Farmer Field School Partnership Facilitator

Organizational Setting

The main aim of the FAO country offices, which are headed by an FAO Representative, is to assist governments to develop policies, programmes and projects to achieve food security and to reduce hunger and malnutrition, to help develop the agricultural, fisheries and forestry sectors and to use their environmental and natural resources in a sustainable manner. 

The position is based at following locations:
Punjab (01):
Khanewal (01)
Sindh (02): 
Sanghar (01) and Umerkot (01)

The following position is SB3-SC5

FAO Pakistan under the Green Climate Fund is implementing a project called Transforming Indus Basin with Climate Resilient Agriculture and Water Management in Punjab and Sindh Provinces. The project aims to develop the country’s capacity to get and use the information it needs to cope with the impacts of climate change on agriculture and water management. The overall goal of the projects is to enhance the capacity of agricultural and pastoral sectors to cope with climate change, by up scaling farmers’ adoption of climate change adaptation technologies and practices through a network of already established Farmers Field Schools, and by mainstreaming climate change adaptation concerns and strategies into on-going agricultural development initiatives, policies and programming. 

Reporting Lines

Under the overall supervision of GCF International Technical Adviser (Agriculture Production) in Pakistan and in close coordination with the Provincial Coordinator, the incumbent will report to the Lead Partnership Facilitator and District Team Leader (DTL) District Team Lead and in close collaboration with sectoral specialists and project team in performance of the following tasks and duties.

Technical Focus

Facilitate field level interventions for establishment of Climate Business Field School (CBFS), Farmer Field Schools for Women (FFS-W), and Climate Resilient Agriculture (CRA) demonstration sites.

Tasks and responsibilities

•    Oversight and quality assurance of the implementation of Letter of Agreements with service provider(s) for the FFS outreach
•    Support service provider(s) to implementation an integrated and holistic community outreach. This will entail community awareness, ground for the FFS community outreach in terms of overall ground working and planning
•    Facilitate the service provider(s) to develop detailed but realistic community outreach plans for empowering livestock farmers through FFS and community-wide interventions
•    Coordinate routine engagements with the relevant technical departments at district level for joint planning, technical backstopping, and supervision of the community outreach activities
•    Quality assurance of the community outreach ensuring that the guidelines for implementing good quality FFS on livestock are followed, sessions systematically conducted routinely, study designs and relevant data collected, factoring in location-specific dynamics
•    Establish and manage demonstration plots including, conduct needs assessment, stakeholder meetings on establishing adaptive demo research plots in the working locations and prepare the meeting minutes
•    Perform demo plot profiling and prepare a profiling report
•    Identify the training and visibility materials using SOPs and request the provision of the materials from the LP and DTL
•    Contribute to, Fine-tune or improve the CBFS and WOS curriculum where and when needed during the adaptive research demo plot studies
•    Share the outcomes of the research on a timely manner
•    Contribute to the CBFS and WOS curricula with special attention to the communication and visibility strategy of the project
•    Assist in establishing further demo plots by the service providers under an LoA between FAO and a Service provider
•    Plan and conduct field days using the SOPs and prepare a report on the field days before and after
•    Facilitate and contribute to the local level ToT for extension officers, staff and/or employees from partner organisations (entities) on women open schools activities under Letter of Agreements with Government/NGO/University or Rural Support Program Networks (RSPN)
•    Provide continuous backstopping to the Farmer Facilitators, Government Extension Workers and Partner Projects/NGO/Private Sector Company Facilitators and RSPNs facilitators for women open schools
•    Closely work with the CBFS and WOS facilitators in interacting with the testing and validation of the ongoing CBFS/WOS practices on the adaptive research demo plots
•    Assist district team leader and sectoral specialist in the day-to-day monitoring of CBFS/WOS interventions and compile monthly monitoring sheets (online/offline)
•    Document, report and develop database, based on the progress of trained beneficiaries’ information
•    Identify and develop case studies and success stories for periodic reports
•    Ensure timely submission of WOS monthly work plan and progress reports (monthly, quarterly, and final) to supervisor
•    Within the present Call for Expressions of Interest, carry out other duties as requested by the project manager, provincial coordinator and technical officers

CANDIDATES WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE FOLLOWING

Minimum Requirements    

•    Master’s degree in agriculture, Water Management, Irrigation Agribusiness 
•    Minimum 5 Years of Experience in Agricultural Research (Quantitative and Qualitative) 
•    Minimum 2 Years of experience in Farmer Field School (FFS) or Agriculture Extension
•    Working knowledge of English and working knowledge of Urdu, Sindh and local languages used in province.  
•    National of Pakistan

FAO Core Competencies

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

Technical/Functional Skills

•    Practical knowledge of Social Mobilization process & Community organization skills.
•    Proficient in basic computer skills including MS Office.
•    Good interpersonal & communication skills.
•    Good drafting and report writing skills.
•    Analytical, communication and presentation skills.
•    Good networking and advocacy skills.
•    Ability of working in a multi-cultural and multi-ethnic environment and rural communities.
•    Familiarity with UN systems and procedures regarding code of conduct and resource use.
•    Agribusiness and Climate Resilient Agriculture (CRA) value chain experience are an asset 
•    Women with agricultural research background is highly promoted to apply

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION