USA: Senior Fragility and Conflict Advisor, USAID/CPS

Dec 26, 2023 | ZemiTek
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ZemiTek, LLC is a Woman-Owned, SBA-certified 8(a) Small Disadvantaged Business (SDB) based in the Washington, DC metro area. ZemiTek has a strong record delivering innovative and high-quality solutions. Since 2007, ZemiTek has provided technical assistance, project management, information technology (IT), knowledge management, monitoring and evaluation, training and learning development, and institutional support services.

Position Description

ZemiTek has been contracted by the USAID Bureau for Conflict Prevention and Stabilization (CPS) to provide institutional staffing support in the Center for Conflict and Violence Prevention (CPS/CVP). As part of this contract, the CPS/CVP requires a senior advisor to serve as CVP’s representative to and member of the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) Management Team, located in USAID’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (BHA), Office of Technical and Program Quality, Risk Analysis Division.

CPS/CVP provides technical advice and analysis that respond to the causes and consequences of conflict, fragility, and violence to all parts of the Agency, other USG departments and agencies and international partners including other donors and civil society. CPS/CVP provides technical assistance to USAID Missions and other operating units, applied research and analysis, training and information dissemination, and partner engagement. The office links rigorous conflict and violence analysis to strategy development, activity design and implementation; and monitoring, evaluation, and learning.

For nearly 40 years, USAID’s flagship FEWS NET Program has been central to the Agency’s ability to accurately describe current acute food insecurity and provide early warning of impending acute food insecurity. This work supports evidence-based decision-making regarding the distribution of billions of dollars of humanitarian food assistance each year to prevent acute food insecurity and famine.

Conflict, climate variability and change, and food insecurity are dynamically interconnected phenomena. Conflict shocks, alone or in combination with climate and economic shocks, currently constitute the largest driver of acute food insecurity globally. To improve FEWS NET’s assessment and forecasting of acute food insecurity around the world by better understanding conflict trends and dynamics, and to increase the ability of USAID and its partners to leverage FEWS NET’s multi-sectoral program to better mitigate conflict risks, USAID/FEWS NET is increasing investment in data, analysis, and partnerships related to fragility, instability, and conflict. The Senior Fragility and Conflict Advisor will provide the FEWS NET Program with expert technical advisory and engagement capacity in the domains of fragility, conflict, and climate security.

There is preference for this position to be staffed in Washington D.C. with in-person presence for a minimum of three (3) days per week in USAID/BHA’s offices at 555 12th St NW. However, applicants who require remote work arrangements will be considered.

Overseas travel will be required to underdeveloped areas. Some physical hardship may be encountered, such as poor road conditions, unstable political settings, climate extremes, exposure to diseases prevalent in unhealthy environments, and significantly different cultural environments.

This position requires a candidate obtain and keep SECRET clearance, and the start date is immediate.

• Location: Hybrid (3 days in office)
• Position Type: Full-Time
• Salary Range: Starting at $140,000
• Clearance: Ability to obtain secret level clearance

