National Livelihood and Social Protection Specialist – FAO

Organizational setting

The main aim of the FAO country offices, which are headed by an FAO Representative, is to assist governments to develop policies, programs and projects to achieve food security and to reduce hunger and malnutrition, to help develop the agricultural, fisheries and forestry sectors, and to use their environmental and natural resources in a sustainable manner.

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has been implementing development and emergency response programming in Ethiopia for the last decades. Recently, FAO has engaged in a wide range of cash-Based Transfer interventions to promote agricultural production and food security and increase farmers’, pastoralists’ and agro-pastoralists’ resilience to natural shocks. Its humanitarian interventions combining cash and inputs distribution is expected to continue growing considering the humanitarian situation induced by the conflict and the foreseen drought in some parts of the country. To address these challenges and shocks, FAO is formulating interventions which include cash transfers and vouchers. This suite of programmes will contributes to a better alignment with the Government delivery mechanisms, increasingly involving the private sector and taking advantage of the upcoming digital transformation in the country.

Besides, FAO supports the population under chronic food insecurity through the Productive Safety Nets Programme (PSNP). Thereby, FAO Ethiopia has developed a PRO-ACT proposal funded by the Europian Union (EU) with an overarching goal of enhanced cost-effective, resilient and sustainable food security and nutrition solutions for the vulnerable Households living in Pastoral areas. The project will provide technical support to PSNP to improve the effectiveness of its Livelihoods component through capacity building, business intensification, and strengthened coordination. The project plans to cover all the Livelihood woredas in Oromia, Amhara, Somali and Afar.

For all these reasons, FAO is looking for a National Livelihoods and Social Protection Specialist to support the implementation and coordination of the social protection project portfolio.

Reporting Lines

This position is under the overall supervision of the FAO Representative in Ethiopia and the direct supervision of the Social Policy Officer (social protection and resilience) officer.

Technical Focus

The National Livelihoods and Social Protection Specialist will focus on livelihood technical assistance to the PSNP programme and the cash transfers and voucher interventions including cash for work, vouchers, etc.. In addition, the incumbent will be involved in mainstreaming the inclusion of poor people in various projects in FAO Ethiopia.

Tasks and responsibilities

The National Livelihoods and Social Protection Specialist will have the mandate to carry out the following tasks:

Cash / Voucher:

• Review and ensure inclusion of minimum FAO quality standards on cash and voucher interventions in the narrative and budget of new cash and voucher projects;
• Develop ToR for selection of Financial Service Providers, monitor bids, support the technical evaluation of bidders, and contribute to draft the contract;
• In collaboration with the humanitarian and procurement teams, undertake field missions to identify agro-dealers participating in FAO voucher or electronic voucher interventions;
• Contribute to developing Letter of Agreements (i.e. contracts with relevant partners), monitor their implementation and deliverables, ensure reporting and payment on time;
• Support partner training and the use of the promoted technologies for cash and voucher for beneficiary selection, registration and cash and inputs distribution;
• Support the cash and voucher operational plan in collaboration with the humanitarian team and the relevant partners;
• Coordinate, jointly with the digital support analyst, the identification and registration of beneficiaries;
• Coordinate the implementation of cash and voucher interventions at the field level with the partners;
• Undertake learning and joint supervision mission with the FAO and PSNP regional teams;
• Support learning events on Livelihood and cash transfers;
• Attend livelihood group meetings and other relevant coordination spaces in Addis Ababa;
• Regularly, review and improve the intervention models for voucher or e-voucher programming, including the identification of relevant partners and technologies for FAO Ethiopia;

PSNP / Livelihood support:

• Support the regional PSNP livelihoods coordination in Afar, Amhara, Oromia, and Somali region through meeting facilitation, information sharing and partners mobilization;
• Support capacity building and coaching on PSNP Livelihood tools in the area of market assessment, identifying the livelihood menu of options, viable business packages, etc.;
• Monitor the regional and federal deliverables.
• Perform other relevant duties as required.

CANDIDATES WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE FOLLOWING

Minimum Requirements

• Candidate should be national of Ethiopia
• Advanced University degree in agriculture, agricultural economics, rural development, livelihood, or related discipline, or any area related to the work of the Organization;
• Minimum of 7 years experience working in livelihoods, value chain development, business development, social protection, humanitarian, resilience projects;
• Working knowledge of English and good knowledge of the local language(s) used at the duty station is required.

FAO Core Competencies

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

Technical/Functional Skills

• Proven capacity to design proposals with a to cash-based interventions, Livelihood, resilience interventions, etc.
• Proven capacity to conduct needs and market assessment or value chain analysis to identify Livelihood opportunities and response;
• Proven cost-benefit / cost-effectiveness analytical skills;
• Advanced knowledge in using Excel;
• Excellent statistics skills for data extraction, cleaning, interpretation and presentation;
• Capacity to design voucher intervention livelihood interventions.
• Possession of a cooperative spirit, flexibility and openness to work in an international environment, including tact and courtesy and a strong capacity for establishing and maintain effective working relationships with people of different national and cultural backgrounds.

Selection Criteria

• Proven experience working in the design of Livelihood/business training materials, training of users;
• Experience working in the design of Livelihood/business training materials, training of users;
• At least 3 years of working experience on project management and monitoring of contracts with implementing partners at the national level;
• Extent and relevance of experience in technical fields related to cash transfers, humanitarian and development interventions
• Familiarity with the PSNP Livelihood component is a plus;
• Experience participating in national working group related to Livelihood or cash transfers at the national level;
• Capacity to write relevant documents and reports;
• English is the official language used for communication within the country. Therefore, working knowledge of English (level C) is required to liaise with other FAO offices.

Please note that all candidates should adhere to FAO Values of Commitment to FAO, Respect for All and Integrity and Transparency.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION