Senior Economist

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FAO - Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

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Application deadline 2 years ago: Monday 9 Aug 2021 at 21:59 UTC

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Organizational Setting FAO's Subregional Office for Gulf Cooperation Council States and Yemen (SNG) is responsible for developing, promoting, overseeing and implementing agreed strategies for transforming food, agriculture and rural development priorities. It also develops and maintains relations with subregional wide institutions. The Subregional Office is a subsidiary of FAO Regional Office for Near East and North Africa region. The Abu Dhabi Agriculture and Food Safety Authority (ADAFSA) and SNG are implementing a 24-month project for the formulation of a Master Plan for Sustainable Agriculture in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi Emirate, United Arab Emirates (herewith referred to as 'the project'). The specific outcome of the project is to equip ADAFSA with a comprehensive planning and monitoring tool and a roadmap for the sustainable development of diversified and integrated agricultural production system in the three regions of Abu Dhabi Emirate (Al Ain, Al Dhafra and Abu Dhabi). The project will support the rollout of related investment programmes. By assisting ADAFSA to develop a Master Plan for the agricultural sector, the project contributes to the UAE's National Food Security Strategy 2051, approved by the Council of Ministers in November 2018. The Strategy lays the foundations to transform the food and agriculture sectors in the country. The project activities will be geared towards four outputs and will lead to the development of a Master Plan through a sequential, logical, inclusive and consultation process. The key deliverables of the project will include: (a) a Theory of Change for the Master Plan; (b) a decision support tool; (c) preparatory studies to inform the Master Plan; and (d) the Master Plan document, based on the above deliverables.

Reporting Lines The Senior Economist reports to The Senior Economist reports to the Chief Technical Adviser, under overall supervision of FAO Subregional Coordinator for the Gulf Cooperation Council States and Yemen and FAO Representative in the United Arab Emirates. He/she will work in close coordination of the Project Lead Technical Officer (LTO) and various technical divisions at FAO headquarters and with technical units at the Regional Office for the Near East and North Africa (RNE), and in close collaboration with the ADAFSA and FAO assigned taskforces.

Technical Focus Lead, conduct and coordinate economic quantitative and qualitative analysis on a broad range of issues in relation to the decision support tool and the preparatory analytical studies for the Master Plan for Sustainable Agriculture in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi Emirate, United Arab Emirates.

Key Results Leadership and conceptual thinking for the development and implementation of comprehensive technical, statistical and/or analytical frameworks to support the programme of work and related products, projects and services in accordance with the FAO’s Strategic Framework.

Key Functions • Plans, manages, or leads highly specialized or multidisciplinary teams, leads, coordinates, and/or participates in Organization-wide, cross-divisional committees, project teams, and working groups, and/or provides technical leadership/secretariat services on technical networks and/or international technical policy and standard setting bodies; • Analyses global and country specific requirements as well as agricultural, economic, social, environmental factors to provide critical input into the FAO’s Strategic Framework, Programme of Work as well as Detailed Work Plans and the supporting budgets and/or resourcing strategies; • Implements and monitors work programmes involving the conception and development of comprehensive statistical and/or analytical frameworks including early warning, medium- and long-term plans and strategies, leading edge tools, methods, systems and databases, critical indicators, and/or policy models, etc. • Oversees and reviews data collection, validation, analysis and reporting activities to support the development of technical standards, international instruments, innovation, FAO flagship publications/yearbooks, and/or on-going programme development as well as technical and/or policy advisory services; • Provides technical and policy advice to Members and technical support to decentralised offices in the development and implementation of their programmes of work; • Plans, organizes and participates in capacity development activities involving the provision of advice, technical assistance projects, training workshops, seminars, and meetings as well as oversees the development of related materials, online tools and information kits; • Represents the Organization at international/inter-governmental meetings and conferences, advocates strategic partnerships, best practices, and increased policy dialogue and develops and negotiates effective working relationships/consensus and agreements with international and national partners; • Leads and/or participates in resource mobilization activities in accordance with the Corporate strategy.

Specific Functions • Identifies key informants and priority sites for data collection, consistency or monitoring, and/or facilitates high-quality technical group discussions and interviews; • Collates and organizes relevant data in the form of primary sources or liaises with ADAFSA to identify and collect data from secondary sources; • Provides technical inputs to a cost-benefit analysis of main crops, livestock and aquaculture production models; • Contributes to analyse the competitiveness and competitive advantage of Abu Dhabi production and the existing economic capacities of farms in integrating new technologies and diversifying production systems; • Contributes to analyse the structures and functioning of selected priority value chains and their performance from an economic, social and environmental points of view, taking into account FAO Sustainable Value Chains approach; • Leads and provides technical inputs to assess the public and private financing context for investments in view of identifying key investment opportunities and gaps; and contributes to the write-ups and drafting of the programmed actions to be included in the Master Plan; • Organizes, participates or facilitates technical quality meetings and consultative workshops and international missions, coordinating inputs and ensuring consistency of inputs from technical teams; • Reviews all relevant agricultural and economic policies and programmes in ADAFSA; • Contributes to the policy dialogue efforts of the project with stakeholders and identify actionable and high-quality recommendations for improving the Theory of Change; decision support tool; preparatory studies; technical reports and briefs for the Master Plan; • Contributes to the drafting of the project work plans and periodic progress and monitoring reports, and communication materials; • Participates in and contributes to the drafting of the Master Plan; • Provides technical inputs for the design of a monitoring system for the Master Plan and ensures that the associated training session to be provided to the ADASFA staff for this purpose is conducted timely; • Performs other duties as required.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________ CANDIDATES WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE FOLLOWING

Minimum Requirements • Advanced university degree in economics, agricultural economics, natural resources economics, agribusiness management or a related field; • Ten years of relevant experience in economic and quantitative analysis of food and agricultural issues, natural resources use, or related areas in the formulation and implementation of food security, agriculture, rural development, agribusiness investment operations, water and natural resource management and related analytical studies; • Working knowledge of English and limited knowledge of another FAO official language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish).

Competencies • Results Focus • Leading, Engaging and Empowering Others • Communication • Partnering and Advocating • Knowledge Sharing and Continuous Improvement • Strategic Thinking

Technical/Functional Skills • Work experience in more than one location or area of work, particularly in field positions is essential; • Extent and relevance of experience or knowledge of on food security policies and institutions, and agricultural production systems particularly in arid agro ecological regions and in the context of limited agricultural and natural resources; • Extent and relevance of experience in food security policy analysis, and in developing sector studies, agricultural transformation, strategic documents or national investment plans; • Extent and relevance of experience in planning and implementation of programmes related to high-level strategic studies at country or regional level or technical advice in policy analysis to governments and/or development organizations; • Strong analytical skills, ability to evaluate and to appraise critically quantitative and qualitative information; • Ability to mobilise resources; • Extent and relevance of experience in organizing international meetings, seminars and training courses.

Added 2 years ago - Updated 2 years ago - Source: fao.org