Economist (Policy Analysis), P-4

Position description

Organizational Setting

The Agrifood Economics and Policy Division (ESA) conducts economic research and policy analysis and provides evidence-based support to national, regional and global policy processes and initiatives related to monitoring and analysing food and agricultural policies, agribusiness and value chain development, rural transformation and poverty, food security and nutrition information and analysis, resilience, bioeconomy and climate-smart agriculture. The Division also leads the production of two FAO flagship publications: The State of Food and Agriculture (SOFA) and the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI).

This post is to support ESA’s policy monitoring and analysis activities, in particular – albeit not uniquely – those implemented as part of the Monitoring and Analysing Food and Agricultural Policies (MAFAP) programme. These activities aim at establishing country-owned and sustainable systems to monitor, analyse and reform food and agricultural policies to enable more effective, efficient and inclusive policy frameworks across a wide range of agricultural value chains in developing and emerging economies, particularly – albeit not exclusively – in sub-Saharan Africa. In implementing these activities, ESA teams work with government institutions, research organizations and other partners to pursue this mission. Furthermore, these activities support FAO’s Strategic Framework 2022-2031. The post is also aimed to support regional and continental initiatives regarding agrifood policies framework e.g. Post-Malabo agenda in Africa.

The post is located in the Agrifood Economics and Policy Division, ESA, at FAO headquarters in Rome, Italy.

Reporting Lines

The Economist (Policy Analysis) reports to the Deputy Director, ESA, under the overall supervision of the Director, ESA.

Technical Focus

The Economist (Policy Analysis) will contribute to the delivery of food and agricultural policy support to developing and emerging economies, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, through rigorous policy monitoring of key indicators, economic policy analysis, advice and government engagement based on government requests. She/he is also expected to contribute to the implementation of the FAO’s Monitoring and Analysing Food and Agricultural Policies (MAFAP) programme in sub-Saharan Africa and to the expansion of monitoring and analysing food and agricultural policies activities in new countries not currently targeted by the MAFAP programme. To this end, she/he will support monitoring and analysing food and agricultural policies activities in selected countries and strengthen partnerships with regional and/or sub-regional partner organizations. She/he will be familiar with food and agricultural policy monitoring indicators (i.e. price incentives and public expenditures), as well as with policy analysis and advice in an international development setting, preferably on agricultural and/or food security policy issues in sub-Saharan Africa. She/he will collaborate and coordinate with colleagues in FAO Regional Offices (including their Country Offices), notably with those in Africa, to ensure ESA’s monitoring and analysing food and agricultural policies activities support FAO’s response to the countries’ priorities for food security, agriculture, and rural development. The Economist (Policy Analysis) will also promote the adoption of policy monitoring and reform framework at the regional level, in particular in the context of the Post-Malabo agenda. She/he will also collaborate and coordinate with colleagues of ESA to ensure monitoring and analysing food and agricultural policies activities are institutionalized and become a solid work stream for ESA to contribute to FAO’s Strategic Framework. She/he will support the global collaborative efforts on agriculture and food policies in the context of the AgIncentives Consortium.

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 in 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;
• Develops technical, statistical, analytical, monitoring and reporting frameworks, and related tools, methodologies, systems and databases, etc. to support the planning, implementation/delivery and monitoring of the programmes of work, products, projects and services;
• Designs and conducts research, data collection, validation, analysis and/or reporting activities to support the development of technical standards, international instruments, innovative tools and methodologies, flagship publications/technical reports and/or policy proposals as well as the provision of technical specialist and/or policy advice and expertise;
• Responds to requests and provides technical/policy advice, assistance and solutions to Regional, Subregional and Country Offices and provides technical backstopping to field projects;
• Promotes international cooperation and collaboration, advocates best practices and increased policy dialogue and provides technical expertise at international meetings and conferences;
• Collaborates in capacity development activities involving knowledge sharing, the organization of training workshops, seminars and meetings as well as the development of related materials and on-line tools and information kits;
• Participates in resource mobilization activities in accordance with the Strategic Framework and divisional plans.

Specific Functions

• Contributes to policy engagement to identify emerging policy issues and promote the uptake of technical policy analyses in national policy processes and dialogues and the adoption of policy reforms driven by these analyses;
• Provides technical and policy advice to countries on agricultural and food policy trends, reform options and impact on development outcomes, such as poverty, food security, nutrition and climate-related challenges;
• Contributes to the production, update and enhancement of policy monitoring indicators, analysis and methodologies, related to the measurement and analysis of price incentives and public expenditure in support of food and agriculture;
• Contributes to the development of technical products, using rigorous economic analysis, on key food and agricultural policy topics, with a focus on agricultural, input, trade, markets, and price policies and prepares related policy recommendations, generally for specific government partners;
• Contributes to the dissemination of results from economy-wide, as well as value-chain specific analyses to inform policy reforms and/or strategic documents;
• Contributes to innovation on methodologies to monitor and analyse food and agricultural policies and undertakes capacity development activities on these methodologies to the benefit of government counterparts, other relevant national partners, as well as FAO staff;
• Contributes to the dissemination and adoption of agriculture and food policies indicators and monitoring framework in the context of national and regional initiatives (e.g. Post-Malabo agenda);
• Contributes to forging partnerships focused on specific policy issues with development partners involved in policy monitoring and analysis, in particular in the context of the AgIncentives Consortium;
• Contributes to the preparation of high-level policy meetings, roundtables or other events related to food and agricultural policy monitoring and reform efforts in countries;
• Contributes to resource mobilization for scaling up activities on monitoring, evaluating and analysing food and agricultural policies and ensuring that they are institutionalized and become a solid work stream in ESA to contribute to FAO’s Strategic Framework;
• Maintains close collaboration and coordination with other FAO units, FAO Representations, as well as relevant national and international institutions;
• Supervises the work of professional staff and consultants working on the monitoring, evaluating and analysing food and agricultural policies work stream of the ESA Division.

CANDIDATES WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE FOLLOWING

Minimum Requirements

• Advanced university degree in economics, agricultural economics or a related field;
• Seven years of relevant experience in policy analysis and government engagement on food and agricultural policy issues;
• Working knowledge (proficient – level C) of English and limited knowledge (intermediate – level B) of another FAO official language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish).

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, is desirable;
• Extent and relevance of knowledge of the most important initiatives to analyse price incentives and agricultural public expenditures in developing countries;
• Extent and relevance of experience in conducting quantitative economic analysis, economic modelling and applying econometric techniques in topics related to the food and agricultural sectors, such as trade, input subsidies, market policies and public expenditures;
• Extent and relevance of experience with policy advice on international development issues and affinity with the topics of agrifood systems transformation, poverty, food security and/or nutrition, preferably in sub-Saharan Africa;
• Demonstrated ability to analyse complex policy issues and supervise the work of technical experts;
• Good knowledge of Stata or R is required, knowledge of GAMS and/or Phyton, among others, is a plus;
• Extent and relevance of experience in building partnerships with government institutions, research institutes, international donors, and other agricultural sector stakeholders, at global, regional and/or national levels;
• Ability to mobilize resources;
• Demonstrated experience in drafting technical and policy-oriented reports and papers in English;
• Working knowledge (proficient – level C) of French is considered a strong asset.

Application instructions

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