Government Finance Statistics Specialist

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FAO - Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

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Application deadline 3 years ago: Wednesday 9 Dec 2020 at 22:59 UTC

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Organizational Setting

The Office of Chief Statistician (OCS) is mandated to strengthen the coordination of FAO statistical activities and to oversee the Implementation of the organization’s responsibilities in global SDG reporting. Furthermore, OCS sets statistical standards for all data collection and dissemination activities of the organization, monitors its implementation across the statistical units and provides quality assurance to all FAO statistical processes and statistical outputs.

The data on Government Expenditure in Agriculture (GEA), collected annually from member countries by the Statistics Division (ESS), are used to compile one of the SDG indicators under FAO custodianship, SDG indicator 2.a.1 – Agriculture Orientation Index for Government Expenditures. The compilation of the FAO-relevant SDG indicators is under the responsibility of the Office of the Chief Statistician that coordinates initiatives of statistical capacity development to increase the country coverage of the GEA response rate.

Moreover, FAO aims to develop the National Quality Assurance Framework (NQAF) for food and agricultural statistics to allow to evaluate the quality of the statistical data produced by countries and submitted to FAO. Having the possibly to give a score to country data would increase the trust of the users in the national and international statistics published by FAO. The consultant will work in close consultation with relevant teams in ESS and with the Task Team of the UNCEAG established for this purpose, which include both countries and other international organizations.

Reporting Lines

Consultants and PSA subscribers in OCS will work under the immediate supervision of the Chief Statistician. They are required to work in close collaboration with the other staff in OCS and with the relevant teams in ESS, which are responsible for collecting, processing and disseminating GEA and other agricultural datasets and for reporting SDG Indicators to the UN..

Technical Focus

Consultants will work in one or both of the following statistical domains:

  • Provide technical advice on the organization and the implementation of capacity development activities on compiling GEA series and on deriving indicator 2.a.1, under the supervision of the Chief Statistician, and in consultation with the Economic Statistics Team Leader;
  • Provide technical advice on the development of a National Quality Assurance Framework for key variables of Food and Agricultural Statistics, based on the experience of the IMF Data Quality Assurance Frameworks for economic statistics datasets and the standard on the generic National Quality Assurance Framework developed by the UN. This exercise will identify the “gold standard” for ensuring the qualitative aspects for the compilation of the key variables of Food and Agricultural Statistics.

Tasks and responsibilities

  • Identify the priority countries in need of technical assistance and a strategy for delivering effective support to countries for the regular production of the indicator;
  • Revise the available training material and exercises;
  • Organize distance learning initiatives to the selected group of priority countries;
  • Provide remotely Technical Assistance to the national agencies and officers in charge of the compilation of the GEA questionnaire and SDG Indicator 2.a.1;
  • Identify the “gold standard” for ensuring the qualitative aspects for the compilation of the key variables of Food and Agricultural Statistics
  • Submit an end of assignment report, summarizing the work done and the material produced under the contract recommendations for follow-up actions.

CANDIDATES WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE FOLLOWING

Minimum Requirements

  • Advanced university degree in Statistics, Economics, Public Finance or a related field.
  • 1 year of relevant experience in national and/or international organizations in the compilation and analysis of Government expenditure.
  • Working knowledge of English, French or Spanish and limited knowledge of one of the other two or Arabic, Chinese, Russian.

FAO Core Competencies

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

Technical/Functional Skills

  • Extent of knowledge and relevance of experience in compiling Government Finance Statistics in national and/or international organizations
  • Extent of knowledge and relevance of experience in national accounts methodology
  • Extent and relevance of experience in the formulation of technical assistance projects, provision of technical support and preparation/implementation of training programmes in the field of Government Finance Statistics
  • Excellent oral and written communication skills
  • Ability to work independently, with minimum supervision
  • Knowledge of the IMF’s Government Finance Statistics Manual (GFSM 2001/2014) will be an asset,
  • Familiarity with the IMF Data Quality Assurance Frameworks for economic statistics will be an asset.
Added 3 years ago - Updated 3 years ago - Source: fao.org