National Project Advisor-SB-5

Organizational Setting

In an effort to strengthen local agricultural value chains, boost school attendance, promote school nutrition and enhance the capacity of the Royal Government of Cambodia (RGC) to achieve the goals set out in its Second National Strategy for Food Security and Nutrition 2019-2023, the World Food Programme (WFP) Cambodia with funding from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Local Regional Aid Procurement (LRP) to support the implementation and sustainability of its successful home grown school feeding (HGSF) model. FAO will work with WFP and other partners to support the USDA LRP program in Cambodia.

The LRP program includes cash transfers to schools for the procurement of nutritious foods for the preparation of daily breakfasts for and primary school students. Training, learning and mentoring approaches will build demand side capacities of some 163 schools and their commune councils to undertake procurement, contracting and supply management. FAO will work on the supply side of the HGSF programme to engages local producers, mostly smallholder farmers and suppliers to enhance their ability to participate in competitive bidding, improve administrative and financial management, while ensuring that the school feeding value chains provide timely delivery of adequate, fresh, safe and nutritious food supplies for school kitchens. Continued research and development will ensure robust value chains in which all stakeholders are equipped to maximize HGSF opportunities, while building systems and institutional capacities for long-term national ownership.

Reporting Lines

The National Project Advisor works under direct supervision of the Head of Operations, the overall supervision of the FAO Representative in Cambodia and technical guidance of the Senior Nutrition and Food Systems Officer - Lead Technical officer (LTO) - based in FAO-RAP.

Technical Focus

• Project management
• Agriculture
• Home Grown School Feeding program

Tasks and responsibilities

• Coordination of program activities with government partners and UN counterparts at national and sub-national level and leadership of the project team.
• Strengthen the procurement process of the Home Grown School Feeding (HGSF) Program.
• Design seasonal cropping calendars in conjunction with Provincial Departments of Agriculture, Fisheries and Floristries (PDAFF) and farmers, to meet the demand of the schools.
• In collaboration with the Value Chain Specialist, develop training materials on Good Agricultural Practices (GAP), organic production, food safety and nutrition, hygiene and women enterprise development and school procurement procedures for suppliers and producers;
• Engage PDAFF and district staff in the target areas to provide training to smallholders on sustainable agriculture and contract farming.
• Ensure gender equity in terms of capacity building, decision-making and access to resources.
• Support the implementation and organization of field activities (including technical and administrative support).
• Day-to-day project management, organization of workshops, training and other key activities as necessary.
• Preparation of documents for the Project Coordination Committee (PCC).
• Knowledge management, knowledge sharing, identification and dissemination of lessons learned with the relevant HGSF stakeholders.
• Dissemination information on the HGSF Program for advocacy and convening policy dialogue with the government partners.
• Share information and coordinate activities with the Nutrition Guidelines and Standards project funded by BMEL
• Establish a system for data collection for measurement of achievements and impacts to meet the USDA operational requirements.
• Monitoring and reporting progress and alerting the Head of Operations and the LTO to potential problems that could result in delays in implementation.
• Perform other related duties as required.

CANDIDATES WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE FOLLOWING

Minimum Requirements

• Advanced university degree on agriculture science, rural development or related field
• At least 10 years of relevant experience in agriculture development, community engagement.
• At least 5 years of relevant experience in project management and/or coordination
• Working knowledge of English and Khmer
• National of Cambodia

FAO Core Competencies

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

Technical/Functional Skills

• Extent and relevance of experience in project coordination.
• Extend and relevance of experience in developing training materials and provide capacity building to provincial and district staff and farmers.
• Demonstrated knowledge on sustainable agriculture and contract farming mechanism.
• Ability to engage and deal with stakeholders at national, sub-national and district level.
• Ability to produce quality reports both in English and Khmer.
• Work experience in School Feeding Programmes will be considered an advantage.
• Good knowledge and experience in the implementation of nutrition-sensitive agriculture, nutrition-sensitive value chain in particular is desirable.
• Understanding of FAO procedures will be considered a strong asset.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION