Emergency and Resilience Programming Specialist

Jan 23, 2022 | Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
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The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations is a specialized agency of the United Nations that leads international efforts to defeat hunger and improve nutrition and food security.

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 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 Head of Programme or the appropriate Programme line manager in their location.

Technical Focus

FAO is looking for specialists to support the implementation of the Organization’s emergency and resilience agenda at a global, regional, sub regional and/or country level. In particular, the consultants will support programme development and design  which contributes to the humanitarian-development-peace nexus (HDPN), which is risk and conflict sensitive, and which is based on rigorous evidence, integrating monitoring, evaluation, learning and knowledge generation.

This is a unique and strategic role that will support FAO’s Headquarters, Regional Offices (ROs), Sub-regional Offices (SROs) and Resilience hubs, Country Offices (COs) to design a new generation of quality programmes which link shorter term life and livelihood saving activities with resilience building to sustainably address food crises. Ultimately, these programmes will enhance the resilience of vulnerable communities and agri-food systems in the face of multiple shocks and crises.

The Specialists will be part of a roster and may be approached for a number of field, regional locations and HQ depending on Organizational requirements. If based at country level, the Specialist will operate under the overall direction of the FAO Representative and the Head of Programme.

Tasks and responsibilities

  • Support and/or lead the design, coordination and implementation of quality emergency and resilience strategies, programmes and projects, based on latest corporate guidance and thinking, including the preparation and presentation of project proposals and fully-fledged project documents and budgets.
  • Identify and use the best available evidence for informing quality programme design including technical, food and nutrition security assessments, risk analyses and early warning information, livelihood analysis, policy related and/or funding/project related data and information.
  • Link and inform country level programmes with strategic level programme thinking, in particular in relation to FAO’s contribution and positioning along the Humanitarian Development Peace Nexus and related challenges and opportunities;
  • Promote and integrate non-negotiable elements in all FAO emergency and resilience programmes such as: being based on a robust multi-risk and context analysis, systematically considering conflict and peace dynamics, anticipating known hazards, being based on best available rigorous evidence, incorporating principles of protection, Accountability to Affected Populations (AAP), localization and others.  
  • Include the use of monitoring, evaluation, accountability and learning and knowledge management to measure impact and results, improve understanding of programme delivery and objectives and foster upscaling and programme adaptation wherever needed. 
  • Use programme results and evidence of impact to inform country, regional and global level policy and advocacy on the importance of scaling up agricultural livelihood support as part of humanitarian and resilience efforts.
  • Liaise with other government, UN, cluster/sector, NGO and donor partners at the appropriate level to ensure coordination and seek out partnership opportunities seeking the best possible outcomes of emergency and resilience activities;
  • Contribute as needed to multi-risk assessments, including interagency assessments and analytical processes, and in relevant data collection e.g. as part of the IPC process;
  • Contribute to the design of the FAO country programming strategy, including Country Programming Frameworks, in regularly analyzing available data related to food and nutrition security assessments, emergency and resilience policies, strategies and response; and in developing various components of the strategy documents;
  • Manage accurate and timely emergency and resilience information and reporting to enable informed decision-making and consistency of information presented to a wide range of stakeholders including briefings notes, talking points, and presentations.
  • Provide field-level support for FAO programming, including activity design, implementation, monitoring as well as budget management. 
  • Contribute to the emergency and resilience project cycle management (budget revisions, internal advance requests, others) and timely and efficient procurement of project inputs and services (including Letters of Agreement with implementing partners) in accordance with FAO’s rules and regulations and in collaboration with the relevant Procurement and Operation/Country Support teams;
  • Liaise with government, UN, cluster/sector, NGO and donor partners at the appropriate level to ensure the best preparation and implementation of emergency and resilience activities, from the perspective of the humanitarian-development-peace nexus approach;
  • Contribute to the FAO-WFP led Food Security Cluster, including for the development of the Humanitarian Needs Overview/ Humanitarian Response Plan (HNO/HRP),  and other technical working groups when required;

The Emergency and Resilience Programme Specialist will also:

  • Promote and support capacity development for emergency and resilience programming for FAO and partners;
  • Actively support support to resource mobilization;
  • Comply with the FAO’s security, PSEA, anti-fraud and other corporate regulations;
  • Perform other duties under his competencies as required.

Candidates will be assessed against the following

Minimum Requirements

  • University degree (Bachelor’s or equivalent)  in a discipline relevant to the mandate of the Organization including international relations, political/social sciences, food security, development, business administration, or related field;
  • At least 5 years (Category B) or 12 years (Category A) of relevant experience in humanitarian and agricultural/rural development sectors including work experience with national and international NGO’s, UN agencies, governments and donors;
  • Working knowledge of English and limited knowledge of another FAO language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Spanish or Russian).

Technical/Functional Skills

  • Work experience in more than one location or area of work with experience in field locations and emergencies particularly desirable;
  • Excellent organizational skills;
  • Excellent analytical and writing skills, as well as strong interpersonal and communication skills;
  • Demonstrated ability to analyse problems, make appropriate recommendations, effective decisions, including in emergency settings.
  • Experience in drafting, developing and implementing emergency and resilience programmes and projects;
  • Experience in drafting programme related donor project proposals, budget formulation and in donor liaison;
  • Experience in supporting coordination and relationship management with internal and external stakeholders.
  • Experience and/or familiarity with one or more of the following would be advantageous: multi-risk and context analysis; conflict-sensitivity; peacebuilding; anticipating hazards; protection; Accountability to Affected Populations (AAP); MEAL; knowledge-management and learning; localization.

Deployment conditions

  • If the Specialist is based in a regional/sub regional office or HQ, they will be required to travel abroad on deployment to support country operations for a number of months per year, subject to requirements and to agreement with the supervisor.

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

Additional Information

  • FAO does not charge any fee at any stage of the recruitment process (application, interview, processing)
  • Please note that FAO will only consider academic credentials or degrees obtained from an educational institution recognized in the IAU/UNESCO list
  • Please note that FAO only considers higher educational qualifications obtained from an institution accredited/recognized in the World Higher Education Database (WHED), a list updated by the International Association of Universities (IAU) / United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The list can be accessed at http://www.whed.net/ 
  • For more information, visit the FAO employment website

How to Apply

  • To apply, visit the recruitment website at Jobs at FAO and complete your online profile. We strongly recommend that your profile is accurate, complete and includes your employment records, academic qualifications, and language skills
  • Candidates are requested to attach a letter of motivation to the online profile
  • Once your profile is completed, please apply, and submit your application
  • Candidates may be requested to provide performance assessments and authorization to conduct verification checks of past and present work, character, education, military and police records to ascertain any and all information which may be pertinent to the employment qualifications
  • Incomplete applications will not be considered
  • Personal information provided on your application may be shared within FAO and with other companies acting on FAO’s behalf to provide employment support services such as pre-screening of applications, assessment tests, background checks and other related services. You will be asked to provide your consent before submitting your application. You may withdraw consent at any time, by withdrawing your application, in such case FAO will no longer be able to consider your application
  • Only applications received through the FAO recruitment portal will be considered
  • Your application will be screened based on the information provided in your online profile
  • We encourage applicants to submit the application well before the deadline date.

If you need help, or have queries, please contact: Careers@fao.org