FEWS NET Regional Technical Lead

Chemonics

The Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) is an integrated set of activities funded by the United States Government (USG) and is intended to provide timely, accurate, evidence-based, and transparent food security early warning information and analysis.

The FEWS NET DST produces regular reports, including Food Security Outlooks and Outlook Updates, emergency alerts, market and price updates, and targeted analyses.

The work of the FEWS NET DST relies on close collaboration with international, regional, and national partners on food security data, information gathering, and analysis.

Five regional offices coordinate and oversee the technical and administrative management of the country offices.

In addition, the RTL is responsible for supporting and supervising country-level field offices in their respective region in the following activities:

• Efficient, focused acute food insecurity monitoring, data collection, assessment, and early warning analysis
• Effective communication of early warning analysis to the USG, partners and decision-makers though high-quality reports and participation in briefings and formal and informal meetings
• Close collaboration with key partners, such as host government ministries, UN agencies, and international and local NGOs, among others
• Identification of information/data gaps and corresponding actions towards building strategic partner networks to help fill gaps in effective early warning systems
• Project administration and management at the regional level
• Regular meetings with relevant regional and national USG contacts
• Regular participation in relevant IPC/CH analyses
• Regular collection of select data and field information, as required, and upload to the FEWS NET Data Warehouse (FDW)
• Coordination and effective collaboration with other FEWS NET mechanisms

The RTL is responsible for supporting, supervising, and providing quality control for regional- and national-level project deliverables and ensuring that activities and products for the region are delivered in a timely manner.

The main responsibilities of the Asia, Middle East, and Europe (AMEE) RTL include, but are not limited to:

• Overseeing the fulfilment of monthly reporting requirements for countries in the region, including Food Security Outlooks (FSOs), FSO Updates, Price Watch, and key messages; contributing to Food Assistance Outlook Brief reports; and providing monthly briefings to the USG and other partners
• The RTL will ensure the integrated food security analyses (FSOs, FSOUs, FAOB input) classify and communicate the severity of acute food insecurity in line with the globally recognized Integrated Phase Classification (IPC) scale. Where IPC compatibility is not possible, the RTL will ensure analyses remain globally comparable.
• Support the DS Team in meeting the USG s expectations on timely delivery of decision support products, which include, but are not limited to: delivery of monthly reporting for all presence countries no later than 7 days after the last day of the month; responding to urgent questions on acute food insecurity within one day; and providing briefings within one week of request.
• Supporting field offices in the region in maintaining a knowledge base composed of, at a minimum, available livelihood zone profiles, commodity trade flow maps, sub-national seasonal monitoring calendars, security monitoring, and data on commodity prices, nutrition, , conflict, migration, remittances, labor, and humanitarian food assistance, among other technical data, including rainfall, agricultural production, population, etc., in collaboration with other FEWS NET 8 implementing partners, as applicable
• Ensuring maintenance and transfer of relevant regional technical databases built from inputs from national offices and regional partners, including through inputs entered into the FFDW
• Developing and updating regional seasonal monitoring plans and participating in regional acute food insecurity monitoring, as applicable
• Providing high quality and effective early warning of acute threats to food security in the region and supporting efforts to mitigate acute food insecurity and prevent food crises through effective communication of actionable food security analysis
• Providing strategic leadership in the planning and execution of technical activities in the region, including working closely with the FEWS NET 8 advisors and SMT to develop annual workplans that ensure the regional and country teams are capacitated to carry out high-quality early warning analysis that produces IPC-compatible analyses
• As part of ensuring high quality decision support, the RTL will support collaboration with DST technical advisors and the other mechanisms of FEWS NET (e.g., Agroclimatology Team, Hub, Knowledgebase, etc.), to improve the integration of thematic technical areas (e.g., conflict, markets and trade, livelihoods, nutrition and agroclimatology) into regular and ad hoc decision support (including briefings) and facilitate interaction among home, regional, and country office technical staff to further integrate sub-national, country- and region-specific technical and thematic analyses into decision support
• Coordinating with technical staff in the region to identify sectoral support needs and collaborate with home office -based advisors to coordinate support based on identified priorities
• Collaborating with regional and international partners in food security monitoring and analysis, including through implementation of the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) or Cadre Harmonis (CH) protocols
• Developing and maintaining strong collaborative regional relations, both formal and informal, with USG contacts, UN agency representatives, government ministry staff, and key international, regional, and local NGO counterparts to facilitate technical exchanges, promote consensus-building, work to resolve technical disagreements, and facilitate joint, coordinated actions to mitigate food insecurity
• Supporting FEWS NET field offices in the region to collect, archive, analyze, and share food security data and information and to undertake network development activities
• Conducting quarterly technical and administrative meetings for all country offices in the region
• Ensuring the organization of project documentation and files for the region