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Econometric analysis specialist

Rome

  • Organization: FAO - Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
  • Location: Rome
  • Grade: Consultancy - Consultant - Contractors Agreement
  • Occupational Groups:
  • Closing Date: Closed

IMPORTANT NOTICE: Please note that Closure Date and Time displayed above are based on date and time settings of your personal device

  • 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 Agrifood Economics 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 Economic and Policy Analysis of Climate Change (EPIC) team in ESA works with governments, research centers, universities and other institutional partners to support the transition to Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) by using sound economic and policy analysis. The team aims to strengthen sustainable agricultural systems through better policies and sound analysis of the impacts of climate change on agriculture; the benefits and costs of adopting climate-smart agricultural practices; and the tradeoffs of agricultural investment strategies (e.g., household welfare versus environmental impacts) at different scales. EPIC is also starting a new area of work focused on identifying policy options related to risk management by and for smallholder producers in developing countries. Such assessment will provide quantitative and qualitative insights into policy options for increasing the resilience of rural households and the farming systems they are part of.

Reporting Lines

The selected candidate with work under the overall guidance of the EPIC team leader and under the direct supervision of the Economist, working in close collaboration with EPIC team members, as well as with other FAO Divisions, Country Offices and external partners as required.

Technical Focus

The incumbent will conduct economic analysis on a broad range of issues related to resilience and vulnerability to climate change and extreme weather events. In particular, she/he will contribute to designing, developing, and will be caring out quantitative impact evaluation based on experimental and quasi-experimental research design to identify the causal impact of policy interventions, technological innovations as well as adaptive, sustainable and risk-reducing management strategies. Those interventions are related to sustainable agriculture, land use change, value chain analysis, agricultural transformation and policy support in the context of climate change. The ideal candidate is familiar with microdata, large representative multi-purpose surveys (including survey design and primary data collection) as well as geospatial databases related to climate and land biophysical characteristics. She/he is able to design a sample strategy for primary data collection, deal with large and heterogeneous datasets, merge information from different sources, and identify the most suitable empirical strategies to respond to specific policy questions (with a particular focus on alternative identification strategies and research designs) related to agricultural productivity, household welfare and food security. She/he is able to interpret the results and communicate the findings to policymakers, synthesize and simplify the key messages for the non-technical audience, as well as engage with experts on the methodological details of the analysis. The evidence-based support provided by the incumbent will contribute to the realization of specific projects or interventions in the framework of the technical assistance provided by FAO to the countries and is expected to contribute to the preparation of a wide range of publications (including reports, papers, and policy briefs) so excellent writing skills and a good publication record are relevant assets.

Tasks and responsibilities

The assigned tasks and responsibilities related to this area of work include the following:

  • Design and implement socio-economic data collection in diverse contexts
  • Extract and manipulate geospatial data to support empirical analyses conducted by the EPIC team, including in the areas of forest cover change and climate risk impacts
  • Support the design and implementation of impact evaluations of projects and programmes, including socio-economic and biophysical impacts
  • Conduct quasi-experimental impact evaluation on policies and programmes related to climate adaptation and vulnerability using observational panel data

CANDIDATES WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE FOLLOWING

Minimum Requirements

  • University degree in economics, agricultural economics, environmental economics, food security, geography or a related field.
  • At least one year of relevant experience in economic and quantitative analysis of food and agricultural issues, natural resources use, food demand or related areas of food security and nutrition;
  • Working knowledge (level C) of English, French or Spanish and limited knowledge (level B) of one of the other two or Arabic, Chinese, Russian. For PSA, working knowledge of one FAO language is required.

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, particularly in field positions is desirable
  • Extent of knowledge and experience in agricultural policy analysis
  • Extent of knowledge and experience in economic analysis of climate change
  • Experience in management of large datasets
  • Experience in quantitative data analysis using statistical tools (i.e. SPSS, STATA, R, etc.) and/or knowledge of GIS is considered an asset
  • Tracked record of published quantitative research and policy papers

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

This vacancy is now closed.
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