Geospatial data analyst (livestock and climate change)

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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 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 Animal Production and Health Division (NSA) assists FAO members to develop sustainable livestock systems. It hosts intergovernmental bodies, multi-stakeholder initiatives and knowledge networks that provide information and technical and policy support to development efforts, including adapting to a changing climate and mitigating the impact of livestock agrifood systems on climate and other environmental targets. The Division has expertise in animal health (One Health), animal production and genetics, livestock sector analysis (social, economic and environment) and livestock policy analysis.

The post is located in the Livestock Information, Sector Analysis and Policy Branch (NSAL). NSAL provides information services and carries out analysis in support of technical and policy interventions towards sustainable livestock systems, focusing on social, economic and environmental goals.

Reporting Lines

Under the overall supervision of the Chief, NSAL, the direct supervision of the Livestock Policy Officer (Systems Analysis) and in collaboration with FAO colleagues, the incumbent will contribute to the FAO Strategic Framework 2022-2031, on Better Production (BP1: Innovation for sustainable agriculture production), Better environment (BE1: Climate change mitigating and adapted agri-food systems) and to 2030 Agenda for Sustainable development, mainly towards SDG2, SDG13, SDG14 and SDG15.

Technical Focus

The incumbent will contribute to NSAL’s work on assessing environmental impacts from livestock systems. The incumbent will collect, harmonize and analyse relevant data, develop and improve existing computer models and tools and will contribute to the dissemination of data in various publications through the preparation of visualisations, maps, and reports.

Tasks and responsibilities

The incumbent will:

• Research, identify compile and harmonize relevant spatial and non-spatial data related to livestock and the environment and prepare them to be used within existing models using state-of-the-art software and tools for geospatial analysis.
• Collaborate and work with different project teams to conduct the analysis of livestock-specific greenhouse gas emissions and mitigation scenarios at country or global level.
• Contribute to the development of tools and models related to the assessment of environmental impacts such as greenhouse gas emissions, nitrogen flows and losses, soil carbon, water use of livestock systems.
• Contribute to the development and adaptation of existing computational models using recent methods and metrics based on life-cycle assessment.
• Provide technical insight to the development of a standardized data processing system to be used in the Global Livestock Environmental Assessment Model (GLEAM).
• Prepare publication-ready figures and maps as well as web-based interactive visualisations based on geospatial data.
• Contribute to the preparation of materials, brochures, country factsheet and other documents for the technical briefing of members on FAO’s work related to livestock and the environment.
• Perform any other duties as required.

CANDIDATES WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE FOLLOWING

Minimum Requirements

• Advanced University degree in animal sciences, environmental or agricultural sciences, computer science, data analysis, geography, economics, natural resource management, biological science or a related field as appropriate for the described tasks and responsibilities.
• At least 2 years of professional experience related to the management and analysis of geospatial data sets.
• Working knowledge (level C) of English and limited knowledge (level B) of French, Spanish, Arabic, Chinese or Russian for Consultants. Working knowledge of English will be sufficient in the case of PSAs.

FAO Core 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.
• Flexibility and ability to operate in different cultural settings and with a variety of stakeholders; culturally and gender-sensitive.
• Excellent communication skills; demonstrable analytical skills.
• Extent and relevance of experience with quantitative analysis of geospatial data.
• Extent and relevance of experience with computer models in a programming language.
• Extent and relevance of experience with data sets related to livestock and environment, in particular, climate change.
• Proven experience with computer programming languages (R or python).
• Strong and proven analytical and writing skills.
• Experience with online visualization and analysis tools (dashboards) such as R-Shiny or Tableau would be an asset.

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