Capacity Development Specialist

 Organizational Setting

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations is a specialized agency of the United Nations that leads international efforts to defeat hunger. FAO helps developing countries in transition modernize and improve agriculture including livestock, forestry, and fisheries practices, ensuring good nutrition and food security for all. Upon request from the Government of Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, the FAO has agreed to provide technical assistance for the execution of the Food and nutrition Security Enhancement Project (FANSEP), UTF/NEP/077/NEP from July 2019 to June 2023. Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development implement the project.  

Objectives

FAO Technical Assistance to FANSEP will contribute to achieve the project development objective: improved agricultural productivity and nutrition practices of targeted smallholder farming communities in selected areas of Nepal

Reporting Lines

Under the overall operational supervision of FAOR, direct supervision of the Team Leader and technical supervision of the FAO designated technical backstopping officer in the FAO Regional Office in Bangkok or FAO HQ, close consultation and coordination with AFAOR (Programme), and in coordination with the Government of Nepal’s designated technical officer for capacity building at the PMU as well as the concerned units of counterpart departments and Nepal Agriculture Research Council (NARC), the Capacity Development Specialist will have the overall responsibility of supporting and supervising the planning, implementation and management of capacity building activities related to crop, livestock and nutrition related interventions, contributing to the outputs of all project components

Technical Focus

Capacity Development specialist will assist the project team in accomplishing a participatory process in implementing the project activities with emphasis on the adoption of the Systems Learning Approach. The consultant will be supporting in the planning, implementation and management of training and capacity development related activities of project contributing to the overall outputs of the project. More specifically, he/she will support in the planning, implementation and management of Farmer Field School (FFS) and specialized capacity building activities.

Tasks and responsibilities

The Consultant will be responsible for the following tasks:

• Prepare work plans and a plan of operation on different capacity-building training (ToT, refresher courses, FFS, Nutrition Field School (NFS), Farm Business School (FBS) and other training and follow-up support programs), to be implemented at different layers of the project.
• Review and update or develop curricula and lesson plans for ToT, refresher courses, FFS, NFS, FBS and other capacity-building training with reference to the training needs assessment
• Develop criteria and procedures for the selection of candidates for trainings
• Coordinate with PMU and other stakeholders to identify training needs of extension personnel
• Prepare programme, implementation guidelines/procedures/modules and resource requirements for each training (ToT, Refresher Courses, FFS, NFS, FBS and other training) in line with project components, ensure their inclusion in the annual plans of the respective Rural Municipality and provide backstopping support for their timely and quality implementation.
• Coordinate with safeguard specialists while developing implementation guidelines, code of practices, plans and program and training modules for safeguard compliance and project personals respectively.
• Coordinate with gender and social specialists when developing Gender and inclusion strategy/plans and while developing any modules, guidelines and tools for capacity building of the same
• Assist in ensuring the quality of the training materials/guidelines/manuals and other reference documents to be developed for training facilitators and targeted beneficiaries.
• Assist in development of appropriate reporting and monitoring formats for the effective monitoring of different kinds of training (ToT, refresher courses, FFS, NFS, FBS and other training) and follow-up programs implemented by the project and collaborating partners
• Organize and conduct the training programme for extension personnel, farmers and women farmers throughout the project implementation, as per the agreed schedule
• Act as a training instructor and resource person for the training programme
• Assist in the preparation of training reports, cost analysis and inventory of training activities in the project area
• Submit a work plan and monthly progress report as per the format developed by the project.
• Organize consultative meetings at all hierarchy of project implementation to discuss emerging issues and opportunities and document decisions of such meetings.
• Be responsible for coordinating, overseeing the preparation of, and the delivery of capacity building activities, and training reports as well as other documents as envisaged by the project
• Undertake other tasks as assigned by the Project Director and TA Team Leader

CANDIDATES WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE FOLLOWING

Minimum Requirements 

• National of Nepal
• Advanced university (Master) degree in Agricultural Sciences or Development Studies with in-depth knowledge and understanding of the FFS approach
• Seven Years of relevant experience in developing and implementing programmes related to food and nutrition security
• Working knowledge of English, Nepali and local language
• Computer skills (MS Office package: word, excel and power point) 

FAO Core Competencies 

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

Technical/Functional Skills 

• Experience and in-depth knowledge of Farmer Field School
• Working experience and in-depth knowledge in preparing manuals, designing and executing training and capacity development interventions
• Working experience of capacity development in Food and nutrition security programs

Selection Criteria

• Extent of relevant technical knowledge and experience in designing and implementing Climate Farmer Field School and other relevant trainings
• Ability to manage and work with multi-disciplinary and multicultural team
• Good working knowledge of English (written and spoken)  
• Work experience with similar internationally funded development projects will be an added advantage