Agriculture is a key sector for the Saudi economy and an important pillar in Saudi Vision 2030. One of the goals of Saudi Vision 2030 is to achieve food security and reduce reliance on agricultural imports, as shown by the Covid19 pandemic, which caused supply chain delays. Current Agriculture publications were designed in accordance with UN Agriculture Statistics guidelines in order to comply with international recommendations requiring transparency in agricultural statistics reporting...

General Authority for Statistics (GASTAT), (Agriculture Statistics Department) need to further enhance the statistical reporting on Agriculture by developing statistics publications and implement them within GASTAT.

In this respect the agriculture statistics expert is needed to be working on improving current agriculture statistics in several ways that are specified in Scope of Work.

Duties and Responsibilities

Scope of Work

In order to support GASTAT in the preparation of the next three-year Agriculture Statistics plan, UNDP is seeking an Agriculture Expert to review the current Agriculture statistical publications.

The scope of the assignment will be to carry out the following exercises with the objectives to improve quality of current products and develop new ones that would help decision makers as well as Agriculture -related organizations make sense of all Agriculture -related activities. The Consultant will be required to:

Benchmark the current statistical products on agriculture with the best practices around the world and provide gap-analysis report on where improvement is needed.
The gap-analysis exercise should include suggestions for new indicators/statistical publications that re-organizes and suggests agriculture statistics products in a way that is aligned with country’s reality and flexible enough to accommodate its vision of improving agriculture business.
Build and review the Food Balance Sheet for the agricultural products.
Support the Department for assigned tasks by studying challenges notably in the indicators of sustainable development goals (SDGs).

Technical support

Study the availability and the quality of Administrative data and suggest how they could be used for the different publications produced by GASTAT, even outside Agriculture Statistics Department.
Design the agriculture statistics and advise on a plan for its indicators’ (Design, data collection, processing, analyzing, and dissemination) that is aligned with the Generic Statistical Business Process Model (GSBPM): https://statswiki.unece.org/display/GSBPM. Ensuring that all data sources are used (Administrative, Surveys, Big Data) when appropriate and enhancing Survey questionnaires to better capture needed information.
Provide advice and methodology of implementation for improving (geospatial data/big data/alternative data) intakes to better reflect agriculture reality within the country.
Harmonize country’s agricultural statistics in accordance with internationally accepted definitions at all levels: national, regional and global.
Design and define the business requirements for an Agriculture Statistics Database platform, support its implementation, and advise on the application of methodologies to data analysis;
Determining the adequate size for the sample (in agriculture surveys) considering the financial resources, timeframe and the objectives of the survey; Designing methods for calculating weights for survey data and estimating sampling errors;
Prepare charts, graphs and other outputs for reporting and presentation of various data in agriculture statistics different publications; and advise on how agriculture statistics should be checked (statistically) and quality assured before publication.
Assist in liaising with international entities regarding capacity building and knowledge sharing to improve agriculture statistics reporting.
Perform any other relevant tasks requested by the supervisor.

Capacity Development

In addition to delivering the abovementioned technical support, the Agriculture Statistics Expert will advise Agriculture Statistics Department on principles and best practice in relation to Agriculture Statistics methodologies and frameworks.
Delivering training to Agriculture Statistics Department staff in calculating Agriculture and maintaining Agriculture databases.
Providing coaching and on-the-job-training for the Agriculture Statistics Department staff as needed.

Expected Deliverables and Outputs

Deliverables

Breakdown with details

Time frame

Deliverable 1:

Report submission of the current situation as well as the benchmark and gap-analysis.

7 Working Days

Deliverable 2:

Submission of first draft of “Design and review of the agriculture statistics (surveys and publication templates) and advise on a plan for its indicators (Design, data collection, processing, analysing, and dissemination)”

12 Working Days

Deliverable 3:

Monitoring of Food Security indicators including FIES (methodology, Tables’ Template, Bulletin Template)

7 Working Days

Deliverable 4:

Submission of Food Balance Sheet Statistical Publications’(methodology, Tables’ Template, Bulletin Template)

10 Working Days

Deliverable 5:

Reporting on how and where (geospatial data, big data, and alternative data) could be used to inform statistical production of agriculture statistics; and reflecting such recommendations on the other deliverables listed in this table whenever appropriate.

