Job opportunity: Consultant - Food Security Analysis Unit

Closing Date: Friday, 11 January 2013

Location: WFP Regional Bureau for West Africa based in Dakar, Senegal with travel to sub-region (25-50%)

Duration: 6 months, starting 1 January 2013

Supervision received: The Consultant for the Food Security Analysis unit reports to the Regional Food Security adviser

Accountabilities: Within delegated authority, the Consultant for the Food Security Analysis Unit will be responsible for the following duties:

General

• strengthen WFP knowledge base and understanding of food security and vulnerability issues in the West Africa region contributing to a better preparedness and response capacity to protect the lives and livelihoods of vulnerable communities
• ensure the use of such knowledge to inform WFP decision making and contribute to country level work of WFP, government counterparts, civil society organizations, bilateral donors and UN agencies
• contribute to the establishment and maintenance of a food security and vulnerability monitoring system to detect changes in the food security and vulnerability situation of populations at risk
• lead and/or participate in food security and vulnerability assessments and monitoring as well as other joint assessments
• participate in the design and implementation of WFP programmes with particular emphasis on situation and response analysis, defining the role of food assistance and providing recommendations on targeting of such assistance along geographic, sectoral or socioeconomic lines;

Specific

• participate and support the broader regional level discussions and methodology/strategy development for food security analysis such as the Cadre Harmonisé or the Integrated Phase Classification
• contribute in the development of collaboration with the Centre Inter-Etats de Lutte contre la Secheresse au Sahel, FEWS NET, FAO, Save the Children, Oxfam, UNICEF and other main food security and nutrition analysis actors
• contribute to the elaboration of the monthly joint FAO-WFP food security bulletin
• support the design, implementation, analysis and reporting of ongoing and planned food security surveys in the region as needed
• provide inputs to the Food Security long term strategy for the region, including fundraising and communication for food security analysis
• perform other tasks as requested

Expected Results:
With high degree of independence, the consultant will:
- provide well prepared, analytical work that supports the preparation of programmatic documents in a manner which reflects strategic regional/country strategies and executive decisions
- develop creative approaches to problem resolution and ensures timely delivery of assigned outputs
- develop and maintains partnerships with colleagues internally and with other organizations in the area of food security analysis in order to ensure smooth collaboration
- provide sound analytical inputs and contributes to improving the analysis of food security in the region.

Critical Success Factors:
- ability to compile, maintain and analyze data, prepare reports and draw initial conclusions and recommendations
- ability to work in a team, and maintain effective work relationships with counterparts
- effective and timely interaction with colleagues and concerned parties internally and externally
- flexibility to travel frequently in the region
- ability to deal patiently and tactfully with people of different national and cultural background
- demonstrated ability to develop and maintain effective work relationships with country/regional counterparts and staff within the office, host population, donors, NGOs and other UN agencies

Minimum qualifications:
Education:
Advanced university degree in sociology, economics, agriculture, geography, nutrition, rural development and or similar relevant discipline

Experience:
At least five years of postgraduate progressively responsible professional experience in foo in food security, vulnerability analysis or a closely related area, such as food security or early warning

Knowledge:
Strong knowledge of food security analysis and the data collection, treatment, and manipulation techniques typically associated with it
Advanced computer skills, including at least intermediate skills in windows based word processing, spreadsheet, database and GIS applications

Language:
International Professional: Working knowledge (proficiency/level C) of English and French essential. Limited knowledge (intermediate/level B) of Portuguese would be an asset.

Desirable skills:
Advanced knowledge of geographic information systems (GIS) and statistical analysis software such as SPSS
Experience in early warning and remote sensing and familiarity with the specialty software applications associated with them
Familiarity with quantitative and qualitative survey techniques
Experience in the design and implementation of food assistance programmes
Some experience in remote sensing interpretation and analysis, NDVI, CCD

How to apply:

Interested applicants should submit the documents detailed below to naouar.labidi@wfp.org , copying cedric.charpentier@wfp.org

1) Letter of interest explaining why the applicant considers her/himself the most suitable for the work, if possible in French
2) Personal CV including past experience in similar projects and contact details of referees (Both French and English are acceptable) 3) Personal History Form (P11) (Both French and English are acceptable). The P11 Form can be obtained at:http://www.unon.org/docs/P11.doc

Only short listed candidates will be notified.

Geographic information systems, remote sensing and mapping for the development and management of marine aquaculture

FAO Fisheries Technical Paper. No. 458 Geographic information systems, remote sensing and mapping for the development and management of marine aquaculture

James McDaid Kapetsky  Consultant and José Aguilar-Manjarrez Fishery Resources Officer Aquaculture Management and Conservation Service FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Department

FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED NATIONS Rome, 2007 Table of Contents Download full ZIP file (8,534 KB)

Kapetsky, J.M.; Aguilar-Manjarrez, J.
Geographic information systems, remote sensing and mapping for the development and management of marine aquaculture.
FAO Fisheries Technical Paper. No. 458. Rome. FAO. 2007. 125p.

ABSTRACT

Geographic Information Systems (GIS), remote sensing and mapping have a role to play in all geographic and spatial aspects of the development and management of marine aquaculture. Satellite, airborne, ground and undersea sensors acquire much of the related data, especially data on temperature, current velocity, wave height, chlorophyll concentration and land and water use. GIS is used to manipulate and analyze spatial and attribute data from all sources. It is also used to produce reports in map, database and text format to facilitate decision-making.

The objective of this document is to illustrate the ways in which Geographic Information Systems, remote sensing and mapping can play a role in the development and management of marine aquaculture per se and in relation to competing and conflicting uses. The perspective is global. The approach is to employ example applications that have been aimed at resolving many of the important issues in marine aquaculture. The focus is on the ways tools have been employed for problem solving, not on the tools and technologies themselves. In this regard, we consider GISFish, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Internet gateway to GIS, remote sensing and mapping as applied to aquaculture and inland fisheries, as a complementary resource to this technical paper.

The underlying purpose is to stimulate the interest of individuals in the government, industry and educational sectors of marine aquaculture to make more effective use of these tools. A brief introduction to spatial tools and their use in the marine fisheries sector precedes the example applications. The most recent applications have been selected to be indicative of the state of the art, allowing readers to make their own assessments of the benefits and limitations of use of these tools in their own disciplines. Other applications have been selected in order to illustrate the evolution of the development of the tools.

The main emphasis is on GIS. Remote sensing is viewed as an essential tool for the capture of data subsequently to be incorporated into a GIS and for real time monitoring of environmental conditions for operational management of aquaculture facilities. Maps usually are one of the outputs of a GIS, but can be effective tools for spatial communication in their own right. Thus, examples of mapping for aquaculture are included.

The applications are organized issue-wise along the main streams of marine aquaculture: culture of fishes in cages, culture of shellfishes and culture of marine plants. Both the recent and historical applications are summarized in tables. Because data availability is one of the prime issues in the use of spatial tools in marine aquaculture, a case study is included that illustrates how freely downloadable data can be used to estimate marine aquaculture potential and a section is devoted to describing various kinds of data. Because the ultimate purpose of GIS is to aid decision-making, a section on decision support tools is included.

Finally, we summarize our findings and reach some conclusions on the state of the application of GIS, remote sensing and mapping for the development and management of marine aquaculture.

(http://www.fao.org)