Climate Risk and Agrometeorologist Specialist

Organizational Context

The Office of Climate Change, Biodiversity and Environment (OCB) coordinates responses to climate change, biodiversity loss, and environmental degradation. It serves as a focal point for major environmental agreements like UNFCCC and CBD. OCB assists members with challenges in food security, climate change, biodiversity, and environmental degradation, facilitating access to climate financing from sources such as GEF and GCF. The office also hosts key programs and leads initiatives on climate change and bioeconomy for sustainable agriculture.

Job Purpose

The role is to provide essential technical support in climate services, encompassing hydrometeorological, agrometeorological, and impact assessments. A primary focus will be on climate risk management, specifically assessing climate risks within agri-food systems in member states. This will be achieved through collaboration with FAO headquarters and its decentralized offices, ensuring effective integration of climate risk strategies across various regions and programs.

Responsibilities

Key responsibilities include preparing technical documents on hydrometeorological, agrometeorological, and climate impact assessments to inform climate change adaptation projects and policy development. The role involves analyzing technical, social, economic, and environmental data to characterize climate impacts and risks across agriculture, livestock, forestry, fisheries, and aquaculture sectors. Support will be provided for developing and implementing climate risk assessment tools and methodologies, and for enhancing multi-hazard agricultural climate services through improved access to weather monitoring, forecasting, and early warning systems. The specialist will transfer risk knowledge to FAO country/regional offices and Member States, participate in relevant meetings and multidisciplinary teams, and promote climate risk management and climate services across FAO's work areas.

Work Experience

A minimum of one year of relevant experience is required for entry-level positions, scaling up to ten years for more senior roles. Experience should focus on assessing climate impacts on agriculture, climate services, climate risk assessment, and risk management within agrifood systems. Familiarity with project formulation, particularly for funding bodies like GEF and GCF, is considered an asset.

Skills

Essential skills include strong analytical abilities for assessing climate impacts and risks in agriculture, proficiency in developing and implementing climate risk assessment tools, and a solid understanding of hydrometeorological and agrometeorological principles. The candidate must demonstrate the ability to analyze interlinkages between climate, agriculture, environment, and socioeconomic factors. Excellent technical writing and communication skills in English are crucial, along with data analysis and management capabilities. Experience in preparing and delivering training materials is also important. Proficiency in Excel and familiarity with data analysis software like R or Stata are beneficial.

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