Senior Research and Capacity Development Consultant

Mandaluyong City

Organization: FAO - Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Location: Mandaluyong City
Grade: Consultancy - Consultant - Contractors Agreement
Occupational Groups:
- Education, Learning and Training
- Scientist and Researcher
- FAPHI
Closing Date: Closed

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FAO seeks gender, geographical and linguistic diversity in its staff and international consultants in order to best serve FAO Members in all regions.
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Qualified female applicants and qualified nationals of non-and under-represented member countries are encouraged to apply.

Persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply.

All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence.
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Organizational Setting

For more than four decades, FAO has been working with the Government of the Philippines, civil society, community-based organizations and the private sector to address challenges in the agriculture, fisheries and forestry sector. Joint efforts have included increasing sustainability in agricultural production, promoting value-adding practices, improving post-harvest management, enhancing productivity and increasing the resilience of agriculture-based livelihoods to natural disasters, climatic hazards and armed conflict.

Reporting Lines

The Senior Research and Capacity Development Consultant will work under the overall supervision of the FAO Representative in the Philippines, the direct supervision of the Assistant FAO for Programme, under the technical guidance of the Lead Technical Officer (Senior Nutrition & Food systems Officer, RAP), and day-to-day guidance of the National Food Security and Nutrition Specialist.

Technical Focus

The Philippine government, through the National Nutrition Council (NNC) launched the Philippine Plan of Action for Nutrition (PPAN 2017-2022) and has highlighted the need for urgent action and stronger concerted efforts to address all forms of malnutrition and targets improved nutrition outcomes over the next five years. The PPAN 2017-2022 presents two (2) major components, i.e. nutrition-specific and nutrition sensitive interventions. Nutrition-sensitive programs are designed to enhance the community and household environment by addressing underlying determinants of nutrition, especially those that limit the household’s capacity to provide adequate and quality nutrition for vulnerable members such as pregnant and lactating mothers, infants, and children. As such, different sectors must be tapped to provide a range of complementary nutrition-sensitive services such as agriculture, health, social protection, early child development, education, water and sanitation, and livelihoods.

Given the formal inauguration of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) on 29 March 2019 which marks the forming of an autonomous government in the five provinces of Mindanao namely, Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur, Basilan, Tawi-Tawi and Sulu, FAO recognizes the need to provide technical support in its newly established Ministries that would address the problem of food insecurity and malnutrition. Likewise, FAO recognizes the need to support the implementation of PPAN 2017-2022 in BARMM through the National Nutrition Council (NNC-BARMM).

FAO will provide technical support to the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Agrarian Reform (MAFAR) to strengthen subnational capacity for nutrition-sensitive food system programming and provide support in assessing/analyzing good practices and lessons learned from selected food security and agriculture interventions implemented at community level. This effort further envisions to contribute to this by building on the evidence base for nutrition-sensitive programs so that these can support better decision making and promote harmonization at the national and local level. The project, TCP/PHI/3704-“Technical support in strengthening capacity for implementing nutrition sensitive food system programmes”, aims to build capacities of Municipal Nutrition Committees (MNCs) that will be able to plan, implement and monitor nutrition-sensitive interventions and contribute greatly to the success of PPAN.

The Senior Research and Capacity Development Consultant will provide technical support to MAFAR in the implementation of nutrition-sensitive programmes. Specifically, the Consultant will support in designing interventions incorporating nutrition lens and how these can be monitored for decision making and program planning.

Tasks and responsibilities

The Senior Research and Capacity Development Consultant will carry out the following tasks:

Lead the technical direction for the research methodology and development of conceptual framework for conducting study for generating evidence.
Prepare a detailed plan for reviewing various food security and nutrition and agricultural interventions, including the list of potential projects for analysis and evaluation.
Design capacity building activities of MAFAR officials and other ministries in the concepts of food security and nutrition, nutrition sensitive and monitoring system as basis for program planning and designing interventions among others;
Conduct multi-stakeholder consultations and meetings for selecting policies and projects/interventions for review, assessing and analysing their impacts on nutrition and livelihood improvement through virtual meetings or webinars;
Review various national and subnational projects selected and evaluate their relevance, identify good practices and lessons learned, analyse their direct and indirect impact on nutrition and livelihood improvement.
Design and recommend methodology for gathering data/information including socio-economic and cultural constraints, among implementers and beneficiaries for building evidence to implement nutrition-sensitive food system related programmes in BARMM.
Based on lessons learned, good practices and evidence generated, prepare a detailed report with specific recommendations on linking and strengthening the nutrition-sensitive food system related programmes in the Food Security and Nutrition roadmap developed by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (MAFAR);
Develop fact sheets, policy briefs and case studies on the selected interventions.
Organize multi-stakeholders meetings and policy dialogues to disseminate the study results to the stakeholders and to advocate nutrition-sensitive programmes to decision makers respectively.
Provide technical assistance in the preparation and conduction of capacity building activities pertaining to programme design and planning, implementation and monitoring and evaluation, etc. as needed by other relevant projects in FAO Philippines.
Carry out other relevant duties within his/her technical competence as requested by FAO Representative.

CANDIDATES WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE FOLLOWING

Minimum Requirements

Masteral degree (or equivalent) in the field of Nutrition, Public Health or other related fields;
At least nine (9) years of relevant experience in Nutrition and Food Security or Agriculture;
Working knowledge (Level C) of English
A National of the Philippines

FAO Core Competencies

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

Technical/Functional Skills

Professional experience in applied nutrition research
Strong background in planning and implementation of nutrition projects with responsibilities for project monitoring and evaluation, reporting and documentation.
S/he must have a good experience in participative training and research methodologies, food security and nutrition issues.
Demonstrated capability of providing high-level technical assistance and recommendations related to food security and nutrition at the national level.
Knowledge and skills on MS Office applications;