Programme Specialist

This opening expired 11 months ago. Do not try to apply for this job.

FAO - Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

Open positions at FAO
Logo of FAO

Application deadline 11 months ago: Tuesday 4 Apr 2023 at 21:59 UTC

Open application form

Organizational Setting

The European Commission for the Control of Foot and Mouth Disease (EuFMD) plays a significant role in the animal health part of FAO’s programme to increase resilience of livelihoods to food and agriculture threats and crises ( FAO's Four Betters). The EuFMD has established a globally respected capacity for efficient delivery of training, in-country and online support to emergency preparedness, and Progressive Control Programmes is working in over 80 countries with and through the decentralized offices. Most recently, the HOLD-FAST strategy continues the focus upon Foot-and-Mouth Disease (FMD) risk reduction but extends the scope of the preparedness and risk reduction activities to similar Transboundary Animal Diseases (TADs) which pose an immediate threat to the Member Nations (hereafter FAST is used for Foot-and-mouth and similar transboundary animal diseases). The EuFMD is an Article XIV body responsible to its Member Nations and donors to deliver an extensive work programme on FMD emergency preparedness, response and control, to its 39 Member Nations, to a further 20 European neighbourhood countries, and to other regions through its arrangement with FAO decentralized offices. It manages the largest capacity-building programme in animal health in FAO with over 10,000 trainees recently taking its training courses.

Reporting Lines

Programme Specialists, in close collaboration with the Communication Officer and Programme Implementation Manager, report directly as indicate below: Programme Specialist Support profile: to Communication Officer and Programme Implementation Manager Programme Assistant Specialist profile: to the EuFMD Deputy Executive Secretary.

Technical Focus

Support to delivery of donor-funded work programmes of the EuFMD Commission at global, regional, sub-regional and country level.

The EuFMD workplan develops in three Pillars:

Pillar I – Improving preparedness for management of FMD and similar TADs (‘FAST disease’) crises by Members and across Europe as a whole.

Pillar II – Reduced risk to Members from the FAST disease (FMD and similar TADS) situation in the European neighbourhood. Pillar III – Sustaining and enhancing progress in the roll out of the GF-TADs Global Strategy for control of FMD, and on increasing security in the supply of effective FMD vaccines.

The EuFMD provides virtual and face-to-face courses and events and, considering the level of the progression along the FMD Progressive Control Pathway (PCP), identifies specific needs in the regions and the opportunities of making the best use of national and international expertise to assess the effectiveness of Risk Based Strategic Plans (RBSP). These plans focus on improving disease risk information and assisting in the design, implementation and evaluation of risk-based surveillance and risk based control measures.

Tasks and responsibilities

The incumbent will provide support to the implementation of the EuFMD work programme at global, regional sub-regional and country level. This includes but it is not limited to the surge of support required for managing the changing priorities following disease emergencies and changes in programme decided by the Executive Committee and the major donors. The key functions will be as following (tasks will be assigned according to the specific profile): Provide operational support, but not limited to, the below activities:

- Programme Specialist Support Profile:

• Provide operational support in the follow-up actions of ongoing projects of the EuFMD workplan; • Ensure EuFMD staff onboarding, and related tasks are efficiently processed in the FAO system; • Support keeping calendar of activities up to date; • Ensure communication with FAO headquarters, decentralized and regional offices is efficiently implemented; • Support the revision and proof-reading of written documents, tracking and publishing of all reports,) and ensuring efficient processing in line with FAO Corporate Guidelines and requirements through the supervision of other team members carrying out this task and filing in EuFMD archive; • Assist the Digital innovation programme; • Implement and follow-up on office correspondence.

- Programme Assistant Specialist Profile:

• Oversee, coordinate, and provide day-to-day support to ongoing projects, country programme/project activities, including preparation of monthly updates on the work plans and on quarterly basis or as otherwise requested; • Coordinate and guide assigned teams and affiliated workforce to ensure timely delivery of the necessary inputs and timely implementation of activities, consistent with the planned project work plans, detailed field activity plans, and procurement plans; • Coordinate and plan, together with the EuFMD core management team all project tasks; • Oversee payment processing for relevant team members and associated tasks; • Maintain coordination and communication flow with respective FAO Units and prepare correspondence with recipient governments, partners for the mobilization of donor funds for new and ongoing operations; • Work with the team leaders, project managers and other operational leads in the preparation of project briefs, concept notes, project proposals and project progress reports; • Oversee budget management, yearly call for funds, review of transaction listings for correctness as well as budget revision and project extension in liaison with the concerned unit; • Ensure timely development of workplans, prepare forecasts of the impact of changes to program on the budget, monitoring and evaluating the delivery of the program; as well as implementing budget partnerships and contribution agreements and related action in FAO system.Provide support in coordinating the overall organization of EuFMD events, upcoming meetings of the EuFMD work programme and its Committees, including official procedures with hosting countries, identifying participants and travellers and establishing and following up the travel plans; • Supervise archiving and maintenance of all the EuFMD documentation and reports.

CANDIDATES WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE FOLLOWING

Minimum Requirements

Depending on the Profile:

For Consultants: • University degree in management, economics, political science, social science, business administration, communication, or any other field relevant to the work of the Division; • At least one year of relevant work experience in any field related to the above-mentioned task; • Working knowledge of English (Level C) and another limited knowledge (level B) of FAO language is required.

For PSAs:

• University degree or High school Diploma (University Degree would be an asset) in any field relevant to the work of the Division; • At least one-year of relevant experience in any field related to the above-mentioned tasks; • Working knowledge of English (Level C) is required.

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; • Very good knowledge of MS Office and Excel applications, • Ability to organize and coordinate technical and operational teams to ensure tasks are undertaken in a timely manner and risks and problems with delivery are forecasted and managed; • Ability to organize international hybrid events; • Ability to support the project cycle management with reference to the management of resources, procurement, liaison with partners, monitoring and evaluation; Good knowledge of corporate information systems; • Good knowledge of common administrative and financial rules and regulation;

Desirable Qualifications and Skills

• Good knowledge of corporate financial rules; • Good knowledge of the FAO project cycle; • Good experience with financial monitoring and reporting; • Ability to multitask and work in a team environment.

Selection Criteria

• Relevant experience in one or more areas related to policy, planning, programming, and administrative management will be considered an asset; • Knowledge of additional languages will be considered an asset; • Familiarity with liaising with FAO HQ and decentralized offices as well as the knowledge of protocol and FAO procedures will be considered an asset; • Ability to work accurately under pressure paying attention to details; • Independent and capacity to prioritize requested actions to meet all the deadlines.

Please make sure a copy of your highest degree obtained (e.g. undergraduate/advanced university degree), all relevant certificates and information are uploaded to your application.

Added 1 year ago - Updated 11 months ago - Source: fao.org