Corporate sustainability reporting Specialist

Organizational Setting

The Office of the Chief Statistician (OCS) is mandated to strengthen the coordination of FAO statistical activities and to oversee the implementation of FAO’s responsibilities in global SDG reporting.

Within these general functions, OCS:

1. Plans, reviews, approves and monitors the biennial statistics programme of work, including elements planned under the Strategic Programmes;
2. Steers and facilitates FAO statistical governance, both externally and internally;
3. Develops and promotes the adoption of corporate statistical standards, classifications and methodologies;
4. Establishes and monitors policies and guidelines for FAO statistical processes, from data collection to data dissemination;
5. Reviews and provides clearances to all data collection performed by FAO, including clearance of surveys and questionnaires;
6. Monitors institutional compliance to FAO Statistical Quality Assurance Framework;
7. Oversees the methodological development and validation of statistical indicators, including the FAO-relevant SDG indicators;
8. Oversees the methodological development, validation and promotion of Core Food and Agriculture Indicators for Measuring the Private Sector Contribution to the SDGs;
9. Carries out the Corporate Outcome Assessment of FAO’s results framework, in partnership with the Office of Strategy, Planning and Resources Management (OSP);
10. Coordinates statistical capacity development initiatives;
11. Liaise with member countries to assess users’ needs for statistics and SDG monitoring;
12. Develops partnerships with other agencies and resource partners for collaborative work in the area of statistics.

Reporting Lines

The consultant or PSA subscriber will work under the immediate supervision of the OCS Senior Statistician in charge of Statistics Governance, and the general oversight of the Chief Statistician. She/he will be required to work in close collaboration with other FAO Divisions and teams, as well relevant external stakeholders such as international corporate disclosure standard-setting organizations, Food and Agriculture Enterprises, Business consortia, Investment institutions, Government institutions, NGOs and academia, and UN Partners.

Technical Focus

Given the immense potential of private companies in advancing SDG goals, OCS has initiated the project Core Food and Agricultural Indicators for Measuring the Private Sector Contribution to the SDGs in August 2019. The objective of this project is to establish a set of standard SDG indicators for the private sector involved in food and agriculture. Specifically, it includes:

• developing an indicator framework as a sector- targeted supplement guideline to the UNCTAD’s GCI (to be collected under 12.6.1);
• providing standard measurement methodologies for some key indicators consistent with SDG indicators;
• providing standardized tools to assist governments and businesses in measuring the private sector’s contribution to the SDGs, and in reporting on it in a consistent matter.
• promoting the adoption of the core FAO indicators by Reporting Organizations.

As of Nov 2020, the first 4 stage of the project have been completed, including the project initiation, desk study, methodology development, and the internal peer review. The mains tasks for the next step is the external peer review and the pilot test. Under the immediate supervision of the project manager, the selected candidate will work in organizing the external peer review and pilot tests, coordinating with stakeholders including international standard setting organizations, Business Enterprises or consortia, Investment institutions, Government institutions, NGOs and academia, and UN Partners, and supporting the further development of the supplement guidance on Core Food and Agricultural Indicators for Measuring the Private Sector Contribution to the SDGs.

Tasks and responsibilities

The consultant will undertake the following tasks:

• Support the external review process, including preparing the communications and materials for the working group meetings and organizing the working group meeting, etc;
• Summarise the comments from the external review, and complete the final revised draft of the external review;
• Coordinate with the target countries and target companies of the pilot test, cooperate with the stakeholders to prepare the pilot plan and establish a unified reporting standard;
• Develop the standardized reporting tools for the pilot test as well as guidance material;
• Organize the online training on the application of the core indicator framework for the focal points, prepare the training materials, establish the mechanism for communication and reporting;
• Collect the comments and feedbacks in the pilot test, verify and analyze the possible problems in the application of the indicators
• Draft the pilot test report and propose amendments to the Core indicator framework;
• Assist in proceeding with the required validation process for the publication of the Core Food and Agricultural Indicators for Measuring the Private Sector Contribution to the SDGs (Core indicator framework);
• Assist in organizing the editing, layout and dissemination of the Core indicator framework.

It is also expected that the consultant provides general support to the private sector engagement activities of OCS as required.

CANDIDATES WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE FOLLOWING

Minimum Requirements

• University degree in Finance, Accountancy, Business Administration, Economics, Public Administration & Policy or related field
• At least 2 years of relevant experience in Corporate sustainability reporting or financial and non-financial accounting within an enterprise, a business consortia and/or a standard-setting organization
• Working knowledge of English and limited knowledge of Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish. For PSA it can be required only one language.

FAO Core Competencies

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

Technical/Functional Skills

• Extended knowledge and experience in Corporate sustainability reporting or financial and non-financial accounting relevant for this position
• Good level of knowledge of economic, environmental, social and institutional sustainability issues in the food and agricultural sector and associated existing corporate disclosure;
• Cognizance of capital markets and capital market actors, including their ESG data need;
• Strong leadership skills and experience of building effective working relationships with peers;
• Good project management skills, and experience of managing multiple priorities consecutively;
• Familiarity with the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development and its implication for the private sector;
• Excellent oral and written communicate in English;