Livelihood and Food Security Coordinator - (only open for Afghan nationality) - Job Location: Herat - Afghanistan

The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) is a non-governmental, humanitarian organization with 60 years of experience in helping to create a safer and more dignified life for refugees and internally displaced people. NRC advocates for the rights of displaced populations and offers assistance within the shelter, education, emergency food security, legal assistance, and water,sanitation and hygiene sectors.

The Norwegian Refugee Council has approximately 5000 committed and competent employees involved in projects across four continents. In addition, NRC runs one of the world’s largest standby rosters -NORCAP, with 650 professionals, ready to be deployed on 72 hours notice when a crisis occurs

Purpose of the Job:
The Livelihoods and Food Security Coordinator (based in Herat) will oversee the design and implementation of livelihoods and food security programmes in the West Region, under the country office’s newly-established Livelihoods and Food Security Core Competency. The Livelihoods and Food Security Coordinator will work under the direct supervision of the West Area Manager in the Herat office. He/ she will work under the close technical guidance of the Livelihoods and Food Security Specialist and the Livelihoods and Food Security Coordinator in Kabul. He will also work very closely with NRC’s other units in the Herat office (in particular the Education and Shelter units), to implement joint programmes.
As the Food Security and Livelihoods Core Competency was only recently established in Afghanistan, the Coordinator will play a critical role in helping implement new livelihoods and food security projects in the West Region– and in documenting lessons learnt from these initial projects to shape the country office’s livelihoods and food security strategy moving forward.
Livelihoods programmes support NRC’s broader strategy to promote durable solutions to displacement –beyond short-term emergency assistance – and to prevent further displacement. These programmes seek to enable vulnerable displaced people (returnees from Iran or Pakistan, as well as people internally displaced by conflict) to find jobs or start their own businesses, so they can support their families. Food security programmes aim to ensure that displaced people able to meet their essential food needs – in terms of quality, diversity and quantity – both in times of emergency and in situations of protracted displacement.
Livelihoods and food security activities will build on the work being done through NRC’s other Core Competencies. For example, small-enterprise development activities could target recent graduates of the vocational skills programmes run by NRC’s Education unit. Training and material for kitchen gardens and greenhouses could be provided to families who are building a house under Shelter projects. Cash-for-food could be provided to food-insecure children enrolled in the schools supported by NRC’s Education programmes, or to beneficiaries referred by the Community Centres run by NRC’s Camp Management unit.
The Livelihoods and Food Security Coordinator will be responsible for implementing, reporting on and ensuring the quality of all food security and livelihoods projects being implemented in the West Region. This will include participating in data collection field work; overseeing the beneficiary selection process in coordination with communities, local stakeholders and other NRC units in the Herat office (especially Shelter and Education colleagues); ensuring that projects are being implemented on schedule (including keeping clear records of distributions); ensuring that monitoring and evaluation (M&E) plans are being implemented, and immediately