7 Working Days

Deliverable 6:

Submission of SDGs: Agricultural- related indicators with template design, methodologies, formula, data sources, etc. in a way that easier reporting of those indicators.

7 Working Days

Deliverable 7:

Envision and design a Agriculture Statistics Business Platform

7 Working Days

Deliverable 8:

Training and coaching of staff

3 days of training and coaching

Total of Working Days

60 Working Days

4. Institutional Arrangement

The consultant will report to the UNDP and the Department of agriculture statistics.
The consultant is also required to comply with the UN security directives set forth under http://dss.un.org
The consultant will be given access to relevant information necessary for execution of the tasks under this assignment.
The consultant is responsible for providing their own laptop computers and mobile phones for use during this assignment; the consultant must have access to reliable internet connection.
Payments will be made upon submission of deliverable, and certification of payment form, and acceptance and confirmation by the supervisor.

Travel and Insurance:

UNDP will cover the cost of travel of the individual to the duty station, as well as their return to their home upon completion of their services. Travel costs are covered only in the event that the function will be undertaken physically in the duty station and excludes working from home arrangements

Competencies

Required skills and competencies

Ability to provide statistical technical advice on different sectors/theme.
Ability to work on own initiative as well as a member of a team and to work under pressure.
Excellent interpersonal skills, including the ability to establish strong cooperative relationships.
Ability to work on any of the statistical packages (notably R software and Excel) to analyze data.
Good understanding and practice of capacity development.

Desired additional skills and competencies

Previous experience in providing advisory support on agriculture development.

Experience working with international organizations like FAO.

Required Language(s) (at working level)

Excellent command of English, Arabic is a plus

Professional Certificates

Master degree or PhD (preferred PhD)
Certification of Training courses / workshops related to the field of Agriculture
Proof of experience

Required Skills and Experience

Minimum Qualifications of the Successful Candidate

Min. Academic Education

Advanced university degree in economics, statistics and agriculture or any other relevant fields.

Min. years of relevant Work experience

At least 15 years of experience in providing consultancy services on agriculture statistics;

**. The following documents shall be required from the applicants:**

Personal CV or P11, indicating all past positions held and their main underlying functions, their durations (month/year), the qualifications, as well as the contact details (email and telephone number) of the Candidate, and at least three (3) the most recent professional references of previous supervisors. References may also include peers.
A cover letter (maximum length: 1 page) indicating why the candidate considers him-/herself to be suitable for the position.
The Professional Certificates mentioned above.

8. Annexes to the TOR

N/A

The following documents shall be required from the applicants:

Personal CV or P11, indicating all past positions held and their main underlying functions, their durations (month/year), the qualifications, as well as the contact details (email and telephone number) of the Candidate, and at least three (3) the most recent professional references of previous supervisors. References may also include peers.
A cover letter (maximum length: 1 page) indicating why the candidate considers him-/herself to be suitable for the position.
The Professional Certificates mentioned above.

8. Annexes to the TOR

N/A

Recommended Presentation of Offer:

Recommended Presentation of Offer Interested individual consultants must submit the following to demonstrate their suitability for the assignment.

Duly accomplished Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability using the template provided by UNDP;
Personal CV or UNDP P11, indicating all past experience from similar projects, as well as, the contact details (email and telephone number) of the Candidate and at least three (3) professional references;
Financial Proposal that indicates the all-inclusive fixed total contract price, supported by a breakdown of costs, as per template provided. If an Offeror is employed by an organization/company/institution, and he/she expects his/her employer to charge a management fee in the process of releasing him/her to UNDP under Reimbursable Loan Agreement(RLA), the Offeror must indicate at this point and ensure that all such costs are duly incorporated in the financial proposal submitted to UNDP.
Design portfolio, including a,) a brief description of why the individual considers her/himself as the most suitable for the assignment; and b) at least five examples of mastery of basic design principles including typography, line, form, color, pattern, contrast scale, weight; creative data visualization capacity, multiple language designs, multiple audience designs and/ or advocacy/campaign designs.

2. Evaluation

Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the following methodologies:

Step I: Screening and desk review:

Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the following methodology.

