National Project Specialist – Community Development, Climate Smart Agriculture, Disaster Risk Management

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) contributes to the achievement of the 2030 Agenda through the FAO Strategic Framework by supporting the transformation to more efficient, inclusive, resilient and sustainable agrifood systems, for better production, better nutrition, a better environment, and a better life, leaving no one behind.

The Subregional Office for the Pacific Islands (SAP) is responsible for developing, promoting, overseeing, and implementing strategies and projects that drive the transformation of food, agriculture, and rural development. It also fosters and maintains relationships with subregional institutions. The Subregional Office is a subsidiary of the FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (RAP).

The National Project Specialist – Community Development, Climate Smart Agriculture, Disaster Risk Management will be under the overall supervision of the FAO Subregional Coordinator (SRC) for the Pacific and will directly report to the project’s Lead Technical Officer (LTO) / Natural Resource Officer. He/she will liaise with other technical, operational and administrative colleagues.

Knowledge of local context, culture and communities; community development, stakeholder consultation; climate smart agriculture (CSA) practices, approaches and CSA demonstrations; disaster risk management consultation and planning; timely project deliveries; daily implementation, management, and technical supervision of the project activities in Tonga.  

• Lead the implementation of project activities in Tonga and work closely with the National Project Focal Point in the Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Fisheries and other relevant stakeholders.
  
• Conduct assessment of gender sensitive value chain fisheries and identify priority needs for procurement of fisheries inputs and capacity building to support women fisheries beneficiaries. 
  
• Lead CSA training, including logistics, preparation of training resource, material and prepare reports from training and demonstration activities. Distribute agriculture inputs, set up field demonstration sites, and conduct capacity building training on climate smart agriculture. Conduct field visits and monitoring of demonstration activities and sites and report on successes and lessons learned. 
  
• Coordinate closely with the relevant national government and non-government stakeholders on the development of village disaster risks management plans. 
  
• Identifying capacity needs for capacity building in areas including climate smart agriculture, value chain, and disaster risk management planning. 
  
• Manage activities of the Letter of Agreement (LoA) on gender and land tenure rights, including regular meetings, monitoring and reporting on progress of the LoA signature and support local partner in the assessment of gender land rights in Tonga and provide technical feedback where required.
  
• Map relevant stakeholders, engage with stakeholders and organize stakeholder consultations. 
  
• Actively arrange and participate in meetings with SAP colleagues, national stakeholders, and development partners. 
  
• Support implementation of the project activities including mobilization of all project inputs to local/site levels and in accordance with FAO procedures for nationally executed projects. 
  
• Organize project procurements of supplies and input for project activities and trainings workshops in project sites. 
  
• Report project progress to the LTO. 
  
• Liaise with FAO, relevant government agencies, and all project partners and NGOs for effective coordination of all project activities, both site and National. 
  
• Support Natural Resource Officer/LTO and Policy Officer with activities and preparation for the Pacific Week of Agriculture and Forestry where required. 
  
• Perform other duties as required.

• University degree from an institution recognized by the International Association of Universities (IAU)/UNESCO in Science, Agriculture, Environmental Science or related fields from recognized and reputable institutions. 
  
• Minimum three years of relevant experience in community development, disaster management and emergency response, agriculture, project/programme management, including experience in capacity development related to climate change, and development of national plans and strategies. 
  
• Working knowledge of English and Tonga.
  
• National of Tonga

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

• Minimum experience of three years in providing technical advice in relation to national agriculture projects.
  
• Demonstrated project management experience.
  
• Demonstrated knowledge of stakeholder engagement, CSA, disaster risk management and emergency responses and activities.
  
• Demonstrated engagements with Country Strategic Frameworks, and/or related document development.
  
• Demonstrated experience with implementation, monitoring and reporting of pilot demonstrations. 
  
• Experience working with a cross-section of stakeholders, including senior government officials, women organizations, non-government organization in Tonga. 
  
• Strong writing and reporting skills and language proficiency

FAO seeks gender, geographical and linguistic diversity in its staff and international consultants in order to best serve FAO Members in all regions. 

• To apply, visit the recruitment website at Jobs at FAO [link removed] and complete your online profile. We strongly recommend that your profile is accurate, complete and includes your employment records, academic qualifications, and language skills
  
• Candidates are requested to attach a letter of motivation to the online profile
  
• Once your profile is completed, please apply, and submit your application

• Please note that FAO only considers higher educational qualifications obtained from an institution accredited/recognized in the World Higher Education Database (WHED), a list updated by the International Association of Universities (IAU) / United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The list can be accessed at http://www.whed.net/ [link removed]. These qualifications should be in alignment with the International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED) mappings [link removed].
  
• Candidates may be requested to provide performance assessments and authorization to conduct verification checks of past and present work, character, education, military and police records to ascertain any and all information which may be pertinent to the employment qualifications
  
• Incomplete applications will not be considered
  
• Personal information provided on your application may be shared within FAO and with other companies acting on FAO’s behalf to provide employment support services such as pre-screening of applications, assessment tests, background checks and other related services. You will be asked to provide your consent before submitting your application. You may withdraw consent at any time, by withdrawing your application, in such case FAO will no longer be able to consider your application
  
• Only applications received through the FAO recruitment portal will be considered
  
• Your application will be screened based on the information provided in your online profile
  
• We encourage applicants to submit the application well before the deadline date.

If you need help or have queries, please create a one-time registration with FAO’s client support team for further assistance: https://fao.service-now.com/csp [link removed]