Food & Agricultural Commodity Systems (FACS) Advisor

Contract

This is a IPSA-11 contract. This kind of contract is known as International Personnel Services Agreement. It is normally internationally recruited only. It usually requires 7 years of experience, depending on education. More about IPSA-11 contracts.

Background

Instructions to Applicants: Click on the "Apply now" button. Input your information in the appropriate Sections: personal information, language proficiency, education, resume, and motivation. Upon completion of the first page, please hit the "submit application" tab at the end of the page. Please ensure that CV or P11 and the Cover letter are combined in one file.

The following documents shall be required from the applicants:

Personal CV or P11, indicating all past positions held and their main underlying functions, their durations (month/year), the qualifications, as well as the contact details (email and telephone number) of the Candidate, and at least three (3) the most recent professional references of previous supervisors. References may also include peers.

A cover letter (maximum length: 1 page) indicating why the candidate considers him-/herself to be suitable for the position.

Travel: International mission travel may be required;

• The BSAFE course must be successfully completed prior to commencement of travel;
• The incumbent is responsible for obtaining any visas needed in connection with travel with the necessary
• support from UNDP and for ensuring they have vaccinations/inoculations when traveling to certain countries, as designated by the UN Medical Director;
• S/he is required to comply with the UN security directives set forth under https://dss.un.org/dssweb/
• The incumbent will be responsible for making his/her own mission travel arrangements in line with UNDP travel policies;
• All related travel expenses will be reimbursed as per UNDP rules and regulations upon submission of an F10 claim form and supporting documents.

Office/Unit/Project Description:

Food and Agricultural Commodity Systems (FACS)[1] are fundamental to sustainable development in all of the 170 countries UNDP supports. In 2020, UNDP for the first time consolidated its support and vision on food & agricultural commodity systems into one innovative strategy. With a current portfolio of FACS-related projects representing over USD 1.2 billion in grants, UNDP works on FACS in more than 100 countries and more than 400 landscapes. UNDP´s vision for FACS is, through multi-stakeholder collaboration, to transform food and commodity systems into resilient, equitable, inclusive, environmentally, socially and economically sustainable systems.

The FACS practice was launched in June 2020 to help UNDP, through the leadership of the Nature, Climate and Energy team, take an integrated approach to tackling FACS issues. The FACS practice operates a small global team and is designed to work in an agile manner to harness networks, experience, and innovation both within and outside UNDP. The practice draws on the thematic expertise of the climate, forests, biodiversity, local/indigenous communities, water, chemicals, energy, inclusive growth, private sector, health, gender and governance teams. It operates the UNDP-internal FACS network, supports the implementation of the FACS strategy in the 5 regions, and is in charge of a portfolio of projects focusing on food and commodity systems transformation.

The Food & Agricultural Commodity Systems Advisor will become part of the global FACS practice and support the consolidation of the FACS network by providing technical advice to thematic teams, regional bureaus, or country offices on matters related to sustainable food and agricultural commodity systems.

[1] FACS are all the elements (environment, people, inputs, processes, infrastructures, institutions, etc.) and activities that relate to the production, processing, distribution, preparation and consumption of food and agricultural commodities, and the output of these activities, including socioeconomic and environmental outcomes at the global level.

Institutional Arrangement:

Duty station: The incumbent will work from home;

Type (Regular or Short term): Regular, 50% of engagement

• The FACS advisor will form part of the global FACS practice and report to the Head, Food and Agricultural Commodity Systems Global Practice.
• The incumbent will be given access to relevant information necessary for the execution of the tasks under this assignment;
• The incumbent will be responsible for providing her/his own work station (i.e. laptop, internet, phone, scanner/printer, etc.) and must have access to reliable internet connection;
• Given the global consultations to be undertaken during this assignment, the incumbent is expected to be reasonably flexible with his/her availability for such consultations taking into consideration different time zones.

Duties and Responsibilities

Scope of Work

The FACS advisor, under the direction of the FACS Practice Global Head and in close coordination with the FACS global project manager, FACS coordination support consultants and thematic technical advisors, will contribute to the implementation of the FACS strategy in the following four areas:

1. Thematic, strategic, and integrated programming

• Cultivate and further develop the UNDP-internal FACS network including with UNDP policy centers.
• Identify and lead thinking on integrated programming around FACS.
• Coordinate UNDPs involvement in the follow-up to the UN Food Systems Summit.
• Provide inputs and review project workplans and budgets to ensure inclusion of FACS strategy contents/approaches into portfolios managed by other teams.
• Support the development of ToR for global/regional/national-level consultancies related to food systems transformation.
• Contribute to FACS strategy updates.

2. Geographic coordination - regional roll-out of the FACS strategy

• Cultivate and further develop relationships with regional bureaus and regional FACS focal points.
• Support the development of regional FACS narratives/internal strategy notes that show UNDP's integrated offer and orient regional action and collaboration.
• Contribute to in-country activities related to FACS and interact with country offices and project teams for effective planning and implementation of in-country activities.

3. Development and implementation of the FACS portfolio of projects

• Support the strengthening of the UNDP FACS portfolio with inputs from the FACS portfolio analysis (SWOT analysis to be conducted) and the guidelines for new project development (to be developed)
• Input into the development and implementation of the FACS portfolio of projects, including global and regional initiatives on food systems transformation.
• Contribute to the identification and development of new project opportunities (including under the GEF-8 food systems program).
• Work towards the strengthening of external partnerships with UN Agencies and other partners.

4. Global UNDP advocacy on food systems

• Prepare technical inputs for global events or advocacy campaigns related to FACS.
• Develop and coordinate inputs on FACS-related topics for UNDP Senior Management.

Competencies

Core Competencies

• Innovation: Ability to make new and useful ideas work
• Leadership: Ability to persuade others to follow
• People Management: Ability to improve performance and satisfaction
• Delivery: Ability to get things done while exercising good judgement

Functional****/Technical Competencies:

Technical Expertise

• Project Management
• Client & Stakeholder Relationship Management
• Results-Based Programme Development and Management
• Building strategic partnerships

Required Skills and Experience

Min. Academic Education

• Master´s degree or higher in agriculture, environment, development or international studies, economics, or other closely related field

Min. years of relevant Work experience

• At least 7 years of relevant professional experience in the field of agriculture, food systems, value chains and related fields.

Required skills

• Professional experience in the field of food systems, agricultural commodities, or the agriculture-environment nexus.
• High-level logical and methodological organizational skills and the ability to connect agendas, people and topics; multi-tasker.
• Interested in understanding, immersing and contributing to intra-institutional (policy) processes of UNDP, including around integrated programming.
• Inter-cultural communication, networking and coordination skills.
• A proactive approach to delivering tasks and the ability to prioritize.
• Strong oral and written communication skills.

Desired additional skills

• Previous experience with United Nations or other international organization is an advantage.
• Experience in systems approaches and/or multi-stakeholder collaboration is an advantage.

Required Language(s) (at working level)

• Fluency in oral and written communication skills in English is required.
• Additional UN languages are an asset.