Organizational Setting
The Office of Climate Change, Biodiversity and Environment (OCB) works to ensure that countries and stakeholders respond to the challenges of climate change, biodiversity loss, and environmental degradation. OCB provides a cross organizational coordination role on these issues and is the focal point to major multilateral environmental agreements including the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Conferences (UNFCCC), and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). The Office also assists FAO Members in their responses towards the interlinked challenges of food security, climate change, biodiversity loss and environmental degradation including through facilitating access to climate and environmental financing such as the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and the Green Climate Fund (GCF). In addition, OCB hosts the Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) Programme, the Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture and the Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture as well as FAO’s work on environmental safeguards and leads the Programme Priority Areas on Climate Change (PPA BE1) and Bioeconomy for Sustainable Food and Agriculture (PPA BE2).
The position is located under the Climate Change team in OCB, which provides policy advice and technical support to FAO Members on climate change including in the areas of mitigation, adaptation, transparency and loss and damage. The team is also leading the development of knowledge products and tools (i.e. NEXT, ABC-Map) and is supporting coordination and technical linkages with international climate processes and bodies, including the UNFCCC, IPCC, and related constituted bodies and workstreams, ensuring alignment of programme activities with global climate policy and scientific frameworks.
Reporting Lines
The Climate Change Specialist will work under the overall supervision of the Climate Change team leader and the direct supervision of an Officer of the team, as appropriate. When activities are carried out in countries, the consultant will be required to work in close collaboration with the relevant FAO Representation and Regional or Country Office.
Technical Focus
Support implementation, knowledge development, training and dissemination of FAO’s portfolio of support to countries and partners on climate change adaptation, mitigation, loss and damage, finance or transparency through the provision of technical expertise on climate change and agrifood systems.
Tasks and responsibilities
The Climate Change Specialist will support FAO, national counterparts and partners in the climate change programme of work including country-level activities; concept note development: economic, market or value chain analysis; knowledge sharing and generation; capacity building and further development of activities under the climate change strategy. The focus of the support will be primarily on the implementation of ongoing projects and programmes within OCB’s portfolio.
Depending on the profile, the specific tasks of the incumbent will be related to areas of work of the team related to:
• Support countries on all climate-related topics which include Enhanced Transparency Framework, Mitigation, Adaptation, Loss and Damage, Finance and covering different aspects such as Policy, Access to Finance, developing and applying Tools and datasets, and Technologies;
• Perform climate change adaptation/mitigation/transparency analyses of nationally determined contributions (NDCs); long term strategies (LTS) National Adaptation Plans (NAP) and projects such as GEF and GCF;
• Perform financial and market analysis and assessments with a focus on public and private climate finance flows, instruments and investment gaps, that contribute to the development of ongoing projects and programmes;
• Conduct value chain analysis of specific agricultural commodities, contributing to the development of ongoing projects and programmes;
• Write project concept notes, project proposals, investment pipelines and other relevant documents that contribute to the development of ongoing and future projects and programmes;
• Generate and disseminate knowledge materials related to climate change and agrifood systems, including the development of training materials and organisation of workshops, contribution to dissemination of information materials;
• Review relevant programme documents;
• Participate in country missions related to the programme of work;
• Provide technical support for the organization of meetings and workshops;
• Perform other duties related to the programme of work, as required.
CANDIDATES WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE FOLLOWING
Minimum Requirements
• For Consultants:
Advanced university degree from an institution recognized by the International Association of Universities (IAU)/UNESCO in climate change, economics, environmental sciences, agrifood systems or a closely related field. Consultants with a bachelor's degree need two additional years of relevant professional experience.
For PSAs:
University degree from an institution recognized by the International Association of Universities (IAU)/UNESCO in climate change, economics, environmental sciences, agrifood systems or a closely related field.
• At least 1 year (category C), 5 years (category B) or 10 years (category A) of relevant work experience in implementation of projects in the nexus between climate change and food systems in one or more following areas:
o Climate policy and analysis
o Climate Risk assessment
o Private sector engagement
o Project development
o Climate finance
o Economics of climate change
o Carbon Market mechanisms
o Gender and social inclusion
• Working knowledge of English.
FAO Core Competencies
• Results Focus
• Teamwork
• Communication
• Building Effective Relationships
• Knowledge Sharing and Continuous Improvement
Selection Criteria
• Extent and relevance of experience in one or more of the following technical areas: climate change and agriculture policy analysis, climate finance, project development (including GEF, GCF, etc.), climate investment plans.
• Extent and relevance of experience in identification of information and data for analysis of climate change and agrifood systems contexts, including country level information, agrifood system context, environmental context and policy documents.
• Extent of relevance of experience in managing partnerships with government, non-government organizations and/or private sector companies, funds, platforms and mechanisms is desirable
• Research and analytical skills, and the ability to gather information from different sources and present effectively both orally and in writing.
• Extend of experience in international cooperation and relevance of field work experience.
• Knowledge of FAO tools and activities on climate change is considered an asset.
• Working knowledge of other FAO official languages specifically Spanish, French, is considered as an asset depending on the technical requirements.