National Project Coordinator

This opening expired 1 year ago. Do not try to apply for this job.

FAO - Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

Open positions at FAO
Logo of FAO

Application deadline 1 year ago: Tuesday 29 Nov 2022 at 22:59 UTC

Open application form

Organizational Setting

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) is implementing the Country Programming Framework (CPF) for Namibia which sets out four government priority areas to guide FAO partnership with, and support to the Government of the Republic of Namibia. The Government of Namibia have recently taken significant actions to strengthen its national statistical systems. The Namibia Statistics Agency (NSA) is in the final stages of developing its National Strategy for the Development of Statistics (NSDS) covering the period 2022/23-2026/27 and an Agriculture Sector Statistics Plan (SSP). Provision of reliable and timely data for informing national policies in the agricultural and rural sector is however prompting the need to have a strategic plan for agricultural and rural statistics (SPARS) in place that fully integrates but goes beyond the SSP. To this end, FAO is collaborating with the NSA on the implementation of the Technical Cooperation Project: Development of Strategic Plan for Agricultural and Rural Statistics (SPARS) in Namibia and the Development of the Namibia Census of Agriculture Project Document. Given the above, FAO requires the service of a National Project Coordinator who will be responsible for supporting the Namibia National Statistics Agency (NSA) in assessing the situation, meet stakeholders and prepare a census project document.

Reporting Lines

The work will be under the overall supervision of the FAO Representative in Namibia and under direct supervision of the Assistant FAO Representative (Programme), as well as the Senior Statistician (Leader, Agricultural Censuses Team), Statistics Division (ESS) and Economic & Social Development Department (ES) FAO, Rome.

Technical Focus

The Coordinator will support with the development SPARS and Agriculture Census document will require:

  • the buy-in of all relevant stakeholders in the Agriculture National Statistical Systems and the data users community;
  • the creation of an inter-agency technical working group in charge of supporting the SPARS development process;
  • the definition and endorsement by national authorities of the SPARS roadmap;
  • the assessment of the rural and agriculture statistical needs (agriculture statistics being defined in a broad sense covering not only statistics related to crop, livestock and livestock products but also forestry, fishery and aquaculture statistics) taken into consideration national, regional and international data demands, in particular for SDG monitoring;
  • the assessment of the current capacity of the NSS to produce the needed statistics;
  • the identification and prioritization of data, skills, governance and infrastructure gaps that needs to be addressed, and their delineation into strategic objectives and expected results;
  • the development of an overall action plan and budget for the implementation of these objectives and results; and,
  • the final endorsement of the SPARS document by national authority and the mobilization of adequate resources for its implementation.

Tasks and responsibilities

The Coordinator will perform the following tasks:

  • Carry out the overall development of the SPARS, including assisting collaboration efforts with relevant stakeholders and following the principles and workplan established in the SPARS roadmap;
  • Ensure that the preparation of the SPARS falls within the National Strategy for the Development of Statistics (2022/23-2026/27) and is aligned with Namibia’s Agriculture Sector Statistics Plan (SSP);
  • Assist FAO and the NSA in establishing the SPARS Steering Committee, the technical working group and the technical subgroups, and in collecting relevant information during the initial phase by:
  • supporting the identification of the right counterparts across the National statistical system;
  • organizing/conducting introductory meetings with key stakeholders to ensure their buy-in;
  • collecting and distributing relevant documents for the desktop review;
  • participating in the recruitment of the international consultants and the administrative assistant foreseen for this project.
  • Oversee all communications with the SPARS Steering Committee and supervise the technical working group elaborating the SPARS, including the work of its sectoral subgroups;
  • Convene and participate in the regular meetings of the technical working group and technical subgroups;
  • Coordinate the activities of national and international consultants in charge of supporting the SPARS design process;
  • Assists with stakeholder consultation to ensure that the SPARS process is inclusive and participatory;
  • Organize, together with FAO and the NSA, the SPARS launching workshop, the validation workshop of the SPARS roadmap, the workshop aimed at presenting the assessment findings and the national validation workshop of the SPARS document, in particular:
  • Assist in the identification of the focal points in each relevant organization, oversee the dispatch of invitation letters and use convening powers to ensure a good attendance;
  • Oversee the organization of the workshop logistics;
  • Oversee the preparation and distribution of all relevant documents and communication material in support to the workshops;
  • Make sure that workshop reports are prepared and distributed.
  • Contribute to the development and endorsement of the SPARS roadmap detailing the objectives, the expected results and outputs of the SPARS process, the overall methodology of design (principles of elaboration, governance structure, roles and responsibilities of interveners), the main methodological approach proposed for assessing data demands and the evolving national and international environment and a detailed timeline. Ensure that the roadmap foresees an evaluation of Somalia’s food security and agriculture statistics systems in the light of the national and international data needs and commitments, including the 21 SDG indicators under FAO custodianship.
  • Coordinate the preparation of all reports listed in the roadmap (e.g. the workshop reports, roadmap, assessment findings and SPARS documents), including by coordinating closely with the international consultants and the working groups in charge of the preparing the necessary inputs; and ensure that they are submitted on a timely basis to the SPARS Steering Committee or to all other coordinating groups in charge of approving the main steps of the SPARS design;
  • Ensure that the final SPARS document is prepared in accordance with the principles recommended in the roadmap and based on comments received, and disseminated publicly;
  • Support the organization of a high-level policy dialogue and round table for mobilizing funding for the implementation of the SPARS.
  • Ensure that there is a coordination mechanism in place to coordinate and monitor the implementation of the SPARS.
  • Regularly report on progress to the Project team;

CANDIDATES WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE FOLLOWING

Minimum Requirements

The Coordinator must have:

  • At least 3 years of professional experience in project management and/or public administration.
  • University degree in Agriculture, Statistics or Natural Resource Management.
  • Working knowledge of English.
  • National or Resident of Namibia.

Technical/Functional Skills

  • Extent and relevance of experience of natural sciences, statistics and economics.
  • Familiarity with National policy landscape in Fisheries, Statistics and Agriculture.
  • The capability to work in a multidisciplinary team and to draft reports clearly and concisely, good oral and written communication skills.
  • Good knowledge of Namibia’s government structure and international actors present in the countries in general and in the agriculture national statistical systems in particular (including the data user community).
  • Good knowledge of the principles underlying the management, production, dissemination and quality of official statistics in general and agricultural and rural statistics in particular
Added 1 year ago - Updated 1 year ago - Source: fao.org