Role of Regional Offices
At regional office level, the scope of this exercise is to calculate the financial resources required to cover the cost of staff in each Representation, based on established posts and new posts as foreseen in PIRES, giving due consideration to the changing occupancy of each post throughout the year (e.g. appointments and separations).

Role of FAORS
At country office level, staff planning is done for the AOS-funded posts eventually established if FAORs have confirmed the availability of sufficient AOS resources by the end of the previous year.

Role of OSD
The role of OSD is to provide policy guidance and support to the Regional and Country Offices as well as to exercise oversight over the use of the resources allocated to the FAOR network.

Post management

The staff costs budget is allocated at regional level but not distributed at country office level. This is mainly because RP staff costs are currently managed at global level by the relevant Regional Office and are not under the responsibility of FAO Representations. It is usually provided for a period of 12-months for all PWB established posts filled with an incumbent, except for posts funded under AOS income.

The staff cost expenditures (or actuals) for encumbered posts are charged at the country office level, i.e. the expenditure is posted against the country office budget, thus allowing Management to know, at any point in time, the exact staff costs expenditure for each office. The ‘FAOR Estimated Staff Costs’ report in COIN provides Regional Offices with the list of established posts for the current year together with the Datawarehouse expenditures and the estimated cost differences, thus allowing them to evaluate possible staff cost savings that may be distributed to their FAO Representations.

At regional office level, post management can generate savings on staff costs through i) postponement in establishment of new posts and ii) through delaying the filling of vacant posts. These savings are available for redistribution (usually as non-staff allocations) to the FAOR Network in the  Region.

Savings already achieved (i.e. savings to-date) may be redistributed immediately to the FAOR Network to cover equipment replacements or any ad hoc additional requirements to ensure the smooth running of the offices, while expected achievable savings provide an indication for foreseen additional available funds up to year-end (forward-planning).