Resilience & Livelihoods Specialist

Organizational Setting

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) contributes to the achievement of the 2030 Agenda through the FAO Strategic Framework by supporting the transformation to MORE efficient, inclusive, resilient and sustainable agrifood systems, for better production, better nutrition, a better environment and a better life, leaving no one behind.

FAO is a specialized agency of the UN that leads international efforts to defeat hunger. FAO's goal is to achieve food security for all and ensure that people have regular access to enough high-quality food to lead active, healthy lives. With 195 Members (194 countries and the European Union), FAO works in over 130 countries worldwide.

FAO Country Offices, working under overall corporate guidance and in line with the Strategic Framework, offer policy advice and support to countries in the mandated areas of FAO, facilitated through partnerships, resources and an active country programme to provide technical assistance, develop capacities and deliver core services while fully observing international standards of accountability to establish leadership and strengthen impact at the country level. FAO has been working in Lebanon since 1977. FAO Lebanon project portfolio has been growing in response to the different crises.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in Lebanon is supporting national efforts to enhance sustainable agricultural development, improve food security, and strengthen the resilience of rural livelihoods.

Reporting Lines

Under the overall supervision of the FAO Representative and direct supervision of Programme Leader CPF Outputs 2&3 and in close coordination with other Units and colleagues in the FAO Representation in Lebanon, and counterpart national authorities.

Technical Focus

The Resilience & Livelihoods Specialist will provide technical, managerial/coordination and operational support for FAO Lebanon’s resilience and rural livelihoods programming, with a primary focus on the Resilience & Livelihoods workstream. The role centers on strengthening the productive capacities, economic resilience and self-sufficiency of vulnerable farming communities, particularly smallholder farmers, rural households and agri-food actors, through integrated interventions that combine direct productive asset support, structured capacity building and market linkage.

The Resilience & Livelihoods Specialist works in close collaboration with the Food Security and Resilience Coordinator and Food Security & Livelihoods Specialist, particularly with the latter on shared capacity-building activities and integrated interventions, each contributing from their respective technical angle.

Tasks and responsibilities

Resilience and livelihoods intervention design

• Support/lead the design of resilience and livelihoods interventions, including needs assessments, vulnerability analyses, targeting approaches
• Integrate climate resilience, shock-responsive programming and disaster risk reduction approaches into livelihoods intervention design, ensuring that farmers support packages address both chronic vulnerabilities and acute shocks.
• Contribute, as relevant, to vulnerability and livelihood assessments that feed into food security monitoring and situation analysis processes, IPC classification, in coordination with the FAO Food Security & Resilience Coordinator and Food Security & Livelihoods Specialist.
• Ensure coherence across livelihoods interventions within the portfolio, avoiding duplication and strengthening complementarity between projects targeting similar communities or value chains.

Productive asset support

• Support/lead the design and implementation of direct productive support mechanisms for farmers and agri-food actors, including matching grants, farm input packages, and other related mechanisms.
• Define targeting criteria, beneficiary selection and verification processes, and registration systems, ensuring accountability and transparency throughout the support mechanism management cycle.
• Support value chain and market assessments for priority agricultural commodities in target areas, using findings to design livelihoods interventions that link productive support directly to identifiable market opportunities.
• Support cooperative development and agri-enterprise strengthening as part of an integrated approach to economic resilience,.
• Ensure proper documentation, compliance and audit trail for all support mechanisms and asset transfer operations in line with FAO procedures and donor requirements.
• Monitor support resources utilization and productive outcomes, track adoption of supported practices and assess the contribution of support provided to household income and resilience.
• Collaborate with the FAO grievance and feedback mechanism, ensuring that beneficiary concerns are being properly addressed, and that patterns in feedback are used to inform programme adjustments.

Capacity building and extension

• Design, roll out and oversee the implementation of structured capacity-building programmes for farmers, cooperatives and rural enterprises, including participatory extension approaches such as Farmer Field Schools (FFS), Farmer Business Schools (FBS) and other related approaches.
• Develop and continuously update training materials, technical guidelines and facilitation tools, drawing on and contributing to FAO Lebanon’s existing curriculums and materials, refining it through field experience and emerging best practices.
• Train facilitators and implementing partners in the delivery of FAO Lebanon’s curriculums, assess their competency to deliver sessions independently to the required standard, and supervise their ongoing performance in the field; contribute to periodic curriculum review sessions based on facilitator feedback and field evidence.
• Monitor knowledge and practice adoption among programme participants, assess training outcomes and adapt curricula based on field evidence and feedback.
• Coordinate with the Food Security & Livelihoods Specialist on joint capacity-building activities.

Field implementation and technical oversight

• Maintain regular field presence to supervise the implementation of livelihoods activities, verify delivery, assess quality and provide direct technical support to project teams and implementing partners.
• Coordinate closely with the operations unit (procurement, logistics, finance) to ensure the timely delivery of inputs, in line with project workplans.
• Monitor technical and financial progress of livelihoods activities, identify implementation constraints and propose corrective measures in consultation with the Programme Leader and Food Security & Resilience Coordinator.

