Digital Agriculture Specialist/ Consultant

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FAO - Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

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Application deadline 1 year ago: Monday 5 Sep 2022 at 21:59 UTC

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Organizational Setting

The Sub-Regional Office for the Caribbean (SLC) is responsible for developing, promoting, overseeing and implementing agreed strategies for addressing sub-regional food, agriculture and rural development priorities.

Over the last decade, the Caribbean has been successful at developing the ICT sector response to the shifting global economic environment as well as the impact of climate change. CARICOM, having developed a Regional ICT strategy and roadmap, recognizes the importance of digital transformation to address the developmental challenges and attain the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). However, there is currently no Caribbean governance framework in place, although individual countries have made some progress. For instance, St. Kitts and Nevis started to develop a national ICT policy while in Trinidad and Tobago the Ministry of Agriculture has engaged FAO and its partners to develop a national E-Agriculture Strategy. Some digital solutions have already been introduced through isolated initiatives of the public and private sector, such as Belize and Grenada where traceability solutions are being introduced into fisheries value chains. Dominica has strengthened its disaster risk management through a FAO project that introduced drone technology to map datasets, enabling government to analyze land areas for soil erosion and landslide risks. In spite of the availability of a wide range of e-agriculture solutions at the global level, their adoption in the Caribbean is very slow. Therefore, advancing the digital agenda requires a coordinated, collaborative effort among countries along with partnerships with governments, private sector and civil society, to create an environment that favors widespread introduction and upscaling.

Furthermore, the objective of the project is to build the capacities of CARICOM governments to create an enabling environment for the adoption of e-agriculture solutions at the national level. Developing the e-agriculture strategy is the first step when planning to strategically use ICTs in the agriculture sector. Resources, both financial and human, will be identified in a holistic manner, as well as the opportunities and challenges for generating incomes and improving the livelihoods of farmers and fisherfolk. The strategy will also provide a framework for monitoring and evaluation of the use of digital solutions and provide additional opportunities to promote best practices models across the sector.

Reporting Lines

Under the managerial oversight of the Sub-Regional Coordinator for the Caribbean, the direct supervision of the FAO SLC International Value Chain Expert and Project Coordinator, the National Consultant will execute activities supporting the development of a National Digital Agriculture Strategy in close collaboration with the SLC Digital Agriculture and Innovation Specialist, and relevant government ministries/institutions and other stakeholders.

Technical Focus

Development of digital agriculture strategy for Guyana under the guidance and supervision of FAO technical team, including development of needs assessment (situational analysis) comprehensive report on digital agriculture readiness, strategic plan and roadmap for digital agriculture transformation through bottom-up approach in consultation/workshops with relevant stakeholders and in coordination with designated ministries and FAO project team.

Tasks and responsibilities:

The incumbent will:

• Conduct research on the country digital agriculture environment and capacity by performing a wide range of analyses (country context, stakeholders mapping, capacity assessment, existing solutions, providers and initiatives, the policy, institutional and legislative framework); • Map sectorial and cross-sectorial digital agriculture strategic directions, including the elaboration of a screening report of existing national frameworks; • Analyze preliminary assessment reports/studies related to digital agriculture transformation in the country and region with recommendations to strengthen the enabling digital ecosystem for inclusive and sustainable agriculture growth, reduce poverty and to achieve food and nutrition security; • Support digital agriculture needs assessments (online and offline) and validation; • Prepare reports and technical guides as required; • Support the drafting the national digital agriculture vision, providing written content and comments, and ensuring that a national vision is reflecting findings from needs assessment and promoting a sustainable and inclusive approach to digital agriculture transformation; • Develop the outline of strategy development according to the FAO OIN guidelines; • Seek synergies and define gaps between elaborated outline (based on methodology) and existing documents. • Revise and validate existing cross-cutting and sectorial digital agriculture priorities (from existing reports and strategies) based on the FAO OIN guidelines and local context; • Support where needed the digital agriculture engagement, dissemination, usage and resource mobilization activities; • Draft comprehensive digital strategy (M&E, responsibility, baseline indicators, target indicators, means of verification, timeframe, budget, budget sources); • Support the management of the country project work-plan, risks and issues, including: monitoring progress against the work-plan and communicate updates to the project team and PMO • Work closely with the digital agriculture team in FAO OIN and SLC; • Perform other job-related duties as required

CANDIDATES WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE FOLLOWING

Minimum Requirements

• Advanced University Degree in Agriculture, Agricultural Economics, Social Sciences, International Policy, or related field; • At least 5 years of relevant experience in conducting value chain/agricultural sector analysis and/or supporting the planning, design, implementation of agricultural and IT projects, including facilitation of policy dialogue, setting digital standards and frameworks, operational backstopping and knowledge dissemination, in Guyana and other CARICOM countries; • Working knowledge (level C) of English and limited knowledge (level B) of one of the other official FAO languages (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) for Consultants. In the case of PSA.SBS, the requirement is the working knowledge of English.

FAO Core Competencies

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

Technical/Functional Skills

• Extent and relevance of experience in Digital Agriculture or e-Agriculture, especially within policy and/or strategy development and/or within inter-institutional coordination; • Extent and relevance of experience in capacity development; • Extent and relevance of experience in project management within technology for development; • Extent and relevance of experience with the CARICOM digital innovation for agriculture eco-system.

Added 1 year ago - Updated 1 year ago - Source: fao.org