International Consultant – Impact Assessment & Recovery Planning Specialist

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• FAO is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality, background, and culture
• Qualified female applicants, qualified nationals of non-and under-represented member nations, and person with disabilities are encouraged to apply
• Everyone who works for FAO is required to adhere to the highest standards of integrity and professional conduct and to uphold our values. FAO has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and FAO, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority, and discrimination
• All selected candidates, therefore, will 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

Organizational Setting

Through its Country Offices, or FAO Representations, FAO assists governments to develop policies, programmes and projects to address hunger, food security and malnutrition, and provides technical support for the sustainable development of their agricultural, livestock, animal health, and irrigation and forestry sectors as well as emergency preparedness and response to conflict and natural affected events. The activities of the FAO Representation include design and implementation of country-tailored field programmes, liaison with local donor representatives and active public awareness raising and outreach activities related to the mandate of FAO.
FAO assistance in Afghanistan achieves its objectives through capacity development and direct project implementation in four specific areas of FAO’s technical expertise:

• Better governance through improved capacity for policy planning, land reform, decentralization, and management of common natural resources;
• Fostering expansion of irrigation and field water management;
• Intensive agriculture for surplus commercialization, value chains development, and job creation; and
• Supporting vulnerable farmers for improved food & nutrition security, resilience, and emergency response to natural and man-made disasters and climate change.

Project Background:

FAO has been actively supporting the Government of Afghanistan in COVID-19 response. As soon as the pandemic started showing its impacts, MAIL and FAO jointly designed and undertook a rapid assessment of COVID-19 impacts on the agriculture production and marketing. The findings were used by both MAIL and FAO to inform the reprogramming/repurposing of various ongoing and pipeline programmes to respond to the immediate adverse impacts of the pandemic. With technical inputs from FAO, MAIL and the World Bank quickly formulated the Emergency Agriculture And Food Supply (EATS) Project aiming to support critical food supply chains and create short-term economic opportunities to boost smallholders resilience and recovery (by focusing on provision of certified seeds, generation of short-term employment, increasing agriculture's resilience to shocks, and strengthening food supply chains).

Further, MAIL accelerated the provision of budgetary resources for a rapid scale-up in the ongoing programme on strengthening cold storage and zero energy storage and processing facilities in key provinces adversely impacted by border closures / stoppage of exports of Afghan agriculture products. The assessment’s findings were used by FAO to: (i) revise its component of the Afghanistan HRP and GHRP; (ii) design and implement necessary measures to mitigate the risk of spreading covid-19 through project activities across its development and humanitarian programme; (iii) initiate innovative actions like COVID-19 sensitization in agriculture markets and provision of COVID-PPE to market stakeholders, all beneficiaries and implementing partners' staff; (vi) reprogramme/repurpose ongoing projects in consultation with donors (IFAD RFSP, USAID PVC-W) to directly address the impact of the pandemic; and (v) mobilize additional resources to response to new and increased needs directly resulting from the covid-19 impact.

This proposed project will support NEPA/NDA in developing a strategic framework and enhancing its coordination capacity to ensure that COVID-19 response and recovery plans and programmes will contribute to or even accelerate national climate change targets and global commitments. In line with the GCF pre-defined results under this Readiness window, the project will:

• Support NEPA to develop a framework with appropriate indicators to guide and track green, resilient and inclusive COVID-19 recovery policies, and programmes
• Support strategic planning for green, resilient, and inclusive COVID-19 recovery in the agriculture, land and water sectors
• Provide inputs to the revision of the NDC and foreseen National Adaptation Planning (NAP)

The project through its specific support to green, resilient, and inclusive COVID-19 recovery in the agriculture, land and water sectors above will also prepare these sectors for the NAP process.

