Senior Social Policy Officer (Social Protection)

• Qualified female applicants, qualified nationals of non-and under-represented member nations and person with disabilities are encouraged to apply for this position
• FAO does not tolerate sexual exploitation and abuse, any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment, and discrimination. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks.

• All applications will be treated with the strictest confidentiality
• The incumbent may be re-assigned to different activities and/or duty stations depending on the evolving needs of the Organization.

The Social Policies and Rural Institutions Division (ESP) coordinates FAO's work on social protection, gender equality, decent rural employment, rural institutions and people's empowerment, and the right to food. It is responsible for working with member countries and other partners to reduce rural poverty through strengthening social protection systems, diversifying rural employment opportunities, reducing gender gaps and other social inequalities in agriculture, strengthening rural institutions, improving the rural poor's access to productive resources and rural services, and achieving the overall goal of realizing the human right to adequate food for all.

The Division includes a specialized team (Social Protection-SOCPRO) dedicated to providing strategic guidance and technical oversight to FAO's work on social protection. The team provides support to Member countries around policy and programmatic support, capacity development, analysis and research, including impact evaluation, as well as communications and advocacy.

The post will lead the Social Protection-SOCPRO team in the ESP Division at FAO headquarters.

The Senior Social Policy Officer reports to the ESP Director.

Conceptualize and develop strategies, guiding principles and policy tools aligning social protection with FAO's mandate, including food security and nutrition, natural resource management, rural development and resilience, as well as further position FAO in the global social protection agenda. The implications of social protection for rural poverty reduction, gender equality and rural women's economic empowerment, as well as links between social protection and climate change policies, food systems, fragility, disaster risk reduction including preparedness and anticipatory action, will be special areas of focus. In the technical areas mentioned, coordinate and provide strategic guidance, policy and programmatic support and capacity development and oversee the development and application of social protection-related evidence generation and ex ante and ex post impact assessments.

Leadership and conceptual thinking for the development and implementation of comprehensive technical, statistical and/or analytical frameworks to support the programme of work and related products, projects and services in accordance with the FAO Strategic Framework and in alignment with the Organization's Policy on Gender Equality.

• Plans, manages, or leads highly specialized or multi-disciplinary teams, leads, coordinates, and/or participates on Organization-wide, cross-Departmental committees, project teams, and working groups, and/or provides technical leadership/secretariat services on technical networks and/or international technical policy and standard setting bodies.

• Ensures the integration of gender equality and women's empowerment in FAO's work, including the disaggregation of data by sex and age where appropriate, in accordance with FAO Policy on Gender Equality.

• Analyses global and country specific requirements as well as agricultural, economic, social, environmental factors to provide critical input into the FAO Strategic Framework, Programme of Work as well as Detailed Work Plans and the supporting budgets and/or resourcing strategies.

• Implements and monitors work programmes involving the conception and development of comprehensive statistical and/or analytical frameworks including early warning, medium and long term plans and strategies, leading edge tools, methods, systems and databases, critical indicators, and/or policy models, etc. for gender programming.

• Oversees and reviews, from a gender perspective, data collection, validation, analysis and reporting activities to support the development of technical standards, international instruments, innovation, FAO flagship publications/yearbooks, and/or on-going programme development as well as technical and/or policy advisory services.

• Provides technical and policy advice to Member Countries and technical support to decentralized offices in the development and implementation of their programmes of work.

• Plans, organizes and participates in capacity development activities involving the provision of advice, technical assistance projects, training workshops, seminars, and meetings as well as oversees the development of related materials, on-line tools and information kits.

•Represents the Organization at international/inter-governmental meetings and conferences, advocates strategic partnerships, best practices, and increased policy dialogue and develops and negotiates effective working relationships/consensus and agreements with international and national partners.

• Leads and/or participates in resource mobilization activities in accordance with the Corporate strategy.

• Provides strategic and guidance on FAO's approach to social protection, enhancing its positioning internally and externally;

• Established and/or strengthen strategic internal and external partnerships to enhance FAO's work on social protection, including joint work with other divisions and key partners (including ILO, WFP, IFAD, UNICEF and the World Bank);

• Provides quality assurance and oversight across the SOCPRO policy, programming and analytical activities, including the review and production of technical reports and inputs for technical documents, databases and departmental products in connection with FAO's core work on social protection;

• Undertakes quantitative and qualitative policy analysis on effective social protection interventions that foster food security and nutrition and inclusive agricultural and rural development, paying due attention to impacts in terms of poverty reduction, gender equality, rural women's economic empowerment, resilience and environmental sustainability;

• Leads and coordinates programmes, projects and other activities of the Social Protection Team that provide policy support to Member Countries in the mentioned areas of work by providing technical, statistical, and/or analytical services on various studies, projects, and/or assessments and provides technical backstopping to field projects;

• Leads the policy and programmatic support around risk and shock responsive social protection, including around preparedness and anticipatory action, while representing FAO in global inter-agency process and providing support to Member countries;

•Liaises with Regional and Sub-Regional Offices to ensure the necessary social protection capacity in decentralized offices;

• Advanced university degree in international development, economics, institutional development, social policy, rural development or other relevant social sciences;

• Ten years of relevant experience in socio-economic analysis, policy formulation and capacity building in relation to social protection and linkages with social and economic development, poverty reduction, gender, rural development and resilience;

• Working knowledge of English and limited knowledge of another FAO official language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish)

• Results Focus

• Leading, Engaging and Empowering Others

• Communication

• Partnering and Advocating

• Knowledge Sharing and Continuous Improvement

• Strategic Thinking

• Work experience in more than one location or area of work, particularly in field positions is essential

• Extent and relevance of experience in policy research, policy design and programme implementation related to social protection and its linkages to food security and nutrition, agriculture and rural development

• Demonstrated experience in socio-economic research, analyse data and statistics, and apply findings relevant to social protection policies and programmes aiming to strengthen food security and nutrition, reduce rural poverty, empower rural women, and foster agricultural and rural development

• Demonstrated ability to mobilize resources and develop partnerships

• Demonstrated experience in writing and presentational skills, including for broad audience, as verifiable through international publications, policy briefs and OpEds