Technical Coordinator

Organizational Setting

FAO's Subregional Office for West Africa is responsible for developing, promoting, overseeing, and implementing agreed strategies for addressing subregional agri-food systems and rural development priorities. It develops and maintains relations with subregion-wide institutions including Regional Economic Integration Organizations such as ECOWAS, CILSS, UEMOA and Mano River Union. It assists the FAO Representations (FAORs) in the subregion with addressing subregional food security, agriculture and rural development issues at country level. The Subregional Office is a subsidiary of FAO’s Regional Office for Africa. As a pillar of FAO's strategic framework 2022-31, which focuses on the transformation to MORE efficient, inclusive, resilient and sustainable agrifood systems for better production, better nutrition, a better environment, and a better life, leaving no one behind, Better environment is a key Protect strategic pillar with the objective to protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial and marine ecosystems and combat climate change (reduce, reuse, recycle, residual management) through more efficient, inclusive, resilient and sustainable agri-food systems. The consultant shall be hired under the project “Institutional and technical support for REDD readiness in West Africa,” a multi-country project funded by The and implemented by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). The project will support five countries (Benin, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea Bissau and Sierra Leone).

The project objective is to overcome the challenges and address the barriers to enable conditions for the implementation of policy approaches for REDD activities through the strengthening of the institutional and technical capacities of participating countries in order to develop the four pillars of the REDD Warsaw framework. The project expected results include: • The national coordination structure for REDD and the monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) unit will be established and strengthened. A national approach to safeguards will be developed. • Relevant national stakeholders will be identified and involved in the REDD National committee to be established and strengthened. To permit non -state stakeholders to access on decision-making process, Networks of civil society organization (CSOs) and indigenous people/Local communities’ (IP/LCs) and domestic private sector organizations will be structured and strengthened, • A REDD Roadmap, a REDD national strategy and a Forest Reference Emission Level will be developed, • A regional Concept Note will be developed to address remaining gaps identified by this Readiness proposal, • Best practices related to the national REDD process will be shared among participating countries.

Reporting Lines

The Technical Coordinator reports to the AFAOR-P at the FAO Gambia Office (FRGAM).

Technical Focus

The Technical Coordinator will provide a strategic vision and leadership to the project country teams for the successful implementation of activities in line with the proposed budget. He/she will also provide critical input, technical support and decisive planning for project activities, as well as all-embracing coordination of the project. As the project coordinator, he/she will be responsible of reporting and presentation of the project results to SFW Management, the donor and the any structure of the project.

Tasks and responsibilities

• Produce Report containing the institutional arrangement, draft of Terms of Reference (ToR) of the RNC Office and its work plan (to be validated in activity 1.1.1.2) • Organize Workshop report containing the validated ToRs and its work plan, including gender disaggregated list of participants. • Produce One regional workshop report (01 in total) including gender disaggregated list of participants. • Produce Biannual reports on the activities of the RNC Office (3 per country), which will include ToRs of the TAs and a list of the selected members/ representatives of the RNC (to be appointed by the government) • Produce Consultation report which specify stakeholders consulted in all levels. • REDD stakeholder consultation and engagement Plan (to be validated under activity 1.3.1.2) • Validation workshop report, including gender disaggregated list of participants. • Validation workshop report, including gender disaggregated list of participants. • Document establishing the REDD national committee, including ToRs and its work plan endorsed by relevant authority. • Document establishing the REDD national committee members endorsed by relevant authority. • Document establishing the ad hoc REDD TWG, including its ToRs and work plan. • Produce Meeting reports. • Awareness -raising workshop reports, including gender disaggregated list of participants and results of the pre-post survey to assess the workshops effectiveness. • REDD roadmap (to be validated under activity 2.2.1.4) • Pre-validation reports • Validation workshop reports, including gender disaggregated list of participants and results of the pre-post survey to assess the workshops effectiveness. • He/she will also support and monitor the implementation of all activities of FAO Gambia in collaboration with REDD and national coordinator. • Specifically, the National Technical Coordinator will work on the three following aspects: • A. Project management • B. Technical guidance for the overall management and administration of the project: • C. Policy advice and knowledge management:

CANDIDATES WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE FOLLOWING

Minimum Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in forestry, Natural resources management, Environmental sciences, or related field that is relevant for the assignment. • Minimum of 05 years of experience in development and project/program management. • Working knowledge (Level C) in English and a (Level B) in French.

FAO Core Competencies

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

Technical/Functional Skill

• Experience in international founded projects related to forestry, environmental management and climate change. • Experience in working with Government. • In depth understanding of concepts and actions on REDD and climate change. • Ability to lead and coordinate the project teams in the different countries for an effective delivery of projects objectives and expected results, within the limits of the budget and timeline of the project. • Strong analytical skills and ability to synthesize large amount of data into analytical and practical knowledge/ information. • Extensive professional experience in coordination of multicounty projects/programmes. • Extensive experience in leading (physically and/or remotely) field teams and provide technical expertise and strategical backstopping during the implementation of the proposal. • Previous work experience in one or several of the countries covered by the project would be an advantage.