Policy / Regulation Expert

FAO seeks gender, geographical and linguistic diversity in its staff and international consultants in order to best serve FAO Members in all regions.

• 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 member nations 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 our values. FAO has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and FAO, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination
• All selected candidates, therefore, will undergo rigorous reference and background checks
• All applications will be treated with the strictest confidentiality
• The incumbent may be re-assigned to different activities and/or duty stations depending on the evolving needs of the Organization

Organizational Setting

The Monitoring and Analysing Food and Agricultural Policies (MAFAP) programme seeks to establish country owned and sustainable systems to monitor, analyse, and reform food and agricultural policies to enable more effective, efficient and inclusive policy frameworks in 14 developing and emerging economies. MAFAP works with government institutions, research organizations and other partners to create sustainable policy monitoring systems and carry out a consistent set of policy and public expenditure analyses across a wide range of agricultural value chains. MAFAP analyses are used to inform targeted food and agricultural policy reforms that will result in a more conducive environment for agricultural investment and productivity growth, especially for smallholder farmers. As such, MAFAP supports most of FAO strategic objectives, an in particular those of enabling inclusive and efficient agricultural and food systems and helping eliminate hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition.

In the framework of the Hand-in-Hand Initiative, MAFAP programme, in collaboration with other FAO partners and national stakeholders, is implementing a series of activities to support the Government of Zimbabwe in driving private investment towards the most cost-effective food loss reduction actions. The overall objective of the proposed activities is to increase food availability, raise farmer’s incomes and improve food quality by reducing food losses in selected value chains in Zimbabwe.

Reporting Lines

Technical Focus

The technical areas/profiles covered will be as follows:

1. Gather information on policies and regulation affecting food losses and waste in the horticulture sector;
2. Provide an assessment of regulatory aspects as well as fiscal incentives that could be proposed and adopted by the Government to reduce food losses along the horticulture value chains selected
3. Prepare a short policy brief identifying potential policy and regulatory changes required to reduce losses and enable increased private investment in storage, logistics, handling and/or processing technologies that will reduce food losses in the horticulture sector.

Tasks and responsibilities

• Gather information on policies and regulation affecting food losses and waste in the horticulture sector;
• Provide an assessment of regulatory aspects as well as fiscal incentives that could be proposed and adopted by the Government to reduce food losses along the horticulture value chains selected
• Prepare a short policy brief identifying potential policy and regulatory changes required to reduce losses and enable increased private investment in storage, logistics, handling and/or processing technologies that will reduce food losses in the horticulture sector.

CANDIDATES WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE FOLLOWING

Minimum Requirements

• Zimbabwean National
• Advanced degree in agricultural or development economics, economics, rural development, or a related field.
• At least ten years of relevant experience in the practical application of policy analysis in agricultural, rural development and food safety issues, with specific reference to the Zimbabwean context.

FAO Core Competencies

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

Technical/Functional Skills

• Previous similar work on project/program working with government, NGOs, UN and private sector.
• Extent and relevance of experience in formulating agricultural and rural development policies.
• Extent of experience in dealing with senior government officials, development partners and beneficiaries in the context of policy.
• Good interpersonal relationships and strong communication skills.
• Excellent English language proficiency, communication, facilitation and computer skills.

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