Social Science Consultant (Antimicrobial Resistance)

Organizational Setting

In 2015, FAO adopted a resolution on Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) followed by development of the FAO Action Plan on AMR in 2016.

The Food Safety and Quality Unit is working closely with the Chief Veterinary Officer and other units in FAO (in particular, the Animal Production and Health Division, the Plant Production Division, the Fisheries and Aquaculture Department, the Land and Water Division and the Development Law Service) to facilitate regional and national AMR initiatives.

This recruitment is to create a roster for positions that will support the implementation of activities to strengthen the four pillars of the FAO AMR Action Plan (governance, scientific evidence, awareness and good practices). These posts will specifically bring social science / anthropology expertise to projects aimed at characterising different aspects of AMR awareness and antimicrobial use (AMU), and implementing interventions to address selected poor AMU practices in key stakeholder groups.

Reporting Lines

Under the overall responsibility and supervision of the leading officer or project officer with consultation with regional and headquarter technical leads

Technical Focus

These are highly technical roles in which candidates are expected to be able to independently collate, assess, interpret and communicate social science/ anthropological information from the field relevant to implementing behaviour change activity in the food and agriculture sector.  The posts will also provide guidance, advice and support capacity development for projects as well as training of project staff in social science research techniques.

FAO International Consultant and Call purpose

The Organization frequently engages specialists to work on short-term projects as international consultants. The functions of a consultant are results-oriented and normally involve analysing complex issues, directing seminars or training courses, preparing documents for conferences and meetings, or writing reports on matters within their area of expertise.

An international consultant is engaged by the Organization to provide expertise, skills or knowledge for the performance of a specific task or piece of work, which would be short-term by nature. The assignment may involve full-time or part-time functions similar to those of staff members.

The assignment can be from several days to up to 11 months. The possibility of extension is subject to satisfactory performance and depending on the resources and needs of the Organization.

Tasks and responsibilities

The consultant will work in close liaison with the headquarters and regional technical consultants, and the relevant regional and national project coordinators in focal countries, to perform the tasks as outlined below to support projects to characterise AMU and implement interventions to address selected poor AMU practices in key stakeholder groups\:

•               Provide social science / anthropology guidance/ advice on\:

 -  study design and methodology

 -  selection of appropriate data collection and intervention strategies, tools and platforms and training materials and their development, revision and deployment

•               Provide technical support, advice and training to teams on data collection, data sharing, quality check and analysis

•               Coordinate data sharing mechanisms and create and maintain databases to facilitate this.

•               Harmonize country approaches, e.g. by coordinating transversal research module(s) that will permit cross analysis

•               Evaluate the progress of individual studies and overall regional outputs by regular remote and on-site monitoring of activities, and review of data at regular intervals during implementation phases of studies, advising on shaping of projects to reflect ongoing feedback

•               Create common spaces for sharing experiences, lessons learned and materials between countries during and at the finalization of the projects, making recommendations for future interventions. 

•               Analyse study data; providing draft interim and final reports with recommendations for future studies and revising as necessary in collaboration with national, regional and HQ teams.    

•               Maintain regular communication and provide ongoing updates on project progress

•               Create and foster links to locally based research/ government institutions and researchers to promote the sustainability of projects and to transfer knowledge gained through project design and deployment, in collaboration with the national teams. 

• Where required, present and publicise projects at regional/ global fora