Climate Change Adaptation Specialist

We want Lao PDR to become independent and efficient in providing healthy food for its people.
Our goal is to gradually stop distributing food and to set up an environment that ensures that the authorities can assist and guide communities in making their own informed choices about what kind of food to put on their families’ tables.

A mountainous, landlocked country, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Lao PDR) is one of the most sparsely populated countries in Asia. Its predominantly rural, 7.2 million strong population lives in over 10,000 villages – most of which have but a few hundred inhabitants – in remote, ethnically diverse areas. Due to remoteness, people in these scattered communities face challenges to access essential services.

In recent years, Lao PDR ranked as one of the fastest growing economies in East Asia and the Pacific, but the benefits are not evenly spread across regions. Lao PDR has seen a decrease in poverty, but despite these improvements, nutrition and food insecurity remain a persistent problem, especially among low-income families in rural areas. Almost 20 percent of the population already experienced moderate to severe food insecurity before the COVID-19 pandemic, with a higher incidence in rural areas and the central region. Three quarters of families are engaged in agriculture. Whether in irrigated paddies in the valleys, or in rainfed upland fields, rice is cultivated by 90 percent of farmers and constitutes the main staple food. Only one third of farmers grow additional crops. Coupled with the declining availability of forest foods due to deforestation and unsustainable gathering methods, the diets of vulnerable communities lack diversity.

Together with deficient infant and young child feeding practices – including limited breastfeeding – low education levels and difficult access to basic health and nutrition services, this contributes to malnutrition remaining a serious challenge in the country. Vulnerability to climate change - manifested particularly through drought, floods and typhoons - is also a driver of food insecurity, combined with declining land availability, volatile prices, low agricultural productivity, difficult access to markets and lack of diversified livelihood options.

Having established a presence in Lao PDR in 1975, the World Food Programme (WFP) is supporting the Lao Government’s vision of “a prosperous country, with a healthy population, free from food insecurity, malnutrition and poverty”. In its approach, WFP is gradually shifting from the delivery of services to building the capacity of both institutions and communities to address the challenges of food insecurity and malnutrition.

As the population is scattered over vast areas where access can be difficult, WFP’s main strategy is to strengthen the self-reliance of communities to build resilience. WFP aims to improve the nutritional status of vulnerable people throughout their life cycle, as well as their resilience to seasonal and long-term shocks and stresses. This happens by supporting the production of local nutritious crops, providing agriculture-skills training, building community assets such as fish ponds and improving road infrastructure, working with the private sector and advising on safe policies for the sale of food, enhancing communities’ ownership of initiatives such as school feeding, as well as promoting positive changes in people’s behaviour by providing education to improve infant and young child feeding practices and diversify diets.

The Climate Change Adaptation Specialist will play a crucial role in achieving the interventions outlined in Strategic Outcome 3 of WFP’s country strategic plan, focusing on climate change adaptation, resilience building, and disaster risk management. This position involves analyzing information to identify gaps and propose actionable solutions, as well as reviewing and developing strategic documents and project proposals. The specialist will support designated implementing partners, including government and NGOs, by monitoring project activities through regular follow-ups and field visits. Additionally, they will contribute to monitoring and evaluation processes by collecting and analyzing data, conducting vulnerability assessments, and engaging in community-based planning exercises. Building relationships with various stakeholders, including government entities and development partners, is essential, along with assisting in the development of knowledge management and communication outputs for social media and the WFP website. Strong analytical and communication skills, along with relevant experience, are required for this role.

Under the direct supervision of the Head of Climate Resilience Unit, the UN Volunteer will undertake the following tasks:
• Contribute to the overall achievement of the interventions under Strategic Outcome 3 of WFP’s country strategic plan that are relevant to climate change adaptation, resilience building and disaster risk management, including the analysis of information in order to identify gaps and propose actions, review and development of strategic documents, project design, project proposals, annual workplans and other documents as requested by the Head of Programme.
• Provide support to designated implementing partners at Government as well as non-governmental organisations for delivery of climate change adaptation, resilience and disaster risk management related project activities (e.g. regularly following up with partners, visiting field sites to monitor progress and provide feedback to the team).
• Contribute to monitoring and evaluation processes and resilience indicators, by collecting and analysing data and information, and ground truthing reports from partners through field visits and observations.
• Support climate change vulnerability and assessments to identify adaptation op-tions as part of community based participatory planning exercises.
• Networking and building relationships with government, international and national development partners, NGOs and CBOs, as well as supporting relevant platforms.
• Assisting with the development of knowledge management and communication outputs, including for (social) media, WFP website.