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 (IASC) as well as with humanitarian resource partners, co-leadership with World Food Programme (WFP) of the global Food Security Cluster (FSC), 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.

The Management Support and Compliance Team is responsible to provide direct support to OER leadership through coordinating and managing the financial and human resources of the Office, ensuring compliance with FAO’s internal control mechanisms and resource partners’ fiduciary requirements, strengthening FAO emergency and resilience programme people strategy and improving processes and systems that are essential to deliver emergency and resilience projects. The team supports OER Director as Prevention of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (PSEA) Senior Focal Point and coordinates efforts across the Organization to strengthen prevention and response to sexual exploitation and abuse.

The position is located in OER at FAO headquarters in Rome, Italy.

Main Purpose

The Programme Associate plays a lead role in the coordination of programme/projects support services for the office. He/she performs a broad range of programme, planning and budgeting activities requiring in-depth analysis and interpretation of relevant policies, procedures and practices. The incumbent provides procedural guidance to managers and staff in the office or location.

Supervision Received/Exercised

The Programme Associate reports to the Senior Emergency and Rehabilitation Officer/Team Leader of the Management Support and Compliance Team. Work is performed autonomously, showing a high degree of initiative and independent judgment. Supervision received is focused on facilitating service delivery. The incumbent provides guidance and training to programme support staff in the office.

Working Relationships

The Programme Associate maintains a wide range of contacts with managers, staff and stakeholders inside and outside the office. The incumbent collaborates closely with colleagues in other offices and the corporate services, ensuring the quality and consistency of programme/projects support services.

Key Functions/Results

•    Coordinate the preparation, submission, revision and follow-up of Divisional/Office budget, as well as the monitoring and provision of information on its implementation.
•    Coordinate, review and analyse the Periodic Budgetary Reports as needed.
•    Assemble and synthesize data from corporate and office data bases to facilitate the analysis of programmes, projects or activities, and to draft periodic or ad hoc management reports.
•    Monitor projects and ensure the maintenance and retrieval of programming reference material, documentation, data and information.
•    Consolidate and monitor various reports on human resources planning and expenditures, the use of non-staff resources, communication and publishing plans, IT plans and travel schedules.
•    Screen incoming correspondence to identify issues requiring further attention and draft related correspondence.
•    Support knowledge building and knowledge sharing across the divisions/offices through training of staff and briefing of budget holders on administrative/budgetary/planning/programming/financial procedures and processes.
•    Review current processes and make recommendations to improve programme/projects administration procedures.
•    Perform other functions as required.

Impact Of Work

The incumbent’s work impacts directly on the smooth and efficient operations of the programme/project activities of the office. He/she plays a lead role in the coordination and provision of the programme support services for the successful achievement of the office’s mandate. He/she plays a pro-active role in the successful achievement of the office’s mandate.

CANDIDATES WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE FOLLOWING

Minimum Requirements

Education: Secondary School Education.
Experience: Five years of experience in administrative/financial/planning/programming/budgeting activities
Languages: Working knowledge (proficient – level C) of English and limited knowledge (intermediate – level B) of another official language of the Organization (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish).
IT Skills: Good knowledge of the MS Office applications, Internet and office technology equipment.

Residency: General Service Staff are recruited locally. To be eligible for this position, candidates must be nationals of the country of the duty station or possess an existing visa/work permit, and reside within commuting distance of the duty station at the time of the application. “Commuting distance” means the distance within which staff members can travel daily between their place of work and their residence.

Competencies

•    Results Focus
•    Team Work
•    Communication
•    Building effective relationships
•    Knowledge Sharing and Continuous Improvement

Technical Skills

•    Thorough knowledge of corporate information systems.
•    Thorough knowledge of programme and budget processes and procedures.
•    Thorough knowledge of common administrative and financial rules and regulations.
•    Thorough knowledge of communication and documentation standards.

Desirable Qualifications And Skills

•    Extend of experience in the preparation, submission, revision and follow-up of Office human resources plan, as well as the monitoring and provision of information on its implementation.
•    Familiarity with FAO and/or UN field programme and human resources management procedures and guidelines is an asset.
•    Extent of experience in consolidating and monitoring various reports on human resources planning and expenditures, the use of non-staff resources, IT plans and travel schedules.
•    Extent of experience in emergency programme support.
•    Extent of experience in training colleagues in the administrative and human resources procedures.
•    Availability to travel to support operations in crisis countries is an asset.
•    Working knowledge (proficient – level C) of French is an asset.