Coordination and partnerships

• Coordinate with government institutions (particularly the MOI), local NGOs, farmer organisations including cooperatives, and private sector actors involved in agricultural livelihoods programming.
• Participate in relevant technical working groups, livelihoods coordination platforms and sector meetings as relevant to the resilience and livelihoods workstream.
• Support coordination with implementing partners and service providers at the field level, ensuring alignment with FAO standards and project objectives.

Project management and coordination

• Lead/Contribute to the preparation and regular updating of project workplans, activity schedules and procurement plans for activities within the thematic area, in coordination with the Programme Leader, Food Security & Resilience Coordinator, and the operations unit, .
• Prepare Terms of Reference and Scope of Works, evaluation criteria, project reports and other programme documentation in compliance with FAO standards and donor requirements.
• Assist in the preparation of technical specifications of inputs, supplies, and equipment, envisaged in Programmes’ documents and assist in the procurement process.
• Prepare and update project logical frameworks, results frameworks and performance monitoring matrices, in alignment with results-based management principles.
• Monitor implementation progress of activities within the thematic workstream against approved workplans and budgets, identify bottlenecks and risks, and report findings and proposed corrective actions to the Programme Leader in a timely manner.
• Coordinate with implementing partners, service providers, contractors and field teams to ensure the timely and quality delivery of project activities within the thematic area, maintaining clear records of coordination meetings, decisions and follow-up actions.
• Lead the preparation of donor progress reports, assist in the preparation of project financial reports, FAO corporate reporting submissions and internal monitoring documents for the thematic workstream, providing accurate and timely technical and implementation data.
• Participate in project review meetings, FAO Lebanon internal coordination meetings and relevant external coordination forums as directed by the Programme Leader, representing the thematic area and contributing technical and implementation updates.
• Perform any other related duties as required by the Programme Leader.

Monitoring, reporting and knowledge management

• Lead the design and implementation of monitoring systems for resilience and livelihoods interventions, including beneficiary and delivery tracking databases, training attendance and adoption monitoring registers, support resources utilization tracking and data collection tools, ensuring that monitoring data is collected consistently and in line with project indicator frameworks.
• Conduct periodic field monitoring visits to implementation areas, documenting findings, verifying implementation quality and producing field monitoring reports for the Programme Leader’s review.
• Produce outcome assessments for food security and livelihoods interventions at agreed intervals, measuring changes in beneficiary income, and inform FAO resource mobilization.
• Support the preparation of technical and donor progress reports for the Resilience & Livelihoods workstream, providing accurate, timely and evidence-based inputs on implementation progress, results achieved and lessons learned.
• Document good practices, field evidence and lessons learned from livelihoods programming, .
• Provide technical input to various written outputs,

CANDIDATES WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE FOLLOWING

Minimum Requirements

• Bachelor’s Degree in Agriculture, Agronomy, Rural Development, Agricultural Economics, or a related field.
• 6 years of relevant experience in agricultural livelihoods programming, resilience interventions or rural development;
• Working knowledge of English (level C)
• National of Lebanon

FAO Core Competencies

• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills;
• Demonstrated organization skills and ability to meet tight deadlines;
• Ability to prioritize tasks;
• Communication skills;
• Ability to work in a harmonious and effective way in a multicultural team;
• Excellent interpersonal skills and ability to maintain effective working relationships with supervisors and colleagues.

Technical/Functional Skills

• Strong technical knowledge of agricultural livelihoods systems, including crop production, livestock, agro-processing and income-generating activities in smallholder farming contexts.
• Proven experience in the design and management of direct productive support mechanisms, including matching grants, farm input packages and productive asset transfers, with a strong understanding of accountability and compliance requirements.
• Practical hands-on experience in the design, roll-out and supervision of Farmer Field Schools (FFS), Farmer Business Schools (FBS) and other participatory extension methodologies, including facilitator training and monitoring of knowledge adoption.
• Strong field implementation and supervision skills with demonstrated ability to maintain regular field presence and provide direct technical support to project teams, facilitators and implementing partners.
• Knowledge of targeting methodologies, beneficiary verification and grants management systems applicable in crisis-affected or post-shock recovery contexts.
• Understanding of climate resilience frameworks, shock-responsive programming and disaster risk reduction approaches as applied to agricultural livelihoods.
• Ability to integrate market-oriented approaches into livelihoods interventions, including value chain analysis and market linkage facilitation.
• Good analytical, monitoring and technical reporting skills in English; ability to document field evidence, lessons learned and programme results for donor and corporate reporting purposes.

Selection criteria

• A Master’s degree is an asset.
• Proven experience in: (i) implementation of livelihoods support programmes targeting smallholder farmers and rural communities; (ii) management of direct grants, matching grants or productive asset transfer programmes; (iii) design and delivery of structured capacity-building programmes including participatory extension approaches such as Farmer Field Schools (FFS), Farmer Business Schools (FBS) or equivalent; (iv) field-based project implementation and supervision. Experience in crisis or emergency recovery contexts is highly desirable.
• Prior experience with FAO, UN agencies or NGOs is an asset.
• Strong knowledge of Lebanon’s agricultural and livelihoods context is highly desirable.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION