Emergency Management Specialist

Mar 21, 2018 | Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN
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The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations is committed to supporting Member Countries and Partners in preparing for and responding to disasters and crises that threaten agriculture, food and nutrition security or food safety. FAO’s work in emergencies focuses on reducing people’s vulnerability to these hazards, including animal diseases, before, during and after disasters through good emergency management practices, including risk assessment, risk reduction, emergency preparedness and response, and rehabilitation.  

The Crisis Management Centre – Animal Health (CMC-AH), established in 2006 is FAO’s rapid response mechanism to animal disease emergencies. Within FAO Headquarters the CMC-AH operates as a joint platform between two FAO divisions: Animal Production and Health (AGA) and Emergency and Rehabilitation (TCE). The AGA supports countries to strengthen the contribution of the livestock sector toward the reduction of hunger and poverty. TCE leads FAO’s humanitarian efforts in supporting countries to more effectively prepare for and respond to food and agricultural threats and crises and to strengthen the resilience of agricultural livelihoods, Strategic Program 5 in support to various aspects of the animal health programme of FAO.

The tasks envisaged are to be carried out through the Crisis Management Centre for Animal Health (CMC-AH) which is expanding its platform to assist Member Countries beyond the deployment of emergency response missions and embrace fully all stages of emergency management.

Reporting Lines

The Consultant reports to the CMC-AH Manager in close collaboration and liaison with the Animal Health and Emergency and Rehabilitation staff as well as other FAO technical departments and International Organizations. In case the Consultant is in a field location it reports to the FAO Representative in country or region, under the technical and administrative guidance of the relevant Division and staff in HQ.

Technical Focus

Infectious disease (some of zoonotic importance) emergency management, including strategies and tools to help countries and regions share information, manage critical assets, and manage incident coordination.

Tasks and responsibilities

• Plan, lead and provide technical advice on emergency management incident coordination.
• Provide technical advice, inputs and support to the formulation, coordination and implementation of the Animal Health -Emergency Operations Centre (AH-EOC) framework.
• Conduct research on existing EOC facilities, equipment, staff and staff competencies, plans/concept of operations, Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), training, exercises, best practices, lessons learned, networks, etc. 
• Lead and highly contributes to the writing of the inputs to the AH-EOC Framework, and materials for training and exercises.
• Deliver training on emergency management incident coordination and serve as exercise facilitator.
• Develop and support the layout and content of all technical and non-technical documents, including consultative meeting minutes, Technical Working Group minutes, training, exercises and other reports.
• Promote best practices and provide technical support/services to Decentralized Offices, in collaboration with Regional Offices, to facilitate emergency programming, provide capacity building and resource mobilization.
• Demonstrate business ethics, professionalism, team work, courtesy and diplomacy to all stakeholders.
• Undertake travel and field missions as needed.
• Mentor junior professionals, as needed
• Perform other related duties as required.

CANDIDATES WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE FOLLOWING

• Advanced university degree in veterinary medicine and an advanced university degree or certificate in emergency management, public health or related fields.
• At least 5 years of relevant experience  in emergency preparedness to include planning and policy, training development and delivery, and simulation exercise practices; infectious disease outbreak response to include incident management operations, logistics and planning; transition to recovery to include evaluation and after-action reviews; incident coordination to include emergency operations centres; or related fields.
• Working knowledge of English, French or Spanish and limited knowledge of one of the other two or of Arabic, Chinese and Russian.

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

• Work experience in more than one location or area of work, particularly in field positions is desirable.
• Able to work under pressure and adapt to an evolving and complex humanitarian context and within multidisciplinary and different cultural background teams.
• Extent of knowledge of international humanitarian architecture, including agencies, NGOs and other partners.
• Extent and relevance of experience in international animal health (regulatory and developmental) programmes.
• Extent and relevance of experience in prevention and control of animal diseases.
• Extent and relevance of experience in animal health projects and programmes management.
• Excellent communication skills, both verbal and written
• Effective team leadership and decision making skills with strong individual planning capacity.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

• FAO does not charge a 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 recognised in the IAU/UNESCO list.
• Only language proficiency certificates from UN accredited external providers and/or FAO language official examinations (LPE, ILE, LRT) will be accepted as proof of the level of knowledge of languages indicated in the online applications.
• For other issues, visit the FAO employment website: http://www.fao.org/employment/home/en/
• For further information on categories, contract duration and honoraria, please refer to theConditions page.

HOW TO APPLY

To apply, visit the recruitment website at Jobs at FAO and complete your online profile. Incomplete applications will not be considered. Only applications received through the recruitment portal will be considered.

Vacancies will be removed from the recruitment portal at 23:59 Central European Time (CET) on the deadline for applications date. We encourage applicants to submit the application well before the deadline date.