Agricultural Statistics Specialist

IMPORTANT NOTICE\: Please note that Closure Date and Time displayed above are based on date and time settings of your personal device

• FAO is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality, background and culture.
• Qualified female applicants, qualified nationals of non-and under-represented Members and person with disabilities are encouraged to apply;
• Everyone who works for FAO is required to adhere to the highest standards of integrity and professional conduct, and to uphold FAO's values
• FAO, as a Specialized Agency of the United Nations, has a zero-tolerance policy for conduct that is incompatible with its status, objectives and mandate, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination　　
• All selected candidates will undergo rigorous reference and background checks
• All applications will be treated with the strictest confidentiality

Organizational Setting

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) contributes to the achievement of the 2030 Agenda through the FAO Strategic Framework by supporting the transformation to more efficient, inclusive, resilient and sustainable agrifood systems, for better production, better nutrition, a better environment, and a better life, leaving no one behind.

The Regional Office for Africa (RAF) is responsible for leading FAO's response to regional priorities for food security, agriculture and rural development through the identification, planning and implementation of FAO's priority activities in the region. It ensures a multidisciplinary approach to programmes, identifies priority areas of action for the Organization in the region and, in collaboration with Offices, Centres and Divisions at headquarters, develops, promotes and oversees FAO's strategic response to regional priorities. RAF also advises on the incorporation of regional priorities into the Organization's Programme of Work and Budget and implements approved programmes and projects in the region, monitors the level of programme implementation and draws attention to problems and deficiencies. RAF develops and maintains relations with region-wide institutions including the Regional Economic Integration Organizations (REIOs).

The Regional Office supports regional policy dialogue on food security, agriculture and rural development issues, facilitates the emergence of regional partnerships, and supports capacity development and resource mobilization for food security, agriculture and rural development in the region. In collaboration with the Statistics Division, Office of the Chief Statistician and other statistical units at headquarters, it supports countries in the production and dissemination of high-quality statistics in the areas of food security and nutrition, agriculture, rural development and sustainable management of natural resources. It also facilitates the implementation of a number of large scale global statistical programmes (World Census of Agriculture Programme 2020, 50x2030 Initiative, Global Strategy for improving Agricultural and Rural Statistics-GSARS, Food Insecurity Experience Scale-FIES) aimed at improving statistical methodologies in the countries and establishing best practices for the collection, collation, processing, dissemination and use of data relevant to food security and nutrition, agriculture and rural development.

Consultants and PSA subscribers will work in one or more of the following statistical domains\:
• Implementation of agricultural censuses and surveys;
• Compilation of food balance sheets and supply utilization accounts (agricultural production, food trade, and other utilization statistics) to produce nutrient statistics;
• Crops and livestock statistics;
• Postharvest losses, food losses and food waste statistics;
• Food security and nutrition statistics;
• Agricultural and rural labour and decent work statistics, gender and social protection statistics;
• Geo-spatial statistical applications, land cover/land use statistics and crop mapping/area estimates;
• Use of data science and non-conventional data sources for the production of food and agriculture statistics;
• Agro-environmental statistics including fertilizers, pesticides and land use;
• Climate change relevant statistics and indicators, including GHG emissions;
• SDG indicators computation and reporting;
• Poverty and rural poverty statistics, rural livelihoods statistics;
• Dissemination of agricultural statistics, including micro-data dissemination and open data policies;
• Quality assurance of statistical processes and products, including data processing.

Reporting Lines

Consultants and PSA subscribers will work under the immediate technical supervision of the Statistician of FAO Regional Office for Africa and the general oversight of the FAO Representatives of countries they will be supporting. They may be called upon to collaborate with other FAO divisions, units and teams.

Technical Focus

Consultants and PSA subscribers will work on the preparation and implementation of statistical operations of different domains described above through the development and/or review of methodology and technical documents, supporting data collection, data processing, data analysis and dissemination. They will also provide capacity development to various countries on compilation, analysis and quality assurance of statistical processes and products in different areas of agricultural statistics mentioned above.

