Programme Assistant – Food Security Sector Support

Organizational Setting

FAO is a member of the Inter-Sector Coordination Group (ISCG), and in collaboration with the government, UN-organizations and development partners, began supporting both the host communities and Rohingya population in building livelihoods and skill development as well as in ensuring environmental integrity in Cox’s Bazar from October 2017.  

The Food Security Cluster (FSC) has been established globally to coordinate the food response during a humanitarian crisis, addressing issues of food availability, access, stability and utilization. The FSC was established by the Interagency Standing Committee (IASC) and is co- led by the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) of the United Nations and the World Food Programme (WFP).

In Bangladesh, the Food Security Cluster (FSC) was established in 2012. Due to the ethnic conflict of Mayanmar in 2017 nearly about 1 million Rohingya fled from Myanmar and took shelter in Bangladesh. As of January 2025, 1,005,675 Rohingya refugees stay in the camps. In Cox’s Bazar, the FSS was established in September 2017 to coordinate food security, livelihoods, DRR, and natural resource management interventions for Rohingya refugees and vulnerable Bangladeshi host communities under the leadership of the Inter-Sector Coordination Group (ISCG) co-lead by UNHCR and IOM. Food Security Sector works as an independent Sector focused on the Rohingya crisis.

Reporting Lines

The Programme Assistant (SC-4) will be under the overall administrative supervision of Senior Emergency and Resilience Programme and Coordination Specialist for FAO Cox’s Bazar, and direct supervision of the Food Security Sector Coordinator and Principal Coordinator of ISCG the incumbent will support the implementation of Food Security Sector (FSS) activities in collaboration with the Information Management Associate and other sectors/team.

Technical Focus

The incumbent will contribute to the country programme portfolio as foreseen in the Country Programme Framework (CPF) country wide, and more specifically the Joint Response Plan (JRP) for the evolving context and needs of the Cox’s Bazar programming.

Tasks and responsibilities

•    Support the roll-out of FSS Strategy, FSS work plan and update FSS guidance documents.
•    Participate as FSS focal in relevant working groups (EEN, Cross cutting, PSEA, EPR, etc) assigned by the FSS Coordinator
•    Carry out the activity and beneficiary mapping of all the agricultural livelihood interventions inside Rohingya camps and adjacent host communities.
•    Support development and/or standardization of technical documents relevant to FSS in consultation with the lead agencies.
•    Support the organization of capacity-building training for FSS partners (UN agencies, national and international NGO) partners on identified bottlenecks and capacity gaps related to food security and agriculture livelihood
•    Ensure integration of regular data in cross-cutting areas such as gender, protection, social cohesion, and other cross-cutting issues.
•    Participate and support research, studies, assessments, and evaluations in relation to food security, e.g. IPC analysis and inter-sector needs assessment and analysis, where appropriate.
•    Engaging and consulting with Camp-level Sector Focal Points on a periodic basis to understand the evolving situation on the ground, anticipate and resolve issues that Focal Points and other partners need to address, with the support of the Sector Lead Agency
•    Supporting the development of the Joint Response Plan (JRP) and the complementary operational plan which includes implementing decisions relating to streamlining, rationalization, and funding analysis); 
•    Closely monitor the FSS work plan and support to ensure timely and efficient implementation and support collecting 5W data.
•    Support holding monthly coordination meetings Strategic Advisory Group (SAG) meetings and any adhoc meeting and take minutes.
•    Support organizing joint field visits and lessons learned workshops in collaboration with the FSS partners, sectors, and the government as required.
•    Maintain close collaboration and coordination with relevant stakeholders, food security partners, and government stakeholders (Department of Agricultural Extension, Livestock Services, Fisheries, RRRC).
•    In the event of emergencies, support the rapid collection of 5Ws and support the undertaking of Joint Rapid Need Assessment (JRNA), Inter Sector Needs Assessment (ISNA) situational analysis of agriculture livelihoods, cash, and food assistance projects as well as funding opportunities.
•    Provide support to IM section ensuring the timely collection and dissemination of FSS data to all stakeholders (supervision of IMA).
•    Disseminate the early warning messages among FSS partners to mitigate agricultural loss at the beneficiary level during natural disasters.
•    Any other duties as required.

CANDIDATES WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE FOLLOWING

Minimum Requirements    

•    Bachelor's degree in agriculture, statistics, development studies 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 working with UN agency/International Organization is an asset

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION