Regional food security advisor - West Africa region

Requisition Num: 2012AFWMOLR-8XWNHR

Purpose of position:

• Provide sectoral leadership in agriculture and food security programming across the region.
• Provide leadership for the planning and implementation of agriculture / food security learning centre in a national office and leveraging learning centre for mainstreaming promising practices throughout the region.
• Lead agriculture/food security/national resources management related programming and grow capacity and expertise across the region.

Key objectives for the Food Security Advisor

• Define and develop the regional food security strategy in alignment with the Partnership agriculture strategy, project models and indicators.
• Provide technical support in the areas of agriculture, food security and natural resources management towards development, adaptation and scaling up of specific project models that contribute to specific child well-being outcomes
• Advocate/influence donor strategies by working in partnership with other appropriate World Vision entities
• Work with the FSL Cluster to develop plans for collaborative implementation of the Soil/Savings/Water/Trees approach to building resilience in the Sahel with specific focus on countries facing recurrent food crisis
• Strengthen integration with WASH and enhance the use of surface and underground water for agriculture production in the Sahel
• Develop strategies to leverage the learning centre in mainstreaming promising practices in agriculture /food security
• Support proposal writing design, submission and grant follow-up
• Work with HEA and FPMG in the region in terms of food crisis prevention, mitigation, disaster risk reduction and preparedness strategy, linking potential emergency response to longer-term development programs that build household and community resilience and protects/restores agro-ecosystems
• Assure close cooperation with other WAR departments, NOs, Support Offices (SO) and key stakeholders within and external to World Vision
• Build capacity of NOs to enhance grants acquisition & management in the food security field

Key responsibilities:

Leadership:

• Provide day to day leadership and management to the Regional Food Security Portfolio.
• Provide guidance and create conditions necessary for the effective execution of Strategy Implementation Plans in NOs
• In collaboration with other regional technical units and Office of Strategy, ensure that food security is adequately integrated within the secondary strategies, help build resilience and improve well being of children in the region
• Lead the development/revision and roll out of WAR Food Security Strategy

Grants acquisition:

• Stay alert to potential funding sources that can contribute resources to the RO, NOs and the network, and advise appropriate staff on these opportunities.
• Provide advice and guidance to NOs in drafting and submitting proposals in alignment with their agriculture and food security strategy
• Work with SOs, NOs and GAM to develop and maintain a regional and country level donors mapping and strategic direction and identify areas of alignment.
• Support the NOS in the development of consortia whenever necessary in preparation for upcoming opportunities

Capacity building

• Actively engage with other regional organizations working in agriculture and food security. This would include research and academic organizations, NGOs and networks, to avail new technologies to NOs
• Build capacity at NOs to ensure food crisis related prevention, mitigation, preparedness and response programming is integrated into ongoing development programs.
• Ensure that Food Security Managers at NOs are conversant with tools, methodologies and approaches necessary to provide appropriate and adequate support to ADP staff for the implementation of NOs’ food security strategy

Donor engagement

• Build relationships and credibility with donors, using previous success and documented best practices in grants management
• Identify key relationships to strengthen national and regional positioning and elevate WV’s profile with government, multilateral and private sector donors within WAR
• In conjunction with Regional Communications department, develop key marketing material about National Offices to preposition WV in West Africa
• Work with and through National Offices and in collaboration with SOs IPG colleagues, to maintain strong donor relationships at regional and country level, developing engagement strategies for each donor or a group of donors.

Emergency response

• In collaboration with HEA and FPMG teams, work on food crisis prevention, mitigation, disaster risk reduction and preparedness strategy, linking potential emergency response to longer term development and community resilience and protect/restore agro-ecosystems
• Ensure food crisis related prevention, mitigation, preparedness and response programming is integrated into ongoing development programs

Knowledge transfer

• Identify capacity gaps at NOs in Agriculture and Food Security program design and implementation and other factors leading to poor program implementation and work with SOs and the RQA to address them
• Lead with the GC FSL Cluster, the roll out of the partnership Project Models and new initiatives
• Liaise with Regional Communication to document and disseminate Best practices.

Representation

• Ensure appropriate representation of WV WAR at strategic forums that could lead to resource acquisition and enhanced programming collaboration.
• Represent the region in the food security community of practice, forums (internal and external to WV)
• Participate into Global Food Security and Livelihood Cluster (gFSL) and Regional Working Groups

Others

• Carry out additional responsibilities as assigned by the PMU Director
• Attend and participate in devotional meetings.

Knoweldge, skills & abilities:

Required:

• Master’s Degree in Agriculture, Monitoring and Evaluation, Agricultural Economics or related fields.
• At least 5 years field experience with NGO’s in developing countries in the area of livelihood
• Project management and design experience,
• Experience in proposal writing and the successful acquisition of grants.
• Strong interpersonal skills
• Strong communication skills (oral and written)
• Ability to communicate on Food Security topics with diverse groups: farmers, managers, bureaucrats, donors, etc.
• Thorough knowledge of MS Office and Lotus Notes.
• Good understanding of Sphere relief standards.
• Knowledge of and adherence to the Red Cross and NGO Code of Conduct.
• Proven ability to manage competing priorities
• Strong inter-personal skills and proven team-player
• Cross-cultural sensitivity, flexible worldview, emotional maturity and physical stamina.
• Ability to work in and contribute to team building environment.

Preferred:

• Ability to engage at a strategic level with regional stakeholders (donors UN agencies; IO; INGOs; etc)
• Excellent written and spoken English and French
• Able to solve complex problems and to exercise independent judgment
• Ability to travel within country regional and internationally
• Able to work in a cross-cultural environment with a multi-national staff
• Must be able to stand above denominational diversities.
• Perform other duties as required.