Statistician(2300110) at Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)

Reporting Lines

• The Statistician reports to the Assistant Director General/Regional Representative for Africa, RAF, and works under the technical guidance of the Chief Statistician.

Technical Focus

• The position focuses on improving the availability and quality of food, agricultural and rural statistics in the countries of the African region and on increasing the reporting rate of FAO data collections for global monitoring purposes.

Key Results

• Comprehensive technical, statistical, analytical and/or policy analysis services and the development of specialized tools, methodologies, systems and/or databases to support the planning, implementation/delivery and monitoring of the programme of work and related products, projects, publications and services.

Key Functions

• Plans and leads components of multidisciplinary teams and short-term work groups, leads and/or participates on Divisional teams, participates in Organization-wide committees, project teams and working groups and provides specialized expertise on international technical networks and or technical policy and standard setting bodies.
• Coordinates the development, collection, review, processing and/or analysis of key social/economic/environmental indicators, based on either traditional statistical methods/sources or on unstructured sources and data science methods to support the delivery of economic and social development programmes of work whether focused on products, projects, publications or services.
• Designs and develops improved/updated technical, statistical and/or analytical tools, systems and databases.
• Designs and conducts research, data collection, validation, analysis and/or reporting in support of the development of technical standards, international instruments, innovative tools and methodologies to be used within the Organization or by external stakeholders.
• Coordinates the production of a variety of technical reports and provides input in flagship publications, technical documents, divisional publications and/or web pages.
• Coordinates and provides response to requests and provides technical and/or policy advice, assistance and solutions to Regional, Subregional and Country Offices including technical backstopping of field projects.  
• Coordinates and provides capacity development services, including the planning and organization of training workshops and seminars and the preparation of related information, materials, on-line tools and information kits.
• Coordinates 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.
• Participates in resource mobilization activities in accordance with Corporate Strategies and Divisional Plans.
• Promotes international cooperation and collaboration, advocates best practices, knowledge sharing, increased policy dialogue, and provides technical expertise at international meetings and conferences.

Specific Functions

• Advises countries in the implementation of the official methods/guidelines for the production and dissemination of the FAO-relevant Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) indicators.
• Promotes the implementation of the Global Strategy for Agricultural and Rural Statistics, the AGRISurvey programme, the 50 by 2030 Initiative and the World Programme for the Census of Agriculture (WCA 2020).
• Promotes the development of country capacity to design and implement agricultural censuses and surveys, analyse the data collected and disseminate the results.
• Promotes the implementation in African countries of the FAO guidelines and handbooks for the production of official statistics.
• Whenever relevant, advocates for and promotes the adoption of the Food Insecurity Experience Scale as a standard tool for household or individual food security measurement in the context of population surveys in African countries.
• Promotes the development of Food Balance Sheets at the national level, using the FAO Statistics Division (ESS) methodology and the timely transmission of data to ESS; the computation of environmental statistics, countries’ capacity to report on related indicators and the timely transmission of data to ESS; the computation of economics statistics, and the timely transmission of data to ESS.
• Responds to ad hoc requests of technical assistance in statistics from Member countries.
• Identifies, formulates and backstops statistical field projects and participate in the selection, briefing and guidance of FAO field experts/consultants, monitoring and reviewing consultant outputs; organizes fellowships and study tours in the context of capacity building projects implementation and the review of the technical reports.
• Supervises and monitors the implementation of statistical methodologies and tools in field projects (cartography, frames, questionnaires, manuals, tabulation and analysis plans, communication strategy, data processing programmes, data archiving, dissemination of results, etc.).
• Serves as Secretary of the African Commission on Agricultural Statistics (AFCAS), including the organization of the biennial session, preparation of agenda and timetable, identification of relevant topics and finalization of technical papers and session report.
• Organizes, coordinates and participates in meetings, seminars and training courses on food and agricultural statistics, and represents RAF at regional statistical meetings.
• Promotes cooperation and coordination between countries and facilitates the exchange of information and good practices.
• Cooperates with FAO headquarters’ Divisions, FAO Subregional Offices, other agencies and regional institutions and develops partnerships to promote effective and efficient food and agricultural statistics systems.
•  Review regularly FAOSTAT country data identifying missing official data and metadata and follow up on statistical questionnaires to improve response rates and the quality of information.
•  Represents RAF in the work of the Technical Data Coordination Group (DCG-T) on FAO statistics and data for statistics.
•  Performs other related duties as required.

CANDIDATES WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE FOLLOWING

• Minimum Requirements
•  Advanced university degree in statistics, economics, or a related field with training in statistics.
•  Seven years of relevant experience in the production and analysis of food and agricultural statistics in national or international organizations, including field experience in statistical surveys and censuses. 
•  Working knowledge (proficient – level C) of English and limited knowledge (intermediate – level B) of French.

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, particularly in field positions.
•  Extent and relevance of experience in the compilation, validation and analysis of food and agricultural statistics.
•  Extent and relevance of experience in the compilation of food and agriculture Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) indicators.
•  Extent and relevance of knowledge and experience in census and survey methodology.
•  Extent and relevance of experience in designing, planning and managing large scale surveys and/or censuses.
•  Extent and relevance of knowledge and experience in software used for processing and analysing census/survey data.
•  Extent of experience in formulation and/or implementation of field projects and in providing support to countries for technical assistance in statistics.
•  Ability to mobilize financial resources to support the implementation of field projects.
•  Excellent communication and inter-personal skills.
•  Quality of writing and reporting skills.