Compliance Specialist/Advisor

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• FAO is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality, background and culture.
• Qualified female applicants, qualified nationals of non-and under-represented Members and person with disabilities are encouraged to apply;
• Everyone who works for FAO is required to adhere to the highest standards of integrity and professional conduct, and to uphold FAO's values
• FAO, as a Specialized Agency of the United Nations, has a zero-tolerance policy for conduct that is incompatible with its status, objectives and mandate, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination　　
• All selected candidates will undergo rigorous reference and background checks
• All applications will be treated with the strictest confidentiality

Organizational Setting

The Office of Emergencies and Resilience (OER) is responsible for ensuring FAO’s efforts to support countries and partners in preparing for and effectively responding to food and agricultural threats and crises. It is responsible for coordinating the development and maintenance of corporate tools and standards to enable Decentralized Offices to assist member countries to prepare for and respond to emergencies. OER ensures humanitarian policy coordination and knowledge, liaison with the InterAgency Standing Committee (IASC) as well as with humanitarian resource partners, co-leadership with the World Food Programme (WFP) of the global Food Security Cluster (FSC), organizational preparedness, surge capacity and response to large-scale emergencies. OER supports food and nutrition security assessment and early warning activities related to emergency and humanitarian analysis and responses. OER plays a major role in the development and leadership of the Organization’s programme to increase the resilience of livelihoods to food and agriculture threats and crises.

The OER compliance team's contribution to the OER vision is centred on the following areas\:
• Supporting decentralised offices’ compliance in emergency and resilience programme management in crisis context (Scale-up and Priority Countries);
• Supporting organizational compliance processes in OER Headquarters and country offices;
• Promoting online tools and best practices to support compliance in emergency and resilience programming for HQ and field locations.

Reporting Lines

Working under the supervision of the Senior Emergency and Rehabilitation Officer, Management Support and Compliance Team Leader, or, in the case of a field position, working under the supervision of the FAO Representative, and in close collaboration with the OER Compliance team members, other relevant OER teams, OIG, Risk Management and other relevant Oversight teams at headquarters and the regional level, the Compliance Specialist/Advisor will take on either short-term assignments or longer-term missions to support OER compliance work at country, regional or headquarters level.

Technical Focus

Provide advice and specialized support in the establishment of risk management, compliance and quality assurance activities.

The Compliance Specialist will be required to possess at least 2 years of relevant experience;
The Compliance Advisor will be required to possess at least 7 years of relevant experience;

Tasks and responsibilities

• Support DOs in formulating and analyzing internal documents such as the Risk Log, Internal Control Questionnaire and other relevant data to review internal controls related specifically to operations and humanitarian compliance.
• Shape the development and implementation of key compliance and quality assurance processes, particularly those focused on mitigating the risk of aid diversion and other operational risks in challenging environments, such as those with limited access and oversight.
• Contribute to building robust risk management solutions, including drafting interim guidance and SOPs, conducting risk assessments, and proposing innovative tools and processes, in accordance with FAO risk policy and related processes.
• Advise and recommend to the FAO Representative the appropriate strategies to strengthen controls and mitigate potential risks for adequate compliance with FAO operational rules, regulations, codes and internal policies and procedures, and monitoring the effectiveness of controls.
• Support the FAO Representatives in implementing outstanding audit recommendations.
• Support the establishment of processes and procedures in operations for adequate compliance with resources partner's agreed fiduciary requirements, such as anti-terrorism clauses, implementing partner due diligence review, incident reporting, PSEA, etc.
• Advise and recommend FAORs on the measures necessary to ensure compliance with FAO’s policy framework and responsibilities on the Protection from Sexual Exploitation and Abuse and on Accountability to Affected People (e.g beneficiary selection and registration, activities of implementing partners and service providers, monitoring, verification and reconciliation of assistance received by beneficiaries, management of FAO monitors, Third-Party monitors, grievance/complaint feedback mechanisms, and call centers, etc. depending on office structure).
• Support due diligence reviews of Implementing Partners and build up local capacity for this.
• Contribute to capacity building to mitigate risk and ensure compliance.
• Support as necessary OER headquarter compliance-related reporting and monitoring.
• Contribute to the promotion of online guidance and good practices to support compliance in emergency and resilience programming.
• Perform other related duties as required.

CANDIDATES WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE FOLLOWING

Minimum Requirements

• University degree (Bachelor’s or equivalent) in business/public administration, economics or a closely related technical field;
• At least 10 years (category A), 5 years (category B) and 2 years (category C) of relevant experience in administration, finance, evaluation, audit and/or in programme/ projects operations with field experience, and control functions, and with practical knowledge of operational, financial and administrative procedures of the UN;
• Working knowledge (level C) of English;
• Working knowledge of French is desirable.

FAO Core Competencies

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

Technical/Functional Skills

• Able to work under pressure and adapt to an evolving and complex humanitarian context and within multidisciplinary and different cultural background teams;
• Relevant work experience in functions related to compliance management and monitoring in the context of a large international organization operating in developing countries;
• Negotiation skills and ability to deal confidently with tact at management level;
• Team player with good interpersonal skills, and facilitation/motivational skills;
• Ability to work under pressure to tight timelines and without direct supervision;
• Strong analytical and conceptual abilities, communication skills, both verbal and in writing;
• Knowledge of humanitarian principles.

Selection Criteria

• Limited knowledge (level B) of a second FAO language (English, Arabic, French, Chinese, Spanish and Russian) would be an asset.

Please note that all candidates should adhere to FAO Values of Commitment to FAO, Respect for All and Integrity and Transparency

HOW TO APPLY

• To apply, visit the recruitment website at Jobs at FAO and complete your online profile. We strongly recommend that your profile is accurate, complete and includes your employment records, academic qualifications, and language skills
• Candidates are requested to attach a letter of motivation to the online profile
• Once your profile is completed, please apply, and submit your application
• Candidates may be requested to provide performance assessments and authorization to conduct verification checks of past and present work, character, education, military and police records to ascertain any and all information which may be pertinent to the employment qualifications
• Incomplete applications will not be considered
• Personal information provided on your application may be shared within FAO and with other companies acting on FAO’s behalf to provide employment support services such as pre-screening of applications, assessment tests, background checks and other related services. You will be asked to provide your consent before submitting your application. You may withdraw consent at any time, by withdrawing your application, in such case FAO will no longer be able to consider your application
• Only applications received through the FAO recruitment portal will be considered
• Your application will be screened based on the information provided in your online profile
• We encourage applicants to submit the application well before the deadline date.

If you need help or have queries, please create a one-time registration with FAO’s client support team for further assistance\: https\://fao.service-now.com/csp

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