Behavioural Science and Change for Innovation – Technical Specialist (Various Profiles)

Organizational Setting

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

The Office of Innovation (OIN) provides strategic direction and helps drive and coordinate innovation across the work of the Organization by consolidating and strengthening FAO's innovative spirit, including innovation of approach and cooperation models. The Office identifies, strengthens, and complements priority areas for collective action; ensures that FAO mainstreams innovation in its programmes; facilitates cross-collaboration between the various FAO units; and aids in forging and reinforcing transformative partnerships.

In line with the FAO Director-General’s call to change approaches and business models for transformational change, and in parallel with the UN Secretary General’s call for UN agencies to increase their use of behavioural science, OIN is spearheading FAO’s effort to explore the benefits of behavioural science and behaviour change methodologies as vehicles for innovation across Priority Programme Areas (PPAs) and Functional Objectives.

Reporting Lines

The Consultant/PSA, in close collaboration with FAO Office of Innovation, reports directly to the appointed responsible officer.

Technical Focus

A consultant/PSA is engaged by the Organization to provide expertise, skills or knowledge for the performance of a specific task or piece of work, which would be short-term by nature. The assignment may involve full-time or part-time functions.

The purpose of this Call is to identify suitably qualified and experienced consultants and/or PSA subscribers to populate a roster for the following profiles:

• Behavioural Science Specialist • Behavioural Design Specialist • Behavioural Science Training Specialist • Behaviour Change Community Engagement Specialist

Candidates may be involved in more than one orientation/initiatives and may be invited to undertake short-term assignments ranging in duration from a few days or weeks to a maximum of 11 months. The possibility of extension is subject to satisfactory performance and depending on the resources and needs of the Organization

The consultant/PSA will provide support to the FAO Science and Innovation Strategy at global, regional, sub-regional and country level in three pillars:

Pillar I - Strengthening science and evidence-based decision-making; Pillar II – Supporting innovation and technology at regional and country level; and Pillar III – Serving Members better by reinforcing FAO’s capacities.

Tasks and responsibilities

The Consultant/PSA will provide support to the Office of Innovation’s vision at global, regional, sub-regional and country level.

Following are the generic functions for which candidates are sought. Specific tasks and responsibilities will be defined in Terms of Reference prepared for different assignments, according to: • The profile orientation required, and • The selected candidates’ experience, qualifications, and expertise.

The Key functions will be as following (tasks will be assigned according to the specific profile): • For the Behavioural Science Specialist: Support OIN and FAO innovation teams to carry out formative behavioural research, literature reviews and scoping exercises; support the collaborative design and implementation of behaviourally informed interventions/innovations, capture, analyze and translate pilot results for technical audiences; provide research support for the coding and analysing of data, support the design of experiments through a data-driven perspective, and translate data into non-technical outputs including visualization. • For the Behavioural Design Specialist: Interpret behavioural research and scoping results for FAO teams in order to lead the co-design of behavioural science interventions / prototypes; organize and conduct co-innovation workshops (e.g. behavioural design sprints); support the iteration of interventions to identify scalable policy elements and/or adapt previous pilots to new contexts • For the Behavioural Science Training Specialist: Curate, coordinate, design, develop, deliver and evaluate a set of behavioural science learning projects and services under the FAO innovation portfolio, with a particular focus on the development of internal capabilities to successfully design and implement in-house applied behavioural science approaches for innovation; compile and organize relevant tools and enable their appropriate use, in particular for FAO projects and/or advisory services with strong behavioural change components; coordinate training operations, including instructor identification and liaison, course marketing, registration tracking and participant communications; support FAO Behavioural Science Office Hours by proposing and recruiting presenters/topics • For the Behaviour Change Community Engagement Specialist: Continue and strengthen internal community engagement around behavioural science and behaviour change innovation, linking FAO interests to methods, solutions and capacities; manage, support, evolve and expand the Behavioural Science Guild, building engagement through online interaction, translating pilot results for non-technical audiences and capturing and responding to community needs; create and sustain an enabling environment for the exploration of behaviour change methodologies to foster co-innovation, including via FAO Behavioural Science Office Hours and other fora; build partnerships with behavioural science centres of excellence and other relevant external parties.

