Disaster Risk Reduction Specialist

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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 Inter-Agency Standing Committee as well as with humanitarian resource partners, co-leadership with World Food Programme of the global Food Security Cluster, 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.

Reporting Lines

The Consultant reports to the Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) Team Leader of the Programme and Results Team (PRT) or the appropriate line manager at the decentralized offices.

Technical Focus

Specifically the Consultant will support FAO’s Headquarters, Regional Offices (ROs), Sub-regional Offices (SROs) and Resilience hubs, and Country Offices (COs) to mainstream DRR within and across the Organization and to provide DRR capacity development to member countries to strengthen the resilience of agricultural livelihoods and related food systems in the face of multiple threats and crises.

Tasks and responsibilities

Under the overall supervision of the Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR)Team Leader at OER-PRT or responsible line managers at FAO decentralized offices, and in close collaboration with other officers and consultants from various technical departments and decentralized offices, the Consultant will:

• Support the implementation of FAO’s DRR work on Damage and Loss in agriculture, in particular linking it to the UNDRR’s Sendai Framework Monitor (SMF) Indicator C2 “Direct agricultural loss attributed to disasters”, and support capacity development in countries to upgrade information management systems and data collection needed for the reporting against the indicator, especially focusing on support to apply SFM “optional modalities” inherent in indicator C2. This also includes support to stronger integration of extreme events impact monitoring and quantification within the context of the UNFCCC’s Warsaw International Mechanism (WIM) on Loss and Damage implementation process;
• Provide technical support and technical backstopping to countries on blending DRR and climate risk management (CRM) or in short disaster and climate risk management (DCRM) programming and delivery, and conduct country support missions; this will include to support formulation and “implementation” of DCRM programme/project and/or project components, as well as designing and implementing operational processes at country level for the identification, validation and up-scaling of DRR/CRM good practices and technologies in agriculture, and for the promotion and implementation of community-based disaster risk management (CBDRM) including in conflict and fragile contexts;
• Contribute in selected countries, to support the facilitation of agri-food sector-specific planning and programming processes for the development of sectoral DRR/M strategies/, DRR Plans of Action (PoA) and/or resilience strategies at national and subnational levels to assist countries in achieving the Sendai Framework for DRR (SFDRR)’s Target E: national and local DRR strategies and the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Target 13.1: Strengthen resilience and adaptive capacity to climate-related hazards and natural-hazard induced disasters this includes preparatory analyses of DRR/M policy and institutional set up / mapping and desk study on hazard exposure and vulnerability profiling of agriculture and food stakeholders at national and local level;
• Contribute to the design of the FAO country programming strategy, including Country Programming Frameworks (CPF) by ensure that Disaster and Climate Risk Management is well integrated;
• Contribute to the development DRR normative guidance and tools for building resilient agri-food systems to support the operationalization of the Humanitarian-Development-Peace Nexus;
• Support awareness raising and knowledge sharing on DRR, e.g. webinars, e-learning and annual flagship events;
• Contribute to support FAO’s resource mobilization for disaster and climate risk management including in food crisis countries;
• Comply with the FAO’s security, PSEA, anti-fraud and other corporate regulations;
• Perform other duties as required.

CANDIDATES WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE FOLLOWING

Minimum Requirements

• University degree in Agriculture, Natural Resources Management, Natural Science or related fields;
• At least 1 year (Category C), 5 years (Category B) or 12 years (Category A) of experience in disaster risk reduction, climate risk management, natural resources management and community development;
• Working knowledge (level C) of English and French.

FAO Core Competencies

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

Technical/Functional Skills

• Experience in developing countries, especially in countries that are vulnerable to disaster and climate change and/or other emergency risks is desirable;
• Extent of knowledge of humanitarian-development-peace nexus in particular on disaster risk reduction and climate risk management architecture, including agencies, NGOs, and other partners;
• Demonstrated ability to analyse problems, make appropriate recommendations, effective decisions, including in emergency settings;
• Understanding of FAO policies and programmes is considered a strong asset;
• Depth of knowledge of agricultural threats and crises;
• Experience in drafting, developing and implementing DRR and climate risk management programmes and projects;
• Experience in drafting programme related donor project proposals, budget formulation and in donor liaison on DRR and CRM is an asset;
• Ability to operate effectively in a team, contributing positively to team operations and working relationships

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