Senior value-chain expert to assess climate risks and shocks on food systems in Kigali city region – FAO Rwanda: Closing date: October 14,2020

The main aim of FAO  country offices, which are headed by an FAO Representative, is to assist governments to develop policies, programmes and projects to achieve food security and to reduce hunger and malnutrition, to help develop the agricultural, fisheries and forestry sectors, and to use their environmental and natural resources in a sustainable manner.

Currently, more than 50 percent of the world’s population is living in urban areas and it is estimated that by 2050 this figure will rise to nearly 70 percent, with most growth being in Asia and Africa. The same trend of population growth in city of Kigali is being observed and Kigali currently is hosting more than 50% of urban dwellers in Rwanda with 79% of people living in informal settlements. The rapid urban growth is also observed in other districts of the city region such as Rulindo, Kamonyi having an annual urban growth of 23%  between 2002-2015; Bugesera with 67.4% of people living in settlements and Rwamagana extending its urban centers to Kigairo, Muhazi, Gishari and Mwurire.

It has been noted that, cities and their growing number of inhabitants are increasingly being directly and indirectly affected by climate change and its consequences to the population livelihood including: rising temperatures, increasing rainfall, floodings and landsliding and other extreme weather conditions.

With the abovementioned consequences of the climate changes and the growing needs of food products among city dwellers; there is a need of strengthening rural-urban linkages and integrating sectors for a more sustainable and resilient food system.  The need now is to combine the assessment work based on past and present data, with future scenarios on climate change impact in the city region contexts. For this particular project, intervention strategies will primarily focus on enhancing climate resilience of urban, peri-urban and rural production systems within the city region but will also address other dimensions of the city region food system (e.g. land and water management, food supply and distribution, food loss and waste management, more and better employment opportunities creation, etc.) on the basis of local priorities.

The project specifically aims to achieve tangible results with regards to climate resilience, food and nutrition security in the city region while taking into consideration the impacts of COVID-19 on different agriculture value chains systems. In Rwanda, the project will operate in the Kigali City Region that includes districts of: Nyarugenge, Gasabo, Kicukiro, Kamonyi, Rulindo, Bugesera and Rwamagana. The districts have been chosen due to the fact that they are bordering the city of Kigali; but also because; some of the food commodities including maize, cassava, banana, sweet potato, beans are being sold into the city of Kigali are also coming from these neighboring districts. The project will then:

(i)Provide technical assistance and training to local government staff and other stakeholders to implement the assessment methodology to characterize, analyse and map risks, vulnerabilities and coping capacities across the CRFS. (ii)Provide technical and policy support to local institutions and other local stakeholders to formulate integrated city region food systems intervention strategies and programmes aiming. (iii)Provide policy assistance to local institutions to integrate climate resilience in existing food and agriculture policies and regulations and to design and formulate policies addressing climate resilience in city region food systems.

The FAOR is leading the implementation of the project in close collaboration with the City of Kigali as well as other districts of the city region food systems and city region food systems stakeholders.

Reporting Lines

The consultant will work under the general supervision of the FAO Representative to Rwanda, direct supervision of the Assistant FAOR/Programme and under the technical guidance of the national project coordinator, as well as FAO CRFS project team at FAO-HQ.

Technical Focus

FAO seeks to engage the services of a senior consultant to:

• Conduct an assessment to identify opportunities to prevent and reduce the risks and increase resilience to a broad variety of climate and pandemic shocks (e.g. droughts, floods, storms, heat waves, etc.) on the City-Region food systems of Kigali.
• Develop local capacities of the districts’ stakeholders from local government and other institutions to assess and characterize climate risks and vulnerabilities in city region food systems
• Provide knowledge-based information in the forms of reports, maps and infographics to guide decision aiming at mitigating their impact on city region food systems, ultimately improve food security and nutrition. To achieve the above objective, and as already identified in the CRFS methodology, the project is currently in need of technical expertise in the field of value chains, climate resilient agriculture. The relevant expertise to work on the assessment of the impact of COVID-19 on the city region food system will also be crucial to support the inclusion of this new topic in the work.

Tasks and responsibilities

Specifically, the senior consultant will perform the following tasks:

• In close collaboration with the national project coordinator, contribute developing the methodology and tools for the assessment:
  • Identify indicators framework as a tool to guide data collection process on the city region food systems.
  • Contribute developing a data collection tools (questionnaires, guidelines for focus group discussions, etc.)  to characterise the city region food systems nodes for the selected value chains and characterise climate vulnerability in the city region)
• In close collaboration with the national project coordinator, conduct the assessment to define, characterize shocks, risks and vulnerabilities in the city region food system to a broad variety of climate shocks (droughts, floods, rainfall pattern changes, etc.) and to pandemics (COVID19) in the city region food system of Kigali. The assessment will be based on existing literature, field data and consultation with key stakeholders . The expert then will:
  • Train data collectors on how to accurately collect data using the developed data collection tool
  • Collect and analyze primary quantitative and qualitative data through focus groups and individual/household surveys in the city region
  • Analyze of city region food systems vulnerability and resilience capacities and gaps to different shocks
  • Define  the priority areas for policy actions
  • Contribute preparing briefs and reports to present the results to CRFS stakeholders to get their insight for their validation
• Submit to FAORW Office a final report

CANDIDATES WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE FOLLOWING

Minimum Requirements   

• Advanced University degree in Agriculture sciences, rural development, Agro-economics and other related fields.
• Five years of relevant experience in the field of urban food systems analysis, climate risk assessment, urban and peri-urban agriculture, natural resources management.
• Excellent communication and writing skills in English and Kinyarwanda is key to perform the tasks in Kigali city region communities. Knowledge of French will be an asset.
• National of Rwanda or resident in the country with a regular work permit.

FAO Core Competencies

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

Technical/Functional Skills

• Extent and relevance of experience in agricultural development and innovations
• Extent and relevance of experience of conducting analytical consultancy studies, evaluations or equivalent, in the context of food systems in the cities
• Familiarity with tools and methods for data collection and analysis of relevance to food systems in the cities
• Familiarity with national food systems related  policy processes
• Demonstrated communication skills
• Analytical skills and ability to write clear and concise reports is considered as a strong asset.
• Having experience in national, regional or international organizations in a variety of areas including agricultural development, value chains development and food systems.
• Focuses on result for the client and responds positively to feedback.
• Strong research and analytical skills, as well as leadership skills.
• Sound expertise in conducting situational analyses engaging farmers, community, public/private institutions and other development stakeholders.
• Hands-on experience in collecting and analysing climate related data
• Capable to work independently and perform under tight deadlines.
• Good inter-personal and teamwork skills, networking aptitude, ability to engage effectively with policy and decision makers.
• Previous and demonstrated experience in supporting FAO or other UN agencies in preparing development strategy document would be a strong advantage.