Regional Technical Senior Specialist – Instability and Conflict | Guatemala, Kenya, Niger, Sri Lanka, and Zimbabwe | 2024

Chemonics seeks a Regional Technical Senior Specialist – Instability and Conflict (RTSS-IC) to be based in one of the following regional offices: i) Guatemala City, Guatemala, ii) Nairobi, Kenya, iii) Niamey, Niger, iv) Colombo, Sri Lanka, v) Harare, Zimbabwe for the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) 8 Decision Support (DS) project. The RTSS-IC works under the technical supervision of the Security, Instability, and Conflict (SIC) Advisor, with administrative management provided by the Regional Technical Lead (RTL). The RTSS-IC will enhance the team’s capacity for early warning analysis related to instability and conflict, ensuring the application of sound management principles and tools are employed in the operations of the Instability and Conflict sector. While the preference is for candidates to be based in Guatemala City, Nairobi, Niamey, Colombo and Harare, highly qualified candidates who have legal work authorization and are based in other select countries in which FEWS NET 8 operates in may be considered. Countries are as follows:

• LAC region: Colombia, Haiti, Honduras, and El Salvador.
• East Africa Region: Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Sudan, and Uganda;
• West Africa Region: Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Mali, Nigeria, Benin, and Togo.
• Asia region: Afghanistan, Burma, Nepal, and Pakistan.
• South Africa region: DRC, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, and Zambia.

We are looking for individuals who have a passion for making a difference in the lives of people around the world. FEWS NET is an integrated set of activities funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and is intended to provide timely, accurate, evidence-based, and transparent food security early warning information and analysis. The eighth phase of FEWS NET includes the Decision Support (DS) project which is charged with providing integrated monitoring and analyses of current and forecast acute food insecurity in countries worldwide to support the USAID’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (BHA) policy and programmatic decisions. Based on an in-depth understanding of local livelihoods, the FEWS NET DS Team members monitor information and data on factors that affect food security, such as conflict, weather conditions and climate, crops, pasture, markets and trade, and nutrition. The work of the FEWS NET DS Team relies on close collaboration with international, regional, and national partners on food security data and information gathering and analysis. Major activities include joint monitoring and assessments, data sharing and exchanges, collaborative analysis and reporting, and technical capacity strengthening.

Responsibilities include:

The main responsibilities of the RTSS–IC include, but are not limited to:

Conflict Analysis

• Provide early warning analysis of instability and conflict in FEWS NET’s presence countries and Expanded Global Early Warning (EGEW) countries with the region.
• Support the technical development of the DS Team’s instability and conflict analysis sector, including improving the team’s ability to understand, communicate, and interpret conflict events, and supporting the development of conflict scenarios and projections of likely future conflict situations in DS geographies as relevant.
• Regularly review the consistency and accuracy of conflict projections and other conflict-related forecasting in the DS’s analysis and incorporate associated learning into sector methods, processes, and products.
• Revie and providing guidance and inputs on conflict forecasts for countries within the region as a critical input to the Food Security Outlook and Food Security Outlook Update reports in collaboration with regional and country-level technical specialists to ensure alignment between conflict, livelihoods, agroclimatology and M&T forecasts.
• Monitor, assess, and analyze conflict, instability, social, political, and/or economic events that are likely to have an impact on the trajectory or intensity of conflict for integration into conflict forecasts where relevant Under the direction of the SIC Advisor, helping establish and/or maintain systematic, timely, high-quality, and efficient data and information collection and management processes in relation to conflict and instability. Supporting the collection, organization, and storage of primary and secondary conflict-related data and information for submission to the FEWS NET Hub and USAID.
• Develop a strong subject matter expertise on political and conflict dynamics throughout the geographic focus areas of the EWT.
• Support the SIC Advisor in meeting expectations on timely delivery of conflict and instability analyses, which include, but are not limited to: responding to urgent questions within one day of request and providing briefings within one week of request.
• Under the direction of the SIC Advisor, regularly engage with the other mechanisms of FEWS NET and regional network partners to ensure the integration of available conflict-related analyses into the DS Team’s regular and ad hoc analyses and products and to support the project’s continued development of conflict analysis approaches, tools and guidance.
• Contribute to the FEWS NET DS Team’s decision support efforts to identify as early as possible potential or emerging conflict and instability-related crises. The RTSS-IC will be expected to demonstrate the ability to respond quickly to sudden increases and decreases in analysis needs globally, under the direction of the SIC advisor, re-orienting work plans and initiating new lines of monitoring and reporting outside of traditional areas of coverage.

Regional representation

• Liaise with USAID BHA as requested and as directed by the SIC Advisor.
• Superve a team consisting of select country-level instability and conflict specialists.
• In collaboration with the Knowledge Management, Communication and Capacity Development (KMCCD) Senior Specialist and the Regional Network Capacity Development and Communications (RNCDC) Senior Specialist, support capacity development efforts related to conflict and acute food insecurity for FEWS NET staff and network partners, through the development and/or delivery of select training materials on conflict analysis and reporting, including through one-on-one mentoring, small-group trainings, and information dissemination.
• Under the supervision of the SIC Advisor, and in collaboration with the RTL, supporting the design, execution, and monitoring of annual work plan activities that relate to the IC sector.
• Assist the RTL in carrying out a predetermined set of technical, management, and representational functions of the regional office, upon request and in coordination with the SIC Advisor.
• As needed, for limited periods of time, and with the agreement of the RTL, the SIC Advisor and the senior management team (SMT), the RTSS-IC may be expected to serve as acting-RTL.

Qualifications

• Education and experience in a discipline relevant to the instability and conflict sector work of FEWS NET such as Conflict Analysis, Conflict Resolution, Peace, Security, Political Science, International Relations, Development, or similar.
• At least 10 years of relevant experience (with master’s degree), or 12 years of relevant experience (with Bachelor’s degree) is required.
• Relevant work experience includes humanitarian and/or development work, of which at least two years must be directly relevant experience in food security, conflict analysis, or other technically relevant areas.
• In-depth knowledge of conflict-affected geographies, preferably in a humanitarian context, with demonstrated experience conducting trend analysis and tracking conflict and/or security events.
• Ability to leverage and synthesize information from in-country networks, media reports, social media, and paid information sources to determine drivers of conflict and triangulate conflict trends.
• Demonstrated ability to communicate clearly and concisely, both orally and in writing, and lead presentations, training courses, and effective meetings is required.
• Strong knowledge of MS Office applications, including Outlook, Word, and Excel is required.
• Ability to work both independently and as part of a team is required.
• Demonstrated ability to behave in a manner that invokes independent thinking, good judgment, and respect for others is required.
• Knowledge of and previous working experience with USAID-funded development and/or humanitarian projects is preferred.
• Ability to solve complex technical, managerial, and/or operational problems and evaluate options based on relevant information, resources, well-rounded experience, and knowledge is highly preferred.
• Proficiency in written and spoken English is required; other local language skills relevant to the country are desirable.