Senior Protection 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 Senior Protection Specialist reports to the Deputy Director (Policy and Practice), OER, under the overall guidance of the Enabling Environment Team Leader, OER, and in close coordination with relevant FAO Divisions/Offices and Units.

Technical Focus

The incumbent is expected to support work on social protection and resilience.

Tasks and responsibilities

The Senior Protection Specialist will:

• Conduct an internal assessment of current FAO approaches to protection policy, mainstreaming, and integration of protection sensitive approaches into FAO policy and programming in humanitarian contexts. Assessment to be conducted in the context of the following:
- Review of FAO’s current projects, programmes, policies and initiatives, and their current level of adherence to IASC Policy on Protection in Humanitarian Action and international best practice standards on protection.
- Consultations with HQ, decentralised and country offices, with an emphasis on fragile and conflict affected contexts (including travel to selected countries for the purpose of consultations).
- Conduct an analysis of country level protection capacity and, based on a comparative vulnerability and risk analysis, make recommendations for prioritisation of countries for scale up of protection capacities in key humanitarian contexts;
- Collection of promising practices, initiatives, and identification of current gaps and challenges in relation to protection related programming, policy and partnerships.
• Based on the above, compile a Report containing key findings and recommendations for presentation to Senior Management, including the identification of countries to be prioritised for scaling up of protection capacity and associated support;
• Develop a Road Map in accordance with recommendations contained within the abovementioned report. This would identify required resources to fulfil the recommendations, including, but not limited to protection policy and operational guideline development, capacity development, required expertise and resources to promote the uptake and dissemination of the recommended products and outputs;
• Develop any other recommended support products in response to field demand such as specific guidance notes, trainings, webinars etc.;
• Perform any other duties as required;
• Undertake travel, if needed and possible, in support of country offices.

CANDIDATES WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE FOLLOWING

Minimum Requirements

• University degree in social sciences, law, international law, human rights or other related discipline relevant to the mandate of the Organization;
• Twelve (12) years for COF category A/ fifteen (15) years for PSA category A of proven knowledge and experience in protection, international humanitarian law, humanitarian affairs, emergency preparedness, crisis/emergency relief management, and other relevant technical experience;
• Working knowledge (level C) of English and limited knowledge (level B) of any other official language of the Organization (Arabic, Chinese, French, Spanish and 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

• Solid experience of policy implementation, guidance and training, and knowledge of operational strategies for mainstreaming protection in emergency response;
• Technical knowledge regarding mainstreaming of protection/ protection-sensitive programming in humanitarian settings, planning and processes, including in areas of gender in humanitarian action, Accountability to Affected Populations (AAP), Protection From Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (PSEA), Sexual and Gender Based Violence (SGBV), would be a strong asset;
• Experience with participatory approaches, project development and management, human rights-based approaches, capacity development approaches, are all assets;
• Culturally and socially sensitive; ability to work inclusively and collaboratively with a range of partners, including grassroots community members and local authorities;
• Able to work under pressure within multidisciplinary and different cultural background teams;
• Excellent analytical and communication skills, both verbal and written.

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