Project Officer (Agrifood Systems)

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• FAO is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality, background and culture
• Qualified female applicants, qualified nationals of non-and under-represented Members and persons with disabilities are encouraged to apply
• Everyone who works for FAO is required to adhere to the highest standards of integrity and professional conduct, and to uphold FAO’s values
• FAO, as a Specialized Agency of the United Nations, has a zero-tolerance policy for conduct that is incompatible with its status, objectives and mandate, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination　　
• All selected candidates will undergo rigorous reference and background checks
• All applications will be treated with the strictest confidentiality
• FAO staff are subject to the authority of the Director-General, who may assign them to any of the activities or offices of the Organization.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) contributes to the achievement of the 2030 Agenda through the FAO Strategic Framework by supporting 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.

Organizational Setting
The position is located in the Agrifood Systems and Food Safety Division (ESF) at FAO headquarters in Rome, Italy. The Division provides strategic leadership for FAO’s support to Members in the development of more sustainable agrifood systems. Working in close coordination with other technical units at headquarters and the Decentralized Offices, the Division is tasked with integrating FAO’s scientific and economic analyses to provide improved policy guidance and targeted investment in agrifood systems. Bringing together FAO’s longstanding experience and capacities in strengthening systems of food safety and quality control with its technical support to Member Nations in the areas of value chain development, agroindustry and agribusiness enterprise development, urban food systems and food loss and waste, the Division integrates and extends food systems support across the Organization.
ESF leads implementation of the Programme Impact through Systems Approaches (PISA) project. PISA is a 3-year learning programme that aims to improve the sustainability and scale of the impacts of the FAO country programmes through promoting a more systems-based approach to designing and implementing projects. Based on a selection of ongoing FAO projects, the PISA programme will extract three sets of lessons learned: (1) how to effectively make FAO projects more systems-based; and understanding why (and when) such an approach can be more effective in achieving sustainable results; (2) what support needs to be provided to FAO colleagues who want to shift to a more systems-based approach; and (3) how to optimize FAO’s operational modalities for systems-based project delivery.
The project-based part of the learning process will be complemented by integrating good practices and tools derived from experiences with systems-based approaches to development outside of FAO. The programme will develop case-study write-ups, short videos, e-Learning training and similar tools, and organize online platforms, seminars and workshops to share the lessons learned with all relevant FAO units around the world. With these activities, PISA aims to pull more colleagues into a systems-based approach Community of Practice (CoP) at FAO (with peer-to-peer learning), both incentivizing and capacitating them to shift to more systems-based projects. The PISA programme envisages a two-tiered impact: while it seeks to understand how to enhance the use of systems approaches in FAO’s field programme as an immediate impact, the ultimate impact relates to how this translates into more sustainable agrifood system transformation in countries.

Reporting Lines
The Project Officer (Agrifood Systems) reports to the Senior Economist, ESF.

Technical Focus
In close coordination with senior management, the Project Officer (Agrifood Systems) will support the overall leadership of senior officers in the Programme Impact through Systems Approaches (PISA) project.

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

Key Functions
• Researches and analyses technical-related issues on the development, implementation and evaluation of assigned programmes/projects; assists in the review of relevant documents and reports.
• Produces a variety of technical information, data, statistics and documents as well as technical input for reports and web pages.
• Provides technical support/analysis to various assessments, studies and projects and provides technical backstopping to field projects.
• Collaborates in the development of improved/updated tools, systems, processes and databases.
• Oversees the updating of databases and web pages.
• Participates in multidisciplinary teams, and/or leads working groups/teams collaborates with other divisions and agencies on work groups and committees and promotes best practices.
• Collaborates in, provides technical backstopping to and ensures the quality/effectiveness of capacity development activities within Member Nations such as policy support, organizational development and individual learning events including preparation of related information, learning materials and on-line tools.
• Promotes knowledge sharing and best practices at international meetings and conferences and influences partners in stakeholder consultations.
• Performs other duties as required.

Specific Functions
• Supports the PISA programme while ensuring effective communication with the FAO staff and Centres/Offices/Divisions included in the programme, and in the broader programme implementation team.
• Develops annual project workplans, supports their implementation and monitors progress, adapting to lessons learned and new opportunities where needed/useful, monitors performance assessment and reporting on activities of the programme.
• Identifies individual and organizational experts in (agrifood) systems development to support programme implementation and develops and manages contracts with them.
• Supports the establishment of a Community of Practice (CoP) and provides guidance for their uptake of systems approaches, including by providing feedback on project strategy documents and by developing selected technical presentations, documents and trainings materials directly.
• Collaborates in the facilitation of CoP workshops, trainings and seminars including the coordination of technical support and information sharing.
• Supports the organization of broader internal (beyond the CoP) fora and/or consultative workshops or other meetings and communication activities related to the project’s activities.
• Assembles and synthesizes data from workshops and learnings from the CoP to facilitate the development of materials including reports, technical documents or e-learning content to capture the insights and develop reports that answer the three central questions of the PISA programme.
• Promotes and communicates activities related to the programme’s activities (including with the donor partner, Sida), as well as opportunities for intra- and inter-organizational dialogue and sharing of good practices (including with other UN organizations such as the International Labour Organization (ILO)).
• Oversees the project’s grievance mechanism, including receiving complaints from FAO staff and consultants implementing the included projects.
• Supports gender mainstreaming into all project activities and products, for the achievement of gender-related targets and objectives, and for gender-sensitive monitoring and evaluation.

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CANDIDATES WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE FOLLOWING

Minimum Requirements
• Advanced university degree in (agricultural) socio-economics, food systems, development studies, rural sociology, sustainable agriculture, food industry, food technology, business administration, sustainability or other related field.
• Five years of relevant experience in supporting project management in the field of value chain/market systems analysis and development, food systems analysis and development, systems analysis and development, or other related areas.
• Working knowledge (proficient – level C) of English and limited knowledge (intermediate – level B) of another official FAO language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish).

Competencies
• Results Focus
• Team Work
• Communication
• Building effective relationships
• Knowledge Sharing and Continuous Improvement

Technical/Functional Skills
• Work experience in more than one location or area of work, particularly in field positions, is desirable.
• Extent and relevance of experience in value chain/market systems analysis and development, food systems analysis and development, systems analysis and development, or other related areas.
• Demonstrated skills in food systems approaches, including for normative and field-support work.
• Demonstrated skills and experience in supporting capacity building, training, educational activities, and/or communities of practice engaged in peer-to-peer learning.
• Demonstrated experience of country-level development projects.
• Demonstrated skills in writing well-structured technical, training and reporting documents.