EuFMD – Programme Specialist

The European Commission for the Control of Foot and Mouth Disease (EuFMD) plays a significant role in the animal health part of FAO’s programme to increase resilience of livelihoods to food and agriculture threats and crises (SO5).

The EuFMD has established a globally respected capacity for efficient delivery of training, in-country and online support to emergency preparedness, and Progressive Control Programmes is working in over 80 countries with and through the decentralised offices. Most recently, the HOLD-FAST strategy continues the focus upon Foot-and-Mouth Disease (FMD) risk reduction but extends the scope of the preparedness and risk reduction activities to similar Transboundary Animal Diseases (TADs) which pose an immediate threat to the Member Nations (hereafter FAST is used for Foot-and-mouth and similar transboundary animal diseases).

The EuFMD is an Article XIV body responsible to its Member States and donors to deliver an extensive work programme on FMD emergency preparedness, response and control, to its 39 Member Nations, to a further 20 European neighbourhood countries, and to other regions through its arrangement with FAO decentralized offices. It manages the largest capacity-building programme in animal health in FAO with over 10,000 trainees recently taking its training courses.

The programme involves a considerable number of virtual and face-to-face events, as well as courses for its professional staff and consultants.

Technical input as well as operational delivery are entirely managed by the Commission Secretariat.

Full details are available in the EuFMD work programme.

FAO International Consultant and Call purpose

A consultant/PSA is engaged by the Organization to provide expertise, skills or knowledge for the performance of a specific task or piece of work, which would be short-term by nature. The assignment may involve full-time or part-time functions similar to those of staff members.

Candidates may be involved in more than one orientation and may be invited to undertake short-term assignments ranging in duration from a few days or weeks to a maximum of 11 months.

The possibility of extension is subject to satisfactory performance and depending on the resources and needs of the Organization.

The purpose of this call is to attract talents to populate rosters for EuFMD Programme Specialists for the following profiles\:

• Project Management
• Information, Administration and Logistics management

Reporting Lines

Programme Specialists, in close collaboration with the Communication and Networks Officer, report directly to the EuFMD programme and planning coordinator and to the EuFMD Executive Secretary for functional and policy guidance.

Support to delivery of donor-funded work programmes of the EuFMD Commission at global, regional sub-regional and country level.

The EuFMD workplan develops in three Pillars\:

Pillar I – Improving preparedness for management of FMD and similar TADs (‘FAST disease’) crises by Members and across

Pillar II – Reduced risk to Members from the FAST disease (FMD and similar TADS) situation in the European neighbourhood.

Pillar III – Sustaining and enhancing progress in the roll out of the GF-TADs Global Strategy for control of FMD, and on increasing security in the supply of effective FMD vaccines.

The EuFMD provides virtual and face-to-face courses and events and, considering the level of the progression along the FMD Progressive Control Pathway (PCP), identifies specific needs in the regions and the opportunities of making the best use of national and international expertise to assess the effectiveness of Risk Based Strategic Plans (RBSP). These plans focus on improving disease risk information and assisting in the design, implementation and evaluation of risk based surveillance and risk based control measures.

The consultant/PSA will provide support to the implementation of the EuFMD work programme at global, regional sub-regional and country level, this includes but it is not limited to the surge of support required for managing the changing priorities following disease emergencies and changes in programme decided by the Executive Committee and the major donors.

The key functions will be as following (tasks will be assigned according to the specific profile)\:

• Coordinate and/or provide operational support activities related, but not limited to\:
• project team formulation and delivery planning, liaise with relevant parties; ensure follow-up actions to ongoing projects;
• budget and funding (programme/project preparation and submissions, progress reports, financial statements, etc.) and prepare related documents/reports (pledging, work programme, programme budget);
• Provide support for virtual meetings and face-to-face missions formulation and planning related to the organization of the EuFMD events in FAO headquarters and in the field; ensure communication with FAO headquarters, decentralized and regional offices to inform them of EuFMD activities in good time;
• Research, analyze and present information gathered from diverse sources including, but not limited to, feasibility studies, graphics and statistics using various tools to analyse EuFMD Projects;
• Ensure follow-up actions by evaluating related economical and financial impact also monitoring and updating of the EuFMD project status in FAO Field Programme Management Information System (FPMIS). Financial reporting to be provided;
• Contribute implementing the yearly plan for Procurement, Letters of Agreement and Framework agreements;
• Contribute to the NSHR contracts renewal processes, working in close collaboration with SSC;
• Assist in internal processes and procedures improvements;
• Develop comprehensive documentation of virtual and face-to-face structure and operating procedures;
• Perform other duties, if required.

Information, Administration and Logistics management\:

• Assist in all activities related to the organization of virtual events planned under the new EuFMD Workplan 2019-2023\: such as build course pages for online courses (including preparation of material up to final upload onto the v-learning site) in direct liaison with international experts, maintain the database recording details of all participants trained and assist in dealing with general technical issues encountered while running a virtual event to ensure these activities are implemented in a relevant manner;
• Assist in, manage or coordinate videoconferencing and virtual workshops organized by the EuFMD using online platforms and digital tools;
• Contribute to the planning of the EuFMD events;
• Assist or manage EuFMD Digital innovation programme;
• Research and implement innovative and, where possible, automated approaches for virtual events;
• Participate in the EuFMD events and assist with logistic delivery, as needed;
• Perform other duties, if required.

Depending on the Profile and orientation\:

• For Consultants\:
• University Degree in economics, development studies, political science, social science, international relations, business administration, management, information systems, computer science, computer vision engineering, artificial intelligence and robotics, Information science and Applications, communication or fields related to FAO’s Programme of Work;
• At least one year of relevant work experience in public administration, communications, IT skills and Digital innovation development, use of programming languages, mobile solutions, international affairs or international meetings management; in results-based project/programme planning and monitoring, including practical experience in project formulation, appraisal, implementation, monitoring, communication and/or in financial and budget planning;
• Working knowledge (Level C) of English and limited knowledge (Level B) of one of FAO’s Official languages\: French, Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, Russian.

• For PSAs\:
• University Degree or Technical specialization or equivalent in economics, development studies, political science, social science, international relations, business administration, management, computer science, computer vision engineering, artificial intelligence and robotics, Information science and Applications, communication or related field;
• At least one year of relevant work experience in public administration, communications, IT skills and Digital innovation development, use of programming languages, mobile solutions, international affairs or international meetings management; in results-based project/programme planning and monitoring, including practical experience in project formulation, appraisal, implementation, monitoring, communication and/or in financial and budget planning;
• Working knowledge (Level C) of English is required.

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

• Relevant experience in one or more areas related to policy, planning, programming and administrative management in public or private sectors relating to programming, planning and technical co-operation in food and agriculture, particularly in the delivery of technical missions and assistance to countries in the European region and European neighbourhood will be considered an asset;
• Knowledge of additional languages, for the organization and development of the EuFMD events organized locally, will be considered an asset;
• Familiarity with liaising with FAO HQ and decentralized offices as well as the knowledge of protocol procedures and use of TALEO will be considered an asset;
• Ability to work accurately under pressure paying attention to details;
• Independent and capacity to prioritize requested actions in order to meet all the deadlines;
• IT languages skills, digital tools and it engineer skills, computer science engineering and/or robotics knowledge, mobile solution, virtual reality and R system abilities will be considered an asset.
• Good knowledge of Java or Python; working knowledge of Javascript and MySQL is desirable.