Organizational Setting

Since its endorsement by the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) in December 2010 and its functional set-up in April 2011, the global Food Security Cluster (gFSC) has been successful in creating a conducive environment for global partners to discuss food security operational and policy matters. It has been instrumental in developing tools and providing guidance and support to countries affected by humanitarian crisis.
The gFSC is led by FAO and WFP. Over 40 international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) are active members at the global level. The cluster focuses on the coordination of food assistance and livelihood humanitarian interventions.
Overall, food security is the largest sector in humanitarian response, as it represents 35% of funding requirements through the global humanitarian appeal. The average profile of a country food security cluster is a group of 68 partners targeting two million food insecure people and managing a sector appeal of US$ 250 million yearly.

Successful candidates will be eligible to be endorsed officially in the Food Security Cluster roster and be selected for deployment in various countries.

Reporting Lines

The IMO reports technically to the Food Security Cluster Coordinator (FSC-CC) and responds to the FSC Membership’s needs for information. The FSC IMO is responsible for the day-to-day management of the FSC IM database and products, under the technical guidance and support of the IM team at the Global FSC (gFSC).

Technical Focus 

The Information Management Specialist (IMO) is one of the core Food Security Cluster (FSC) Coordination team members and plays a vital role in collecting, analyzing, and sharing information that is important for the cluster stakeholders to make informed, evidence-based and strategic decisions on:

•    Food security needs and geographic areas of affected populations
•    Location and activity of Food Security actors
•    Key gaps in activity/program coverage and response overlaps
•    Existing capacity (human, material, financial) to be utilized in support of the identified response needs
•    Monitoring of the response against the HRP (and other response plans) and other set indicators

The IMO needs to be able to liaise and communicate with a wide range of stakeholders and acts as a ‘bridge’ between food security decision makers and technical information management (IM) staff.
Fundamental to the job is the ability to design (and/or adapt) the right tools to collect and analyse data as well as to present information in a way that is easily understood by the FSC members and external audience (i.e. graphic means such a mapping but also through tables, charts, and narrative writing).

Tasks and responsibilities

•    Support the HNO preparation: work with the FSC-CC and members to calculate FSC PiN and severity; provide FS contributions for intersectoral analysis (based on JIAF) including participating in the analysis of the severity of needs and intersectoral PiN definition;
•    Support the development, together with the FSC-CC and in consultation with cluster partners, of the FSC response plans, strategy and log frame (e.g. HRP), including the definition of targets and financial requirement, and FSC HPC online system for project submission;
•    Support in the periodic monitoring of the response against the FSC response plans, strategy and log frame;
•    Develop and maintain a database about FSC partners’ activities (both ongoing and planned), ensure accurate data processing, including data cleaning and beneficiary counting system
•    Analyze the collected data, and identify major gaps in terms of geographic locations, population groups (e.g., IPC phases) and well as levels of assistance (e.g., full vs partial rations). Ensure analysis of planned interventions to facilitate operational coordination and identify areas for increased advocacy and fundraising
•    Ensure that the information and analyses are visualized and shared through appropriate IM tools and channels (e.g. static and interactive dashboards, bulletin/newsletter, sitreps, PPT for partners meetings and donor roundtables)
•    Put in place a funding tracking system within the FSC, so as to have up-to-date and reliable information on funding of FS activities (on top of FTS data if / as needed)
•    Develop a calendar of FS-related assessments, compile an inventory (registry and repository) of available assessments (from FSC partners) and provide FSC partners (and IPC/CH where applicable) with a list of available information/data with respective sources on a regular basis (e.g. common Cluster / Sector data sets, including population data disaggregated by age and sex, assessments and other surveys such as EFSA /CFSAM/SMART, IPC/CH);
•    Take on responsibility for FSC “admin”: create and maintain Contact directories and mailing lists, maintain updated FSC country and the FSC Humanitarian Response webpages with all relevant material; Create and maintain the country FSC SharePoint space; Assist in organizing FSC Meetings and working groups (if applicable), share agenda, produce minutes etc.
•    Conduct capacity building for FSC partners on IM (e.g. on monitoring/reporting formats, indicators, project submission, excel use);
•    Together with the FSC-CC, support gFSC initiatives, e.g. CCPM (Cluster Coordination Performance Monitoring), global cluster annual overview, global dashboards, etc.;
•    Liaise with OCHA and IM Focal Points in other clusters, attend IM Working Group meetings or other relevant WG meetings; Support FSC-CC in coordinating with other clusters, highlighting joint responses in dedicated IM products if/as needed
•    Other related tasks

All task required to liaise with external stakeholders are limited to consultants only.

CANDIDATES WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE FOLLOWING

Minimum Requirements

•    University degree in Statistics, Economics, Data Management, GIS and other related fields;
•    At least one year (Category C) or five years (Category B) of professional experience in data management and visualization;
•    Working knowledge (level C) of English, French, Spanish or Arabic and limited knowledge (level B) of one of the others. Working knowledge of English, Spanish or French for PSA

FAO Core Competencies

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

Technical/Functional Skills

•    Strong knowledge of and experience in using advanced Excel for database management
•    Knowledge of data visualization and mapping (e.g., ArcGIS, QGIS, or any other mapping tools,Tableau, etc.)
•    Ability to present information in understandable tables, charts and graphs.
•    Ability to maintain and manage website content for the cluster.
•    Data storage and file management expertise.
•    Experience in a humanitarian context is mandatory and experience in food security-related topics is highly desirable;
•    Willingness and ability to work in difficult environments, in often stressful time-critical situations;
•    Formal training in Cluster IMO or previous Cluster experience is desirable.
•    Data analysis using statistical software (e.g., R, SPSS, etc.)
•    Assessment, Survey, and Monitoring and Evaluation
•    Information Technology for website management