Statistician (Price Statistics)

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The length of appointment for internal FAO candidates will be established in accordance with applicable policies pertaining to the extension of appointments.

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• 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 persons 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
• FAO staff are subject to the authority of the Director-General, who may assign them to any of the activities or offices of the Organization.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) contributes to the achievement of the 2030 Agenda through 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.

Organizational Setting
The Statistics Division (ESS) develops and advocates for the implementation of methodologies and standards for data collection, validation, processing and analysis of food and agriculture statistics. In these statistical domains, it also plays a vital role in the compilation, processing and dissemination of internationally comparable data and provides essential capacity building support to Member Nations. In addition, the Division disseminates many publications, working papers and statistical yearbooks, that cover agricultural and food security relevant statistics (including prices, investments, production, trade and agri-environmental statistical data).
The work of the Division on social and economic statistics focuses on the contribution of agriculture to economic growth and food production, as well as rural livelihoods, poverty and resilience to disasters. Among other activities, the Social and Economic Statistics Team of the Division is responsible for collecting, compiling and disseminating statistics on prices of agricultural commodities and food products along the value chain which includes agriculture producer prices (APP), agriculture producer price indexes (APPI), consumer price indexes (CPI) and food CPIs. At the same time, it is in charge of the development of methodologies to analyse price data and provides capacity development and training at country level for the development of producer price and APPI statistical programs.
The position is located in the Social and Economic Statistics Team of the Statistics Division at FAO headquarters in Rome, Italy.

Reporting Lines
Under the general supervision of the Director of ESS, the Statistician (Price Statistics) reports to the Statistician/Team Leader of the Social and Economic Statistics Team.

Technical Focus
Updates and improvements of economic statistics published in FAOSTAT (FAO database) and other data platforms of FAO, in particular statistics on prices of agricultural commodities and food products. Methodological innovations in these data domains. Implementation of new methods within the Statistical Working System (SWS). Availability and updates of related capacity development materials. Involvement in capacity development programmes.

Key Results
Research and analysis of information, data and statistics, statistical methods, statistical and econometric modelling. Development and maintenance of specialized tools, methodologies, systems and/or databases and the technical assistance services to support the implementation/delivery and monitoring of the programme of work and related products, projects, publications and services.

Key Functions
• Collects, reviews, processes and/or analyses key social/economic/environmental/indicators, based on both traditional statistical methods/sources or on unstructured sources and data science methods, to support the delivery of economic and social development programmes of work, which can be focused on products, projects, publications or services.
• Develops improved/updated technical, statistical and/or analytical tools, systems, databases.
• Conducts research, data collection, validation, analysis and/or reporting in support of the development of technical standards, international instruments, innovative tools and methodologies to be used within the Organization or by external stakeholders.
• Produces a variety of technical reports and provides input in technical documents, divisional publications and/or web pages.
• Provides response to requests and provides technical and/or policy advice, assistance and solutions to Regional, Subregional and Country Offices, including technical backstopping to field projects.
• Participates in multidisciplinary teams, collaborates with other Divisions/Offices/Centres on work groups and committees and promotes best practices.
• Provides capacity development services, including the planning and organization of training workshops and seminars and preparation of related information, materials, on-line tools and information kits.
• Participates in divisional teams, Organization-wide committees, project teams and working groups and provides specialized expertise on international technical networks and or technical policy and standard setting bodies.
• Supports the organization, conduct and follow-up of meetings, consultations and conferences, the development/production of required materials and the provision of information and assistance to partners.
• Participates in resource mobilization activities in accordance with the Strategic Framework and divisional plans.
• Promotes international cooperation and collaboration, advocates best practices, knowledge sharing, increased policy dialogue and provides technical expertise at international meetings and conferences.

Specific Functions
• Supports the development and timely updates of data sources, methods, standards, tools, norms and classifications used in the production of price statistics and price indexes.
• Produces, processes, analyses and disseminates statistics on prices of agricultural commodities and food products in all segments of the value chain and associated indexes, including the ones related to consumer and producer prices collected from FAO questionnaires, the IMF (International Monetary Fund), the UN Statistics Division and country websites.
• Participates in the dispatch, follow-up, capture, processing and compilation of agriculture producer price statistics and indexes from the FAO questionnaire to countries and actively pursues the increase in the response of FAO's statistical questionnaires.
• Tests and implements multivariate estimation methods for missing observations, series or countries for prices of agricultural commodities and food products, including agriculture producer and consumer prices and indexes.
• Provides and deploys technical assistance in support to countries for the compilation and dissemination of prices statistics of agricultural commodities and food products in all segments of the value chain.
• Collaborates with the FAO Price Statistics working group of the Data coordination Group (DCG-T) to improve efficiency and harmonization and reduce duplication.
• Contributes, as part of a interinstitutional work, to developing a strategy to establish a global programme for the collection of retail food prices at different geographical levels, and on a periodic basis, from National Statistical Offices, to ensure sufficient frequency and timeliness of data availability and appropriate coverage to inform cost and affordability of healthy diets indicators; and performs editing and validation of the collected data, including quality control to guarantee data accuracy, consistency and adherence to basic quality requirements.
• Contributes to the implementation of the corporate quality assurance framework for all basic data domains in FAOSTAT.
• Contributes to the enhancement of the presentation and accessibility of FAOSTAT data and addresses the needs of users for further statistical and economic analyses.
• Represents ESS in international meetings related to data quality management, as required
• Performs other related duties supporting the ESS mandate as requested.

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CANDIDATES WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE FOLLOWING

Minimum Requirements
• Advanced university degree in statistics, mathematics, economics, agricultural economics, or a related field.
• Five years of relevant experience in the compilation and analysis of food and agricultural statistics in national or international organizations with relevant knowledge and experience on price statistics and price indexes.
• Working knowledge (full proficiency - level C) of English and limited knowledge (intermediate proficiency - level B) of another FAO official language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish).

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

Technical/Functional Skills
• Work experience in more than one location or area of work, particularly in field positions.
• Strong command of statistical methods including\: data presentation, 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 survey and questionnaire design.
• Extent and relevance of experience and knowledge of the main data sources and methods used for the compilation of price statistics.
• Extent and relevance of experience in the compilation, validation and analysis of price statistics.
• Demonstrated ability to conduct independent research under minimal supervision, present statistics materials lucidly and effectively and produce high quality research papers in English.
• Extent and relevance of experience in the advanced use and programming of statistical software, preferably R, Stata or Phyton.
• Extent and relevance of experience in designing and delivering capacity development programmes at country level.
• Ability to analyse complex statistical-related issues.

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FAO staff are expected to adhere to FAO Values of Commitment to FAO, Respect for All and Integrity and Transparency.

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• Extension of fixed term appointments is based on certification of performance and availability of funds
• FAO reserves the right not to make an appointment.
• Appointment will be subject to certification that the candidate is medically fit for appointment, accreditation, any residency or visa requirements, and security clearances.

CONDITIONS OF SERVICE

• 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
• Please note that FAO only considers higher educational qualifications obtained from an institution accredited/recognized in the World Higher Education Database (WHED), a list updated by the International Association of Universities (IAU) / United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The list can be accessed at http\://www.whed.net/
• 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.

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