National Economist (Livestock/Animal Health)

Organizational Setting

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations. With presently 194 member states, FAO works in more than 130 countries worldwide, including Vietnam where the Organization has operated since 1978. The current Country Programming Framework (CPF) for the period of 2017‑2021 has four priority areas: (1) Increased food security with focus on alleviation of hunger, malnutrition and food safety concerns; (2) Sustainable development of the agriculture sectors, contributing to the national Green Growth and other strategies on improved natural resources management and environment protection; (3) New Rural Development and Sustainable Poverty Reduction; and (4) Enhanced resilience of communities to disasters and threats. The incumbent’s tasks will mainly contribute to the fourth priority area.

Reporting Lines

The incumbent will work under the overall guidance of the FAO Representative in Viet Nam, the technical supervision of the FAO Headquarters’ Livestock Policy Lab (LPL) team and overall supervision of ECTAD Senior Technical Coordinator of the Emergency Center for Transboundary Animal Disease (ECTAD) in Viet Nam and in close coordination with FAO ECTAD team and government partners.

Technical Focus:

FAO ECTAD in collaboration with Livestock Policy Lab (LPL) are supporting the government of Vietnam in identifying windows of opportunity for policy reforms and investments to enhance the level of performance, sustainability and animal health status of the pig sector. The livestock economist will support the LPL team in generating robust analytical evidences oriented to facilitate policy and investment decision processes. In particular, the incumbent will support the gathering of information and application of policy methods to determine the level of the competitiveness of the pig sector in international markets, estimate the wider socioeconomic effects of increasing the productivity of the sector, and assess the cost and benefits of implementing animal health related interventions to improve the health status of the sector.

Tasks and responsibilities:

• collaborate in the building process of a Vietnam database of the Livestock Policy Simulation Model (LPSM).
• help in (a) building a Social Accounting Matrix (SAM) using the most recent supply and use tables; (b)
• disaggregate the SAM to single out the pig sector as well as other productive sectors relevant to the livestock value chain;
• gather other non-SAM data required to calibrate LPSM and generate its baseline scenario.
• help in defining the non-base (or counterfactual) scenarios that will be assessed using LPSM.
• collaborate with the data gathering process and budgets preparation in order to estimate nominal and effective protection coefficients for the pork production and marketing chain, in order to assess its current and potential competitiveness within the context of international markets.

CANDIDATES WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE FOLLOWING

Minimum Requirements

• Master degree in economics, agriculture economics, development economics, animal health economics, or related fields;
• At least 7 years of relevant experience in quantitative policy analysis;
• Working knowledge of English and excellent analytical writing skills;
• Experience in the publication of academic papers is peer review journals;
• Excellent computer skills with experience using software such as R, GAMS, or STATA;
• National of Vietnam

FAO Core Competencies

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

Selection Criteria

• Experience in quantitative policy analysis
• Experience in working with Government agencies is an asset.