Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET)
Early Warning Team
Asia, Middle East, and Europe Regional Team Lead
Scope of Work
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 security 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 through close collaboration among a team of government and university partners Chemonics International (Chemonics) and other contractors. 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 USG’s policy and programmatic decisions. The DST operates through a Washington-based technical office and regional and select local FEWS NET offices established in sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, Asia, Latin America, and eastern Europe.
Based on an in-depth understanding of local livelihoods, DST members monitor information and data on factors that affect food security, such as conflict, weather conditions, 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 and data available 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 data, information gathering, and analysis. Major activities include joint monitoring and assessments, data sharing and exchanges, and collaborative analysis and reporting. FEWS NET supports local and regional food security networks with the global objective of achieving food security for all.
Position Description
The FEWS NET DST 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 the country offices. Each regional office is composed of a cadre of technical experts and administrative staff led by a Regional Team Lead (RTL), who serves as the technical analysis and administrative head of the region, as well as the representative for FEWS NET in regional fora, including with USG regional and relevant in-country contacts. 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.
Responsibilities
The main responsibilities of the Asia, Middle East, and Europe (AMEE)[1] 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 Harmonisé (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
- Collaborating with and coordinating FEWS NET DST field offices in the region to conduct regular independent and joint field assessments of food security conditions in areas of most concern
- Contributing to the development of other FEWS NET DST information products required regionally and by the Washington D.C.-based technical team
- Ensuring information on the relevant regional page of the FEWS NET website is current and accurate
- Reinforcing network development, project capacity strengthening, and management at the regional level and supporting similar efforts at the national level
- Representing the FEWS NET DST at regular and ad hoc formal and informal meetings within the food security network for the region
- Supervising, mentoring, and supporting the professional development and performance of Country Technical Leads (CTL) in the FEWS NET field offices, and coordinating with relevant advisors to oversee administrative management of Regional Technical Senior Specialists (RTSS) in the region, as well as technical and administrative staff in the regional office
- Leading recruitment efforts for regional office technical and administrative staff, monitoring all recruitments in the region and, when necessary, participating in technical and administrative recruitment.
Qualifications
- Proficiency in written and spoken English is required; Arabic or other language from one of the countries in the region is preferred. Bachelor’s degree in a discipline relevant to the work of FEWS NET, such as economics, agricultural economics, agronomy, nutrition, climatology, anthropology, or social geography is required; advanced university degree (Master’s degree or higher) is desirable.
- At least six years of relevant experience (with PhD), ten years of relevant experience (with Master’s degree), or 15 years of relevant experience (with Bachelor’s degree) is required. Relevant experience includes working on food security information systems, food security analysis, early warning, or other related fields; experience working with UN agencies and/or NGOs is desirable.
- Demonstrated experience setting the strategic direction for or otherwise leading and managing a team of colleagues, including the ability to mentor and coach staff.
- Excellent planning, organizational, analytical, and report writing skills.
- Demonstrated ability to work effectively with others at all levels, including an ability to effectively liaise with host governments, UN, NGO, and other relevant stakeholders and an ability to coordinate effectively with remote colleagues.
- Excellent computer skills, GIS applications, and mapping skills are desirable.
Location and Reporting
The strong preference is for RTL candidates to be based in Amman, Jordan at the FEWS NET DST AMEE regional office. Highly qualified candidates who have legal work authorization and are based in other select countries in which FEWS NET 8 operates including Afghanistan, Lebanon, and Yemen may be considered. The AMEE RTL is directly supervised by the deputy chief of party-field operations (DCOP-FO). For technical activities, the RTL collaborates and coordinates with the regional technical senior specialists and the CTLs in the region, home office-based technical advisors, the deputy food security decision support advisor responsible for the region in the home office-based Decision Support Group along with relevant food security analysts in the home office. For office administration and financial management, the RTL collaborates with the regional-level office administration and finance staff, the respective CTLs in the region, and the relevant Washington D.C.-based Project Management Units. The RTL will be required to travel regularly within the region, and some domestic and international travel may also be required, security permitting.
Application Instructions
Please apply using this form by August 19, 2025 at 11:59 PM ET. No telephone inquiries, please. Chemonics will contact short-listed candidates.
Chemonics is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate in its selection and employment practices on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, political affiliation, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, disability, genetic information, age, membership in an employee organization, or other non-merit factors.
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[1] As of June 2025, the AMEE region presence countries include Afghanistan, Burma, Nepal, Pakistan, Gaza/West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, Ukraine, and Yemen.