CANDIDATES WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE FOLLOWING

Minimum Requirements

Depending on the Profile and orientation:

For Consultants: • University degree in a discipline relevant to the duties listed, advanced degree preferable; • At least 1 year (category C), 5 years (category B) or 12 years (category A) of relevant work experience in the areas below, in accordance with the respective specialist group: - Applied: Qualitative, quantitative, and/or mixed methods social science research experience; development of research instruments, protocols, recruitment screening procedures, enumerator trainings and pre-analysis plans; data analytics including skills in identifying and visualizing data-driven causes and correlations; running experiments and surveys; SQL and ability to query and manipulate datasets; use of statistical packages (e.g. Stata, R) - Design: behavioural design, prototyping and user testing, user story development, participatory action research and other product development techniques; co-design workshops and events (behaviour change hackathons and/or behavioural design sprints) - Training: Experience developing and managing training or adult learning programmes, preferably those directly related to behavioural science, knowledge of adult learning pedagogy,; experience with marketing to institutional clients for training or service offerings; knowledge of behavioural science concepts and approaches strongly preferred - Engagement: Communication and community engagement; creation and management of communities of practice; experience introducing and promoting new techniques/methodologies into teams and workstreams; proven record of successfully engaging individuals and groups in new processes/methods; experience implementing change management processes; public relations, public speaking or event management; skills in facilitation, including virtual and hybrid scenarios; knowledge of facilitated event design; knowledge of behavioural science concepts and approaches preferred, but not required. • Working knowledge (Level C) of English; limited knowledge (Level B) of one of FAO’s Official languages would be an asset: French, Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, Russian.

For PSAs:

• University degree, technical specialization or equivalent in a discipline relevant to the duties listed; • At least one year of relevant work experience in: - Applied: Qualitative, quantitative, and/or mixed methods social science research experience; development of research instruments, protocols, recruitment screening procedures, enumerator trainings and pre-analysis plans; data analytics including skills in identifying and visualizing data-driven causes and correlations; running experiments and surveys; SQL and ability to query and manipulate datasets; use of statistical packages (e.g. Stata, R) - Design: behavioural design, prototyping and user testing, user story development, participatory action research and other product development techniques; co-design workshops and events (behaviour change hackathons and/or behavioural design sprints) - Training: Experience developing and managing training or adult learning programmes, preferably those directly related to behavioural science, knowledge of adult learning pedagogy, knowledge of applied behavioural insights; experience with marketing to institutional clients for training or service offerings - Engagement: Communication and community engagement; creation and management of communities of practice; experience introducing and promoting new techniques/methodologies into teams and workstreams; proven record of successfully engaging individuals and groups in new processes/methods; experience implementing change management processes; public relations, public speaking or event management expertise; skills in facilitation, including virtual and hybrid scenarios; knowledge of facilitated event design; knowledge of behavioural science concepts and approaches preferred, but not required • Working knowledge (Level C) of English is required.

FAO Core Competencies

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

Selection Criteria

• Post-graduate qualification in behavioural science, behavioural economics, decision sciences, psychology, statistics, sociology, social psychology, development studies, economics, public policy or a related field (Applied Behavioural Science Specialist, Behavioural Designer and Community Engagement Specialist) • Post-graduate qualification in adult learning, psychology, behavioural science/economics or related discipline (Behavioural Training Specialist) • For Senior positions: at least twelve years of relevant experience is required; • Working knowledge of English is required; knowledge of one or more additional FAO Official languages will be considered an asset; • Familiarity with liaising with central and decentralized offices and field teams, preferably in the United Nations context, will be considered an asset; • Experience managing behaviour change projects at national or international level (Applied Behavioural Science Specialist); • Strong communication/written skills in English.