OF THE UNITED NATIONS
Vacancy Announcement Number : FAO/IND/2011/004
Date of Issue : 08 April 2011
Closing Date : 30 April 2011
Job Title: Senior Agricultural Specialist/Project Coordinator – National Officer
Location: New Delhi
Duration: Eleven Months
Type of Contract: Personal Services Agreement (PSA)
Duties and Responsibilities - Under the overall guidance of the Director, FAO Investment Centre Division (TCI), and the general supervision of the Chief, Near East, North Africa, Europe, Central and South Asia Service (TCIN), and the FAO Representative (FAOR) in India and working closely with staff of The World Bank, the Senior
Agricultural Specialist/Project Coordinator – National Officer will be responsible of supporting, primarily through the FAO/World Bank Cooperative Programme, the development (including by contributions to analytical sector work), appraisal and implementation of investment projects and programmes in India.
In particular, she/he will:
- contribute to agricultural sector policy by providing analytical inputs on “think pieces” and “best practice” papers. Participate in missions to provide specialized technical inputs and guidance to counterparts. Contribute to complex reports and improvement of the monitoring and evaluation of agricultural sector activities; participate actively in the joint work of the FAO and SASDA country teams and be responsive to their needs for inputs, information, and strategy work;
- participate in and lead missions to develop, appraise, and supervise the technical aspects of agriculture sector investment projects. These tasks will require an ability to perform technical analysis independently; help to design project components and technical assistance activities; evaluate studies, contribute to project economic analysis as well as to produce project documentation; interact with counterparts (primarily at the technical level); and supervise consultants. It requires a commitment to becoming proficient in all aspects of investment operations preparation and supervision;
- contribute to the FAO and SASDA training and capacity development activities; work constructively with partners, including bilateral and multilateral international financing institutions and/or donors active in India, and NGOs;
- interact at the technical level with counterparts in both Central and state governments, and in a variety of international organizations (including the CGIAR centres), NGOs, private sector companies as well as with concerned FAO and SASDA staff and managers.
Duty Station and Duration of the Assignment: Duty Station is New Delhi, India; the assignment is for a period of 11 (eleven) months, extendable only once for another 11 months after a mandatory one–month break.
Supervision Exercised: National and international consultants.
Supervision Received: The incumbent is under the general supervision of Service Chief, FAO/TCIN, and of the FAOR India, who jointly provide general guidance for the incumbent’s work programme, determine and assign specific tasks and monitor her/his performance through quality control and substantive assessment of her/his delivery compared to the initial commitments.
Supervision is implemented through review of written documentation prepared by the incumbent in the discharge of her/his duties, assessment of the effectiveness of her/his field work and capacity to handle the work of her/his teams, relations with national authorities and on feedback received from the partner international financing institutions and/or donors.
The training received by the incumbent at entry on duty provides the guidelines and operational procedures to be followed during implementation of the work programme. These are updated on regular basis.
Work Relationships and Contacts: The incumbent is required to engage in and manage contacts with the FAO Representation in India, the SASDA country team, and with senior Government staff at Ministerial and Director General level. This interaction serves the basic purpose of determining programme objectives and work plan, the orientation of the programme strategic choices, obtaining Government’s views and agreement of project strategy, activities, components and highlight issues to be resolved before and during project/programme appraisal, at supervision phases and in assessing the final impacts and efficiency of a project/programme closure. All this requires a clear and organized mind, very good knowledge of policies and procedures of FAO’s key partner international financing institutions and/or donors, in particular the World Bank, and of project preparation methodology, good presentation skills and the ability to manage high level contacts with diplomacy and competence.
Essential Qualifications
- Advanced university degree in agricultural sciences;
- 10 years of experience in case of Ph.D. or 15 years experience with Master’s degree in working to address development issues and in the identification, preparation, supervision and evaluation of investment operations in agricultural and rural development in India;
- Working knowledge of English, and of at least one of the official languages of India;
- Willingness to travel intensely within India as required.
Selection Criteria
- Level of professional expertise and technical skills; including familiarity with current technical developments and proven ability to interact with the national and international agricultural research and development community;
- Extent of experience and demonstrated affinity with various agricultural production systems including crops, horticulture and livestock, and their sustainability, institutional reform needs and evolving relationships between government and the private sector;
- Full understanding and extent of experience in rainfed and irrigated agriculture, watershed management, sustainable agriculture and Good Agricultural Practices (GAP), agricultural competitiveness, and Climate Change adaptation and mitigation;
- Proven ability to manage tasks independently with minimum guidance;
- Demonstrated capacity to focus on results and outcomes;
- Effective written and spoken communication skills;
- Varied international and national exposure would be highly valued;
- Excellent interpersonal skills and the ability to effectively function as a member of a multi–disciplinary team; and
- Solid computer proficiency skills.
Remuneration
A competitive compensation and benefits package is available and will be discussed with candidates at the time of the final interview.
Interested candidates satisfying the above mentioned criteria and confident of delivering time bound high quality results are requested to send their CVs along with a completed FAO Personal History Form and a covering letter mentioning their specific expertise and the vacancy announcement number along with the title of the position applied for to :
FAO Representation in India
55 Max Mueller Marg
New Delhi 110 003
E-Mail : fao-in@fao.org
The envelope / subject of the email should clearly mention the vacancy number as SAS – FAO/IND/2011/004. Please note that the applications not adhering to the above requirements will be disqualified.
Closing date for receipt of applications : 30 April, 2011.
The details are available at http://coin.fao.org/cms/media/7/13022518104500/agricultural_specialist.doc
For more job opportunities please visit Recruitment 2011
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