Food Security and Agricultural Livelihoods Assessment Specialist

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FAO is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender and nationality

People with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply

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

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Organizational Setting

The Office of Emergency and Resilience (OER) is responsible for ensuring FAO’s efforts to support countries and partners in preparing for and effectively responding to food and agricultural threats and crises. Within the OER, the Evidence for Programming unit aims to support the implementation and development of adequate capacities at all levels, especially at country level, to scale up data collection and analysis including also risk analysis to directly inform and design evidence-based emergency, anticipatory action and resilience programming and impact monitoring.

As part of the Evidence for Programming unit, the Needs Assessment team is in charge of generating quality and timely evidence to inform programming, through different initiatives:

• A monitoring system of agricultural livelihoods and food security in the context of COVID-19 and other food insecurity drivers in food crisis countries, consisting of periodic micro-meso data collection (mainly through phone surveys), analysis and visualization on a data hub.

· A Resilient Agriculture, Disaster and Recovery (RADAR) geospatial platform to analyze and communicate relevant geospatial information about agriculture and food security in the context of disasters (risks, impacts and recovery).

· Ex-post emergency agricultural and food security assessments (e.g. Post-Disaster Needs Assessments, Damage & Losses Needs Assessments, impact assessment).

Reporting Lines

Working under the supervision of the Senior Technical officer and in close collaboration with the Needs Assessments team, the Assessment specialist will take on either short-term assignments (field assessment, support to country) or longer-term missions (regional analysis, contribution to global systems).

Tasks and responsibilities

The Food Security and Agricultural Livelihoods Assessment Specialist will:

• Assist FAO country offices in identifying relevant data collection modalities and partnerships and setting up remote data collection systems either independently or in collaboration with service providers, and possibly also in conducting field assessments.
• Review baseline and secondary data and liaise with other units (programming, Early Warning Early Action, IPC) to identify data needs.
• Contribute to technical exchanges with other actors engaged in food security/socio-economic monitoring and surveys in the country or the region.
• Develop or review questionnaires and sampling protocols.
• Prepare enumerator training materials and supervise simulations/tool testing.
• Assist in data quality control, cleaning and analysis.
• Facilitate discussions on findings, contribute to their interpretation and to the formulation of operational recommendations and further data collection needed.
• Help draft and also review assessment and monitoring reports, and assist in their dissemination.
• Contribute to the data hub and geospatial platforms while ensuring the compatibility of data.
• Liaise with the geospatial unit for the integration of remote-sensing analysis when relevant.
• Generate regional analysis when relevant.
• Document methodology and lessons learnt, and contribute to the development of guidance materials related to the monitoring system and emergency assessments.
• Contribute to capacity building of FAO assessment staff (webinars, training sessions).
• Undertake travel, if needed and possible, in support of country offices.

CANDIDATES WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE FOLLOWING

Minimum Requirements

• Advanced university degree in in agronomy, economics, relevant social or natural sciences, or other related discipline relevant to the mandate of the Organization.
• Minimum of 5 years of proven knowledge and experience in post disaster emergency and rehabilitation assessment and programming, and other relevant technical experience.
• Working knowledge of English and limited knowledge of any other official language of the Organization (Arabic, Chinese, French, Spanish and Russian).

FAO Core Competencies

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

Technical/Functional Skills

• Able to work under pressure and adapt to an evolving and complex humanitarian context and within multidisciplinary and different cultural background teams.
• Familiarity with or training in the following assessment phases and tools included in the FAO Phased Assessment Framework: MIRA I and II, detailed/sector-specific needs assessments (household food security/livelihood, livestock, seeds, fishery, forestry), market analysis (EMMA, MIFIRA), Post Disaster Needs Assessment (PDNA) and/or Damage and Loss Assessment (DaLA), recovery and Peace Building Assessment (RPBA), Livelihood Recovery Assessment (LRA).
• Experience in formulation, sampling, data collection, coordination, implementation, data analysis, interpretation and reporting for assessment processes in agriculture and food security.
• Expertise in remote data collection in the area of food security and in emergencies.
• Working knowledge of advanced statistics with ability to use statistical software packages (in particular SPS, STATA and/or R).
• Good knowledge of using and programming questionnaires in Open data kits (in particular Kobo toolbox).
• Working knowledge of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Remote Sensing an asset.
• Excellent communication skills, both verbal and written.
• Effective team leadership and decision-making skills with strong individual planning capacity.
• Knowledge of humanitarian principles.

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Please note that all candidates should adhere to FAO Values of Commitment to FAO, Respect for All and Integrity and Transparency

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