Humanitarian Liaison and Advocacy Specialist

Organization: FAO - Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Location: various locations
Grade: Consultant - Contractors Agreement - Consultancy
Occupational Groups:
- Humanitarian Aid and Coordination
- Legal - Broad
- Political Affairs
- Communication and Public Information
Closing Date: 2022-01-14

IMPORTANT NOTICE: Please note that Closure Date and Time displayed above are based on date and time settings of your personal device

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 person 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

Organizational Setting

The Office of Emergencies and Resilience, OER is responsible for ensuring FAO’s efforts to support countries and partners in preparing for and effectively responding to food and agricultural threats and crises. It is responsible for coordinating the development and maintenance of corporate tools and standards to enable Decentralized Offices to assist member countries to prepare for, and respond to emergencies. OER ensures humanitarian policy coordination and knowledge, liaison with the InterAgency Standing Committee as well as with humanitarian resource partners, co-leadership with World Food Programme of the globalood Security Cluster, organizational preparedness, surge capacity and response to large-scale emergencies. OER supports food and nutrition security assessment and early warning activities related to emergency and humanitarian analysis and responses. OER plays a major role in the development and leadership of the Organization’s programme to increase the resilience of livelihoods to food and agriculture threats and crises.

Reporting Lines

Depending on the duty station, the Humanitarian Liaison and Advocacy Specialist will report to the Team Leader, Strategic Positioning, OER, or to the relevant manager at regional or country level.

Technical

Focus Support to the positioning, promotion and outreach of FAO’s humanitarian programme and resilience agenda at global, regional, subregional and/or country level. Tasks and responsibilities

The Humanitarian Liaison and Advocacy Specialist will:

Ensure FAO engagement at appropriate levels and consistent messaging in key humanitarian and resilience-related decision-making arenas, policies, and initiatives of relevance, including the Inter-Agency Standing Committee and associated bodies, the Grand Bargain, pooled funds, regular and ad hoc interagency task forces and working groups, among others, at country, regional and global levels;
Follow and report on relevant interagency discussions, humanitarian resolution development, UN Security Council discussions relevant to FAO’s humanitarian and resilience work, ensuring FAO management is fully aware of issues of concern, opportunities for engagement;
Develop/contribute to advocacy strategies, briefing packages, talking points and strategic messaging around identified humanitarian and resilience priorities and processes, including global policy processes, etc.;
Lead/contribute to strategic communications products demonstrating FAO’s achievements and impacts in food crisis contexts;
Coordinate and provide technical and strategic inputs to key interagency and FAO products, processes and events (e.g. UNSG Reports, Global Humanitarian Overview, Rome-based Agencies reporting, etc.);
Within OER, act as focal point for IASC Result Groups and liaise with relevant FAO colleagues based in HQ, Liaison Offices, as well as Regional and Sub-Regional and Country offices to ensure that FAO is duly represented in all IASC workstreams;
Serve as the OER focal point for FAO liaison offices (e.g. Geneva, New York) to ensure consistency of messaging, language and engagement in relevant humanitarian and resilience fora, as well as supporting efforts to strengthen FAO’s partnership with other key agencies liand Permanent Representations;
Work closely with partners to develop studies and reports demonstrating the impact of FAO’s humanitarian and resilience work, fully engaging FAO colleagues across HQ and decentralized offices, as relevant;
Ensure relevant humanitarian/nexus/resilience guidance and information emerging from interagency discussions is disseminated within OER and country offices, as appropriate;
Undertake travel, if needed, on short notice, in support of FAO decentralized offices, to provide support in interagency engagement and/or advocacy;
Perform other related duties, as requested.

CANDIDATES WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE FOLLOWING Minimum Requirements

University degree in in Social Sciences, Advocacy, Communications, Media Studies, Journalism or in a related field;
At least 1 year (Category C), 5 years (Category B) or 12 years (Category A) of experience in public and/or private sectors related to interagency liaison, advocacy and/or communications in food and agriculture;
Working knowledge of English or French and limited knowledge of another official language of the Organization (Spanish, Arabic, Chinese or Russian).

FAO Core Competencies

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

Technical/Functional Skills

Extent and relevance of experience in interagency engagement and partnerships;
Extent and relevance of experience in writing, editing and sourcing information for talking points, briefing notes, etc.;
Extent and relevance of experience in contributing to advocacy efforts, particularly related to humanitarian contexts;
Work experience in more than one location or area of work, particularly in field positions is desirable;
Depth of knowledge of agricultural threats and crises;
Ability to operate effectively in a team, contributing positively to team operations and working relationships.

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