The Food Security and Agriculture Cluster (FSAC) in Afghanistan is co-led by WFP and FAO with the Norwegian Refugee Council as NGO in a co-chair role. The FSAC's main aim to provide an action-oriented forum for bringing together national and international humanitarian partners to improve the timeliness and effectiveness of humanitarian assistance on the lives of crisis-affected population in Afghanistan. The FSAC activities have been designed to save lives by addressing the immediate hunger gaps, contribute to the reduction of malnutrition and prevent the worsening asset depletion and to increase the resilience of targeted communities. The FSAC is operational at a sub-national level in five regions of Afghanistan and is expected to deliver on the following six cluster functions as indicated in the Inter-Agency Standing Committee Cluster Coordination Reference Module:

• support effective and efficient humanitarian response;
• inform strategic decision-making of the Humanitarian Coordinator/Humanitarian Country Team;
• carry out planning and strategy development;
• advocacy;
• monitor and report on the Cluster strategy; and
• undertake contingency planning, preparedness and capacity building of relevant stakeholders.

Reporting Lines

The Food Security Specialist will work under the overall supervision of the FAO Representative and the direct supervision of the FSAC Coordinator.

Technical Focus

The incumbent is responsible for supporting the coordinating mechanism of FSAC in Afghanistan.

Tasks and responsibilities

• Support the linkages between national FSAC and coordination structures at sub-national level; including providing support to FSAC co-leads and co-chairs at the regional level to enhance food security and agriculture humanitarian response;
• Support appropriate coordination with national authorities at a sub-national and provincial level; including liaising and working with relevant government counterparts to support or complement existing coordination mechanisms;
• Collate and disseminate information on food security and agriculture humanitarian response from sub-national level to national FSAC and from national FSAC to sub-national level;
• With the FSAC coordination team, support the development and implementation of the FSAC work-plan and related food security and agriculture tools (assessments, beneficiary selection criteria guidelines, IPC, HEAT, SFSA etc.);
• Support the development of FSAC Consolidated Appeal and other joint initiatives at national and sub-national level;
• Assist in the training and mentoring of FSAC partners at a national and sub-national level, as per training needs identified by FSAC partners;
• Support the integration of cross-cutting issues (gender, AAP, Disability Inclusion, PSEA, environment, age, protection) in the FSA response;
• Communicate food security issues effectively within the humanitarian community, government and the public domain;
• Support the assessment working group and early warning information working group at national level to collect and disseminate relevant information to partners and regional networks.
• Ensure emergency food security and livelihoods programme is linked with existing and future development programme for better linkages to avoid gaps and maximize impact.
• Participate in and, when requested, assist in organizing FSAC workshops and meetings at national and regional level;
• Contribute to the production of FSAC documents (policies, strategies, work plans, advocacy briefs, monthly report, newsletter);
• Conduct regular field missions to all regions and facilitate conducting regional FSAC meetings;
• Contribute to FSAC monitoring and reporting to FSAC stakeholders; and
• Undertake other activities as required.