International Agrifood Systems Specialists

The FAO Subregional Office for the Pacific Islands (SAP) was established in 1996 in Samoa to coordinate FAO work in 13 member countries in the Pacific subregion – Cook Islands, Fiji, Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Republic of the Marshall Islands, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, and one Associate Member, Tokelau. SAP is responsible for developing, implementing and overseeing programmes and projects to address food security, nutrition, agriculture, and rural development priorities. It develops and maintains relations with subregion wide institutions and entities. The Subregional Office is a subsidiary of FAO’s Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (RAP) in Bangkok.

The FAO Subregional Office for the Pacific is looking for the following specialists to support its work in facilitating agrifood system transformation across the 14 Pacific Island Countries: 

• Agrifood Systems Coordination Specialist for the Pacific Islands
• Agrifood Systems Economist for Samoa

Reporting Lines:

The Agrifood Systems Coordination Specialist and Economist will report to the FAO Food and Nutrition Officer for the Pacific islands under the overall supervision of the FAO Subregional Coordinator the Pacific Islands. 

Technical Focus:

Agrifood Systems Coordination Specialist for the Pacific: 

Supports national agrifood systems transformation pathway development, revision, costing and implementation; supports countries to organize national dialogues, but also to participate in regional and global dialogues like the stock taking moments. Supports monitoring, evaluation, reporting and resource mobilization to enable Pacific Island countries to advance the national agrifood systems transformation agenda without leaving other countries behind. 

Agrifood Systems Economist for Samoa: 

Supports various analyses of the local agrifood systems context focusing on the enabling environment, financing, the potential of the local food trade and the associated policies’ implications for noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), and how they interact with the Samoa National agrifood Systems Transformation Agenda.  Produces a defined number of policy briefs and bankable proposals informed by the analysis to support the Government of Samoa. 

Tasks and responsibilities:

Agrifood Systems Coordination Specialist for the Pacific: 

• Supports FAO’s efforts to facilitate national pathway development, revision, costing and implementation.
• Supports countries to organize national dialogues, but also to participate in regional and global dialogues like the stock taking moments.
• Supports resource mobilization efforts for the agrifood systems transformation agenda.
• Provides a framework for capturing the various programmatic actions and their contributions to the agrifood systems transformation agenda.
• Provides monitoring, evaluation and reporting support to countries in advancing their national agrifood systems transformation agenda.
• Facilitates the socialization of the agrifood systems transformation agenda by promoting agrifood systems literacy, and a whole of government and society involvement.

Agrifood Systems Economist for Samoa

• Completes an analysis of the local food trade and its policy context (for example, supply, demand, enablers, legislation, implications for NCDs, etc…), and its implications for the Samoa National agrifood Systems Transformation Agenda. The output is a policy brief with practical, precise and implementable recommendations.
• Completes an analysis of the potential of the local context (enablers such as agribusiness, value chain development and marketing, innovation and digitalization, social inclusion, multi-sectoral collaboration, access to finance, climate smart agricultural practices, etc…), to enable the Samoa national agrifood systems transformation agenda. The output is a policy brief with practical, precise and implementable recommendations.
• Completes a critical costing of the Samoa National agrifood Systems Transformation Pathway along with a sound monitoring and evaluation framework accounting for all the associated elements in a relevant format of a report.
• Draws on the existing methodology prepared and piloted by IFAD and the World Bank to produce a synopsis tracked financing and resources enabling the Samoa national agrifood systems transformation agenda.
• Produces a defined number of bankable proposals informed by the analytic policy briefs to advance the Samoa national agrifood systems transformation agenda.

Candidates Will Be Assessed Against The Following:

Minimum Requirements: 

• Advanced university degree in economics, development economics, agriculture economics, public policy, development studies, business/public administration, agriculture, food science, planning, nutrition, sociology, political science, rural development or a related field.
• At least 5 years of experience related to agrifood systems theories and practice.
• Working knowledge of English.

Source: https://jobs.fao.org/careersection/fao_external/jobdetail.ftl?job=2402117