International Food Safety Specialist

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), together with the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH (GIZ), received funds from the European Union (EU) to implement the project “PROMOVE Agribiz – Improving Rural Competitiveness in Nampula and Zambézia Provinces, Mozambique”. The project has the overall objective of contributing to a sustainable, inclusive and broad-based economic growth and poverty reduction in the context of national food and nutrition security and climate change. The project will achieve the objectives through (i) improving the food and nutrition security and resilience of smallholders and climate-smart and nutrition-sensitive agriculture, and (ii) enhancing rural competitiveness by improved participation of smallholders in economic activities, economic diversification, improved access to rural services and improved rural investment.

Under the project FAO will lead several components, including, (i) the market oriented sustainable production systems development; (ii) the agricultural policy dialogue; (iii) the institutional and community capacity building; and (iv) market linkages by providing tailored innovative solutions that improve sustainable and resilient production systems. Key commodities of concern are maize, groundnuts and cashew nuts. The programme efforts to increase production is coupled with an appropriate aflatoxin and mycotoxins mitigation strategy, which will increase knowledge and understanding as well as application of adequate measures and practices as part of Good Agriculture Practices (GAP).

To this end, FAO intends to recruit an international Food Safety consultant, to support the implementation and delivery of the PROMOVE Agribiz intervention on food safety according to the PROMOVE/Agribiz Project Document

This position is home based with travel to, the targeted districts in Mozambique.

Reporting Lines

The international Nutrition Consultant will work under the general supervision of the FAO Representative, the direct supervision of the Project Chief Technical Advisor (CTA) and the technical officer from RAF, the Food and Nutrition Division (ESN) and SFS. He or She will work also in close collaboration with UNICEF, WFP, MISAU and SETSAN and other government institutions and development partners working on food and nutrition security in Mozambique.

Food Safety, Nutrition education, behaviour change communications and food security.

• Design and disseminate of a set of targeted information campaign on food safety issues and impacts on health and nutrition for producers and consumers;
• Promote adoption of practical evidence based measures for prevention and control of mycotoxins in food at the household and community level;
• Include in FFS curriculum specific training on Good Agricultural Practises that mitigate against aflatoxin contamination;
• Develop key messages on food safety – tailor made for each type of target audience;
• Capacity building on specific food safety control measures along the targeted value chains;
• Any other tasks required to optimize the impact of the programme;
• Produce a comprehensive consultancy report for the assignment.

• Advanced university degree in Food safety, Food technology, food chemistry, food science or food processing and related subjects together with at least five years field experience on planning, implementation and monitoring of programmes related to improving food safety, health and hygiene practises
• At least 12 years of experience in food quality assurance and management
• Working knowledge of English and limited knowledge of another FAO language (French, Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, Russian) for Consultants. For PSA.SBS working knowledge of English.

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

• Working knowledge of Portuguese would be an asset