Food Security and Agricultural Livelihoods Assessment Specialist

Organizational Setting

Since late 2019, an outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) – an infectious disease caused by a newly discovered coronavirus – has rapidly spread across the world, devastating lives and livelihoods. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) is particularly concerned about the potential impacts of the virus and related containment efforts on food security and livelihoods in contexts of high vulnerability and where populations are already experiencing food crises. The FAO Office of Emergencies and Resilience (OER) has been awarded a grant by USAID to establish a global facility to create a common understanding of COVID-19 related impacts on agricultural livelihoods and critical value chains in the 34 food crisis countries. Due its food security fragility, Zimbabwe has been selected as one of the target countries which will be monitored by the FAO. This will require establishing a system of regular survey and reporting key and dynamic issues related to agriculture livelihoods and foo value chains.

Reporting Lines

This position will be working under the overall supervision of the FAO Representative in Zimbabwe, with close technical support from, FAO Head Quarters (OER) as well as the FAO Regional Office for Emergencies (REOSA) in South Africa.

Technical Focus

The technical areas/profiles covered will be as follows:

• Food Security and Livelihoods monitoring survey design
• Analysis of primary and secondary data using programming tools (Kobo and or ODK)
• Drafting technical reports based on surveys carried out
• Preparation of appropriate communication outputs

Tasks and responsibilities

• Regularly liaise with the country management team and the regional assessment advisors on the progress of the monitoring exercise and the alignment with strategic, technical and operational requirements
• Coordinate with national stakeholders (government, UN Agencies, NGOs, food security cluster) involved in food security and livelihoods assessments or surveillance, and promote multi-actors initiatives
• Contribute to advising and strengthening the capacity of the Ministry of Agriculture and local surveillance systems
• Monitor the publication of studies and data produced by other stakeholders in the country
• Collect baseline and secondary data to enable comparisons and triangulation. Secondary data can refer to food prices monitoring, agricultural inputs prices monitoring, international trade figures, food security outcomes, containment measures, social protection measures, remote-sensing-based seasonal monitoring etc.
• Define survey objectives and areas of interest based on information gaps and programmatic needs
• Assist in the choice of data collection modalities (Computer-Assisted Telephone Interviews, web surveys, or face-to-face) and interfaces (international service provider, local partner, in-house call centre etc.)
• Search for existing sampling frames and consolidate lists of respondents with phone numbers
• Assist in the adaptation of generic questionnaires to context-specific circumstances and objectives
• Contribute to the programming of tools (take the lead in case of Kobo / ODK interface)
• Develop training materials and participate to enumerator training sessions
• Communicate with relevant authorities on the implementation of the surveys
• Conduct additional semi-structured interviews with key informants in order to dig for specific issues, as needed
• Contribute to the analysis and interpretation of collected data
• Discuss and validate the results with the global assessment team, regional offices and hubs, GIEWS and any other relevant FAO units
• Help draft and review monitoring reports and visual products (e.g. dashboards), using standard templates
• Communicate assessment findings and reports to other actors, through Food Security Clusters for instance
• Contribute to COVID-19 response and programme design as requested
• Participate to IPC or Harmonized Framework analyses
• Contribute to forward-planning and scenario building exercises, as requested

• Coordinate the realization of the assessment outputs of the TCP-Emergency projects

• Contribute to FAO corporate learning processes and documentation about COVID-19 assessments

• Support data collection and needs assessment activities for other major crises or disasters occurring in supported countries

CANDIDATES WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE FOLLOWING

Minimum Requirements

• Advanced university degree in Agriculture, Agriculture Economics, Statistics or related filed.
• A minimum of 5 years of relevant experience in a technically similar area
• Working knowledge of English (Level C)
• Nationality of Zimbabwe or resident in the country with a regular work permit.

FAO Core Competencies

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

Technical/Functional Skills

• Work experience in more than one location or area of work
• Extent and relevance of experience in livelihood monitoring survey design
• Extent and relevance of experience in statistical applications (e.g. Kobo)
• Familiarity with Zimbabwean agriculture livelihoods