Aquaculture Investment Specialist

Organizational Setting

For more than four decades, FAO has been working with the Government of the Philippines, civil society, community-based organizations and the private sector to address challenges in the agriculture, fisheries and forestry sector. Joint efforts have included increasing sustainability in agricultural production, promoting value-adding practices, improving post-harvest management, enhancing productivity and increasing the resilience of agriculture-based livelihoods to natural disasters, climatic hazards and armed conflict.

Reporting Lines

The Aquaculture Investment Specialist reports to the Assistant FAO Representative for Programme.

Technical Focus

Access to loans by small- and medium-scale farmers and other investors along the value chain remains very limited in several countries including in Africa and Asia. Those operating in the fisheries and aquaculture sector are no exception. Rural banks are perhaps the most likely institutions for microcredit start-up support to entrepreneurs wishing to develop fishery and aquaculture enterprises. Government-backed credit and risk guarantees for rural banks are important public interventions for rural microfinance initiatives. Governments, donors and development practitioners are focusing attention on leveraging private investment in agriculture, including through fostering public-private investment collaborations, as a means to access critical resources and achieve sustainability and scale in rural poverty reduction. Yet public-private partnerships (PPPs) are not easily achieved and despite the obvious attractions of collaboration, different cultures, languages and incentives and sometimes even straightforward mistrust can lead partnerships to fail. In addition, leveraging private sector investment is not an end in itself but is sought because it can under the right conditions contribute to pro-poor development that raises incomes and strengthens food security. Understanding what these conditions are is critical, as is understanding the degree to which PPPs bring about systemic change and drive improvements at scale and sustainably. The aim of this assignment is to identify the key factors driving the effectiveness of PPPs at bringing sustained increases in income for smallholder farmers at scale and delivering positive development outcomes across rural communities and their enhancement in aquaculture sector.

Tasks and responsibilities

The Aquaculture Investment Specialist shall perform the following responsibilities:

• Assess policy, regulatory, and institutional measures for enabling environment for private sector participation in the aquaculture sector in The Philippines; • Review national best practices in attracting private finance to aquaculture value chain • Identify existing national and international PPPs in aquaculture in The Philippines, categorize them based on their main objectives, discuss their rules of engagement, and how these PPPs bring positive development outcomes and impacts • Identify challenges PPPs face, and how their operation can be improved to make a greater contribution to food security and poverty reduction • Based on the gap analysis and best practices, recommend/ propose a systematic and possible approach to the design and implementation of PPPs in aquaculture • Provide updates to the Country Office in terms of important developments and emerging opportunities in the area of aquaculture, including recommendations for potential resource mobilization opportunities such as PPP in aquaculture in The Philippines • Contribute to the development of briefers, reports and other knowledge and communications materials • Perform any other tasks as may be required by the FAO Representative

Minimum Requirements

• An advanced university degree in fisheries, aquaculture, agriculture economics or related fields • Has at least eleven (11) years of work experience in aquaculture policies, value chains and investments, • Working knowledge of English and Tagalog • A national of Philippines or a legal resident in the country

FAO Core Competencies

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

Technical/Functional Skills

• Strong knowledge of aquaculture, value chain analysis and agriculture economics • Excellent skills in data analysis and the use of relevant software tools. • Excellent communication and interpersonal skills • Ability to work effectively in a multidisciplinary and multicultural environment. • Strong analytical and problem-solving abilities. • Project management skills and the ability to work independently with minimal supervision