The FAO Representation in Ghana is the body in charge of ensuring liaison between FAO and the Government of Ghana and is the first port of call for analysing and appraising government assistance requests; identifying, formulating, implementing and monitoring all FAO programmes and projects; managing all phases of the project cycle for national projects for which operational and budget holder responsibilities have been assigned by the Technical Cooperation Department; identifying opportunities for collaboration, and mobilizing technical and operational support from the Regional Office, Headquarters and other funding sources as appropriate. The FAO Ghana Office has an Assistant FAOR responsible for coordinating all activities relating to programmes of the Office.

Global challenges to ending hunger, food insecurity and all forms of malnutrition remain, and have been worsened by climate change while the combined effects of the COVID 19-pandemic, war between Russia and Ukraine, and other factors are deepening the plights of households in many countries, including West Africa and Ghana. In Ghana, from the November 2022 Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), an approximately 19% of the analyzed population were found to either be under pressure, in crises or in emergency food insecurity situation. Overall, 6.2% of the population were identified to be vulnerable (food insecure) with smallholder farm households having been the hardest hit given their economic vulnerability.

Climate change could cause yield losses to most rainfed cereals, especially maize, up to 16 to 21 percent in 2050, compared to a baseline without climate change. Yields decrease due to climate change are also expected other crops like sorgum, millet, groundnut and vegetables while increase in the share of livestock affected by droughts is expected from 13 to 39 percent. Weak resilience to climate impacts lack of resources to acquire productive inputs are some of the causes of low productivity, and therefore low income and low availability of nutrient dense diverse foods at the household level.

As a response to the current situation and foreseeable future food security crisis, The Government of Ghana and the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations with funding support of the European Union (EU) is implementing EU Food Security Response in Northern Ghana (GCP/GHA/040/EC) project (2023-2026) targeting at least 10,000 households. The project is being implemented over three agricultural seasons to increase crop and livestock production, including 6,000 maize farmers who will be supported to produce 18,000 metric tons (Mt) of maize over three years in targeted districts; 2,400 millet farmers who will be supported to produce 5,184 Mt of millet; and 4,200 sorghum farmers to produce 8,517 Mt of sorghum over the three years in the targeted districts. In addition, farmers, especially women and youth, and value chain actors will be supported with capacity and access to post-harvest technologies along the groundnut, soybean and vegetable (tomato) value chains with farmers’ capacity on climate change adaptation among others enhanced.

An integrated approach to sustainable food production and the resilience of food systems has become all-time important than ever. The project will promote crops specific to agro-ecological systems and approaches and support the sustainable development of maize, millet, sorghum, soyabean, groundnut, vegetables (tomato), poultry, piggery value chains. In selected project locations, direct agricultural inputs provision, accompanied by support to climate-adapted agricultural practices, provision of improved grain storage technologies, training on post-harvest practices, promotion of organic fertilizer use, provision of solar powered irrigation solutions and application of other climate sensitive and sustainable agri-techniques, promotion of integrated pests and diseases management approaches and facilitation of access to market as well as value addition for crops produced will help in resolving some of the production and post-harvest bottlenecks and contribute to achieving food security, and enhanced resilience to future shocks and disasters.

Reporting Lines

The National Livestock Specialist will be under the direct supervision of the FAO Representative to Ghana, and the direct technical guidance of the Technical Expert, in close collaboration with the Field Office Manager and the Assistant FAO representative to Ghana.

Technical Focus

The National Livestock Specialist will work together with other technical team to contribute to FAO strategic framework in promoting Climate Change Mitigating and Adapted Agri-food Systems (BE1 and Resilient Agri-food systems (BL4) while ensuring Gender Equality and Rural Women’s Empowerment (BL1) through the project interventions. The project will seek to better the environment by promoting an agri-food system that mitigates climate change from climate smart agriculture approaches and practices while building resilience of farmers along selected commodity value chains. This will be achieved through promotion of organic fertilizer use, provision of solar powered irrigation solutions and application of other climate sensitive and sustainable agri-techniques such as through conservation agriculture and agroecological approaches.

Tasks And Responsibilities

The National Livestock Specialist will lead the coordination and management of the project, and will carry out the following duties.

• Lead capacity development of farmers in production of layer poultry, small ruminants, and pigs; and promote good animal husbandry practices among farmers especially women and youth
• Facilitate acquisition and distribution of layer day-old-chicks, small ruminants and pigs breeding stock to equitably and carefully selected small holder farmer beneficiaries in project area.
• In close collaboration with Veterinary Services Offices in the region and districts, facilitate access of farmers to animal healthcare delivery services and mass vaccination of all poultry against Newcastle Disease and other vaccine preventable diseases; all small ruminants against PPR; and routine deworming of poultry, small ruminants, and pigs in all project communities.
• Facilitate establishment of Farmer Field School (FFS) and use the FFS approach to train farmers in farm biosecurity, Antimicrobial use, and Antimicrobial resistance; promote antimicrobial stewardship among farmer beneficiaries
• Promote and support Surveillance, Monitoring and Data Collection for reporting of animal pests and diseases using tools developed by FAO including Event Mobile Application-EMA-I, Epidemiology Value Chain-EVC and on-farm antimicrobial use monitoring tool
• Perform any other duties as may be required.

CANDIDATES WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE FOLLOWING

Minimum Requirements

• Advance University degree in Animal Science, Animal Husbandry, Livestock/Animal production , Veterinary Science, Animal health, poultry science and any related discipline;
• 5 years of experience in animal health and production with at least 2 years’ experience in Ghana
• Working knowledge of English (proficient – level C)
• National of Ghana

FAO Core Competencies

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

Technical/Functional Skills

• The position requires good technical knowledge on the livestock sector interlinked with the climate change mitigation and adaptation in Ghana.
• Extent and relevance of experience in project management and coordination.
• Extensive knowledge and understanding of animal health and production issues in Ghana.
• Extent and relevance of experience in management of computer programs such as Excel, Word, Power Point and statistical software.
• The candidate must demonstrate high communication skills, both verbal and written, negotiation, leadership, vision, strategy, coordination and teamwork
• Experience working with smallholder poultry and piggery farmers will be an added advantage

Additional Information

• FAO does not charge a fee at any stage of the recruitment process (application, interview meeting, processing)
• Applications received after the closing date will not be accepted
• Please note that FAO only considers higher educational qualifications obtained from an institution accredited/recognized in the World Higher Education Database (WHED), a list updated by the International Association of Universities (IAU) / United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The list can be accessed at http://www.whed.net/
• For additional employment opportunities visit the FAO employment website: http://www.fao.org/employment/home/en/
• Appointment will be subject to certification that the candidate is medically fit for appointment, accreditation, any residency or visa requirements, and security clearances.