Italy: Early Warning - Early Action Consultant

Background
FAO has a clear mandate for, and comparative advantage in, supporting early warning and early action to protect food security and agriculture. The Organization already supports or directly manages a range of early warning systems at global, regional and national levels, which are key to resilience programming and has a substantial portfolio of work in supporting nationally led response and, where necessary, directly manages humanitarian and resilience interventions in this sector.
The EU-FAO Partnership Programme: “Information for Nutrition Food Security and Resilience for Decision-Making” (INFORMED) is one of the mechanisms supporting FAO’s EWEA work, under the Strategic Objective 5: “Increase Resilience of Livelihoods to Threats and Crises” (SO5).
With the support of INFORMED, and in order to strengthen the linkage between Early Warning and Early Action, FAO is currently implementing an Early Warning Early Action (EWEA) initiative with the aim to coordinate and harmonize early warning messages and to link them to accountable decision making processes, with an appropriate and predictable financing mechanism to support early action interventions. Under the direct supervision of the Programme Officer (EWEA), the Early Warning for Early Action Consultant will be responsible for:

1. Support the development and implementation of FAO’s Early Warning/Early Action (EWEA) system at global level:
   • Focusing on an assigned list of countries, regularly compile and consolidate Early Warning information from various FAO internal and external Early Warning systems, with a special focus on conflict-related risks;
   • Draft inputs for the FAO Quarterly Global EWEA report and ad-hoc EWEA alerts;
   • Focusing on an assigned list of countries, liaise with colleagues in HQ, Regional Offices and Decentralized Offices to identify Early Actions in countries that have been flagged by Early Warning as at high risk of experiencing an emergency situation in the next 3-4 months.
2. Support information management and reporting aspects of the EWEA project (in close coordination with the Strategic Programme Communication Coordinator for SP5):
   • Support the team in responding to ad-hoc information requests, talking points, briefs, PPTs, brochures, and related information materials;
   • Lead the content development of an EWEA web presence;
   • Draft EWEA inputs to corporate publications and reports, including the EU-sponsored Global Food Security Analysis;
   • As required, draft analytical updates for upcoming global threats, their potential impact and possible Early Actions, e.g. for a likely La Niña phenomenon in 2016/17.

3. Supporting the development and implementation of FAO’s EWEA system at country level:

   • Transform country level EWEA material (framework, early action plans, guidance, etc.) into a user-friendly support
   • Support the collection of country-level feedback and best practices in regard to the EWEA system establishment and devise a way of ensuring this is reflected in the EWEA design process.

4. Perform other duties as required.

Candidates should meet the following requirements:

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Minimum Requirements**

Academic Qualifications:
 Advanced university degree (Master or equivalent) in economics, international relations, social sciences or other field relevant to food security, conflict analysis and/or early warning early action; a first-level university degree (Bachelor) may be accepted with two (2) additional years of qualifying professional experience.

Technical Competencies and Experience Requirements:
 At least one (1) year of postgraduate professional experience in early warning, conflict analysis, emergency preparedness planning, disaster risk management, food security analysis and/or information management;
 Fluency in English with excellent communication skills. Strong drafting and editing skills are essential. French and/or Spanish is an advantage;
 Previous work experience in a field position is desirable;
 Familiarity with communication and information management is an advantage;
 Previous experience in designing and setting up websites is an advantage;
 Understanding of FAO’s mandate and organizational structure

Selection criteria

 Degree of fit to the stated technical and experience requirements
 Evaluation of education
 Assessment through interview

Additional Information
FAO seeks gender, geographical and linguistic diversity in its staff and international consultants in order to best serve FAO Members in all regions.

All candidates should adhere to FAO values of Commitment to FAO, Respect for All and Integrity and Transparency.

For additional information on the vacancy, please consult:

http://www.fao.org/fileadmin/user_upload/VA/pdf/IRC3425.pdf

How to apply

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All applications are to be made through FAO’s iRecruitment system. Click on the link below to access iRecruitment, complete your online profile and apply for this Call for Expression of Interest.
http://www.fao.org/employment/irecruitment-access/en/
In order for your application to be properly evaluated, please ensure that all sections of your iRecruitment account are completed. Incomplete applications will not be evaluated.
If you need help, or have queries, please contact: iRecruitment@fao.org**