Reporting Lines:

The International Consultant – Impact Assessment & Recovery Planning Specialist will be under the overall guidance of the FAO Representative in Afghanistan, technical guidance of the Lead Technical Officer, direct supervision of National Project Manager and close consultation with relevant FAO staff/NPP and NDA; the international consultant will perform following duties:
Technical Focus
The main objective of the consultancy is to support NEPA and the project to ensure the achievement of quality deliverables under the project. The International Expert on Impact Assessment and Recovery Planning will lead the achievement of project Output 2.2.1, 2.2.2 and 2.2.3 with the focus on:

• Guide/build national capacity for synthesizing the available and undertaking required additional analysis of the impacts of COVID-19 in the agriculture, land and water sectors
• Lead the development of the green, resilient, and inclusive recovery framework/indicators to help NEPA and the Government monitor and recovery efforts.
• Coordinate the work of other consultant teams (agriculture and natural resources management) to identify options for green, resilient and inclusive COVID-19 recovery in priority sectors (Agriculture, Land and Water)
• Guide/support national consultation process to reach consensus
• Provide inputs to the revision of the NDC

Tasks and responsibilities

The International Consultant – Impact Assessment & Recovery Planning Specialist will perform the below key tasks:

Guide/build national capacity for synthesizing the available and undertaking required additional analysis of the impacts of COVID-19 and lead the development of the green, resilient, and inclusive recovery framework/indicators:
• Guide the National Recovery Planning Consultant and other consultant teams in gathering and analysis of available COVID-19 impact assessments, define required additional assessments
• In collaboration with other consultant teams, guide analysis of impacts of COVID-19 on the priority sectors (agriculture, land, and water), especially implications for climate change strategies and plans(Deliverable 2.2.1.1)
• Lead the development of a framework with indicators, aligned with national climate change objectives and targets for the NEPA/NDA to guide, track and monitor COVID-19 recovery plans, measures (regulatory, fiscal, financing/investment) in Afghanistan (Deliverable 2.2.2.1)
• Support the consultant teams to identify opportunities for green, resilient and inclusive COVID-19 recovery that are aligned with the country’s climate change agenda (to achieve deliverable 2.2.2.3)
• Guide the process to use results of impact assessments and identified green and resilient recovery priorities to provide inputs to national/sector planning, decision making and monitoring process
• Contribute to the project reports including final report.

Guide/support stakeholder consultations:

• In consultations with key stakeholders (MAIL, NAWARA & MoF) guide national consultants in designing and implementing stakeholder consultations drawing on the established GCF Coordination Mechanism and other Government platforms.
• Support the project staff in convening consultation workshops to discuss COVID-19 impacts, develop and validate the framework/indicators for green and resilient COVID-19 recovery and its implementation, validate and endorse options for recovery in priority sectors and recommendations for the updated NDC.

Contribute to the NDC revision:

• Prepare a report with recommendations on priorities of the agriculture, land and water sector for the updated NDC (deliverable 2.2.3.1 (a)
• In consultation with NEPA and UNDP, contribute to the consultations on updated NDC with a focus on incorporating green and resilient recovery priorities from agriculture, land and water sectors
• Work with NDA and relevant stakeholders on analysis of current NDC and provide recommendations to ensure the alignment with new/existing climate change strategies, programming document, NAPs, etc.

CANDIDATES WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE FOLLOWING

Minimum Requirements

• University degree in natural resources management, programme evaluation, agriculture development, agriculture economics, water resource management, climate change, environmental, forestry or related fields;
• At least five (05) years of relevant experience in natural resources management, climate change, sustainable land management, ecosystem management, forestry, data analysis, report writing and or related fields as well as developing institution capacity, and other related work experience, particularly in the south Asian countries for environment and GCF projects;
• Working knowledge of English, French or Spanish and limited knowledge of one of the other two or Arabic, Chinese, Russian.

FAO Core Competencies

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

Technical/Functional Skills

• Work experience in more than one location or area of work, particularly in field positions is desirable;
• Relevant experience in programme/project formulation, analysis, planning and implementation;
• Extent of relevant experience with internationally funded projects.
• Good knowledge and experience of GCF and climate finance
• Extend working experience in a complex, international, geographically dispersed, with inter-disciplinary team environment.
• Good communication, analytical and writing skills;
• Understanding of FAO policies and programmes is considered a strong asset;
• General knowledge and skills in the use of standard office software, such as MS Office (Word, Excel, Power Point)

Selection Criteria

• Expertise in management of climate finance, resilience, and rural development projects, MRV or related area;
• Relevant experience in programme/project formulation, analysis, planning and implementation;
• Extend working experience in a complex, international, geographically dispersed, with inter-disciplinary team environment.

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