Humanitarian-Development-Peace Nexus (HDPN) Adviser

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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 Office of Emergencies and Resilience (OER) is responsible for ensuring FAO’s efforts to support countries and partners in preparing for and effectively responding to food and agricultural threats and crises. It is responsible for coordinating the development and maintenance of corporate tools and standards to enable Decentralized Offices to assist member countries to prepare for, and respond to emergencies. OER ensures humanitarian policy coordination and knowledge, liaison with the InterAgency Standing Committee (IASC) as well as with humanitarian resource partners, co-leadership with World Food Programme (WFP) of the global Food Security Cluster (FSC), organizational preparedness, surge capacity and response to large-scale emergencies. OER supports food and nutrition security assessment and early warning activities related to emergency and humanitarian analysis and responses. OER plays a major role in the development and leadership of the Organization’s programme to increase the resilience of livelihoods to food and agriculture threats and crises.

FAO is mainstreaming a Humanitarian, Development, Peace Nexus (HDPN) approach throughout its strategic positioning and programmatic design and implementation at country and regional levels. The HDPN approach means providing humanitarian assistance when necessary, development support where possible, and using peace-responsive approaches to ensure long-lasting solutions. The objective is to enable activities that meets people’s immediate humanitarian needs while at the same time reducing risk and vulnerability by working together towards collective outcomes over multi-year time-frames, based on comparative advantages of different actors in each context. The HDPN is an expression of the New Way of Working, which falls within the Agenda 2030 commitment to “leave no one behind”. It is critical that these commitments are operationalized at country level through concrete initiatives to work more coherently across humanitarian, development and peace-responsive efforts.

Launched at the 2016 World Humanitarian Summit by the European Union, FAO and WFP, the Global Network Against Food Crises (GNAFC) is a growing alliance of humanitarian and development actors united by the commitment to tackle the root causes of food crises and promote sustainable solutions through shared analysis and knowledge, strengthened coordination in evidence-based responses and collective efforts across the HDPN. Within this partnership, FAO has a key role in the operationalization of the Global Network at global, regional, and country level with an emphasis on analytical work around food crises to inform decision-making (e.g. Global Report on Food Crises), the identification of innovative approaches to tackle root causes of food crises in a sustainable manner, and then furthering support at the country level for HDPN approaches and improved coordination.

In 2021 FAO completed an external ‘Evaluation of FAO’s contribution to the humanitarian–development–peace nexus 2014–2020’. The overarching message from the evaluation is that FAO is ideally placed to invest in a corporate effort to mainstream and adopt HDPN ways of working as part of its organizational DNA. Creating an enabling organizational environment that promotes the adoption of a HDPN approach is necessary to build on existing and new partnerships to achieving the SDGs.

The overall aim of this consultancy is to support strengthening the use of the HDPN approach in design and implementation of FAO’s emergency and resilience agenda and programming to inform an evidential base that helps underpin and support the strategic objectives of the GNAFC to address food crises through application of an HDPN approach.

Reporting Lines

The HDPN Adviser will report to the Technical Officer (Protracted Crises), Lead Conflict and Peace Unit (CPU), OER, under the overall supervision of the Programme and Results Team Leader, OER.

Technical Focus

Provide technical advice and inputs to the development of a corporate understanding of the HDP Nexus within FAO, as well as supporting interagency efforts to advance the adoption of the Nexus.

Tasks and responsibilities

• Identify opportunities, and provide support to new and existing mechanisms and platforms, to strengthen joint approaches and planning across the HDPN with a variety of partners at different levels, reflecting the principles of the OECD-DAC Recommendation on the HDP Nexus;
• Liaise with the GNAFC Technical Support Unit (TSU) to promote GNAFC objectives on the HDPN in food security and agriculture and food systems more broadly, including:
- Contribute to HDPN mapping analysis including definition of common priorities in a number of food crisis countries;
- Participate in GNAFC-led strategic dialogues and events at global, regional and country levels around HDPN solutions to food crises;
- Contribute to GNAFC-related country engagement processes including promotion of strategic dialogues around HDPN approaches.
• Liaise with the Fighting Food Crises along the HDPN Coalition Secretariat, deriving from the 2021 UN Food Systems Summit, and support the FAO Co-Chair in engagement with the Coalition;
• Support FAO’s engagement in the IASC Task Force on Humanitarian and Development Collaboration and its Linkages with Peace (TF4), and complementary work streams such as development of HDPN related tools and guidance developed by/through the Global Food Security Cluster using the GNAFC as an 'amplifier’;
• Support the incorporation and strengthening of the HDPN approach in FAO’s emergency and resilience projects and programmes, linking with OER’s overall Programme Approach;
• Lead work on exploring the two thematic areas of climate security and durable solutions for forcibly displaced populations through an HDPN lens, to highlight how an HDPN approach underpinning food security and agriculture can be framed and developed, building on FAO’s comparative advantages within its mandate, and use this to inform GNAFC objectives;
• Promote evidence-based learning on HDPN promising practices to inform country, regional and global processes, working to capture them with relevant units, such as Knowledge for Resilience (KORE) also supported by and feeding into the work of the GNAFC;
• Help prepare for and facilitate awareness-raising and capacity-development activities on the HDPN approach;
• Support implementation of recommendations agreed in the Management Response to OED’s 2021 Evaluation of FAO’s role in the HDPN, including leading preparation of a FAO Corporate Position Paper on the HDPN, outlining respective roles and accountabilities, identifying ways of working, good and promising practices, lessons learned and recommendations;
• Performs other duties as required.

CANDIDATES WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE FOLLOWING

Minimum Requirements

• University degree in Development Studies, International Relations, Social Sciences, Conflict and Peace Studies, Public Policy or other relevant fields;
• At least 7 years (Category B) or 12 years (Category A) experience in multi-stakeholder coordination, analysis, planning and programming; positions of increasing responsibility in developing recovery and peacebuilding plans or strategies; humanitarian coordination including in fragile or crisis contexts;
• Working knowledge (level C) of English and limited knowledge (level B) of any other official language of the Organization: Arabic, Chinese, French, Spanish, or Russian. For PSA, working knowledge (level C) of English.

FAO Core Competencies

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

Technical/Functional Skills

• Demonstrated in-depth understanding of the HDP Nexus from a variety of humanitarian, peacebuilding and development perspectives;
• Work experience in more than one location or area of work, with field experience, particularly in protracted crises contexts;
• Extent and relevance of experience in working within or with multi-lateral or bi-lateral organisations such as UN organisations, development agencies, diplomatic missions, and/or International and local NGOs;
• Extent and relevance of experience in the context of food security and nutrition, resilience and agricultural livelihoods issues and natural resource management particularly in protracted crisis;
• Demonstrated ability to research and formulate clear and practical recommendations;
• Ability to relate different issues and perspectives to concrete field programmes;
• Excellent English writing skills and experience of drafting documentation for a variety of purposes;
• Excellent analytical and conceptual skills;
• Ability to work both with minimal supervision and as part of a team;
• Ability to deliver outputs by agreed deadlines, sometimes at very short notice;
• Ability to establish effective working relations with persons of different national and cultural background;
• Excellent communication skills (written, verbal, interpersonal and intercultural).

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