National Project Personnel - Information Technology

Organizational Setting

FAO Pakistan under the Green Climate Fund is implementing a project called Transforming Indus Basin with Climate Resilient Agriculture and Water Management in Punjab and Sindh Provinces. The project aims to develop the country’s capacity to get and use the information it needs to cope with the impacts of climate change on agriculture and water management. The overall goal of the projects is to enhance the capacity of agricultural and pastoral sectors to cope with climate change, by up scaling farmers’ adoption of climate change adaptation technologies and practices through a network of already established Farmers Field Schools, and by mainstreaming climate change adaptation concerns and strategies into on-going agricultural development initiatives, policies and programming.

Modelling of climate change scenarios for Pakistan shows that if agriculture and water management in the Indus River Basin continue along a ‘business as usual’ pathway, increasing temperatures and changes in precipitation will pose serious threats to the future livelihoods of farmers and to the Pakistani agricultural sector. In response to this challenge, the project will help shift Pakistan and Indus Basin agriculture from its current situation of high vulnerability toward an alternative paradigm wherein better information and farming practices will significantly increase resilience to climate change. To do this, the project will develop the country’s capacity to get and use the information it needs to cope with the impacts of climate change on agriculture and water management by putting in place state-of-the art technology (Component 1); building farmers resilience to climate change through skills, knowledge and technology (Component 2), and creating a wider enabling environment for continuous adaptation and expanded sustainable uptake of climate-resilient approaches (Component 3).

Sub component 1.3 aims to improve availability and use of information services. The incumbent will mainly work on this subcomponent. The project will develop Agriculture, Climate, Water (ACWA) information portal where data and information provided various organizations will be shared. Also there will be series of training on FAO’s software/tools that will produce inputs to ACWA, such as Agriculture Stress Index System (ASIS), Collect Earth/Collect Mobile, Earth Map, and Modelling System for Agriculture Impacts of Climate Change (MOSAICC). This subcomponent also includes formation of consortium of stakeholders consisting of governmental organizations and academic institutions, which will manage the ACWA portal.

Reporting Lines

Under the overall supervision of the FAOR and Technical Advisor of the project, direct supervision by Technical Officer (Water Management) of the project, and in close consultation with international IT specialist, DFAOR, AFAOR Programme, RAP, OCB and GCF Project Team the incumbent will:

Technical Focus:

• Experience in of geodata portal dealing with climate, agriculture and/or water, GIS, Remote Sensing is strongly desired
• Experience in development of technical contents of contracts (for both personnel and organization) is desired

Tasks and responsibilities:

• Support international IT specialist in needs assessment on 1) upgrading of existing data portal such as Pakistan Climate Agriculture Info System, 2) training on tools/software that will provide input to ACWA, 3) ACWA portal design.
• Organize meetings and events related to subcomponent 1.3: improving availability and use of information services.
• Responsible for minutes taking and report writing of the meetings and events.
• Participate and prepare and make presentations related to subcomponent 1.3 in project meetings and events – including of ACWA consortium.
• Assist the International Information Technology Specialist in the development of implementation and budget plans of subcomponent 1.3.
• Assist the International Information Technology Specialist to support the development of Terms of reference, letters of agreements, etc., and technical evaluation of service providers for the contracts under subcomponent 1.3.
• Support the supervision of service providers and report the progress to international IT specialist and the Technical Officer (Water Management) and monitor delivery against agreed delivery contents and schedule.
• Review quality of delivery materials from the service providers.
• Maintain communication between international IT specialist, the consortium members, and FAO project team members working on development of consortium to ensure that their needs are reflected in the design of ACWA

CANDIDATES WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE FOLLOWING

Minimum Requirements

• Advanced degree in IT, GIS, Computer Science or related field
• Experience in using IT in the context climate, agriculture, and/or water data.
• At least 5 years of relevant work experience.
• National of Pakistan

FAO Core Competencies

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

Technical/Functional Skills

• Experience in data portal development
• Fluency in English
• Experience in working and/or coordinating project activities with governmental organizations
• Extent and relevance of experience in the preparation and revision of technical/scientific documents and in organizing training events
• Ability to write clear and concise technical documents.

Selection Criteria

Candidates will be assessed against the requirements listed above.

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/