Data Verification Assistant

FAO seeks gender, geographical and linguistic diversity in its staff and international consultants in order to best serve FAO Members in all regions.

• 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
• 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.

Organizational Setting

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), together with the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH (GIZ), received funds from the European Union (EU) to implement the project PROMOVE Agribiz – Improving Rural Competitiveness in Nampula and Zambézia Provinces, Mozambique, with the overall objective of contributing to a sustainable, inclusive and broad-based economic growth and poverty reduction in the context of national food and nutrition security and climate change. In order to provide an immediate response to the food crises caused by the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the project is being expanded to the provinces of Manica and Sofala, with additional funding from EU. The project will achieve the objectives through (i) improving the food and nutrition security and resilience of smallholders and climate-smart and nutrition-sensitive agriculture, and (ii) enhancing rural competitiveness by improved participation of smallholders in economic activities, economic diversification, improved access to rural services and improved rural investment.

To this end, FAO intends to recruit Data Verification Assistants, to contribute to strengthening of the quality of project implementation through remote monitoring of activities at field level. These positions are based in FAO field offices of Alto Molócuè, Mocuba or Beira (duty station subject to change according to specific project needs) to support project activities in the surrounding districts covered by the interventions.

Reporting Lines

The Data Verification Assistant will work under the overall supervision of the FAO Representative in Mozambique, and direct supervision of the Agricultural Officer who oversees the implementation of e-Voucher intervention in the country office. He/she will work closely with the project the National e-Voucher Specialist, Software Developer and M&E Specialist.

Technical Focus

Result-based monitoring and evaluation, documentation, reporting

Tasks and responsibilities

Specific responsibilities:

The main purpose of the post is to support the project in monitoring the conformity of profile of selected beneficiaries against the defined criteria, following up on agricultural inputs redeemed by the beneficiaries (i.e.: quantities reported in the system by the agro dealers vs. quantity/quantity received by the beneficiary) and register complaints/request of information from beneficiaries. Specifically, the incumbent will perform the tasks below:

• Based on lists of randomly selected beneficiaries, provided by the project, contact beneficiary farmers to verify or confirm their profiles versus the information collected during the registration process and inform on eventual deviation to the eligibility criteria;
• Based on lists of randomly selected beneficiaries, provided by the project, get in touch with beneficiary farmers to verify the consistency of the inputs uploaded by the agro dealers in the system against the inputs effectively received by the beneficiary farmers;
• Register complaints (i.e.: seed germination, inputs prices, etc.) received from farmers contacted and/or by farmers reaching out to report their complaints;
• Provide clarification and/or additional information to farmer who seek further information about the project through calls received on a dedicated phone number (hotline);
• Assist in reporting any possible irregular transactions related to the sale and or quality of inputs;
• Alert on any deviations of approved list of inputs vs. the eligible inputs;
• Any other reasonable duties as and when required.

CANDIDATES WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE FOLLOWING

Minimum requirements

• At least Secondary School diploma in Agriculture, Agricultural Economy or any related field completed;
• Working knowledge of local languages of the provinces where the project is implemented: Zambezia (Chuabo and Lomue), Nampula (Macua) or Sofala (Sena and Ndau); working or limited knowledge of English;
• 2 years of relevant experience.
• National or resident of Mozambique; resident in provinces of Nampula, Zambezia or Sofala;

FAO Core Competencies

• Results Focus
• Teamwork
• Communication
• Building Effective Relationships
• Knowledge Sharing and Continuous Improvement

Technical/Functional Skills

• Good communication and self-motivation;
• Proactive and good time management skills;
• Critical and analytical capacity;
• Consistency in reporting;
• Ability to work independently with minimal supervision to produce organized and accurate results.
• Previous experience in remote data collection;
• Previous experience in field data collection related to agriculture and rural development;
• Knowledge of more than one local language spoken in the project area;
• Experience with data collection software (e.g.: Kobo Toolbox, surveyCTO, ODK).
• Knowledge and experience in the use of MS Office Package (Excel and word) and internet.

Female candidates are strongly encouraged to apply.

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