Statistician

Job Posting: 12/Feb/2025

Closure Date: 26/Feb/2025, 4:59:00 PM

Organizational Unit: ESS - Statistics

Job Type: Non-staff opportunities

Type of Requisition: Consultant / PSA (Personal Services Agreement)

Grade Level: N/A

Primary Location: Italy-Rome

Duration: Up to 11 months, renewable

Post Number: N/A

IMPORTANT NOTICE: Please note that Closure Date and Time displayed above are based on date and time settings of your personal device
- FAO is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality, background and culture.
- Qualified female applicants, qualified nationals of non-and under-represented Members and person with disabilities are encouraged to apply;
- Everyone who works for FAO is required to adhere to the highest standards of integrity and professional conduct, and to uphold FAO's values
- FAO, as a Specialized Agency of the United Nations, has a zero-tolerance policy for conduct that is incompatible with its status, objectives and mandate, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination
- FAO’s commitment to environmental sustainability is integral to our strategic objectives and operations._

**Organizational Setting**

The Statistics Division (ESS) develops and advocates for the implementation of methodologies and standards for data collection, validation, processing and analysis, in the food and agriculture statistics domains. In these statistical domains, it also plays a key role in the compilation, processing and dissemination of internationally comparable data, and provides essential capacity building in support of Member Nations. The Division also disseminates publications, working papers and statistical yearbooks, that cover agriculture and food security statistics, including prices, investments, production, trade and agri-environmental statistical data. Finally, as the ESS Director also plays the role of FAO Chief Statistician, the Division supports the various functions of the Chief Statistician, that is to ensure stronger governance of FAO's data and statistical system, foster consistency of FAO's Data and Statistical programme within the Strategic Framework, ensure statistical excellence through the implementation of statistical standards and quality assurance mechanisms, and position FAO's presence in data and statistical discussions at global level.

The aim of this Call for Expression of Interest is to populate a roster of consultants and subscribers of Personal Service Agreements (PSAs) for the Data Quality Unit and the Data and Statistics and Coordination Team of ESS at FAO headquarters in Rome, Italy.

The Data Quality Unit aims to ensure that the Organization produces and disseminates high-quality data and statistics related to its mandate. The unit develops, updates and implements corporate quality frameworks, policies, standards, procedures and tools to ensure that statistical processes are sound and disseminated data and statistics are of the highest possible quality. It also monitors the quality of FAO data and statistics and supports FAO technical units in improving their compliance to internal quality policies, standards and procedures. Finally, it provides quality assurance support and tools to countries to improve the quality of food and agriculture data and statistics produced at the national level.

The Data and Statistics Coordination Team supports the governance and coordination of FAO’s data and statistical activities, both within FAO and within the broader international data and statistical community. It oversees the planning, monitoring and reporting on FAO data and statistical programme of work and more generally supports the monitoring of FAO’s corporate results. It coordinates FAO’s role as custodian agency for 21 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Indicators. Finally, it acts as focal point for any queries on intellectual property matters concerning FAO databases.

**Reporting Lines**

**Technical Focus**

**Tasks and responsibilities**
- Provide support to ensure the quality of statistical outputs produced and disseminated by FAO.
- Provide support to the development and review of corporate statistical policies, standards, procedures and tools to regulate and improve the quality of FAO statistical production processes and data assets based on the Generic statistical business process model (GSBPM) and FAO Statistics and Data Quality Assurance Framework.
- Contribute to the implementation of quality assurance, control and audit mechanisms to monitor quality of FAO statistical processes and data assets, including data and statistics produced for non-traditional data sources such as earth observation and other big data.
- Contribute to the implementation of FAO's Quality Assessment and Planning Survey (QAPS) which gathers information on all FAO's statistical activities and information systems included in FAO Biennial Statistical Programme of Work and assesses the extent to which they