Jobs and Careers

JOB DESCRIPTION: 

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations is seeking a National Digital Agriculture Consultant for its Information Technology Division (CIO). Under the supervision of the Senior IT Officer, the incumbent will execute activities to implement the Digital Agriculture CapEx Project in Armenia, providing assistance to national stakeholders in developing and drafting an e-Agriculture Strategy for Armenia, while developing capacity. The Information Technology Division (CIO) is responsible for all IT activities within the Organization. CIO performs on behalf of the Organization the following critical roles: defining FAO IT policies and providing strategic advice on IT architecture and standards, governance, policy and operational matters while monitoring organizational compliance; defining the mechanisms for managing FAO's information and data; protecting FAO's information assets and ensuring confidentiality, integrity and availability; ensuring provision of IT services that are core for the Organization's global operations and supporting the information and business processes; coordinating organization-wide IT activities in order to reduce duplication and fragmentation and to increase integration of information data, systems and platforms, mobilizing IT resources from across the Organization. The Digital Innovation Unit is responsible for leading digital solutions and processes in FAO in addition to address innovative approaches and partnerships related to ICTs for development and to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The transformed Digital Agriculture Strategy will support the overall Unit achieving these goals and synergies with other work streams.

Technical Focus
The e-Agriculture Strategy guide and toolkit, jointly prepared by FAORAP and ITU, has been produced to assist countries in Asia Pacific region both in developing or revitalizing their national e-agriculture strategy to mainstream ICTs in agriculture and develop an ecosystem to foster innovation in a systematic way. In 2018, CIO has presented and approved a proposal to the FAO Capex Board named "Developing the Global e-Agriculture Strategy", which, among other activities, aims at developing capacity of e-Agriculture Strategy following a business model approach in two beneficiary countries. The original e-Agriculture Strategy Guide will be revised and revamped according to the experiences and lessons learned implementing the Guide in several countries, and to inject business model, innovation eco-system and human centred approaches. Leveraging the efforts of implementing the VERCON project in Armenia, the revised Strategy Guide will be piloted in Armenia to achieve validation and support the country in developing a national e-Agriculture strategy following a business model approach. Local Government agencies, such as the Ministry of Agriculture and Ministry of ICTs, and the broad spectrum of stakeholders (farming associations, Academia, NGOs, young entrepreneurs, private sector, etc.) represent the key actors to coordinate to deliver a National e-Agriculture Strategy for Armenia.

RESPONSIBILITIES: 

The overall objective of this national consultancy is to:
- Validate the assessments of the country e-Agriculture environment (country context, stakeholders mapping, capacity assessment, existing solutions, providers and initiatives, the policy, institutional and legislative framework);
- Further assess the country capacity by using and piloting the Digital Agriculture Maturity Assessment tool;
- Nurture relationships, coordinating and working closely with national and local stakeholders (Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Telecommunications and Transport, EKENG, NGOs, farming associations, private sector, startups, etc.), supporting the establishment and coordination of the national e-Agriculture working group;
- Plan, organize and conduct at least three e-Agriculture capacity development workshops in collaboration with the HQ project team, acting as workshop facilitator and trainer; draft workshop reports;
- Support the institutional stakeholders in drafting the national e-Agriculture Strategy, providing written content and comments, and ensuring that a national vision for e-Agriculture, as well as an Action Plan and M&E framework are part of the e-Agriculture Strategy;
- Based on the capacity assessment, contribute to the planning, implementation and design of monitoring an evaluation of impact assessment of the capacity development programme.
- Research and implement human-centred design, business model, and digital ecosystem approaches in the work;
- Work proactively with the e-Agriculture team at the HQ and FAO REU and provide feedback to review the e-Agriculture Strategy Guide and redesign the Community of Practice;
- Conduct ongoing monitoring and evaluation of the effectiveness of the capacity development activities;
- Manage the country project work-plan, risks and issues, including monitoring progress against the work-plan and communicate updates to the project team and PMO; identify and track the projects' risks; identify and escalate issues that could affect the projects outcomes, timeline or budget to the PMO;
- Coordinate with supervisors/ managers of the project team to ensure agreed objectives are respected and achieved;
- Communicate clearly and manage stakeholders' expectations about the projects' timeline, risks, quality, and costs, keeping them informed of progress of projects' IT activities, challenges and achievements;
- Carry out desk review and research as needed;
- Act as a bridge between CIO and FAO Regional office;
- Support the development and management of institutional agreements;
- Perform other job-related duties as required.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS: 

- University degree in Economics, Computer Science, Social Sciences, Political Science, Agricultural Economics, Environmental Studies, Climate, Biodiversity, or a related discipline;
- At least 2 years of professional experience in at least two of the following areas of work (more than two would be considered a very strong profile):
a) Digital agriculture (ICT in Agriculture or e-Agriculture), especially if working with ministries with responsibility for Agriculture to set policies or strategies/ or within inter-institutional coordination and negotiation;
b) Capacity assessment or development of Agriculture-related and/ or ICT-related issues;
d) Designing, developing and deploying digital solutions;
e) Business model innovation, innovation methods (human-centred design);
f) Liaising partnerships.
- Working knowledge of Armenian and English languages.

Competencies:
- Teamwork skills;
- Communication skills;
- Ability to build effective relationships;
- Initiative and drive to meet deliverables on time and within budget;
- Ability to work independently, in a high pressure work environment and with urgent deadlines;
- Ability to handle confidential and politically sensitive issues in a responsible and mature manner;
- High level logical and methodical organizational skills;
- Ability to lead strategic planning, results-based management and reporting;
- Ability to lead formulation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of projects.

Technical/ Functional Skills:
- Extent and relevance of experience in Digital Agriculture or e-Agriculture, especially within policy and strategy development;
- Extent and relevance of experience in capacity development;
- Extent and relevance of experience within tech4dev (technology for development) and/ or designing, developing and deploying digital solutions;
- Extent and relevance of experience in digital economy and/ or startups and clusters ecosystem;
- Extent and relevance of experience in methodologies and trends of innovation;
- Familiarity with international liaising and partnerships with government, private sector and academia.

Selection Criteria:
- Field of work and area of specialty as per competencies and technical skills listed above;
- Education;
- Language;
- Local institutional knowledge.

APPLICATION PROCEDURES: 

In order to apply, please create an online profile based on the guidelines by following the link: http://www.fao.org/3/CA0378EN/ca0378en.PDF. Please submit your application, the system will generate a PDF file and will send it to your email address. Send the PDF profile with a letter of motivation to: ******@***.*** indicating your name and the vacancy announcement code ("VA/FEARM/2019/004") in the subject line of the email.

Please clearly mention in your application letter that you learned of this announcement through Career Center and mention the URL of its website - www.careercenter.am. Thanks.

OPEN TO/ ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA: 

Individuals only