National Specialists - Great Green Wall Southern Africa (Southern Africa countries)

FAO seeks gender, geographical and linguistic diversity in its staff and international consultants in order to best serve FAO Members in all regions.

• 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

Great Green Wall is an African Partnership to stop and reverse trends in land degradation, desertification, climate change and loss of biodiversity, especially in the arid regions of Africa through a coherent and common set of interventions. This initiative was launched in 2007, and ever since it has been implemented in Sahara and Sahel regions, and initiative has recently expanded to the Southern Africa region, and it was endorsed by Member states of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) in 2016. Consequently, SADC Ministers responsible for Environment, Natural Resources and Tourism in their meeting of October 2019 held in Arusha, Tanzania approved the Implementation Strategy of the Great Green Wall Initiative (GGWI) of Southern Africa (GGWI-SA). The Ministers directed the SADC Secretariat to develop a costed action plan for implementation of Sub-Regional Action Programme to Combat Desertification (SRAP) and other initiatives such as the Great Green Wall Initiative of Southern Africa by the end of 2020 and report on the progress made during the next meeting of Ministers.
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), through Technical Cooperation project TCP/SFS/3804 is providing technical support to the SADC (SADC-Secretariat) to enable the latter initiate an implementation of the Regional Strategy on Great Green Wall (SADC-GGW). This technical cooperation is a collaboration between FAO Sub region office for Southern Africa (SFS) and SADC Secretariat, and it is aiming to support and coordinate implementation and out-scale the Great Green Wall (GGW) in Southern Africa Region. The cooperation will provide support to ensure coordination and kick start of early activities to implement the GGW on the ground, however it will also provide the provision of services of an expert at the national level to help the SADC Member States: Angola, Comoros, DRC, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe to develop their National Strategies and Plans of Implementation (NAP), as well as project proposals for the on-the-ground wider in-country implementation of the GGW. Eleven countries (Angola, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe) will be supported financially under the framework of TCP/SFS/3804 project, and 4 countries (Comoros, DRC, Seychelles and Madagascar) will be supported financially through Africa Union Commission.
National Specialists are expected to work closely with both FAO Representation in the country of assignment, and SADC Secretariat in the implementation of the Great Green Wall in Southern Africa Region.

The contract will be based in country of assignment with required travel for field missions, where relevant.

Reporting Lines

The National Specialist will work under the oversight of the FAO Representatives, and the overall technical supervision of the Regional GGW Coordinator, and guidance from FAO SFS Forestry Officer and SADC Senior Programme Officer (Environment and Climate Change). S/he will also work directly with SADC National Focal point and FAO’s national GGW focal point at each of SADC Member state.

Technical Focus

Supporting the formulation development, raise awareness, coordination, and ensure effective implementation of GGW projects and initiatives in Southern Africa through the provision of expertise in relevant technical areas with NRM, Agriculture including crops, fisheries, forestry, livestock /other land use sectors.

Tasks and responsibilities

The national specialist will carry out the following duties:

(a) Prepare an inception report (covering tasks and deliverables, and revised table of content for NAP) and present it to the project team;
(b) carry our consultation with the national authorities (and all GGW related sectors), key stakeholders and the FAO country Representative and prepare a report;
(c) study the SADC GGW Strategy and its plan of the Implementation and conduct review of relevant documents relevant to assignment;
(d) conduct a stocktaking and diagnostics analysis of Sustainable Land Management (SLM) and other Natural resource management (NRM) programmes, practices and current status in the country, and prepare situation analysis report which include:
(i) brief country assessment regarding existing strategies, policies, institutions, programs and projects and institutional arrangements on issues related to natural resources and environment management;
(ii) key bottlenecks and opportunities to the mainstreaming of SLM activities in national and sectorial programming frameworks;
(iii) Propose the main outlines of a coherent framework which should be the national vision of GGWI-Southern Africa and strategic directions including actions / operational recommendations to remove barriers;
(iv) Identify actions that could be major reforms to be implemented; and
(v) Identify relevant stakeholders that may be invited to participate in the consultation process towards the adoption and implementation of the national action plan.

(e) using the information from the country situation analysis, and consultation with government and stakeholders and based on own knowledge, develop a draft national strategy and plan of implementation of the Great Green Wall (GGW) at national level (NAP), in close collaboration with the SADC GGW National Focal Point (NFP);
(f) present the draft national strategy and implementation plan (NAP) to a national validation workshop, and finalize it based on views and comments from the stakeholders workshop;
(g) participate in the regional expert/stakeholders workshops;
(h) submit a final NAP and brief assignment report to FAO country Representative, SADC National Focal Point , and with copy to SADC Secretariat , FAO Sub region office for Southern Africa (SFS) and Africa Union Commission Great Green Wall Initiative unit; and
(i) Undertake such other relevant duties for the successful execution of the project.

CANDIDATES WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE FOLLOWING

Minimum Requirements

• M.Sc. degree (or higher diploma) in forestry, land management, environment, agriculture or related fields;
• Ten years‘ experience working with FAO, Regional Economic Community organizations (e.g. SADC or EAC), government or other international organizations dealing with forestry, NRM, environment, land management or other development field;
• Working knowledge of English or/ French depend on country of assignment.
• National of Southern Africa or resident in the country with a regular work permit.

FAO Core Competencies

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

Technical/Functional Skills

• Relevant experience Project/Programme development, Project analysis, coordination, management and implementation;
• Proven experience in international or regional organizations managing regional programmes.
• Proven experience in the organization of meetings, trainings, workshops or similar events;
• Experience in managing Natural Resources programmes and or projects will be considered as an advantage;
• Experience in managing programmes in the Southern Africa countries, particularly for nationals of country of assignment will be desirable;
• Demonstrated ability to establish priorities and to plan, organize the work elements in a complex, dynamic and highly politicized environment; strong coordination skills;
• Excellent interpersonal relations and communications skills;
• Good skills in facilitation of workshops for consultation with diverse stakeholders;
• Good communication and writing skills;

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