Technical Criteria (CV review and Desk Review/Interview optional) – maximum 70 points. Only candidates who obtained at least 70% of points from the CV desk review (who will score at least 49 points) will be considered for the next stage of evaluation, i.e. financial evaluation.

Applications will be first screened and only candidates meeting the following minimum criteria will progress to the pool for shortlisting:

Advanced university degree in economics, statistics and agriculture or any other relevant fields.
At least 15 years of experience in providing consultancy services on agriculture statistics;
Ability to provide statistical technical advice on different sectors/theme.
Ability to work on own initiative as well as a member of a team and to work under pressure.
Excellent interpersonal skills, including the ability to establish strong cooperative relationships.
Ability to work on any of the statistical packages (notably R software and Excel) to analyze data.
Good understanding and practice of capacity development.

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 49 points (70% of the total technical points) would be considered for the Financial Evaluation.

Weight Per Technical Competence

5 (outstanding): 96% - 100%

The individual consultant/contractor has demonstrated an OUTSTANDING capacity for the analyzed competence.

4 (Very good): 86% - 95%

The individual consultant/contractor has demonstrated a VERY GOOD capacity for the analyzed competence.

3 (Good): 76% - 85%

The individual consultant/contractor has demonstrated a GOOD capacity for the analyzed competence.

2 (Satisfactory): 70% - 75%

The individual consultant/contractor has demonstrated a SATISFACTORY capacity for the analyzed competence.

1 (Weak): Below 70%

The individual consultant/contractor has demonstrated a WEAK capacity for the analyzed competence.

UNDP applies the “Best value for money approach” – the final selection will be based on the combination of the applicants’ qualification and financial proposal.

Financial proposal – Maximum 30 points

Duly accomplished Confirmation of Interest and Submission of Financial Proposal Template using the template provided by UNDP (Annex II)

PRICE PROPOSAL AND SCHEDULE OF PAYMENTS

The contractor shall submit a price proposal as below:

The total professional fee shall be converted into a lump-sum contract and payments under the contract shall be made on submission and acceptance of deliverables under the contract in accordance with the schedule of payment linked with deliverables. Financial proposal should include all relevant cost (consultancy fees, all envisaged travel costs, living allowances, etc.).

Financial evaluation - Total 30% (30 points)

The following formula will be used to evaluate the financial proposal:

p = y (µ/z), where

p = points for the financial proposal being evaluated

y = maximum number of points for the financial proposal

µ = price of the lowest-priced proposal

z = price of the proposal being evaluated

Interested applicants are advised to carefully review this advertisement and ensure that they meet the requirements and qualifications described.

Given the volume of applications that UNDP receives, only shortlisted offerors will be notified.

UNDP reserves the right to reject any incomplete applications.

Please be informed that we don’t accept applications submitted via email.

Interested Offerors are required to submit an application via UNDP Jobsite system as the application screening and evaluation will be done through UNDP Jobsite system. Please note that UNDP Jobsite system allows only one uploading of application documents, so please make sure that you merge all your documents into a single file. Your online application submission will be acknowledged where an email address has been provided. If you do not receive an email acknowledgement within 24 hours of submission, your application may not have been received. In such cases, please resubmit the application if necessary. Please combine all your documents into one (1) single PDF document as the system only allows to upload a maximum one document.

Any request for clarification/additional information on this procurement notice shall be communicated in writing to UNDP office or send to email mohammed.abbas@undp.org with a copy to nora.alzahid@undp.org While the Procurement Unit would endeavour to provide information expeditiously, only requests receiving at least 3 working days prior to the submission deadline will be entertained. Any delay in providing such information will not be considered as a reason for extending the submission deadline. The UNDP's response (including an explanation of the query but without identifying the source of inquiry) will be posted in the Individual Consultant (IC) Procurement Notice page as provided above. Therefore, all prospective Offerors are advised to visit the page regularly to make obtain update related to this Individual Consultant (IC) Procurement Notice

UNDP is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence.

UNDP does not tolerate sexual exploitation and abuse, any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment and discrimination. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks.

Interested applicants are advised to carefully review this advertisement and ensure that they meet the requirements and qualifications described.

https://procurement-notices.undp.org/view_notice.cfm?notice_id=96466

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Added 1 year ago - Updated 1 year ago - Source: jobs.undp.org