Young Professional Officer (Resilience to Climate Change and Disasters)

Organizational Setting

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) supports the transformation to more efficient, inclusive, resilient and sustainable agri-food systems, for Better production, Better nutrition, Better environment and Better life, leaving no one behind. The Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia (REU) is responsible for leading FAO's response to regional priorities for food security, agriculture and rural development through the identification, planning, and implementation of FAO's priority activities in the region. It oversees the network of Country Offices and the Subregional Office for Central Asia. It ensures a multidisciplinary approach to programmes, identifies priority areas of action for the Organization in the region and, in collaboration with offices and divisions at headquarters, develops, promotes and oversees FAO's strategic response to regional priorities. REU advises the Country Offices in the region on Corporate priorities such as the Strategic Framework and on the incorporation of regional priorities into the Organization's Programme of Work and Budget. REU formulates, implements approved programmes and monitors the level of programme implementation in the region and draws attention to problems and deficiencies. REU develops and maintains relations with regionwide institutions including the Regional Economic Integration Organizations (REIOs). The Regional Priorities are translated by the Regional Initiatives (RIs) into a programmatic umbrella for the region supporting the formulation of the Country Programmes and the contribution to the United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF) at country level facilitating the achievement of the national Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and contribution to the Programme Priority Areas of the new FAO Strategic Framework. The RIs support the regional policy dialogue on food security, agriculture and rural development issues, facilitate the emergence of regional partnerships, and support capacity development and resource mobilization for food security, agriculture and rural development in the region. The Young Professional Officer maintains regular contacts with professional officers at the Regional Office for functional guidance on matters relating to Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR), Climate Change, climate actions and resilience to disasters.

Reporting Lines

The Young Professional Officer reports to the Field Programme Officer/Regional Resilience Focal Point.

Technical Focus

Support to planning, delivery and reporting of climate change and disaster resilience initiatives in the agriculture, forestry, fisheries sectors including DRR, Climate Change, climate actions, preparedness for, and response to shocks and crises. Provision of technical assistance and support to research, collection of data and information, technical analysis for the delivery of regional and country programme/projects and capacity development initiatives related to climate change and disasters resilience in agriculture including capacity development on preparedness, adaptation/mitigation and response to shocks and crises.

Key Results

Research, technical analysis and project related services to support the delivery of assigned projects, products and services.

Key Functions

• Analyses relevant technical social, economic, environmental, and technology information, data and/or statistics for input in various documents;
• Maintains records and updates databases and web pages;
• Provides technical support to various projects;
• Collaborates in the development of training tools and materials and the organization of workshops/seminars etc.;
• Participates in the organization and follow-up of meetings, consultations and conferences, the production of required materials and the provision of information and assistance to partners.

Specific Functions

• Supports with the formulation of DRR, Climate Change, climate action (including climate finance Global Environment Facility, Green Climate Fund, Adaptation Fund), preparedness, response and resilience projects and the identification, validation and scaling up of DRR and Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) good practices and technologies in agriculture;
• Assists the Regional Office in providing technical support and technical backstopping to implementation of country and regional projects on DRR, Climate Change, climate action, resilience to and preparedness for response to shock and crises in agriculture;
• Assists the Regional Office in providing technical support to risks and vulnerability assessments, joint Post Disaster Need Assessment (PDNAs) and sectoral damage and need assessments for agriculture;
• Supports regional and country activities on damage and loss in agriculture, in particular in relation to Sendai Framework Monitor indicator C2 “Direct agricultural loss attributed to disasters” including countries’ capacity development and upgrade information management systems and data collection needed for the reporting against the indicator C2;
• Supports with capacity development of national government officers, farmers, youth and vulnerable groups on Climate Change, DRR, preparedness and resilience in the agriculture sector;
• Provides technical support to the Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) development process of countries as needed;
• Supports the regional office’s participation in and contribution to UN regional coordination mechanisms (CADRI, UNDRR, OCHA) and coordination with regional bodies and organizations (e.g. Сenter for Emergency Situations and Disaster Risk Reduction (CESDRR)), including participation in joint scoping missions, capacity assessments and UN joint services to countries on DRR;
• Supports the engagement of private sectors into national climate change adaptation and mitigation processes including development of stakeholder engagement plans. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________ CANDIDATES WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE FOLLOWING

Minimum Requirements

• Advanced university degree in agriculture, agro-climatology, natural resources, natural sciences, biology, climate change, disaster risk management or a related field.
• One year of relevant experience in sustainable agriculture development, climate change and/or climate risk management and/or disaster risk reduction and/or disasters related issues in agriculture.
• Working knowledge of English and limited knowledge of another FAO official language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish).

Competencies

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

Technical/Functional Skills

• Extent and relevance of experience in disaster risk reduction, climate change and climate smart agriculture.
• Extent and relevance of experience in project implementation is desirable.
• Working knowledge of Russian is considered an asset.
• Work experience in more than one location or area of work, particularly in field positions is desirable.

NB Please note that candidates should be 32 years of age or younger as of 31 December of the year of application.