Technical Adviser (Geospatial Information)

Organizational Setting

FAO Somalia, through its Somalia Land and Water Information Management (SWALIM) project, is expanding its Geospatial applications for crop monitoring and early warning system for monitoring climate-change-induced hazards to agricultural production, detect and quantify the spatial extent of land cover features with specific focus on cultivated cropland and pasture area, to provide early warning information to reference line ministries, and overall monitoring of agricultural production, as well as water balance at basin level through remote sensing.

The Technical Adviser (Geospatial Information) works in close coordination with the technical, operational and programming units in general, and the relevant heads of technical sector teams in particular. The Officer will be embedded in SWALIM project team and will lead the Geospatial Unit, working closely with its relevant staff (geographic information systems – GIS, remote sensing – RS, mapping experts, etc.).

This position is located in the FAO Representation in Mogadishu, Somalia. The incumbent will be responsible for managing FAO Somalia’s Geospatial Information development under the Country Programming Framework (CPF) and its various projects, in support of the FAO Somalia sector teams for the production of their geospatial information needs.

Reporting Lines
The Technical Adviser (Geospatial Information) works under the overall guidance of the FAO Representative in Somalia and the direct supervision of SWALIM Technical Adviser.

Technical Focus
Geospatial information production, including monitoring activities aiming at the objective, evidence-based, traceable, accurate and credible reporting of the delivery of FAO activities in Somalia.

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

Key Functions
•    Researches and analyses technical-related issues on the development, the implementation and evaluation of assigned programmes/projects; assists to the review of relevant documents and reports.
•    Produces a variety of technical information, data, statistics and documents as well as technical input for reports and web pages.
•    Provides technical support/analysis to various assessments, studies and projects and provides technical backstopping to field projects.
•    Collaborates in the development of improved/updated tools, systems, processes and databases.
•    Oversees the updating of databases and web pages.
•    Participates in multidisciplinary teams, and/or leads working groups/teams collaborates with other divisions and agencies on work groups and committees and promotes best practices.
•    Collaborates in, provides technical backstopping to and ensures the quality/effectiveness of capacity development activities within Members such as policy support, organizational development and individual learning events including preparation of related information, learning materials and online tools.
•    Promotes knowledge sharing and best practices at international meetings and conferences and guides partners in stakeholder consultations.
•    Performs other duties as required.

Specific Functions
•    Supports the strategic planning, implementation and management of all geospatial information and remote sensing related matters and the implementation of environmental monitoring activities, impact assessments and fact-based decision-making.
•    Contributes to the timely preparation, maintenance and provision of geospatial information, products and services in support of the activities implemented by FAO Somalia technical sectors, with particular focus on activities implemented by SWALIM, Agriculture, Emergency and Resilience sectors.
•    Supervises the staff working for the SWALIM Geospatial Unit.
•    Assists FAO Somalia and financing partners in the supervision and evaluation of investment projects/programmes in the natural resources management and environmental interventions in agriculture and/or rural development.
•    Contributes to the formulation of project proposals, briefs, reports and official correspondence as far as geospatial information are concerned.
•    Liaises with the FAO Somalia senior management as well as field offices of other UN agencies, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and the host country on all geospatial information related matters, such as the production of geospatial information needed based on environmental related activities implemented in Somalia.
•    Contributes to FAO Somalia programme development and fund-raising efforts through active communication with donors/partners on geospatial information programmes and activities.
•    Reviews FAO standard methodologies for cartographic and geospatial applications as well as land cover mapping preparation, change analysis and field data collection.
•    Supports the coordination with UN agencies and other relevant actors to integrate or complement with FAO-Ied mapping/monitoring activities by remote sensing.
•    Participates in the development/production of required environmental safeguards material and provision of geospatial information.
•    Identifies satellite information needs of FAO sectors where remotely sensed data can provide cost-effective inputs, and develops cost-effective products based on the information needs.
•    Supports all Remote Sensing and GIS requests, internal (Emergency, Agriculture, Livestock and Resilience sectors) and external (NGOs, Ministries, Partners) on environment-related activities, supervising the GIS/RS Unit team and liaising with the Information Management (IM) unit when data support is needed; map requests are filtered, and tasks distributed according to priorities.
•    Acts as focal person and coordinates with UN agencies concerning all the activities linked to charcoal production monitoring; provide technical support to the charcoal monitoring activities including the analysis of data derived from very-high resolution satellite images.
•    Provides technical expertise and supervise the GIS/RS unit with processing/analysis of satellite data through Google Earth Engine or other platforms.
•    Supports the finalization of a detailed agriculture mask of Somalia.
•    Contributes to the performance of flood monitoring and risk analysis using cloud-based technologies and multi- temporal dataset.
•    Under the FAO SWALIM Capacity Building Programme, supports the implementation of training of SWALIM GIS/RS team members (national project personnel – NPP staff) and government partners in order to enable them to perform GIS/RS activities.
•    Ensures archiving and safe storage of all images and finished products within the SWALIM Data and Document Repository (SDDR).
•    Oversees the development of an agriculture monitoring tool.
•    Oversees the combination of various SWALIM products into simple to use monitoring tools.
•    Performs any other related duties as required.

CANDIDATES WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE FOLLOWING

Minimum Requirements
•    Advanced university degree in political sciences, agricultural economics, development economics, rural sociology, food security, nutrition, sustainable agriculture (including livestock, forestry and fisheries), or related field;
•    Five years of relevant experience in technical cooperation-related activities, policy advice and analysis relating to food and nutrition security, agriculture and rural development, monitoring and evaluation of policies and programmes;
•    Working knowledge (proficient – level C) of English and limited knowledge (intermediate – level B) of another official FAO language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish).

Competencies
•    Results Focus
•    Teamwork
•    Communication
•    Building Effective Relationships
•    Knowledge Sharing and Continuous Improvement

Technical/Functional Skills
•    Work experience in more than one location or area of work, particularly in field positions.
•     Extent and relevance of knowledge and experience in geospatial data information production, digital image processing, GIS, remote sensing and satellite images analysis.
•    Extent and relevance of experience in supervising and coordinating international working teams for geospatial data production.
•    Good computer skills and proficiency in the use of geographic information systems (GIS) software is required.
•    Proficiency in the use of Remote Sensing/GIS applications, Global Position System (GPS) is required.
•    Work experience in the Horn of Africa will be considered as an advantage.