Daphine Gitonga
  • Job Posting: 14/Jun/2022
  • Closure Date: 30/Jun/2022, 12:59:00 AM
  • Organizational Unit: NFO
  • Job Type: : Non-staff opportunities
  • Duration: Up to 11 months
  • Type of Requisition: Consultant / PSA (Personal Services Agreement)
  • Grade Level: N/A
  • Post Number: N/A
  • Primary Location: Various Locations

Organizational Setting

The Forestry Division (NFO) leads FAO’s work in promoting sustainable forest management and providing leadership on the environmental, social and economic dimensions of forestry, including its contributions to poverty reduction and food security and nutrition. It liaises with member countries, civil society and the private sector in aspects ranging from development of effective forest policies to forest conservation and management issues, and strengthens the role of forests in climate change mitigation and adaptation. The Division also collects, analyses, and disseminates information on the world’s forest resources and, on the production, trade, and consumption of wood and non-wood forest products.

The positions are located within the Forest Data and Statistics work streams, under the National Forest Monitoring (NFM) Team supporting FAO member countries on all aspects of forest monitoring to provide reliable information for national forest policy development, planning and sustainable management, as well as for fulfilling international reporting requirements. The Team supports countries on technical issues related to National Forest Monitoring Systems (NFMS) and the development of cost effective and reliable Measurement, Reporting and Verification (MRV) processes. The Team also develops and maintains Open Foris – a set of tools and guidance supporting forest monitoring) and SEPAL, a cloud-based processing platform. NFM work closely with the Global Forest Resources Assessment (FRA) Team and the REDD+ team.

Reporting Lines

Under the overall guidance of the Team Leader – National Forest Monitoring, the Technical Specialist will work under the direct supervision of the Forestry Officers leading work on National Forest Inventory (NFI) in coordination with FAO regional and country teams.

Technical Focus 

The Technical Specialist will provide technical support to the design and implementation of NFI, contributing to the national and global level work related to developing multi-purpose National Forest Monitoring Systems including systems for measurement, reporting and verification (MRV) functions of REDD+. Specifically, the specialist will provide guidance on methodological design and field implementation of national scale forest inventories and will develop country capacities in the entry, management and analysis of data generated from forest inventories.  The Technical Specialist will train country counterparts on the management and use of forest inventory data and on related information systems to store and analyze forest inventory data (e.g. Open Foris tools). Technical support is particularly sought after for supporting forest inventory design and implementation in Africa (e.g. Ethiopia, West Africa).

Tasks and responsibilities

The Technical Specialist will:

  • Provide trainings, technical support and knowledge sharing on NFI design and implementation in project countries;
  • Develop and document training material for NFI data analysis appropriate for different country capacities;
  • Develop country capacities on NFI data analysis, including the generation of statistical estimates (and their uncertainty) for forest reference emissions level (FREL) construction and/or greenhouse gas inventories (GHGi);
  • Contribute to the development of new, complementary tools/functions within the Open Foris tools to facilitate data entry, management, and analysis;
  • Support countries in defining their specific NFI design;
  • Facilitate South-South technical exchanges on NFI design and implementation, and data analysis;
  • Support the drafting and publication of technical documents (including scientific articles, technical reports, conference papers) concerning sampling, data analysis and estimation procedure;
  • Interact with other teams within the Forestry Division to ensure integration of the different tools developed in-house to support NFI;
  • Support the dissemination of NFI results in partner countries.

CANDIDATES WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE FOLLOWING:

Minimum Requirements

  • University Degree in Forestry, Natural Resources Management, or a related discipline.
  • At least three years relevant work experience (for base level (C) consultants); at least five years’ work experience (for middle level (B) consultants) in the implementation of forest inventories/forest monitoring.
  • Working knowledge of English, French or Spanish and limited knowledge of one of the other two or Arabic, Chinese, Russian. For PSA contracts, only one language.

FAO Core Competencies

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

Technical/Functional Skills

  •  Relevant experience in providing NFI support to developing countries.
  • Significant experience in NFI design and implementation and/or large data analysis and reporting.
  • Knowledge of issues related to measurement, reporting and verification (MRV) of REDD+ activities.

Selection Criteria 

  • Extent of relevance of experience on providing NFI support to developing countries.
  • Knowledge of French and experience in African region particularly in demand.
  • Experience in conducting trainings in NFI design and implementation, as well as data entry, management and analysis tailored to country capacities; (experience in conducting trainings in French language highly valued).
  • Knowledge of Open Foris functionalities is an advantage.
  • Ability to travel internationally and work under demanding field conditions.
  • Ability to organize and conduct workshops and training sessions.

For details on how to apply, visit: https://jobs.fao.org/careersection/fao_external/jobdetail.ftl?job=2201578&tz=GMT%2B02%3A00&tzname=Europe%2FBerlin