Data Specialist CCA/UNSDCF

Organizational Setting

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations that focuses on 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.

FAO is actively engaging in UN country level repositioning for SDG achievement, participating in the negotiation and formulation, as well as in the annual updates, of Common Country Assessments (CCA) and United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Frameworks (UNSDCF). In this context, the Organization, under the technical leadership of the Economic and Social Development stream and in close coordination with other headquarters technical units and Regional offices, is implementing a mechanism for scaling up the needed human resource analytical and technical expertise in support of the CCA/UNSDCF process at country level. The mechanism will leverage ongoing processes and initiatives already identified within the Organization and draw upon the most sophisticated tools available, including advanced geo-spatial modeling and analytics. The effort will draw upon FAO’s specialized tools and analytical methodologies, including sectoral, to propose specific solutions tailored to the country needs and potentials, to ensure a robust UNSDCF Theory of Change that positions FAO as the premier agrifood systems player in the UN system.

As part of the CCA/UNSDCF analytical support mechanism, it is identified that technical support is needed for establishing and maintaining a data platform, and for doing statistical analysis, that can facilitate the elaboration of diagnostics and analysis aimed to support proposals for policy support and dialogue. For this, a data specialist is needed as part of this support mechanism.

Reporting lines

The Data Specialist reports to the Regional Programme Leader (RPL) at the FAO Regional Office for Africa (RAF) and the Director of the Statistics Division (ESS Director) at FAO Headquarters.

Technical focus

Under the overall guidance and supervision of the RPL and ESS Director, the incumbent will support the Regional office and the FAO Country offices by coordinating technical support on data and indicators as part of the CCA/UNSDCF analytical support mechanism and their derivation to the respective Country Programming Framework.

Tasks and responsibilities

• As an input into the CCA and UNSDCF process and in coordination with the Statistics Division of FAO, support the development of the State of the agri-food systems data platform. The State of agri-food systems data platform aims to give the FAO country offices access to a selection of variables and datatables, coming from different sources to be used for a variety of diagnostics, analytical products and policy documents. It aims to contain basic relevant country data framed in the context of the 2030 Agenda and organized along the lines of the four betters and their 20 Programme Priority Areas. The support that the consultant will provide can be described as:

o Identification of statistical domains and variables that countries in the region need for the preparation of the country situation analysis report and their derivation to the Country Programming Framework.

o Identification of proper data sources and methodologies for collecting and their periodicity

o Elaboration of metadata files to be inserted in the platform according to the templates defined for that purpose.

o Support the design of the front end of the platform.

• After the platform has been developed, support its maintenance by identifying additional data domains and sources that are deemed to be important for the CCA and UNSDCF process and ensure their inclusion in the platform.

• Support the preparation and updating of the country situation analysis report by organizing the data the reports needs and preparing data tables, charts and analysis of the data as planned by the report.

• Provide support to FAO country representatives in technical backstopping to FAO participation in CCA and UNSDCF processes and their derivation to Country Programming Frameworks on data-related issues.

• Identify support requirements on data for country offices in terms of CCA and UNSDCF and their derivation to Country Programming Frameworks and propose solutions in coordination with the RPL.

• Provide related inputs for the Regional Overview of Food Security and Nutrition and other policy flagships, documents and publications

• Other tasks assigned by the immediate supervisor, according to the contractual objectives.

CANDIDATES WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE FOLLOWING

Minimum Requirements

• Advanced university degree (PhD, Msc or equivalent) in statistics, mathematics, economics, agricultural economics, or a related field

• At least five years of relevant experience in African countries in the compilation, analysis and methodological development of food and agricultural statistics in national or international organizations

• Working knowledge (level C) of English and limited knowledge (level B) of French as FAO Official languages are required

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, particularly in field positions is desirable

• 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

• Analytical skills and ability to express and synthesize ideas clearly and concisely, both orally and in writing, and demonstrated communication skills;

• Extended and relevant experience and knowledge of the main data sources used for the compilation of statistics; in data management and the compilation, validation and analysis of agricultural and food data; ability to analyze complex statistical-related issues; in developing statistical methodologies; in analysing statistical data and in writing reports using data

• Extended and relevant experience in the dissemination of statistical data; developing data platforms and related metadata

• Excellent proficiency in using statistical software, especially R, SPSS, STATA or similar software

• Extended and relevant experience in project implementation of technical assistance projects and training programmes

• Broad knowledge about the situation of agrifood systems in the region and local specificities

• Demonstrated experience in drafting technical reports/documents in English and an additional UN language is considered a strong asset