National GIS Specialist

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 Members 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 FAO's values
• FAO, as a Specialized Agency of the United Nations, has a zero-tolerance policy for conduct that is incompatible with its status, objectives and mandate, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination　　
• All selected candidates will undergo rigorous reference and background checks
• All applications will be treated with the strictest confidentiality
• FAO staff are subject to the authority of the Director-General, who may assign them to any of the activities or offices of the Organization.

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 National GIS Specialist reports directly to the Socio-Economic & Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR), Climate Change Adaptation (CCA) and Environment and Natural Resources (ENR)/Forestry group leader.

Technical Focus:

With the increasing attention to change the way how disasters are managed, FAO is at the forefront of demonstrating how to provide better support to poor farming and fishing households that are vulnerable in the face of climate-induced hazards before and immediately after a disaster. Among the key interventions of FAO in protecting the poor and vulnerable agriculture-led households from shocks and stresses is through Adaptive and Shock Responsive Social Protection. This is an integrated approach that allows social protection to complement with all stages (Prevention and Mitigation, Preparedness, Response and Rehabilitation) of the Disaster Risk Reduction and Management (DRRM) system. An Adaptive and Shock Responsive Social Protection system explicitly incorporate disaster risk considerations into its design thereby making it more effective to respond to disasters and minimize unnecessary damage to lives and livelihoods with emphasis on acting early before a criss becomes a disaster. FAO has an existing Cooperation Agreement with the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) on the Establishment of Shock Responsive Social Protection.

This engagement aims to support FAO’s technical cooperation programme on “Enhancing capacities for inclusive disaster risk reduction and management towards adaptive and shock responsive social protection amid COVID-19” which aims to help build DSWD’s capacity to design and implement shock responsive social protection (SRSP) programs. Under this project, FAO will provide technical assistance to DSWD in strengthening its disaster risk reduction and management (DRRM) operations by making it more inclusive through enhancement of the Disaster Response and Management Bureau (DRMB)’s GIS capacities and improvement of the Listahanan 3, the country’s poverty registry, by incorporating risk and vulnerability information. The improvement of the country’s poverty registry will contribute to a more efficient and effective DRRM operations as it will allow better targeting of population in need of assistance. A functional and reliable delivery system, which is one of the elements in the implementation of an ASRSP, is especially relevant at this time to ensure that the government’s emergency social assistance measures will reach households that were severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Tasks and responsibilities

The Communications Consultant shall perform the following responsibilities:

1. Serve as the GIS Specialist for initiatives on Enhancing capacities for inclusive disaster risk reduction and management towards adaptive and shock-responsive social protection amid COVID-19 (TCP/PHI/3807);
2. Supervise the development of the enterprise GIS platform in support to DSWD’s DRRM operations GIS;
3. Lead in organizing, implementing and providing reports of information gathering assessments, remote interviews of respondents/key informants;
4. Prepare GIS maps as needed to support sections of the relevant reports, including but not limited to risk and hazard maps, land cover maps, and maps of agricultural and fisheries production;
5. Support the conduct of project activities under GCP/PHI/068/IFA related to development of ICT-based systems that incorporates geographically referenced information;
6. Facilitate conduct of capacity-building activities related to the operation and maintenance of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles for different FAO projects;
7. Participate in preparation and appraisal missions, when requested, to provide inputs to discussions on the climate rationale and project site selection;
8. Contribute to the writing of relevant sections of the assessment report as well as other proposals and/or the feasibility study based on his area of competence; and
9. Carry out any other relevant duties within his/her technical competence as may be requested by FAO.

CANDIDATES WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE FOLLOWING

Minimum Requirements

• University Degree in Geography, Geodetic Engineering, Agriculture, Disaster Risk Reduction and Management, Environmental Management, with specialization in Geographic Information Systems or other related fields;
• At least five (5) years relevant experience in risk mapping, analysis, data management, and development of GIS platforms; With experience in developing modules for GIS capacity building activities;
• National of the Philippines or with a regular working permit in the Philippines

FAO Core Competencies

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

Technical/Functional Skills

• With excellent knowledge and skills on various GIS technology/methods (i.e. GIS mapping software) for processing and analyzing spatial data;
• Technical knowledge in using open-sourced GIS systems;
• Technical and working knowledge in the operation and maintenance of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles;
• Good interpersonal and written communication skills (fluent in English and Tagalog);
• Experience of working for, or in cooperation with, government institutions and private sector;
• Working knowledge on social protection programmes/projects, including CCA/DRRM, at the national and local level is an advantage;

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