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Aquaculture Development Plan (ADP) Facilitator and Writer in Fiji

Suva

  • Organization: FAO - Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
  • Location: Suva
  • Grade: Consultancy - Consultant - Contractors Agreement
  • Occupational Groups:
    • Communication and Public Information
    • Agriculture and Forestry
    • Maritime
    • Translations and Languages
    • Fisheries
    • Water Resource Management
    • Sustainable use of oceans, seas and marine resources
  • Closing Date: Closed

IMPORTANT NOTICE: Please note that Closure Date and Time displayed above are based on date and time settings of your personal device

  • 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

Organizational Setting

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Subregional Office for the Pacific Islands (SAP) is located in Apia, Samoa and covers 14 Pacific Island countries. The project “Strengthening Small-scale fisheries in the Pacific Islands” is funded by the Government of Canada for a two-year period and includes three Pacific Island countries (Fiji, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands).

The Ministry of Fisheries (MoF) in Fiji has identified the need for a five-year Aquaculture Development Plan (ADP 2023-2028).
MoF has a Fiji Freshwater Aquaculture Plan (2005 – 2010) that is now outdated and limited in the commodities it covers. SPC subsequently facilitated a 2015-2020 Fiji Aquaculture Plan, but this was never released by MoF. MoF held a National Workshop on Aquatic Biosecurity and Animal Health Strategy (NWABAH) for Fiji in Suva, Fiji 24 -27 January 2017, from which a report was subsequently produced by FAO. Fiji is one of the PICTs that endorsed the SPC Regional Aquatic Biosecurity Framework 2020-2025 at SPC Heads of Fisheries meeting in 2022.

The activity is to Develop an Aquaculture 5-year Development Plan with a gender and social inclusion and climate change lens,
mapped to Outcome 3 of the project: Resilient fisheries value chains developed that reduce vulnerability of fishers and women in coastal communities to climate related changes, extreme events and other economic, social and environmental shocks. The ADP (2023-2028) objectives will guide work planning in the MoF and will provide the policy direction for the likely revision of a draft Aquaculture Bill (2012/13).

Reporting Lines

The ADP facilitator and writer will be under the overall supervision of the FAO Subregional Coordinator (SRC) for the Pacific and will directly report to the project’s Lead Technical Officer and in close cooperation with the Lead Technical / Gender Advisor. He/she will also liaise closely with other technical, operational, and administrative colleagues.

Technical Focus

The incumbent is required to produce a final version of an ADP (2023-2028) (approximately 30 pages long, including an implementation plan) that has been approved by the Permanent Secretary and vetted by the Solicitor General.

The ADP will:

• Consider both freshwater aquaculture and mariculture commodities prioritised by the MoF with aquaculture stakeholders.
• Respond to cross cutting issues including climate change, disaster preparedness and response, aquatic biosecurity, the mandates and responsibilities in aquaculture of counterpart ministries/authorities like Lands, Environment, Economy and Trade, Biosecurity Authority of Fiji, and gender and social inclusion.
• Align with post-COVID economic recovery policy
• Align to SPC’s upcoming Regional Aquaculture Strategy.
• Provide guidance for private sector investors and development partners
• Identify objectives that promote zonal planning for different species that will identify suitable regions and sites from an ecological, social, food safety, climate change and disaster risk reduction perspective.
• Identify objectives that promote the use of traditional knowledge

The assignment is expected to be completed through the incumbent holding meetings with identified MoF officers and officers from other relevant government agencies, reviewing relevant documents, facilitating and documenting three stakeholder workshops, consulting with key sub-groups and individuals and writing the plan.

The incumbent will design and facilitate the workshop content to ensure all requirements can be met, but the workshops are anticipated to generally proceed as follows.

Stakeholder Workshop #1

• Determine the Scope and Vision of the plan
• Identify draft objectives for the plan
• Agree on criteria for prioritising freshwater aquaculture and mariculture commodities
• List and prioritise freshwater aquaculture and mariculture commodities according to agreed criteria
• Identify risks and opportunities for priority target species
• Determine the contents page for the Plan

Based on the outcomes of workshop #1 and using the contents page, the incumbent will populate the draft plan.

Stakeholder workshop #2

• Draft Plan presented to stakeholders
• Review content, identify gaps
• Develop/finalise strategies and actions for each objective
• Focus on biosecurity
• Develop a draft Implementation Plan (to be an annex to the ADP)

Based on the outcomes from Workshop #2 the consultant will write the final version of the ADP.

Stakeholder workshop # 3

• Present final ADP and implementation plan to stakeholders for review and feedback
• Review Aquaculture Bill to identify gaps in the Bill when compared to the final Aquaculture Development Plan
• Document the gaps in a memo to MOF

Tasks and responsibilities

The ADP will be developed through the following activities:

• Facilitate and document the outcomes from at least three stakeholder workshops to develop, validate and finalise the inputs to the ADP
• Work closely with key government stakeholders including MoF, the solicitor general’s office and relevant ministries
• Facilitate the prioritisation of freshwater and marine aquaculture species by MoF and aquaculture stakeholders
• Identify risks and opportunities for priority target species including biosecurity and suitability of regions for development of different species
• For the purposes of the ADP, biosecurity planning should take into account findings of the National Workshop on Aquatic Biosecurity and Animal Health Strategy for Fiji and the Regional Framework on Aquatic Biosecurity (SPC, 2020)
• Develop the ADP in a consultative manner planning all steps and approaches in partnership with MoF officers in the Aquaculture section
• Consult with the Pacific Community (SPC) and utilise SPC technical resource persons in consultation meetings, including where possible as Working Group facilitators
• Consider inputs from relevant regional projects such as the UNDP and WorldBank Blue Bond projects (aquaculture), and the SPC Regional Aquaculture Strategy and SPC Regional Aquatic Biosecurity Framework processes.
• Co-ordinate with consultants in the Canadapt project and other relevant stakeholders on cross cutting issues of Disaster Risk Reduction/ Disaster Risk Management and gender and social inclusion.


CANDIDATES WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE FOLLOWING

Minimum Requirements

• University degree in Aquaculture, Food Security, Agriculture, Fisheries, Climate Change, or other relevant field
• Minimum of eight years’ experience in the fisheries/ aquaculture/ environment sector in Pacific Islands countries
• Working knowledge (level C) of English and limited knowledge (level B) of one of the other FAO official languages (Spanish, French, Chinese, Arabic, or Russian) for COF. For PSA, working knowledge of English is required.

FAO Core Competencies

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

Selection criteria

• Familiarity with Fiji fisheries context
• Excellent workshop facilitation skills
• Familiarity with Fiji Government Systems is desirable
• Experience in addressing crosscutting issues like climate change, disaster risk management, gender and social inclusion is preferred
• Excellent proven oral and written skills in English.
• Strong proven writing skills in English
• Ability to deliver written material on time and to a high standard

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

This vacancy is now closed.
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