Conflict-Sensitive Programming Specialist (Anticipatory Action)

Apr 5, 2021 | Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN
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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 Members 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.

Acting early, before a disaster has actually happened or reached its peak, is critical: it can save lives and protect livelihoods from the immediate shocks while increasing the resilience of communities over time. FAO’s Anticipatory Action (AA) approach translates early warning triggers into short-term AA aimed at reducing the impact of forecast hazards and crises on vulnerable and food insecure communities.

FAO’s AA work is focused on supporting high-risk countries with setting up AA systems to anticipate and prevent/mitigate shocks to agriculture and food security. It focuses on capacity development, technical and operational support for risk factor monitoring; setting of triggers for the activation of AA funds; AA programming; AA implementation; and the mainstreaming of an anticipatory approach into national disaster risk management frameworks. FAO’s AA programme is carried out in coordination with a growing number of organisations implementing anticipatory approaches to crises worldwide, as well as inter-agency AA programmes. In FAO, this area of work is supported by a number of resource partners including the EU, Germany, Belgium and Sweden.

FAO’s Conflict Analysis Team supports FAO decentralised offices on context/conflict analysis and conflict-sensitivity, informing the design of programming in fragile and conflict-affected, including forced displacement, contexts. As well as ensuring interventions are conflict-sensitive, the Conflict Analysis Team also helps operationalize specific pathways through which FAO can contribute to sustaining peace.

Reporting Lines

Under the direct supervision of the Team Leader, Evidence for Programming Team, OER and technical oversight of Team Leader, Conflict Analysis Team.

Technical Focus

To inform the design of conflict-sensitive AA programming, as well as AA programming that addresses the immediate consequences of conflict (e.g. displacement); to document conflict risks and mapping conflict scenarios as a contribution to the early warning work at global level; to develop conflict risk scenarios to inform risk analysis.

Tasks and responsibilities

The Conflict Sensitive Programming Specialist (Anticipatory Action) will: 

1. Support FAO offices and relevant counterparts at regional, sub-regional and national level with the establishment of AA systems in conflict settings, including by:

• Strengthening capacities for conflict analysis and the establishment of early warning trigger mechanisms for anticipating the immediate consequences of conflict, i.e. the risk level thresholds beyond which financial resources should be rapidly allocated to prevent and mitigate the impact of a forecast hazard on agriculture and food security;
• Strengthening capacities for the formulation of crisis timelines to identify windows of opportunity for AA in conflict settings;
• Strengthening partnerships and inter-agency efforts on understanding conflict risks and mapping conflict scenarios, early warning and AA in conflict settings.

 2. Support the strengthening of FAO’s approach to AA programming in conflict contexts:

Building on existing corporate frameworks/guidelines on conflict-sensitive programming and AA programming,   and in close collaboration with the Conflict Analysis and Conflict-sensitive Programming Specialists based in various sub-regions, develop operational guidance on conflict-sensitive AA programming, and provide advice on the formulation of AA projects in conflict-affected and fragile settings; 

• Building on ongoing country-level experiences, develop a framework for AA to mitigate the immediate consequences of conflict and insecurity (e.g. forced displacement) on the livelihoods and food security of affected populations in a conflict-sensitive and peace responsive manner.

3. Support the development of a framework for monitoring, analysis and reporting on conflict risks in the context of Global Early Warning

• In liaison with relevant FAO teams formulate a monitoring, analysis and reporting approach on conflict risks, including the assessment of conflict risk likelihood and potential impact on agriculture and food security (including livelihoods);
• Support FAO global early warning efforts to report on food crises countries/regions affected by conflict and insecurity and  support the tri-annual reporting process of the Joint FAO-WFP Early Warning Analysis of Acute Food Insecurity Hotspots;
• Provide training to colleagues on ‘good enough’ context/conflict analysis, on conflict-sensitive programme design, and on monitoring and evaluating conflict-sensitivity.

Candidates will be assessed against the following

Minimum Requirements

• Advanced university degree in one or more of the following: agriculture, food security analysis, conflict analysis, conflict management, peacebuilding, early warning, international relations, political sciences, or related fields.
• Minimum of 5 years of experience conducting context/conflict analysis or similar duties for the humanitarian and agricultural/food security sectors, including work experience with national and international NGO’s, UN agencies, governments, donors.
• Working knowledge of English and limited knowledge of one of the other FAO languages (French, Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, Russian). 

Technical/Functional Skills

• Work experience in more than one location or area of work, particularly in conflict-affected and emergency contexts.
• Extent and relevance of experience in the field of context/conflict analysis for humanitarian/food security and conflict-sensitive programming.
• Relevant experience in early warning and its use in mitigation of humanitarian impacts.
• Proven capacity to write analytical reports on conflict and peace dynamics.
• Prior experience and knowledge of global/regional contexts affected by conflict and insecurity, and understanding of context/conflict analysis approaches.
• Extent and relevance of experience in database development, usage and management.
• Excellent research, report writing, analytical and communication skills.
• Demonstrated ability to analyze problems, make appropriate recommendations, effective decisions, including in emergency settings.
• Working level French is considered a strong asset.

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

If you are in possession of language certificate/s from UN accredited external providers and/or FAO language official examinations (LPE, ILE, LRT), please attach the certificate/s when submitting the application.

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. Incomplete applications will not be considered. Only applications received through the recruitment portal will be considered.

We encourage applicants to submit the application well before the deadline

If you need help please contact: Careers@fao.org