Economist and Data Analyst

**WFP celebrates and embraces diversity. It is committed to the principle of equal employment opportunity for all its employees and**

**gender, gender identity and/or expression, sexual orientation, religion or belief, HIV status, physical or mental disability.**

**Job Title**:Economist and Data Analyst

**Type of Contract**:Consultant

**Division: RAM / RAMAE - **Research, Assessment and Monitoring Division / Economic and Market Analysis Unit

**Duty Station (City, Country)**: HQ Rome, Italy

**Duration**:6 months (to commence ASAP, with possibility of extension)

**BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE PUBLIC PARTNERSHIP AND RESOURCING PPR DIVISION**:
The Economic and Market Analysis Unit of the Research, Assessment and Monitoring (RAM) Division is seeking to fill an _Economist_ position, who will be based at the United Nations World Food Programme Headquarters in Rome, Italy.

The RAM Division in leads WFP’s food security analysis, supporting a large network of analysts in Regional Bureaus and Country Offices. Food security analysis is a cornerstone of the organization’s work as it provides WFP, governments, and partners with the essential information to identify populations in need and target the most appropriate type and scale of interventions, as well as the necessary knowledge to inform policy decisions and advocacy efforts. Food security analyses include emergency and in-depth household and market assessments, spatial analysis, early warning information, food security and price monitoring, and economic and market trend analyses.

The Economic and Market Analysis Unit (RAMAE) is primarily responsible for global and local economic analysis, market studies, and price monitoring. The Unit supports WFP Country Offices worldwide, develops and implements new analytical tools, prepares guidelines, manages data visualization, conducts applied research, and contributes to advocacy campaigns. In particular, RAMAE main areas of work are as follows: a) developing novel methodologies to support market assessments and inform WFP operations by also maintaining a global market assessment database; b) maintaining a global food price database to undertake price analysis and publish global market monitor briefs; c) supporting analysis of essential needs and the development of minimum expenditure baskets to inform programme design; d) developing modelling techniques to predict the impact of various types of shocks on food security and how assistance can counteract these effects; e) monitoring global economic trends: and f) undertaking a range of on-demand research work such as the impact of COVID-19 on global food security.

RAMAE is recruiting an _Economist_ who will be the focal point to support WFP Country Offices with market assessments conducted with the Market Functionality Index (MFI), and will maintain WFP’s global market assessment database that hosts data for 52 countries and 2,400 markets. The incumbent will also contribute to the work of the Unit in general, in particular supporting economic briefs, price and exchange rate analysis, the publication of the monthly Market Monitor, the release of the Cost of a Plate of Food yearly update and other tasks as relevant.

**ACCOUNTABILITIES/RESPONSIBILITIES**:
Under the supervision of the Senior Economist and Market Specialist of RAMAE and in close collaboration with RAMAE team leader, the _Economist_ will have the following responsibilities:

- Support the development and scale-up of the Market Functionality Index (MFI):

- Be the focal point for support requests from WFP Country Offices and Regional Bureaus.
- Manage the MFI database and backstop and guide data collection and uploading through DataBridges to the corporate market assessment database.
- Improve the MFI end-to-end data pipeline.
- Perform data analysis to improve the performance and interpretation of the MFI results.
- Support a validation study and test if the MFI can be used as a predictor for food security.
- Lead the content creation and roll-out of MFI capacity development products.
- Support the development of market assessment tools, also in the context of essential needs analysis
- Contribute to the update and visualization of the monthly VAM Market Monitor.
- Update the _Cost of a Plate of Food_ index as requested_._
- Support content creation for capacity development products for the Unit.
- Support Country Offices and Regional Bureaus with economic briefs, price and market analyses and field missions as required
- Any other assigned task.

**DELIVERABLES AT THE END OF THE CONTRACT**:

- Up-to-date MFI database.
- MFI capacity development package.
- Final version of the MFI validation study.
- Monthly Market Monitor online dashboard published.
- Cost of a Plate of Food update.

**QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE REQUIRED**:
**Education**:
Advanced university degree in economics, development economics, food security, statistics, or similar relevant discipline.

Coursework/trainings in econometrics,