Food Security Technical Specialist

Organizational Setting

The key mission of the FAO Representation in Somalia, which is led by FAO Representative (FAOR), is to assist and support the national government to develop policies, strategies and programme aimed at accelerating the Implementation and achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in FAO's global mandate and Strategic Objectives. More specifically, FAO's response aims to address national needs and priorities in achieving food security, reducing hunger and malnutrition, developing agricultural, fishery and forestry sectors, and ensuring the sustainable use of environmental and natural resources and respond to recurrent emergencies. The current portfolio of activities of the FAO Representation in Somalia includes a wide scope of technical support interventions ranging from policy support through livestock and crop production, to natural resource management, Nutrition, value chain, food security analysis and water and land information management. FAO is also implementing several emergency, resilience-building, and development interventions, with the support of its five field offices and close to 400 staff in partnership with the Federal and State line ministries.

Reporting Lines

Under the overall supervision of the FAO Representative in Somalia, the direct technical supervision of the Chief Technical Advisor (CTA) and in close coordination with other technical and support teams within FSNAU,

Technical Focus

The incumbent will provide technical leadership to the FSNAU Food Security team, ensuring high quality, efficiency, and timeliness in the delivery of the analysis and outputs.

Tasks and responsibilities

• Develop and support the implementation of annual work plans for the FSNAU Food Security Team in consultation with the CTA and other managers in support of the overall FSNAU work plan. • Lead and coordinate the FSNAU Food Security Team in the monitoring and assessment of the food security situation across Somalia and in the preparation and dissemination of timely and quality food security related early warning and analysis to users, including IPC analyses. • Work closely with other FSNAU Technical Managers (Nutrition, Data Systems, Publications and Capacity Development) ensuring a coherent and integrated approach to all information and analysis produced by FSNAU. • Contribute to food security policy and strategy formulation for Somalia. • Provide briefing on current and projected food security situation and outcomes to the Somalia Food Security Cluster partners and other stakeholders. • Liaise closely with government, UN agencies, NGOs and other technical partners on food security and related institutional capacity development activities. • Support appropriate partnerships for better utilization of information generated by FSNAU and capacity development of national partners. • Support the use of FSNAU food security analysis to inform appropriate response strategies by users. • Ensure the technical integration of the key sectors for food security analysis including nutrition, agriculture, pastoralism, economics, and climatology. Also ensure the technical integration of various scales of food security analysis including at a community up to the macro-level, while developing and using appropriate technical methods and techniques, such as integrated Food security and humanitarian phase classification (IPC), Household Economy Approach (HEA), Sustainable Livelihoods Approach (SLA), Geographic Information System (GIS) and remote sensing, market analysis, representative households’ surveys, and others. • Assume a leadership role in technically directing, writing, reviewing, and editing the FSNAU food security analysis and publications and presentations. • Manage all daily activities of the food security team, which includes senior analysts based in Nairobi and team Field analysts based in Somalia, ensuring staff follow proper procedures, policies, and standards. • Actively participate and contribute to the Somalia IPC Technical Working Group and Food Security Cluster coordination meetings, etc. • Evaluate performance of the food security team using FAO/FSNAU Guidelines. • Contribute to the preparation of FSNAU/FAO Letters of Agreements for institutional capacity development. • Contribute to the preparation of FSNAU project progress and terminal reports. • Assists the Chief Technical Advisor in management of FSNAU during his absence or when requested.

Minimum Requirements

• University degree in Agricultural, Economics, or other relevant discipline from a reputable institution. • Five years of relevant work experience in food security analysis, including in Africa • Working knowledge (level C) of English, French or Spanish and limited knowledge (level B) of one of the other two or Arabic, Chinese, Russian for COF.REG.

FAO Core Competencies

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

Technical/Functional Skills

• Demonstrated ability in implementation of analytical methodologies and technical such as IPC, HEA Macro-economic analysis. • Extent of knowledge of food security analysis using statistical techniques (e.g. SPSS) and qualitative skills (e.g. HEA methods and related participatory techniques) • Experience in working under strict deadlines. • Managerial experience especially in supervising teams of professionals from different background • Quality communication, writing and presentation skills in English. • Extent of experience in Africa countries under protracted crisis, particularly Somalia