Organizational Setting

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAis a specialized agency of the United Nations that leads international efforts to defeat hunger. Our goal is to achieve food security for all and make sure that people have regular access to enough highquality food to lead active, healthy lives. With 195 members194 countries and the European Union, FAO works in over 130 countries worldwide. FAO Ukraine is seeking to increase the resilience of livelihoods to threats and crises that affect agriculture, food and nutrition, focusing on four major areas:rural economic developmenttransition to sustainable agriculture and food production practicesadaptation to climate changehumanitarian assistance.

FAO Ukraine is the country office of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, a specialized agency dedicated to achieving food security, reducing rural poverty, and promoting sustainable management of natural resources. FAO Ukraine works in close partnership with the government, civil society organizations, private sector, and other UN agencies to address the diverse challenges and opportunities in the agriculture, forestry, fisheries, and environmental sectors. By providing technical assistance, policy advice, and capacity development support, FAO Ukraine plays a vital role in fostering sustainable agricultural practices, strengthening the resilience of rural communities, and enhancing food security and nutrition across the country.

The role is fulltime, inoffice, based in Kyiv, Ukraine.

Reporting Lines

Under the overall supervision of DRO/Ukraine Head of Office and direct supervision of the Emergency and Rehabilitation Officer, and in close collaboration with the other Food Security Cluster (FScocoordinator, under the technical guidance of FAO and World Food Programme (WF, the global FSC, relevant UN agencies, international and local NGOs, Humanitarian Country Team, and other counterparts. The Food Security and Livelihood Cluster Coordinator will be ensuring the overall coordination of emergency relief activities in food security sector in Ukraine. As the FSLC is coled by FAO and WFP, the FAO cocoordinator will be required to work in collaboration with his WFP counterpart. All significant decisions should be made jointly between both coordinators. They are accountable to the cluster leads and are responsible for ensuring that, through coordination, the cluster is implementing proportionate, appropriate, and timely responses that are cost efficient.

Technical Focus

The Coordinator is one of the core Food Security Cluster Coordination team members and plays a vital role in ensuring timely, coherent and effective food security interventions by mobilizing stakeholders to respond in a coordinated and strategic manner to a humanitarian crisis. The role of the Food Security Cluster Coordinator, as set out in the IASC Generic Terms of Reference and the main core functions, is to lead food security coordination along with the support team (includes an Information Management Officer (IM, in:

•    Supporting service delivery
•    Informing strategic decisions of the Humanitarian Coordinator (Hand Humanitarian Country Team (HC/Country Management Team (CM
•    Coordinating, Planning, and implementing Cluster strategies, including contingency planning and preparedness
•    Monitoring and Evaluating Cluster/Sector performance
•    Building national and FSC members capacity in preparedness and contingency planning
•    Advocacy
•    Accountability to affected people

Tasks and responsibilities

Specifically, the incumbent will carry out the following tasks:

•    Lead the process for the FSC through identification of needs, severity, geographical scope, and Persons in Need, with the support of the IMO and in consultation with the cluster partners
•    Undertake planning and strategy development by contributing to the humanitarian response plan and lead the process for the FSC through coordinating the design of the response strategy and logframe, in consultation with the cluster partners.
•    Promoting emergency response actions while at the same time considering the need for early recovery planning as well as prevention and risk reduction concerns;
•    Identifying key humanitarian partners for the cluster coordination, respecting their existing mandates and program priorities;
•    Identifying other key partners, including local and national authorities, local and national nongovernmental organizations (NGO, communitybased organizations, business leaders, and agriculture and natural resources expertise for active participation and support;
•    Ensuring appropriate coordination with all humanitarian partners (including national and international NGOs, and other international organizations active in the secto, as well as with national authorities and local structures;
•    Ensuring the establishment/maintenance of appropriate sectoral coordination mechanisms, including working groups at the national, and if necessary, local level;
•    Ensuring the full integration of the IASC’s agreed priority crosscutting issues, namely human rights, HIV/AIDS, age, gender, and environment, utilizing participatory and communitybased approaches where possible. In line with this, promote gender equality by ensuring that the needs, contributions, and capacities of women and girls as well as men and boys are addressed;
•    Securing the commitments from cluster partners in responding to needs and filling gaps, ensuring an appropriate distribution of responsibilities within the cluster, with clearly defined focal points for specific issues where necessary;
•    Representing the interests of the cluster in discussions with the Humanitarian Coordinator on prioritization, resource mobilization, and advocacy;
•    Acting as the focal point for inquiries on the cluster’s response plans and operations;
•    Coordinating with national/local authorities, state institutions, local civil society, and other relevant actors.
•    Contributing to the development and execution of needs assessment and analysis, in close collaboration with FAO’s Assessment and Analysis Unit;
•    Ensuring predictable responses within the cluster, including the identification of gaps and the updating of cluster response plans and CAP/SRP strategy accordingly;
•    Developing/updating agreed response strategies and action plans for the cluster, based on analyses jointly conducted with FAO’s Assessment and Analysis Unit, and ensuring that these are adequately reflected in the overall country strategies;
•    Supporting emergency preparedness and contingency planning;
•    Ensure the development of regular food security reports (Sitreps, Bulletins, newsletters, etc.);
•    Ensuring adequate monitoring and reporting mechanisms are in place to measure progress against implementation plans and cluster objectives;
•    Identify funding for the FSLC team to have a running FSLC, in close collaboration with the CLAs. Actively track FSC funding status in consultation with CLAs to ensure continuity of operations, and provide a forum for advocacy and resource mobilization;
•    Supervise the IMO with the other cluster cocoordinator and provide guidance to the cochair and other Cluster team members, and ensure a smooth and inclusive relationship of the Cluster team with all partners and CLAs
•    Perform any other tasks as necessary.

CANDIDATES WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE FOLLOWING

Minimum Requirements  

•    University degree in food security, livelihood, agriculture, economics or related field to the organization’s objectives
•    At least 5 years of relevant practical experience in sector or cluster coordination and/or multiactor/diverse stakeholder coordination
•    Working knowledge (Level English

FAO Core Competencies

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

Technical/Functional Skills 

•    Ability to work and plan at strategic, as well as operational, levels
•    Ability to work productively under pressure and to maintain high morale in difficult circumstances
•    Strong knowledge to effectively use standard office software, such as MS Office (Windows, Word, Outlook, Excel, Power Point, Exchang

Selection Criteria

•    Advanced university degree is desirable; food security, livelihood, agriculture, economics or related field is preferred
•    Knowledge of Ukrainian or Russian is an asset
•    Previous experience with the UN system or relation work for a donor organization, consulting company or NGO is a strong advantage
•    Experience in humanitarian response including in the food security or nutrition sector is an asset
•    Experience in capacity building, data management, and/or drafting guidelines or standards is an asset