Young Professional Officer (Climate Change)

The Young Professional Officer (Climate Change) supports the implementation of FAO’s Strategy on Climate Change (2022-2031) and its Action Plan in Africa by providing technical expertise on climate change in agrifood systems. The role involves advancing climate-related policies and investments, supporting NDCs implementation, climate finance, carbon markets, loss and damage, and energy transitions, while contributing to project development, knowledge generation, capacity building, and dissemination of climate change initiatives across the region.

Responsibilities

• Analyse relevant technical social, economic, environmental, and technology information, data and/or statistics for input in various documents.
• Maintain records and update databases and web pages.
• Provide technical support to various projects.
• Collaborate in the development of training tools and materials and the organization of workshops/seminars.
• Participate in the organization and follow-up of meetings, consultations and conferences, the production of required materials and the provision of information and assistance to partners.
• Assist in the provision of technical support and backstopping for the design and implementation of FAO's projects and programmes aimed at scaling up climate action in agrifood systems at regional and national level in a gender-sensitive and inclusive manner.
• Support the analysis of trends in public and private climate and environmental finance of relevance to agrifood systems.
• Contribute to the identification and application of relevant tools to inform carbon-neutral and climate-resilient investment design to enhance the implementation of the NDCs, climate action and access to climate finance.
• Support monitoring implementation and reporting progress on FAO’s Strategy on Climate Change (2022-2031) and its Action Plan in Africa.
• Support the development of new FAO data, methods, tools and services for climate change in agrifood sectors.
• Support establishing and maintaining partnerships and mobilizing resources, including with vertical funds (Green Climate Fund, Global Environment Facility Fund to Respond to Loss and Damage or/and Adaptation Fund), private sector, bilateral and multilateral sources.
• Support the development and review of technical documents related to different areas of climate change and deliver relevant training programmes.
• Provide support in convening meetings with relevant stakeholders and responsible representatives from government, civil society, regional and international bodies, private sector, and academia.
• Draft reports in accordance with governments' and financing partners' requirements for the supervisor's review.
• Perform any other duties as required.

Requirements

• Advanced university degree (Master's degree or equivalent) in climate change, environmental engineering and sciences, natural resources management, or agriculture and forestry with focus on climate change, biological sciences or a related field.
• One year of relevant experience in development projects in the field of climate change mitigation and/or adaptation, preferably in relation to agrifood systems.
• Working knowledge (proficiency - level C) of English and intermediate knowledge (intermediate proficiency - level B) of another FAO official language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish).
• Work experience in more than one location or area of work, particularly in field positions is desirable.
• Experience in establishing and maintaining partnerships with UN agencies, NGOs, private sector, as well as donors and government institutions is desirable.
• Intermediate knowledge (intermediate proficiency – level B) of French is considered an asset.
• Ability to analyse and understand policy and governance structures in pursuit of addressing complex climate and natural resource management issues.
• Experience related to climate finance and carbon markets, climate and environmental investments in the agriculture sectors and rural development is desirable.
• Knowledge and application of tools to inform and shape environmental and climate investments in the agriculture sectors and food systems.
• Experience in the preparation, editing and revision of technical/scientific and policy documents and in organizing meetings and workshops.
• Candidates should be 32 years of age or younger as of 31 December of the year of application.

Skills

• Climate Change Mitigation
• Climate Change Adaptation
• Agrifood Systems
• Climate Finance
• Carbon Markets
• Environmental Investments
• Natural Resource Management
• Policy Analysis
• Governance Framework Analysis
• Technical Writing
• Scientific editing
• Workshop Organization
• Project Development
• Capacity Building
• Knowledge Dissemination
• Partnership Building
• UN Agency Collaboration
• Donor Engagement Strategies
• Environmental Engineering
• Agriculture and Forestry

Languages

English, French