Agriculture-based Livelihood Hub Specialist

Organizational Setting

The main aim of the FAO Syria Country Office is to assist government to develop policies, programmes and projects to achieve food security and to reduce hunger and malnutrition, to develop the agricultural fisheries and forestry sectors, and to use their environmental and natural resources in a sustainable manner.

The FAO Representation in Syria is organized around three main units: Programme, Operations and Administration. The current portfolio of projects in Syria includes activities related to Crop production & protection, Animal Health & Livestock production, Water for production, Environment & Climate Change, Gender & Social Inclusion, and is implemented with humanitarian, transitional and development funding.

Reporting Lines:

Under the overall supervision of the FAO Representative in Syria, technical guidance from the Chief Technical Advisor (CTA) and the Building Local Resilience in Syria (BLRS) Project Manager; and direct supervision and support from the FAO Resilience Specialist in Aleppo region, the Agriculture-based Livelihood Specialist will be responsible for providing technical, capacity building and coordination capacity for the agriculture-based livelihoods planned under the BLRS project.

Technical Focus

The specific focus of this position is to strengthen the resilience of smallholder farmers to environmental pressures and shocks under BLRS and support capacity building efforts on context-specific climate smart agriculture (CSA) approaches, in collaboration with the FAO technical experts and supporting local level sector coordination of actors in agriculture-based livelihoods and linking with central level coordination.

Tasks and responsibilities

• Capacity building of BLRS targeted smallholder farmers on understanding climate shocks and acting accordingly, through training on context specific climate smart agriculture (CSA) approaches, for more resilient crop, livestock and water management practices. The Agriculture-based Livelihood Specialist will execute this in close collaboration with the relevant FAO technical experts for the mentioned thematic areas, • Establishing communication plartforms for dissemination of agriculture related information, to ensure that farmers are more aware of production or market-related risks, which may affect their agriculture-based livelihoods and entrepreneurship endeavours, • Participate in all BLRS related food security and agriculture data collection and assessments carried out in the Hub or other identified locations as required. These will include community consultations, market assessments, periodic market monitoring to determine physical access to markets and marketing networks available to households to sell their production and their labour, agriculture seasonal performance monitoring and other BLRS planned assessments, • Provide humanitarian programme cycle (HPC) input from the Hub through needs analysis and contribution to the Food and Agriculture Sector (FAS) component of Humanitarian Needs Overview (HNO) and Humanitarian Response Plan (HNO/HRP), • Provide adapted support and input to the improvement of the Early Warning Systems (EWS) at Hub level, including market monitoring, weather data monitoring to track climate-related risks, normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and monitoring of crop pest incidents. With a focus on enhancing quality, accessibility and integration of early warning information, • Contribute to the establishment of partnerships with relevant agriculture-based stakeholders, especially agricultural institutions in Syria and collaborate in providing technical support, guidance and trainings to operational partners including production of capacity building and training reports, • Contribute to the development of guidelines, good practices and standard operating procedures (SOPs) for agriculture-based livelihood component of FAS at sub-national level, • Collect, consolidate, analyse and disseminate data for the agriculture-based livelihood component of the FSC 4Ws at Hub level, • Provide regular Hub input to the development and dissemination of various information products including food security updates, need analysis, early warning alerts for pre-season planning, which will be circulated among BLRS partners, • Conduct stakeholders’ meetings at Hub (i.e. decentralized) level to share operational level FAS information, • Ensure proper coordination with technical staff of relevant line ministries at Hub level in coordination with the Resilience Officer in the governorate, • Develop and maintain a proper coordination mechanism with UN Agencies present in the Hub or Governorate and ensure that FAO’s role and mandate is well understood, • Delegated by the Resilience Specialist in Aleppo, attend relevant meetings and represent FAO in various fora at Hub / Governorate level, • Liaise and coordinate with all stakeholders involved in food and nutrition security coordination within the Hub; • Ensure preparation of Travel Authorizations & Security Clearances on time; • Perform other related duties requested by the Resilience Specialist and BLRS management.

CANDIDATES WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE FOLLOWING

Minimum Requirements

• University degree in Agriculture Sciences and Food Security, Climate Change or related field of study. • At least 5 years of experience, including in agriculture response to improve rural livelihoods, humanitarian and food security assessments, early warning systems (EWS) in agriculture-related matters, resilience, data analysis, coordination and humanitarian response. • Excellent oral and written command of English and Arabic. • National of Syria.

FAO Core Competencies

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

Technical/Functional Skills

• Practical experience in promoting relevant climate smart agriculture (CSA) approaches. • Experience in rural agriculture-based livelihoods development would be an asset, including field work and data collection. • Work experience in more than one location or area of work related to agriculture, particularly in field positions is essential. • Good interpersonal, collaboration and networking skill, including knowledge in sector coordination. • Relevance and extent of experience in establishing and maintaining partnerships with UN agencies and NGOs and government institutions and agencies and • Good communication, analytical, presentation and reporting skills and an excellent team player.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

• FAO does not charge a fee at any stage of the recruitment process (application, interview meeting, processing)
• Incomplete applications will not be considered. If you need help please contact: [email protected]
• Applications received after the closing date will not be accepted
• Please note that FAO only considers higher educational qualifications obtained from an institution accredited/recognized in the World Higher Education Database (WHED), a list updated by the International Association of Universities (IAU) / United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The list can be accessed at http://www.whed.net/
• For additional employment opportunities visit the FAO employment website: http://www.fao.org/employment/home/en/
• Appointment will be subject to certification that the candidate is medically fit for appointment, accreditation, any residency or visa requirements, and security clearances.