Organizational Setting
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) contributes to the achievement of the 2030 Agenda through FAOโs Strategic Framework 2022-31 by supporting the transformation to More efficient, inclusive, resilient and sustainable agri- food systems, for Better production, Better nutrition, a Better environment and a Better life, leaving no one behind.ย
The FAO Representation in Ghana is the body in charge of ensuring liaison between FAO and the Government of Ghana and is the first port of call for analysing and appraising government assistance requests; identifying, formulating, implementing and monitoring all FAO programmes and projects; managing all phases of the project cycle for national projects for which operational and budget holder responsibilities have been assigned by the Technical Cooperation Department; identifying opportunities for collaboration, and mobilizing technical and operational support from the Regional Office, Headquarters and other funding sources as appropriate.
Global challenges to ending hunger, food insecurity and all forms of malnutrition remain, and have been worsened by climate change while the combined effects of the COVID 19-pandemic, Russiaโs war of aggression against Ukraine, and other factors are deepening the plights of households in many countries, including West Africa and Ghana. In Ghana, from the November 2022 Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), an approximately 19% of the analyzed population were found to either be under pressure, in crises or in emergency food insecurity situation. Overall, 6.2% of the population were identified to be vulnerable (food insecure) with smallholder farm households having been the hardest hit given their economic vulnerability.ย
Climate change could cause yield losses to most rainfed cereals, especially maize, up to 16 to 21 percent in 2050, compared to a baseline without climate change. Yields decrease due to climate change are also expected other crops like sorgum, millet, groundnut and vegetables while increase in the share of livestock affected by droughts is expected from 13 to 39 percent. Weak resilience to climate impacts lack of resources to acquire productive inputs are some of the causes of low productivity, and therefore low income and low availability of nutrient dense diverse foods at the household level.
As a response to the current situation and foreseeable future food security crisis, The Government of Ghana and the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations with funding support of the European Union (EU) is implementing EU Food Security Response in Northern Ghana (GCP/GHA/040/EC) project (2023-2026) targeting at least 10000 households. The project is being implemented over three agricultural seasons to increase crop and livestock production, including 6 000 maize farmers who will be supported to produce 18 000 Mt of maize over three years in targeted districts; 2 400 millet farmers who will be supported to produce 5,184 Mt of millet; and 4 200 sorghum farmers to produce 8 517 Mt of sorghum over the three years in the targeted districts. In addition, farmers, especially women and youth, and value chain actors will be supported with capacity and access to post-harvest technologies along the groundnut, soybean and vegetable (tomato) value chains with farmersโ capacity on climate change adaptation among others enhanced.ย
An integrated approach to sustainable food production and the resilience of food systems has become all-time important than ever. The project will promote crop-specific, agro-ecological systems and approaches and support the sustainable development of maize, millet, sorghum, soyabean, groundnut, vegetables (tomato), poultry, piggery value chains. In selected project locations, direct agricultural inputs provision, accompanied by support to climate-adapted agricultural practices, provision of improved ย grain storage technologies, training on post-harvest practices, promotion of organic fertilizer use, provision of solar powered irrigation solutions and application of other climate sensitive and sustainable agri-techniques, promotion of integrated pests and diseases management approaches and facilitation of access to market as well as value addition for crops produced will help in resolving some of the production and post-harvest bottlenecks and contribute to achieving food security, and enhanced resilience to future shocks and disasters.
Reporting Lines
The Engineering/Irrigation Specialist will work under the overall supervision and guidance of the FAO Representative to Ghana, the technical supervision of the Lead Technical Officer (LTO), the direct supervision of the Assistant FAOR (Head of Programmes) and in close collaboration with the National Project Coordinator and Technical Committee.
Tasks and responsibilities
โข ย ย Facilitate the operational and logistical field actions in aspects of the irrigation installations, including, choice of inputs and services and procurement plan, site selection, distribution mechanisms, activity monitoring, training and capacity building, and reporting, in conformity with enabling FAO rules, regulations, SoPs and best practices.
โข ย ย Ensuring the timely provision of irrigation equipment (personnel, technical support services, training, equipment and supplies) and maintenance schedule.
โข ย ย Identify and evaluate the capacity and quality of work of potential local suppliers of relevant technical goods and services.
โข ย ย Collect relevant land and water resources documents and information, guidelines, policies, manuals, assessments produced by other sources (governmental, intergovernmental, bilateral and multilateral entities), to shape and define priorities, guidelines and standard for FAO interventions.
โข ย ย Perform other duties as required.
CANDIDATES WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE FOLLOWING
Minimum Requirements ย ย
โข ย ย University degree in the field of Agricultural / Irrigation or Water Resources Engineering, Environment and Natural Resources Management, or other related fields.
โข ย ย Minimum 5 years of relevant consultancy experience in development projects in the area of water, irrigation and agricultural land management issues at national level.
โข ย ย Working knowledge of English (proficient โ level C).
โข ย ย National of Ghana or resident of the country with valid work permit.
FAO Core Competencies
โข ย ย Results Focus
โข ย ย Teamwork
โข ย ย Communication
โข ย ย Building Effective Relationships
โข ย ย Knowledge Sharing and Continuous Improvement
Technical/Functional Skills
โข ย ย Work experience in more than one location or area of work, particularly in field positions is desirable.
โข ย ย Experience in major technical fields related to engineering design of irrigation, drainage, water management and rural infrastructure, on-farm irrigation development, and land and water resources interventions is desirable.
โข ย ย Relevance of experience in in capacity development for the formulation and implementation of support programmes for water usersโ organizations and promotion of participatory irrigation management as well as the training of irrigation engineers and managers.
โข ย ย Demonstrated experience in dealing with senior government officials, development partners and other country stakeholders.
โข ย ย Demonstrated capacity to write technical reports in English.
โข ย ย Relevance of experience in the West Africa region.
โข ย ย Ability to work under pressure and willingness to travel frequently to project sites.