Programme Assistant

Organizational Setting

FAO Bangladesh established the Cox’s Bazar programme and field office in 2017, after the influx of Rohingya refugees from Myanmar. The field office implements projects under two workstreams, namely food security and livelihood and natural resource management, in support of both Bangladeshi host and Rohingya refugee populations in the Cox’s Bazar subdistricts of Cox’s Bazar Sadar, Ramu, Teknaf, and Ukhiya. FAO Cox’s Bazar works with government partners, other UN organizations, and development partners and is an active stakeholder in intersector programming and interventions.

Reporting Lines

The Programme Assistant will be under the overall supervision of the FAO Representative in Bangladesh, direct supervision of the Emergency and Resilience Programme Coordinator in Cox’s Bazar and works closely with technical experts and Operations teams in Cox’s Bazar and the Country Office in Dhaka.

Technical Focus

The Programme Assistant (SC-4) will be responsible for monitoring the implementation of project activities related to Livelihood, conducting quality assurance checks on implementing partners and service providers, and supporting programme and project work planning. S/he will ensure timely and effective implementation of project activities and provide day-to-day programmatic support the Livelihood team. S/He will ensure mainstreaming of Accountability to Affected Populations (AAP) principles, donor compliance, visibility, disaster mainstreaming, gender and other cross-cutting issues.

Tasks and responsibilities

•    Provide day-to-day management and monitoring of project activities. 
•    Monitor field activities and performance of implementing partners.
•    Manage project budgets against outputs and work plans in coordination with the operations team.
•    Collect and analyse field data in coordination with project focal, field facilitators and the MEAL team.
•    Organize and implement the distribution of inputs to and provision of training activities for project beneficiaries. 
•    Establish and maintain effective relationships with implementing partners, suppliers, civil society, and government partners to effectively and efficiently deliver technical support and inputs at the field level.
•    Liaise with government institutions and the private sector on market development and establishing linkages among farmers, aggregation centres, and local markets.
•    Support in reviewing of financial and narrative reports from Implementing Partners.
•    Assist in drafting Letters of Agreement (LoAs) and contracts.
•    Support in preparation of technical specifications and technical evaluations for procurement of goods and services.
•    Contribute to the development and monitoring of annual and monthly programme and project work plans. 
•    Support the development of training curricula, modules, and materials for beneficiaries. 
•    Support the integration and mainstreaming of Accountability to Affected Populations (AAP) principles and crosscutting themes, such as gender equity and protection throughout activity planning and implementation.
•    Actively participate in coordination meetings and stakeholders’ consultations
•    Perform other related duties as assigned.

CANDIDATES WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE FOLLOWING

Minimum Requirements    

•    Bachelor’s degree in agriculture, Agri Economics, Agriculture Engineering, Horticulture, Sustainable Agriculture or related discipline. 
•    Minimum 4 years of professional work experiences in programme and/or project planning, implementation, quality assurance, monitoring, evaluation and reporting.
•    Working knowledge of English.
•    A Bangladeshi National.

FAO Core Competencies

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

Technical/Functional Skills

•    Proven track record of successful teamwork, good presentation/facilitation skills 
•    Excellent verbal and written communication skills 
•    Ability to work independently and with minimum supervision
•    Self-motivation, willingness to learn and strong work ethics in a multi-disciplinary team environment
•    Ability to use standard software such as MS Word, MS Excel and MS PowerPoint.
•    Previous experience to work with UN agency/International Organization is an asset

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION