Emergency and Rehabilitation Office

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 by i) increasing the numbers of people reached in Integrated Phase Classification (IPC) 3 and above; and ii) increasing the numbers of people supported to move out of IPC 3 and above from a humanitarian caseload onto pathways of resilience and development. FAO has mainstreamed a humanitarian, development, peace nexus approach and a localization agenda throughout its strategic positioning and programmatic design and implementation at country and regional levels. In this organizational setting, OER is responsible for coordinating the development and maintenance of corporate tools and standards to enable Decentralized Offices (DOs) to assist Members to prepare for, and respond to emergencies as well as strengthen capacities of national and subnational institutions and partners for resilience and risk-informed development. 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 and sectoral/systems assessments, 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 of the Organization’s programme in areas such as risk governance and coordination, anticipatory actions, disaster risk reduction, early warning and response in agriculture and food chain crises.

The position is located in the Global Network Against Food Crises Team of the Office of Emergencies and Resilience (OER) at FAO headquarters in Rome, Italy.

Launched at the 2016 World Humanitarian Summit by the European Union, FAO and WFP, the Global Network Against Food Crises is multi-stakeholder initiative composed by humanitarian and development actors united by the commitment to tackle the root causes of food crises and promote sustainable solutions through shared analysis and knowledge, strengthened coordination in evidence-based responses and collective efforts across the Humanitarian, Development and Peace (HDP) nexus. Within this partnership, FAO has a key role in the operationalization of the Global Network at global, regional, and country level with an emphasis on analytical work around food crises to inform decision-making (e.g. Global Report on Food Crises), the identification of innovative approaches to tackle root causes of food crises in a sustainable manner, and then furthering support at the country level for HDP programming and improved coordination.

The Emergency and Rehabilitation Officer (Humanitarian Advocacy) reports to the Programme Officer (Food Crises), OERDN.

Support implementation of FAO’s resilience agenda at global, regional, subregional and/or country level.

Research, technical analysis and project related services to support the delivery of programme projects, products and services.

• Researches and analyses technical, food and nutrition security assessments, emergency response, policy related and/or funding/project related data and information to support the delivery of programme projects, products and services.
• Produces various reports, proposals, programme/project documents, position papers, policy briefs, financial/donor reports as well as critical information for inclusion in governing body reports, etc.
• Participates in project teams, collaborates in project and programme formulation and provides technical and/or administrative support to ongoing operational emergency and recovery projects.
• Liaises with FAO technical units as well as other UN Organizations to obtain and/or exchange information regarding food and nutrition security assessments, emergency and recovery activities and other related issues.
• Provides technical/administrative support and promotes best practices to Decentralized Offices.
• Monitors and provides support to resource mobilization activities including corporate appeals, donor macro grants, CERF/SFERA submissions, annual appeals and mid-year reviews; maintains information and prepares related reports.
• Maintains and updates information systems, databases and web pages.
• Performs other duties as required.

Specific Functions:

• Develops and coordinates the Global Network against Food Crises’ advocacy strategy, including engaging relevant teams in the preparation of briefing packages, talking points, presentations and strategic messaging around identified humanitarian and resilience priorities and processes, including but not limited to global level fora and processes.
• Provides strategic guidance and support for the development of Global Network against Food Crises’ communications products, illustrating FAO and relevant partner organizations’ achievements and impacts in food crisis contexts.
• Ensures that FAO advocacy and communication priorities and engagement are reflected in Global Network processes at all levels.
• Provides strategic inputs, from a Global Network perspective to key interagency and FAO products, processes and events.
• Serves as the FAO focal point for the Global Network initiative for advocacy issues, ensuring consistency of messaging, language and engagement in relevant humanitarian and resilience fora.
• Ensures relevant information emerging from Global Network discussions is disseminated within OER and the broader Organization, as appropriate.
• Within the Global Network initiative, reports on relevant interagency discussions relevant to FAO’s humanitarian and resilience work, ensuring the Team Leader is fully aware of issues of concern and opportunities for engagement.
• Prepares relevant materials to support the positioning of the Global Network against Food Crises, as well as supporting efforts to strengthen FAO’s partnership with other relevant agencies and Permanent Representations, in close collaboration with FAO Liaison Offices.
• Works closely with Global Network against Food Crises’ partners to develop technical studies and reports demonstrating the impact of FAO and relevant partner organizations’ humanitarian and resilience work, fully engaging FAO colleagues across headquarters and Decentralized Offices, as appropriate.
• Supports the organization of events and meetings for key initiatives (e.g. Global Network’s strategic policy dialogues at global, regional and country level), including preparation of technical content such as concept notes, agenda, run of shows, talking points, key messages and presentations.
• Liaises with the Office of Communication (OCC) and OER outreach team, either directly or through an agreed focal point/coordinator, to ensure compliance with FAO standards, appropriate review and clearance processes.

Candidates Will Be Assessed Against The Following:

Minimum Requirements:

• Advanced university degree in social sciences, advocacy, communications, media studies, journalism or in a related field.
• Five years of relevant experience in public and/or private sectors related to interagency liaison, strategic positioning, advocacy and/or communications.
• Working knowledge (proficient – level C) of English and limited knowledge (intermediate – level B) of another official FAO language'(Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish).

Technical/Functional Skills:

• Work experience in more than one location or area of work, particularly in field positions, is desirable.
• Extent of relevant experience in interagency engagement and partnerships.
• Extent of relevant experience in writing, editing, and sourcing information for talking points and briefing notes.
• Extent and relevance of experience in contributing to advocacy efforts, particularly related to humanitarian contexts.
• Experience in preparation of knowledge products and related use.

Source:   https://jobs.fao.org/careersection/fao_external/jobdetail.ftl?job=2401029