Meteorologist

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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 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 key mission of the FAO Representation in Somalia, which is led by FAO Representative (FAOR), is to assist and support the national government to develop policies, strategies and programme aimed at accelerating the Implementation and achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the area of FAO's global mandate and Strategic Objectives. More specifically, FAO's response aims to address national needs and priorities in achieving food security, reducing hunger and malnutrition, developing agricultural, fishery and forestry sectors, and ensuring the sustainable use of environmental and natural resources and respond to recurrent emergencies. The current portfolio of activities of the FAO Representation in Somalia includes a wide scope of technical support interventions ranging from policy support through livestock and crop production, to natural resource management, Nutrition, value chain, food security analysis and water and land information management. FAO is also implementing several emergency, resilience-building and development interventions, with the support of its five field offices and close to 400 staff in partnership with the Federal and State line ministries.

Reporting Lines

Under the overall guidance of FAO Somalia Officer-in-Charge and the direct supervision of the Somalia Water and Land Information Management (SWALIM) Project Technical Advisor (TA).

Technical Focus

The Meteorologist will be responsible for carrying out activities related to Water resources, Climate, Climate change, Early warning and disaster risk management in Somalia.

Tasks and responsibilities

• Take a lead in climate services provision for Somalia by ensuring that all stakeholders have been served with related information, working closely with Somali Government Institutions involved in climate data collection and provision of climate services.
• Responsible for the production of weather forecast and early warning information and products to support inter-agency flood and drought response activities including provision of information for joint publications with FSNAU and FEWS NET.
• Team leader of the meteorological monitoring, including.
• Liaising with the meteorological observers in the field, through FAO Somalia staff members, to assess the status of the network, including the automatic weather stations (AWS)
• Provide day to day guidelines to the observers in accordance to world standards and ensure accurate data collection and timely dissemination
• Responsible for climate data collection LOAs/LOUs with the government ministries/institutions
• Responsible for maintaining and developing the Somali meteorological monitoring network, in collaboration with the government institution(s) mandated to hydromet service as follows.
• Maintenance of the existing network of climate monitoring networks and ensuring that they are functional at all times, and further development and expansion with new stations in consultation with the government institutions
• Coordinate and monitor the meteorological network by carrying out regular field visits to the network with the support of field based water resources officer(s), advice on urgent maintenance issues, repair and installation of new hardware.
• Provide meteorological training to Somali government staff, including on the job training in the operation of the meteorological monitoring network, data analysis and generation of different products.
• Contribute to the establishment of hydro-meteorological service within the Somali government and support gradual transfer of SWALIM’s monitoring network to the government.
• Responsible for meteorology data quality control, and establish links with national, regional and international agencies and institutions involved in the measurement of meteorological variables for standardization of SWALIM data with WMO standards.
• Contribute to climate change activities within FAOSO, and support research/studies on climate change in Somalia to predict long- and short-range weather conditions, using computer models and knowledge of climate theory, and develop adaptation/ mitigation measures.
• Together with the Hydrologist, maintain, update and support further development of the flood risk and response management information system (FRRMIS), operation of the flood forecasting model, process and disseminate relevant information.
• Responsible for operating the combined drought index and its further development, and the completion of the pilot drought monitoring system. Implementing together will local government and civil society drought preparedness and mitigation systems, analysis and modelling of climatic data, with focus on agro and hydro meteorological applications, and disseminate drought information.
• Support the development of flood models for Juba and Shabelle rivers, and flash floods for other parts of the country, and take a lead role in provision of data including forecast for the operation of the models.
• Contribute to establishing/reviewing standard operating procedures (SOPs) to guide the chain of events linking early warning to anticipatory and early action and early response and determining roles and responsibilities of stakeholders.
• Contribute to developing thresholds and triggers for anticipatory/early actions and responses linked to the Drought and flood EW in Somalia.
• Contribute to the Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) and Early Warning (EW) activities of FAOSO in close collaboration with the Government’s Disaster Management Agencies, including.
• Develop strategies to mainstream climate related disasters in Somalia,
• Conduct analysis of the current climate situation and informing partners of impending climate related disasters on a timely manner to avoid or lessen the impacts of such hazards including droughts, floods and tropical storms,
• Provide technical inputs in conducting DRR related research as well as the dissemination of research findings and recommendations to the stakeholders,
• Develop a national sensitization strategy and work plan for regular sensitization activities to combat recurrent flood and drought events in Somalia
• Carry out in-depth analysis of observed and satellite based data for bias correction of the later, and assimilation of the two datasets using advanced processing techniques to support research and related activities in Somalia.
• Contribute to establishing standard operating procedures (SOPs) to guide the chain of events linking early warning to anticipatory and early action/ response and determining roles and responsibilities of stakeholders, and the design of impact based forecast for Somalia.
• Work with ICPAC and the Federal Government in the harmonization of SWALIM’s early warning tools such as CDI and floods monitor, and downscaling of ICPACS regional forecasts and related products to Somalia.
• Investigate atmospheric phenomena and interpret meteorological data, gathered by both manual and automatic stations in Somalia, satellites, and radar to prepare reports and forecasts for public and other uses.
• Perform any other duties as required.

CANDIDATES WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE FOLLOWING

Minimum Requirements

• University degree in one of the following fields: Meteorology, Climatology, Hydrology, water resources or agriculture
• Experience of a minimum of 5 years in analyzing hydro meteorological information and other climatic time series including remote sensing data; drought and flood monitoring and analysis/forecasting with experience in analysis of climatic conditions leading to flood and flash-flood situations, agro-meteorology. Good Knowledge and experience in project management will be required
• Working knowledge (level C) of English, French or Spanish and limited knowledge (level B) of one of the other two or Arabic, Chinese, Russian. For PSA, working knowledge of English would suffice.

FAO Core Competencies

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

Technical/Functional Skills

• Demonstrated experience in Hydromet data analysis
• Weather forecasting skills
• Experience in assignments with FAO and/or other development partners.
• Experience in training and development of training materials

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