Ability to lead, coach and motivate large and diverse teams and drive improving performance.
• Excellent financial management skills and commercial acumen, with the ability to leverage external partnerships to optimize resources for WFP.
• A track record of engaging and influencing senior leadership at the highest levels internally and externally.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to synthesize complex issues and develop strategic policies and solutions.

Languages:

• Fluency in English.

• Intermediate knowledge (level B) of a second official UN language: Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian, Spanish, and/or Portuguese (a WFP working language).

Competencies:

• Demonstrated high level of diligence, maturity, responsibility, integrity and ethics, objectivity, impartiality and fairness.

• Excellent communicator with strong interpersonal skills and good representational skills, including public speaking. Ability to articulate key messages and to deliver difficult messages with sensitivity and integrity.

• Proven ability to lead and manage diverse, multi-cultural and multi-disciplinary teams of diverse experts, with strong skills in inclusive leadership, collaboration, team building, and motivation.

• Excellent judgment with proven ability to deal with complex interrelated issues and strong analytical and problem-solving skills to develop solutions that address root causes of issues.

• Strategic vision to drive and influence oversight reforms within the Organization, proven ability to innovate and conceptualize complex issues, and formulate realistic and practical recommendations to address problems.

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.

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

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.

Terms of Appointment

• To ensure independence, the Inspector General and Director of the Oversight Office’s tenure will be a four-year term and may be renewable once, without the possibility of further employment within WFP at the end of the term(s).

• WFP offers an attractive compensation and expatriate benefits package. Please visit the following website for details on the United Nations common system of salaries: icsc.un.org.

Role Location

Rome, Italy

How to Apply

To apply for this position, please ensure you complete the Application Form provided below by 20 August 2025 (23:59 hrs, GMT +2). It is essential that you submit your CV in English, specifically in Microsoft Word format (.doc/.docx), not exceeding 10MB.

Applications in other languages or formats will not be considered.

Rest assured, all information will be handled with the utmost confidentiality.

SRI Executive is exclusively retained by World Food Programme to undertake this assignment.