Economist (Policy Analysis)

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).

The The focus of the Policy Reform, Intelligence, Monitoring, and Evaluation (PRIME) team in ESA is to generate a quality evidence base for informed policy-making processes in FAO Member Countries. The PRIME group hosts the Monitoring and Analysing Food and Agricultural Policies (MAFAP) programme, which seeks to establish country-owned and sustainable systems to monitor, analyse, and reform food and agricultural policies to enable more effective, efficient, and inclusive policy frameworks in eight developing and emerging economies. MAFAP works with government institutions, research organizations and other partners to create sustainable policy monitoring systems and carry out a consistent set of policy and public expenditure analyses across a wide range of agricultural value chains. MAFAP analyses are used to inform targeted food and agricultural policy reforms that will result in a more conducive environment for agricultural investment and productivity growth, especially for smallholder farmers. PRIME seeks to extend these activities to more countries and to institutionalize this work in FAO, particularly within the AgIncentives Consortium initiative, which brings together agricultural policy indicators for almost 90 countries and 70 products over 14 years as a collaboration between FAO, Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), International Food Policy and research Institute (IFPRI), Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the World Bank. The post aims to support this effort.

The position is located in ESA at FAO headquarters in Rome, Italy.

Reporting Lines

The Economist (Policy Analysis) reports to the head of the PRIME pillar, under the guidance of the Division Director of ESA. He/she will work in close collaboration with the members of the policy monitoring component of PRIME and with the FAO Representation in the relevant countries as well as FAO regional and/or sub-regional offices.

Technical Focus

Within the framework of ESA's policy monitoring and analysis activities and those of the MAFAP programme in particular, the Economist will contribute to implementing policy monitoring by estimating and updating price incentives and public expenditure indicators and duly analysing and documenting them through analytical products, in particular policy monitoring reviews. Through rigorous monitoring and analysis of indicators, the Economist will also play a role in identifying policy issues that governments may need to be aware of and may request ESA to further analyse in-depth to inform policy reforms.

Key Results

Collection, analysis and review of information, data and statistics, and project/meeting services to support programme products, projects, publications and services.

Key Functions

• Collects, reviews/cross checks and/or analyses relevant agricultural, economic, trade, market, social, environmental, nutrition/food composition and/or gender related data, statistics and information to support delivery of programme projects, products, publications and services.

• Undertakes analysis, provides technical input for plans and reports and edits/revises technical documents and/or publications.

• Participates in the development of improved tools and methodologies.

• Updates databases and web pages.

• Participates in multidisciplinary project/work teams.

• Participates in the development of training materials and the organization of workshops/seminars, etc.

• Participates in 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.

Specific Functions

• Delivers, revises and finalizes Price Incentives (PI) and Public Expenditure (PE) indicators for selected low- and middle-income countries.

• Supports the dissemination at country level of analytical products related to policy monitoring indicators through the identified channels in selected countries.

• Drafts and/or reviews analytical dashboards and country synthesis notes for selected countries, before publication.

• Supports the production of policy monitoring indicators analyses, in particular global analysis and/or cross-country comparisons studies on agricultural policy support, as required.

• Supports consistent applications of the methodological guidelines for PI and PE analysis.

• Contributes to the effective implementation of other strategic partnerships with development partners involved in policy monitoring activities (OECD, IFPRI, World Bank, etc.) particularly in the context of AgIncentives Consortium.

• Identifies, in collaboration with country stakeholders, the main policy constraints limiting agricultural development in the selected countries.

• Supports the articulation of priority policy reform options through dissemination of analytical results, policy dialogue and high-level consultations with key government partners/institutions.

• Supervises the work of consultants.

• Provides support to the policy support work of the ESA division, in particular in the framework of corporate initiatives.

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CANDIDATES WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE FOLLOWING

Minimum Requirements

• Advanced university degree (Master’s degree or equivalent) ineconomics, agricultural economics, development studies, international relations or a related field.

• Three years of relevant experience in policy and quantitative analysis of food and agricultural issues.

• Working knowledge (proficiency - level C) of English and intermediate knowledge (intermediate proficiency - level B) of another official FAO 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.

• Extent and relevance of experience and knowledge in conducting quantitative economic analysis, including analysis of agricultural policy distortions and public expenditure for the food and agricultural sector.

• Extent and relevance of experience in supporting the formulation and implementation of analytical and policy studies such as policy monitoring indicators analyses, in particular global analysis and/or cross-country comparisons studies on agricultural policy support.

• Familiarity with relevant quantitative methods to assess the impact of trade, input subsidies, market policies and public expenditures on the food and agricultural sector.

• Ability to analyse policy issues and support the work of experts engaged in such kind of analyses.

• Demonstrated experience in drafting technical reports and papers in English is considered a strong asset.

• Expertise in R or Python.

• Working knowledge (proficiency - level C) of French is considered a strong asset.