Tasks and responsibilities

In one or more of the above-mentioned statistical domains, Consultants and PSA subscribers will contribute to and/or take responsibility for one or more of the following tasks\:

• Development of methodology and technical documents for agricultural censuses and surveys (Questionnaires, sample design, instruction and training manuals, tabulation and analysis plans);
• Methodological development (for data processing, imputation of missing data, validation, and quality control);
• Data collection, processing, analysis, validation, reports writing and dissemination of data at national and sub-national level;
• Compilation of food balance sheets and supply utilization accounts to generate nutrient statistics;
• Advanced use of statistical software languages, including programming, particularly of R, Stata and Python applications;
• Use of technologies for data collection (CAPI, CSPro, Survey Solutions, Remote Sensing, Crowdsourcing, Web scraping, etc.);
• Agricultural censuses and surveys data analysis, including indicators computation;
• Design, preparation and management of statistical projects;
• Statistical capacity development, including needs assessments, design and implementation of statistical training and technical assistance activities;
• Statistical policy advocacy, communication and implementation;
• Strategic planning in agricultural and rural statistics;
• Use of administrative data in agricultural and rural statistics;
• Archiving, communication and dissemination of statistical products.

They will perform other related duties as required.

CANDIDATES WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE FOLLOWING

Minimum Requirements

• University degree in statistics, data science, mathematics, economics, agricultural sciences, computer science/IT, or a related and relevant field.
• At least 1 year of relevant experience in any of the above-mentioned statistical areas of work and / or fields of application.
• For PSAs\: Working knowledge of one of the FAO languages (English, French, Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, Russian).
• For Consultants\: Working knowledge of English, French or Spanish and limited knowledge of one of the other two or Arabic, Chinese, Russian.

FAO Core Competencies

• Results Focus
• Teamwork
• Communication
• Building Effective Relationships
• Knowledge Sharing and Continuous Improvement

Technical/Functional Skills

• Extent and length of knowledge and experience in performing the above-mentioned tasks and responsibilities in relevant statistical fields;
• Ability to draft quickly, clearly and concisely and to communicate effectively in English;
• Ability to work independently, with minimum supervision;
• Previous working experience with FAO or its partners (including countries) in the above-mentioned statistical domains and tasks;
• Strong command of statistical methods including\: data presentation, data validation, imputation of missing values, analysis and descriptive statistics; main continuous and discrete random variables (binomial, normal, standard normal, log-normal) and their properties; probability distributions; conditional probability, probabilities of intersections of events, Bayes' theorem; correlation and rank correlation; sampling and sample size\: simple, stratified, and multistage random sampling; Inference, confidence intervals, hypothesis testing and significance; linear regression (single and multiple) comparison of population means and variances, ANOVA; Chi-square and goodness of fit tests; nonlinear models\: maximum likelihood estimation; elements of agricultural censuses/surveys and questionnaires design; data processing workflow and principles; agricultural census/survey planning;

Please note that all candidates should adhere to FAO Values of Commitment to FAO, Respect for All and Integrity and Transparency

HOW TO APPLY

• To apply, visit the recruitment website at Jobs at FAO and complete your online profile. We strongly recommend that your profile is accurate, complete and includes your employment records, academic qualifications, and language skills
• Candidates are requested to attach a letter of motivation to the online profile
• Once your profile is completed, please apply, and submit your application
• Candidates may be requested to provide performance assessments and authorization to conduct verification checks of past and present work, character, education, military and police records to ascertain any and all information which may be pertinent to the employment qualifications
• Incomplete applications will not be considered
• Personal information provided on your application may be shared within FAO and with other companies acting on FAO’s behalf to provide employment support services such as pre-screening of applications, assessment tests, background checks and other related services. You will be asked to provide your consent before submitting your application. You may withdraw consent at any time, by withdrawing your application, in such case FAO will no longer be able to consider your application
• Only applications received through the FAO recruitment portal will be considered
• Your application will be screened based on the information provided in your online profile
• We encourage applicants to submit the application well before the deadline date.

If you need help or have queries, please create a one-time registration with FAO’s client support team for further assistance\: https\://fao.service-now.com/csp

FAO IS A NON-SMOKING ENVIRONMENT