National Food Value Chain Specialist

Organizational Setting

In an effort to strengthen local agricultural value chains, boost school attendance, promote school nutrition and enhance the capacity of the Royal Government of Cambodia (RGC) to achieve the goals set out in its Second National Strategy for Food Security and Nutrition 2019-2023, the World Food Programme (WFP) Cambodia with funding from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Local Regional Aid Procurement (LRP) to support the implementation and sustainability of its successful home grown school feeding (HGSF) model. FAO will work with WFP and other partners to support the USDA LRP program in Cambodia.

The LRP program includes cash transfers to schools for the procurement of nutritious foods for the preparation of daily breakfasts for and primary school students. Training, learning and mentoring approaches will build demand side capacities of some 163 schools and their commune councils to undertake procurement, contracting and supply management. FAO will work on the supply side of the HGSF programme to engages local producers, mostly smallholder farmers and suppliers to enhance their ability to participate in competitive bidding, improve administrative and financial management, while ensuring that the school feeding value chains provide timely delivery of adequate, fresh, safe and nutritious food supplies for school kitchens. Continued research and development will ensure robust value chains in which all stakeholders are equipped to maximize HGSF opportunities, while building systems and institutional capacities for long-term national ownership.

Reporting Lines

The National Value Chain Specialist works in close coordination with the National Project Coordinator, under direct supervision of the Head of Operations, the overall supervision of the FAO Representative in Cambodia and technical guidance of the Senior Nutrition and Food Systems Officer - Lead Technical officer (LTO) - based in FAO-RAP.

Technical Focus

• Nutrition-sensitive Value Chains • Agriculture • Home Grown School Feeding

Tasks and responsibilities

• Conduct analysis of the value chains of specific commodities to identify gaps and opportunities; • Design frameworks for mapping suppliers and producers for the HGSF model; • Map the producers’ groups or cooperatives and existing supply chains in the target areas. • Identify entry points along different value chains to improve food safety and quality, including nutritional quality of the nutrition-sensitive value chains development for the Home‐Grown School Feeding (HGSF) programme; • In collaboration with the National Project Coordinator, develop training materials on Good Agricultural Practices (GAP), organic production, food safety and hygiene and women enterprise development and school procurement procedures for suppliers and producers; • Identify critical areas for capacity building to smallholders, suppliers and school committee on contract farming and provide training; • Support the Gender Specialist to identify bottlenecks for equitable participation amongst men and women in developing nutrition sensitive value chains for the HGSF programme; • Improve linkages between producers and suppliers and support the formation of producers’ groups • Support WFP in the conduct of annual supplier consultations to improve HGSF processes; • Perform other related duties as required in support of the National Project Coordinator and the National Gender Specialist.

CANDIDATES WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE FOLLOWING

Minimum Requirements

• Advanced university degree in agri-business, agriculture, marketing, rural development or a related field • At least 7 years of relevant experience in value chains development and market linkages for smallholders • Working knowledge of English and Khmer • National of Cambodia

FAO Core Competencies

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

Technical/Functional Skills

• Extent and relevance of experience in the development of nutrition-sensitive value chains and market linkages for smallholders and contract farming. • Extent and relevance of experience in value chain analysis. • Extend and relevance of experience in developing training materials and provide capacity building to provincial and district staff and farmers. • Extend and relevance of experience in designing approaches to improve food safety and quality, including nutrition quality along the value chains. • Ability to engage and deal with stakeholders at national, sub-national and district level. • Ability to produce quality reports both in English and Khmer • Work experience in School Feeding Programmes will be considered an advantage • Good knowledge and experience in the implementation of nutrition-sensitive agriculture, nutrition-sensitive value chain is desirable.

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/