JOB DESCRIPTION

Organizational Setting

FAO”s work in Angola is focused on three medium-term priority areas for technical support: – strengthening smallholder production and productivity to improve food security and nutrition; – enabling farmers to apply improved production techniques through Farmer Field Schools; enhancing family farming capacity for commercialization and value chain approach, strengthening sustainable management of natural resources; – increasing resilience of rural livelihoods to climatic shock and climate change, through the development and application of an integrated Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Plan.

In the context of the activities implemented with Farmer Field Schools (FFS), the FAO experience in Angola started in 2005 with FAO’s Special Programme for Food Security (SPFS). The positive SPFS impact led the FFS approach to be recognized by the MINAGRIF as the preferred capacity building methodology for Family Farmers. FAO is currently the agency of reference in rural development and FFS recognized by public institutions, development partners and civil society organizations.

The FFS approach has been scaled up by several Projects such as: the IFAD-funded Market Oriented Smallholder Agriculture Project (MOSAP I); the United States funded Disaster risk reduction/management to support agro-pastoral communities affected by recurrent droughts and other natural disasters in southern Angola and northern Namibia (PIRAN) and the GEF-funded Land Rehabilitation and Rangelands Management in Small Holders Agro-pastoral Production Systems in Southwestern Angola (RETESA). Those projects better defined FFS in the context of southern Angola, incorporating livestock related issues (pastures management, animal health, herbs managements, etc.) as a key resilience-enabling factor for communities.

Currently, an increasing number of projects are going to be included in the portfolio of the country. The main objective of these projects is to strengthen and to consolidate the FFS long-term interventions, which have been developed in Angola along these last years.

Under these premises, FAO Angola plans to receive expressions of interest to fulfil its roster of Chief Technical Advisers (CTA).

Reporting Lines

Under the overall supervision of the AFAOR-Programme and the corresponding technical division in SFS and/or HQ, the incumbent will be responsible for the overall coordination of the assigned field project. He/she will present the daily summary activities in a monthly report template to FAOR – P and elaborate a 6 months and annual progress reports (in Portuguese and English) with the support of National Project Coordinator (NPC), and contribute to the development of semi-annual PPRs and annual PIRs as per as FAO procedures.

Technical Focus

The Senior Technical Advisor will be responsible in coordination with National Project Coordinator (NPC) for the operational planning, management and monitoring of all project’s activities. He/She will provide technical support and ensure a good implementation of the activities in line with the project result framework, work plan and approved budget.

Tasks and responsibilities

Ensure that latest and best international practices and approaches are reflected in the design and planning of project activities; support the organization and implementation of the inception workshop and compile inception report in close cooperation with the NPC;

• Contribute directly to all technical activities, notably:
• Support and provide technical recommendation to the planning process for the implementation of the project according to the logic framework
• Provide technical expertise to the capacity building process of family farmers on areas related with: agronomics practices, commercialization, value chain, resilience, natural resources management among others.
• Analyze training materials and technical options for implementation of Farmers Field Schools.
• Prepare annual work plans in collaboration with National Project Coordinator, Project Coordination Unit (PCU) and Lead Technical Unit;
• Provide technical advice as required to project experts, consultants, and contractors and help to organize and supervise consultant inputs;
• Support the organization of regular trainings, including FFS master training, Facilitator’s training among others and the coordination of high-level stakeholder events;
• Support the designing process of the project’s work with stakeholders in the pilot areas;
• Propose an approach to managing and sharing knowledge, and to identifying and disseminating lessons learned;
• Provide on-the-job capacity development to all members of the PCU;
• Support all aspects of the day-to-day execution of the project;
• Provide technical advice and assistance to the mid-term and final evaluations of the project; and
• Support real-time monitoring of project progress and the alerting of the Budget Holder and the Lead Technical Office to potential problems that could result in delays in implementation;
• Compile a comprehensive M&E matrix and plan:
• Define methodologies for measurement and monitoring of indicators and information sources;
• Make sure baseline is established for all indicators;
• Define responsibilities and frequency for data collection and monitoring of indicators;
• Help to identify consultant candidates to support the project implementation;
• Allow for adaptive management of project execution;
• Document institutional memory of the project; and
• Facilitate project progress reporting and communication of results.

CANDIDATES WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE FOLLOWING

Minimum Requirements

• University degree in a field related to agronomy sciences, economics, rural development, food sciences, biology, natural resources management, environment management, , international relations and cooperation and/or other related fields;
• At least 5 years of experience (for Category B) and 12 years of experience (for Category A) in rural development projects, with local communities and/or in the agricultural sector
• Working knowledge of English and limited knowledge of one of the other FAO languages (French, Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, and Russian).

FAO Core Competencies

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

Selection Criteria

• Extent and relevance of experience in rural projects
• Extent and relevance of experience in project management and in particular results-based management
• Demonstrated previous experience working with the field school approach or rural extension services or with similar approaches
• Familiarity with FAO strategic objectives and their alignment with SDGs is an asset

Additional Selection Criteria

• Knowledge of Portuguese would be a strong asset.
• Experience in more than one location and, in particular, in Portuguese speaking countries, including Angola, will be an asset.