FEWS NET - Food Security/Early Warning Communications Advisor
Sep 27, 2016
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Development Alternatives, Inc.
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DAI is an international development company. For more than 45 years, we have worked on the frontlines of international development, tackling fundamental social and economic development problems caused by inefficient markets, ineffective governance, and instability. Currently, DAI is delivering results that matter in some 80 countries. Our development solutions turn ideas into impact by bringing together fresh combinations of expertise and innovation across multiple disciplines. Our clients include international development agencies, international lending institutions, private corporations and philanthropies, and national governments.
Description
The United States Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) is a leading global provider of objective, evidence-based food security information and analysis. FEWS NET monitors data and information on factors that affect food security and livelihoods, such as weather conditions and climate, crop production, pasture conditions, markets and trade, and nutrition. FEWS NET produces regular reports—for example the Food Security Outlook and Outlook Updates, emergency alerts, and market and price updates—and, in the next phase of the program, will including analysis and basic research on food security drivers and crosscutting issues such as climate change and resilience. FEWS NET also contributes to strengthening the institutional and individual capacities of partner countries to advance and strengthen early warning capacity and systems. FEWS NET relies on close collaboration with international, regional, and national partners on food security analysis and reinforcement of food security networks.
Responsibilities
The position will be based in Washington, DC with intermittent travel to field offices. The Food Security/Early Warning Communications Advisor will provide technical support in the area of food security monitoring and assessment spanning the technical fields of agriculture, agricultural economics, early warning, economics, emergency response, food security, geography, planning, public health and rural development. The Food Security/Early Warning Communications Advisor will be responsible for the following activities:
- Manage a team to analyze and report on food security conditions in over twenty countries
- Lead the development of early warning and food security information products;
- Contribute to the technical direction of the project
- Develop new information products targeted to specific decision makers (as required)
- In coordination with the Technical DCOP, lead FEWS NET’s Washington-based decision support and reporting processes
- Facilitate field decision support and reporting processes
- Provide information briefings to senior staff within USAID, other USG agencies, UN agencies, and other partners; and
- Assure timely and high-quality delivery of the activity’s core information products into decision-making processes.
Basic Qualifications:
- Bachelor’s degree required. Advanced degree in Agriculture, Agricultural Economics, Geography, Public Health, or Economics preferred
- Minimum of 8 years of prior work experience in, and training directly relevant to the position
- Minimum of 5 years of experience living and working in a region in which FEWS NET field staff work
- Excellent interpersonal and team-building skills
- Excellent analytical, communication, editing and writing skills with the ability to understand the strategic implications of findings of other team members and incorporate them into assessments and reports
- Demonstrated project management, leadership, and technical skills
- Fluency in English required. French and/or Spanish language skills of the FS 2+ level or greater is preferred; and
- Eligibility to work in the US required.