Responsibilities

• Serve as an expert advisor to the USAID/FEWS NET Management Team, including improving the team’s ability to understand, communicate, and interpret conflict events; help the USAID FEWS NET management team to engineer compatible processes, procedures and mechanisms to elevate conflict as an outcome of the system’s analysis.
• Support the development and/or assessment of conflict scenarios and projections of likely future conflict situations in FEWS NET geographies.
• Coordinate technical engagement across FEWS NET’s interagency partners, contractors, and other implementing partners to advance integration of more robust fragility- and conflict-related data and analysis (including nowcasting and forward-looking analysis) into FEWS NET analysis, including production of the evidence needed to assess food security and develop scenarios of potential acute food insecurity.
• Coordinate input into FEWS NET from the CPS Bureau to support Agency contributions to the U.S. Strategy to Prevent Conflict and Promote Stability (SPCPS) in terms of data, analysis and communications related to the domains of fragility, conflict, and climate security.
• Provide technical advice to BHA’s implementing partners working on the development of a Compound Risk Framework to be piloted in SPCPS priority countries of Haiti, Mozambique and Togo. This pilot is designed to monitor trends to address the underlying dynamics of food insecurity and conflict, provide a more dynamic picture of the operating environment to enable early warning and early action, enable these countries to better anticipate and respond to potential shocks and stresses, and identify opportunities for building resilience.
• Engage with USAID Missions to assess needs for fragility- and conflict-specific analysis, assess data availability, and otherwise coordinate and collaborate to support USAID/FEWS NET, CPS/CVP, and Mission needs for information and decision support.
• Engage with the FEWS NET Early Warning Team/Decision Support contractor on tasks related to:
• Monitoring, assessing, and analyzing social, political, and/or economic events that are likely to have an impact on the emergence, continuation, trajectory, intensity, or resolution of conflict for integration into FEWS NET conflict assumptions where relevant, and for ensuring that the FEWS NET contractor is adequately cognizant of potential emerging need for analysis in countries not covered by FEWS NET presence or remote monitoring analysis.
• Strategically identifying, mapping, and engaging with individual, institutional, and governmental partners and collaborators in the US and overseas to support a holistic and comprehensive approach to integration of fragility, conflict, and climate security data, analysis, and insights into FEWS NET’s complex and interdisciplinary processes and systems.
• Coordinate fragility, conflict, or climate security assessments with external partners, including international organizations, regional technical organizations, national ministries, and technical non-governmental organizations (NGOs).
• Prepare and present fragility, conflict, or climate security briefings for technical and program management audiences within and outside of the U.S. Government.
• Review of and participate in country-specific and regional assessments of fragility, conflict, or climate security, vulnerability, resilience and other related FEWS NET concepts and products; includes regular review of the consistency and accuracy of conflict projections and other conflict-related forecasting in FEWS NET partner analysis.

Qualifications

• Masters Degree or higher in a discipline relevant to fragility, conflict, and climate security work described above and experience analyzing inter- and/or intrastate conflicts in developing countries.
• 10 or more years of experience in a professional office setting.
• Demonstrated ability to work both independently and as part of a team, and to develop effective working relationships.
• Knowledge of the concepts, tools, instruments and methods and their respective strengths and weaknesses, used to collect, assess, clean, validate, manage, and analyze fragility, conflict, climate security, and food security-related data and information, and their use in cross-sectoral integrated analysis in developing countries.
• Ability to obtain and keep SECRET clearance required.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Knowledge of humanitarian assistance and development programming in conflict contexts preferred.
• Language skills in Arabic, French, Portuguese or Spanish are desirable.
• Ability to solve complex technical, managerial, and/or operational problems and evaluate options based on relevant information, resources, well-rounded experience, and knowledge.
• Operational knowledge of applying qualitative and quantitative methods for design and implementation of field-based surveys and/or other data collection activities in developing countries and management and analysis of these data.
• Advanced skill and ability in the use of data analysis programs (e.g., R, Stata, Python, SPSS, SAS) and widely-used software applications, including word processing, spreadsheets, slide presentations, e-mail, and scientific data portals.
• PhD with a record of peer-reviewed publications preferred.

ZemiTek’s Beliefs

ZemiTek is an equal opportunity employer where an applicant’s qualifications are considered for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, age, gender identity or expression, national origin, genetic information, veteran status, disability, or any other basis prohibited by law.

ZemiTek is committed to the full inclusion of all qualified individuals. As part of this commitment, ZemiTek will ensure that persons with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodations. If an applicant requires reasonable accommodation in completing this application, interviewing, completing any pre-employment testing, or otherwise participating in the employee selection process, please direct inquiries to accommodations@zemitek.com.

ZemiTek embraces diversity, equity, and inclusion and strives to build and maintain a safe environment where it celebrates diverse backgrounds, treat everyone with respect, and value the unique lived experiences each person brings based on their race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, disability, military or veteran status, national origin, age, marital status or family status and related conditions.