Parliamentary Specialist

FAO’s approach to development assistance in Mindanao focuses on supporting the rehabilitation of agriculture and fisheries-based livelihoods, accelerating agriculture-based enterprises and increasing access to sustainable energy, and resilience to risk in municipalities affected by natural disasters and conflict. FAO interventions will include, among others\:

• Introduction of various productivity enhancing technologies to improve household incomes and promote sustainable agricultural practices.

• Technical assistance to government in reviewing existing policies that promote equitable agribusiness venture arrangements between farmers and agribusiness firms and capacity building activities for farmers that are anchored on the value chain approach.

• Capacity building on enterprise development and agribusiness that will allow farmers, fisherfolk and local government units to maximize potential market opportunities.

• Restoring and increasing the productivity of agriculture and fisheries-based livelihoods of smallholder farmers and marginalized fishers, decommissioned Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) combatants and their families
Enhancing the competitiveness of farm households, particularly women, to establish and manage microenterprises

• Facilitating the establishment of agribusiness enterprises with production-market contract agreements or similar arrangements

The Parliamentary Specialist will be under the overall guidance of the FAO Representative, the direct supervision of the Assistant FAO Representative (Programme), coordination with the Mindanao and Emergency Response and Preparedness Group Team Leader and Food Security and Nutrition Team Leader, and in close collaboration with the FAO Liaison/Coordination Specialist and FAO Cotabato Team.

Technical Focus

FAO has been implementing various projects in Mindanao which are guided by the FAO Mindanao Strategic Programme for Agriculture/Agribusiness and an emergency/rehabilitation project for Marawi City and other affected municipalities. The MSPAA strategies for the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) are in line with the Bangsamoro Development Plan (BDP, 2015) which FAO has also provided technical assistance in crafting the Economy and Livelihood component of the BDP. FAO will provide support to BARMM Ministries in areas related to our technical fields of expertise, including provision of technical support to the sectoral planning, capacity building for officials and local extension workers, and the development/implementation of socioeconomic packages and job generation/quick impact agricultural and environmental livelihood interventions for affected population and combatants.

The Parliamentary Specialist shall perform the following responsibilities\:

1. Establish networks within the Parliament of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) by conducting bilateral meetings, consultations and other coordination activities in order to identify key champions;

2. Strengthen key linkages between FAO Philippines and parliamentarians who expressed interest to work on the food and nutrition security agendas by identifying key individuals, maintaining regular contact, and establishing lines of communication and information exchange;

3. Lead the development of a roadmap that would link the BARMM Parliament to the FLAG-PH to ensure coherence of policies and legislative actions between the national and regional levels. This includes among others enhancement of the current FLAG-PH charter and creating platforms for discussion with the relevant stakeholders to promote the passing of pending related bills and implementation of existing policies and laws related to food security and nutrition;

4. Draft the agenda and facilitate meetings and other activities involving identified key champions in the BARMM Parliament in support of promoting food security and nutrition, resilient livelihoods and promoting sustainable peace and development, among others;

5. Ensure strategic positioning of FAO in relevant priority areas where it has comparative advantage by representing FAO in meetings/workshops and other activities in relation to BARMM, as well as other UN initiated coordination meetings, dialogues and related events;

6. Provide timely information on issues, programs and initiatives of interest or relevance to FAO Representation Office including regular updates on extraordinary events or emergency crises that may arise;

7. Proactively identify opportunities for resource mobilization and partnerships, prepare proposals and expand the existing programme s in coordination with sector specialists;

8. Submit succinct weekly updates on the liaison activities with the BTA and other BARMM sectoral ministries, JNC, OPAPP, and other relevant government agencies, UN agencies and other stakeholders.

9. Perform any other tasks/functions that may be assigned by the FAO Representative, and the Assistant FAO Representative (Programme).

• The candidate must have a University degree (Master degree preferred) in the field of political science, agriculture and other related fields
• At least 5 years professional and practical experience in the planning and implementation of rural development programmes/projects at the field level
• Excellent written and oral communication skills in English and Tagalog
• A national of Philippines

FAO Core Competencies

• Results Focus
• Teamwork
• Communication
• Building Effective Relationships
• Knowledge Sharing and Continuous Improvement

• Proven knowledge and experience of Mindanao and Emergency Response in the Philippines.
• Proven ability to conceptualize, plan and execute complex processes across a wide range of stakeholders, advance ability to work quickly and under pressure.
• Good experience in managing a team
• Must be familiar with the local rural setting in Mindanao