Statistician

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The length of appointment for internal FAO candidates will be established in accordance with applicable policies pertaining to the extension of appointments.

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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 persons 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
• FAO staff are subject to the authority of the Director-General, who may assign them to any of the activities or offices of the Organization.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) contributes to the achievement of the 2030 Agenda through FAO Strategic Framework by supporting the transformation to MORE efficient, inclusive, resilient and sustainable agrifood systems, for better production, better nutrition, a better environment, and a better life, leaving no one behind.

Organizational Setting
FAO’s Subregional Office for Eastern Africa (SFE) is responsible for developing, promoting, overseeing and implementing agreed strategies for addressing subregional food, agriculture and rural development priorities. It develops and maintains relations with subregion-wide institutions including Regional Economic Integration Organizations (REIOs).
The Subregional Office for Eastern Africa is a subsidiary of FAO’s Regional Office for Africa (Africa). It supports subregional policy dialogue on food security, agriculture and rural development issues, facilitates the emergence of subregional partnerships and supports capacity development and resource mobilization for food security, agriculture and rural development in the subregion.
The position is located in SFE, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. In collaboration with the Regional Statistician, RAF, the incumbent supports countries in the production and dissemination of high quality statistics in the areas food security and nutrition, agriculture, rural development and sustainable management of natural resources.

Reporting Lines
The Statistician reports to the Subregional Coordinator for Eastern Africa and works under the technical guidance of the Regional Statistician.

Technical Focus
The position focuses on improving the availability and quality of food, agricultural and rural statistics in the countries of the Subregion of Eastern Africa and on increasing the reporting rate of FAO data collections for global monitoring purposes.

Key Results
Research and analysis of information, data and statistics, statistical methods, statistical and econometric modelling. Development and maintenance of specialized tools, methodologies, systems and/or databases, and the technical assistance services to support the implementation/delivery and monitoring of the programme of work and related products, projects, publications and services.

Key Functions
• Collects, reviews, processes and/or analyses key social/economic/environmental/indicators, based on both traditional statistical methods/sources or on unstructured sources and data science methods, to support the delivery of economic and social development programmes of work, which can be focused on products, projects, publications or services.
• Develops improved/updated technical, statistical and/or analytical tools, systems and databases.
• 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.
• Produces a variety of technical reports and provides input in technical documents, divisional publications and/or web pages.
• Provides response to requests and provides technical and/or policy advice, assistance and solutions to Regional, Subregional and Country Offices, including technical backstopping to field projects.
• Participates in multidisciplinary teams, collaborates with other Divisions and agencies on work groups and committees and promotes best practices.
• Provides capacity development services, including the planning and organization of training workshops and seminars, and preparation of related information, materials, on-line tools and information kits.
• Participates in divisional teams, Organization-wide committees, project teams and working groups and provides specialized expertise on international technical networks and or technical policy and standard setting bodies.
• Supports 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 the Corporate Strategy 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
• Supports SFE 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, analyses the data collected and disseminates the results.

• Promotes the implementation of the FAO guidelines and handbooks for the production of official statistics in SFE countries.

• 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 SFE 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 through the Regional Statistician; 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.

• Organizes, coordinates and participates in meetings, seminars and training courses on food and agricultural statistics, and represents SFE at subregional and regional statistical meetings.

• Promotes cooperation and coordination between SFE countries and facilitates the exchange of information and good practices.

• Reviews 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.

• Performs other related duties as required.
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CANDIDATES WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE FOLLOWING

Minimum Requirements
• Advanced university degree in statistics, mathematics, economics, agricultural economics, or a related field.
• Working knowledge (proficient – level C) of English and limited knowledge (intermediate – level B) of another FAO official language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish).
• Five years of relevant experience in the compilation and analysis of food and agricultural statistics in national or international organizations.

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.
• Strong command of statistical methods including: data presentation, analysis and descriptive statistics; main continuous and discrete random variables (binomial, normal, standard normal, log-normal) and their properties; probability distributions; conditional probability, probabilities of intersections of events, Bayes’ theorem; correlation and rank correlation; sampling and sample size: simple, stratified, and multistage random sampling; Inference, confidence intervals, hypothesis testing and significance; linear regression (single and multiple) comparison of population means and variances, ANOVA; Chi-square and goodness of fit tests; nonlinear models: maximum likelihood estimation; elements of survey and questionnaire design.
• Extent and relevance of experience in the compilation, validation and analysis of statistics.
• Extent and relevance of knowledge and experience in survey methodology.
• Extent and relevance of knowledge of the main data sources used for the compilation of food and agricultural statistics.
• Extent and relevance of knowledge and experience in software used for processing and analysing data.
• Demonstrated ability to mobilize resources.

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FAO staff are expected to adhere to FAO Values of Commitment to FAO, Respect for All and Integrity and Transparency.

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• Extension of fixed term appointments is based on certification of performance and availability of funds
• FAO reserves the right not to make an appointment.
• Appointment will be subject to certification that the candidate is medically fit for appointment, accreditation, any residency or visa requirements, and security clearances.

CONDITIONS OF SERVICE

• To apply, visit the recruitment website at Jobs at FAO and complete your online profile. We strongly recommend that your profile is accurate, complete and includes your employment records, academic qualifications, and language skills
• Candidates are requested to attach a letter of motivation to the online profile
• Once your profile is completed, please apply, and submit your application
• 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 http://www.whed.net/
• Candidates may be requested to provide performance assessments and authorization to conduct verification checks of past and present work, character, education, military and police records to ascertain any and all information which may be pertinent to the employment qualifications
• Incomplete applications will not be considered
• Personal information provided on your application may be shared within FAO and with other companies acting on FAO’s behalf to provide employment support services such as pre-screening of applications, assessment tests, background checks and other related services. You will be asked to provide your consent before submitting your application. You may withdraw consent at any time, by withdrawing your application, in such case FAO will no longer be able to consider your application
• Only applications received through the FAO recruitment portal will be considered
• Your application will be screened based on the information provided in your online profile
• We encourage applicants to submit the application well before the deadline date.

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