Djibouti Country Technical Senior Specialist – Food Security

**Introduction**

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 insecurity early warning information and analysis. Created in 1985 in response to famines in East and West Africa, FEWS NET provides global coverage of acute food insecurity. FEWS NET’s work is implemented across several mechanisms by a team of partners that includes the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), the United States Geological Survey (USGS), the University of California-Santa Barbara’s Climate Hazards Center (UCSB-CHC), University of Maryland’s Department of Geographical Sciences, American Institutes for Research (AIR), and Chemonics International (Chemonics). Chemonics implements FEWS NET’s Decision Support Team (DST), which is charged with providing integrated monitoring and analyses of current and forecast acute food insecurity in countries worldwide to support the United States Government’s (USG) policy and programmatic decisions.

The DST operates through a Washington-based technical office, regional FEWS NET offices, and national staff presence in sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, Asia, Latin America, and eastern Europe.

FEWS NET’s objective is to produce timely, evidence-based decision support to enable the efficient allocation of humanitarian assistance on the basis of need.

Based on an in-depth understanding of local livelihoods, FEWS NET monitors information and data on factors that affect food security, such as conflict, weather conditions and agroclimatology, crops, pasture, markets and trade, and nutrition. The FEWS NET DST produces regular reports, including Food Security Outlooks and Outlook Updates, emergency alerts, market and price updates, and targeted analyses. FEWS NET makes reports available at www.fews.net and distributes them globally to governments, relief agencies, and other organizations engaged in humanitarian response and development programs.

The eighth phase of FEWS NET began in 2024. The work of the FEWS NET DST relies on close collaboration with international, regional, and national partners on food security-related data and information gathering and analysis. Major activities include joint monitoring and assessments, data sharing and exchanges, collaborative analysis and reporting, and support of local and regional food security networks.

**Position Description**

The FEWS NET DS Team maintains virtual and physical field offices in sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, Asia, Latin America, and eastern Europe. Five regional offices coordinate and oversee the technical and administrative management of over 40 country offices. Each country office falls into one of three tiers, depending on the complexity of the context and operating environment, with Tier 1 countries requiring a larger staffing footprint, and Tier 3 countries requiring a smaller staffing footprint.

There are four main technical positions at the country level: Country Technical Lead (CTL); Country Technical Manager (CTM); and Country Technical Senior Specialist for Food Security (CTSS-FS); and Country Technical Specialist for Food Security and Instability & Conflict (CTSS-C). The CTL serves as the technical analysis leader within the country across all three tiers. Tier 1 and 2 countries have a CTL, CTM, and different numbers of CTSSs. As a default, Tier 3 countries have a CTL and one CTSS, although in select cases, they may have more than one.

The CTSS-FS is responsible for supporting the delivery of technical outputs and representing FEWS NET in national and sub-national fora, under the CTL’s direction. In addition, the CTSS-FS, under the CTL’s direction and guidance, is responsible for supporting the following activities, in collaboration with other technical staff in the country:

- Efficient, focused acute food insecurity monitoring, data collection, assessment, and early warning analysis. The support may include a more granular sub-national food security analysis in the areas of greatest concern.
- Effective communication of early warning analysis to national and sub-national partners and decision-makers through 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, nationally and sub-nationally
- In support of the Regional Network Development Senior Specialist, helping to build strategic partner networks nationally and sub-nationally, by addressing identified gaps in effective early warning systems and through supporting network capacity building efforts spearheaded by FEWS NET
- Regular participation in IPC/CH analyses
- As appropriate, oversig