Cash-based Transfer 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 Cash-based Transfer Specialist reports to the National Project Development and Coordination Specialist and PU Socio-Economic, Forestry, Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) and Climate Change Adaptation (CCA) Team Leader.

Technical Focus:

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in the Philippines recognizes the significance of providing cash-based interventions as part of early response in order to hasten the transition back to normalcy. The use of unconditional cash transfers, cash plus and cash for work schemes are widely used in emergency, resilience and development projects globally. This is based among other issues on the growing evidence that affected populations in the aftermath of a disaster need cash and cash, combined with livelihood support to rebuild sources of income, diversify food options, increase access to on-food basic items and ultimately and reduce reliance from emergency relief. Commonly used to address food insecurity and nutrition in emergencies, cash can also be seen as means of facilitating access to health care, and veterinary services. In addition, the influx of financial support also fuels the rehabilitation of local economies that are essential to rebuilding livelihoods.

The flexibility of using cash has also been widely acknowledged as one of the strategic interventions of anticipatory action before a crisis becomes a disaster. In an ex-ante approach, cash can be used to support and protect livelihoods through a variety of ways, such covering logistics and mobilization costs for early harvesting and storage of equipment and crops, or livestock evacuation and shelter strengthening.

FAO Philippines has implemented several cash-based interventions both for emergency response and anticipatory action, and seeks to further strengthen cash-based interventions in the country especially for Anticipatory Action (AA) and Adaptive and Shock Responsive Social Protection (ASRSP) programming.

Tasks and responsibilities:

The Cash-based Transfer Specialist shall perform the following tasks: 1. Review existing and pipeline cash-based transfer programming work of FAO, relevant UN agencies and development partners, as well as policies and programmes at national and local government level that may affect FAO’s work. 2. Assist the Socio-Economic, Forestry, DRR and CCA team (AA and ASRSP) and Emergency Response team Shock Responsive in strategic planning, coordination and execution of cash-based transfer activities (e.g. Unconditional Cash Transfer, Cash , Cash for Work, etc.) ensuring compliance with FAO rules and regulations; 3. Develop FAO Philippines’ cash-based intervention operational plan to be used as reference for all cash-based transfer activities, whether for AA and ASRSP or for emergency response; 4. Facilitate discussions with relevant FAO country office staff (and regional and HQ staff if necessary) for the development of a cash-based intervention operational plan; 5. Lead the development of modality of collaboration (i.e. Memorandum of Understanding/Memorandum of Agreement, Letter of Agreement, etc.) with all partners including private sector providing financial services to be involved in the cash-based transfer activities; 6. Review the appropriateness of cash-based interventions of a project and provide technical advice and/or recommendations on how to implement or enhance cash-based interventions (i.e. value of cash transfer, choice of delivery mechanism, frequency, risk management, etc.); 7. Actively participate in existing cash/AA/ASRSP coordination mechanisms such as the Cash Working Group, AA Technical Working Group, among others, and liaise closely with other UN agencies, humanitarian actors and government partners, private sector and financial service providers engaged in cash-based transfer activities; 8. Facilitate discussions with government partners such as Department of Agriculture (DA), Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) and Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) among others, and local government units (LGUs) in leveraging resources and systems to implement cash interventions. 9. Support capacity building activities, such as Learning and Knowledge exchange and dialogue for FAO staff and partners, particularly national government agencies (DA, DSWD, NDRRMC) and LGUs; 10. Support the conduct of a post-distribution monitoring of cash-based transfer activities; 11. Provide timely reporting on the progress and/or bottlenecks of cash-based interventions with recommendations to improve implementation; 12. Support communication on cash transfers related activities through tailored products and different means including web, photo/video, social media, press releases and others; 13. Perform other related duties as required by the FAO Representative.

CANDIDATES WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE FOLLOWING

Minimum Requirements

• Advanced University Degree in Disaster Risk Reduction and Management (DRRM), Accounting and Finance, Early warning and risk analysis, Agriculture Economics, Social/Political Science, or other closely related fields; • At least seven (7) years relevant and progressive experience in designing and/or implementing cash-based humanitarian/emergency assistance/agricultural and rural development programmes; • National of the Philippines

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

Technical/Functional Skills

• With extensive work experience with government institutions, UN agencies, national and international NGOs, and development partners; • Ability to craft policies and/or operational plan on cash-based transfers; • Experience of working on cash-based transfer activities for social assistance/social safety net programmes is an advantage; • Strong coordination skills; • Proficient in report writing; • Knowledgeable and understanding of Shock Responsive Social Protection and Anticipatory Action is preferred; • Language requirement: Excellent written and oral communication skills in English and Tagalog; • He/she must have intermediate to advance computer skills in the use of standard office software, such as MS Office (Word, Excel, Power Point).

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/