Knowledge Management and Learning Specialist At Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

Organizational Setting

The Office of Emergencies and Resilience, OER is responsible for ensuring FAO’s efforts to support countries and partners in preparing for and effectively responding to food and agricultural threats and crises. It is responsible for coordinating the development and maintenance of corporate tools and standards to enable Decentralized Offices to assist member countries to prepare for, and respond to emergencies. OER ensures humanitarian policy coordination and knowledge, liaison with the InterAgency Standing Committee as well as with humanitarian resource partners, co-leadership with World Food Programme of the global Food Security Cluster, organizational preparedness, surge capacity and response to large-scale emergencies. OER supports food and nutrition security assessment and early warning activities related to emergency and humanitarian analysis and responses. OER plays a major role in the development and leadership of the Organization’s programme to increase the resilience of livelihoods to food and agriculture threats and crises.

Reporting Lines

The Consultant reports to the Information and Knowledge Management Officer, OER.

Technical Focus

Under the overall supervision of the Information and Knowledge Management Officer, the Consultant will support the design and implementation of knowledge management and learning strategies and/or practices in support of FAO’s emergencies and resilience agenda at a global, regional, sub-regional and/or country level. This includes, but is not limited to, the identification and dissemination of lessons learned, the production of good practices briefs as well as other evidence-based knowledge and learning products, the support to facilitation of learning processes, and the organization of knowledge sharing activities related to food security, nutrition and resilience analysis and response in food crises contexts.

Tasks and responsibilities

The key functions of the Consultant will include the following:

• Plan, design, host and/or facilitate face-to-face and virtual multi-stakeholder knowledge sharing events/webinars and learning workshops related to food security, nutrition and resilience, involving FAO relevant technical experts and external partners;
• Support/facilitate the development of learning processes and integration with Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEAL) within projects and programmes and oversee the production and dissemination of food security, nutrition and resilience learning/knowledge products and other relevant information and knowledge sources. This includes the analysis and use of evidence, data and findings; the capture of technical lessons learned across various technical areas and from learning generated across projects and programmes; and the documentation of evidence-based good practices and learning outcomes;
• Provide input and assistance in developing learning and knowledge management (KM) tools and capacity development material for OER technical units and Decentralized Offices;
• Undertake travel or provide remote support for strategic guidance to relevant FAO teams and Decentralized Offices for the adoption of learning and knowledge management practices within the framework of the emergency and resilience agenda;
• Coordinate the web development and/or maintenance of knowledge platform(s) including through the dissemination of relevant content, including food security, nutrition and resilience related good practices materials, events, and capacity development material from FAO and key partners;
• Coordinate the internal and external promotion of knowledge through development of newsletters, social media activity, maintenance of the members’ community and/or facilitation of communities of practice;
• Foster knowledge utilization and uptake, and provide support to the development of a centralized knowledge repository to serve as a resource for FAO Decentralized Offices and relevant OER technical teams;
• Collaborate with relevant OER teams and support the alignment of knowledge and information efforts with other relevant processes, such as MEAL, strategic advocacy, communication and resource mobilization;
• Research and analyze ongoing trends and technological innovations in knowledge management and learning processes and advise on potential applicability and adoption within OER’s overall KM processes;
• Engage with external partners, knowledge coalitions and platforms to establish relevant collaboration mechanisms across the different aspects of knowledge management in general, and resilience knowledge in particular.

CANDIDATES WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE FOLLOWING

Minimum Requirements

• University degree in a discipline relevant to the mandate of the Organization;
• At least 1 year (Category C), 5 years (Category B) or 12 years (Category A) in humanitarian and/or agricultural/rural development sectors including work experience with national and international NGO’s, development and UN agencies, governments and donors;
• Working knowledge of English and/or French (level C) and limited knowledge of any other official language of the Organization (Arabic, Chinese, Spanish and Russian).

FAO Core Competencies

• Results Focus
• Teamwork
• Communication
• Building Effective Relationships
• Knowledge Sharing and Continuous Improvement

Technical/Functional Skills

• Work experience in more than one location or area of work;
• Excellent organizational skills;
• Good communication skills, including in emergency settings;
• Demonstrated ability to analyze problems, make appropriate recommendations, effective decisions, including in emergency settings.