Statistician Specialist

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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 All selected candidates will undergo rigorous reference and background checks All applications will be treated with the strictest confidentiality

Organizational Setting

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Subregional Office for the Pacific (SAP) covers Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, Republic of Marshall Islands, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu. FAO SAP is responsible for developing, promoting, overseeing and implementing agreed strategies for addressing subregional agriculture, food, nutrition and rural development priorities. FAO SAP develops and maintains relations with subregion-wide institutions including the Council of Regional Organizations in the Pacific (CROP). The Subregional Office is a subsidiary of FAO's Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (RAP) in Bangkok.

FAO SAP is recruiting a long-term Statistician Consultant/PSA who will provide technical leadership over its Statistics Portfolio that informs FAO, governments, and other development partners' programming and decision-making with the relevant evidence base.

Reporting Lines

The Statistician Specialist will work under the overall supervision of the FAO Subregional Coordinator, and direct supervision of the Food and Nutrition Officer for the Subregional Office for the Pacific Islands.

Technical Focus

• Sustainable Development Goals indicators related to food and agriculture.
• Food balance sheets and Supply Utilization Accounts (agricultural production, trade, stocks, and other utilization statistics).
• Postharvest losses, food losses and food waste statistics.
• Food security and nutrition statistics.
• Crops, livestock, fisheries, aquaculture and forestry statistics.
• Prices, costs of production, investment and public expenditure statistics.
• National Accounts Statistics and System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA) on crop, livestock, fishing and forestry sub-sector including capital formation.
• Agro-environmental statistics including Fertilizers, Pesticides and Land Use.
• Climate change relevant statistics and indicators, including green house gas emissions.
• Poverty and rural poverty statistics, rural livelihoods statistics.
• Agricultural surveys and censuses.
• Agricultural and rural labour and decent work statistics, social protection statistics.
• Territorial statistics, including rural and rural livelihoods statistics.
• Geo-spatial statistical applications; Land cover/land use statistics.
• Statistics on resilience, damage and losses from hazardous events.
• Corporate statistical planning and corporate statistical policies.
• Quality assurance of statistical processes;International Definitions, Classifications and statistical standards.
• Monitoring and Evaluation of corporate results frameworks.

Tasks and responsibilities

• Lead strategic planning in agricultural and rural statistics.
• Provide technical advice, assistance and statistical capacity development services, including needs assessments.
• Design, prepare and manage of statistical projects.
• Lead statistical policy advocacy, communication and implementation.
• Produce a variety of technical reports and provide input in flagship publications, technical documents, departmental publications and/or web pages.
• Lead archiving, communication and dissemination of statistical products.
• Lead the organization, conduct and follow-up of meetings, consultations and conferences the development/production of required materials and the provision of information and assistance to partners.
• Perform other related duties as required.
• Lead methodological development (for data processing, analysis, imputation of missing data, validation and quality control).
• Lead sampling and questionnaire design.
• Lead data collection, processing, analysis, validation and dissemination at national and sub-national level.
• Lead analysis of data with item-response-theory.
• lead analysis and validation of trade flow data (quantity & value), by reporter and partner.
• lead processing of micro-data and computation of indicators from household surveys and farm surveys.
• Use technologies for data collection (CAPI, Remote Sensing, Crowdsourcing, Web scrapping).
• Lead methodological development (for data processing, analysis, imputation of missing data, validation and quality control).
• Lead the use of administrative data in agricultural and rural statistics.

CANDIDATES WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE FOLLOWING

Minimum Requirements

• University degree in statistics, mathematics, economics, agricultural economics, or a related field.
• At least 5 years of relevant experience in the compilation and analysis of food and agricultural statistics in national or international organizations.
• Working knowledge of English, French or Spanish and limited knowledge of one of the other two or Arabic, Chinese, Russian.
• For PSA.SBS the working knowledge of English will be sufficient.

FAO Core Competencies

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

Technical/Functional Skills

• Work experience in more than one location or area of work
• Able to work under pressure and adapt to an evolving and complex humanitarian context and within multidisciplinary and different cultural background teams.
• Excellent organizational skills
• Experience in formulation, coordination, implementation, data analysis and interpretation and reporting for assessment processes.
• Good communication skills, both verbal and written.
• Ability to work and plan at strategic as well as operational levels.
• Understanding of the international humanitarian response architecture, including coordination mechanisms, humanitarian reform and action, and funding mechanisms.
• Facilitation and communication: experience of high-level coordination and chairing of meetings; ability to work with a diverse group of stakeholders and develop consensus and joint working;

Please note that all candidates should adhere to FAO Values of Commitment to FAO, Respect for All and Integrity and Transparency

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

FAO does not charge any fee at any stage of the recruitment process (application, interview, processing) Please note that FAO will only consider academic credentials or degrees obtained from an educational institution recognized in the IAU/UNESCO list Please note that FAO only considers higher educational qualifications obtained from an institution accredited/recognized in the World Higher Education Database (WHED), a list updated by the International Association of Universities (IAU) / United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The list can be accessed at For more information, visit the FAO employment website Appointment will be subject to certification that the candidate is medically fit for appointment, accreditation, any residency or visa requirements, and security clearances.

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