SENIOR ECONOMIST - INVESTMENT ANALYST

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 Hand-in-Hand (HiHI) initiative is an evidence‐based, country‐led and country-owned initiative to accelerate progress in achieving Sustainable Development Goals 1, 2, and 10 to eradicate poverty, hunger and all forms of malnutrition, through the use of the most sophisticated tools available, including geospatial information and analytics. The HiHI initiative aims to identify opportunities to raise incomes and reduce the inequities and vulnerabilities of rural populations, who constitute the majority of the world's poor.

In Tanzania, innovative HiHI tools and methods have been used to allow for the identification and prioritization of investment opportunities. These tools ensure the integration of information on agriculture and food systems’ potential with farmers’ efficiency to generate incomes, revenues or profit in locations where poverty is pervasive, thus allowing for more targeted agriculture interventions. These innovative methods, therefore, ensure that interventions with the highest and most sustainable impacts are selected for investment.

The objective of the consultancy is to lead and conduct data collection as well as economic and financial investment analysis for different investment opportunities in the selected and agreed value chains and territories identified under the HiHI initiative. The consultant will undertake technical work and lead investment analysis in agri-food systems for the HiHI initiative in Tanzania in collaboration with national partners and HiHI stakeholders and inform policymakers.

In particular, the consultant will guide the HiHI country task team, government and other counterparts in terms of economic and financial analysis of selected priority investment opportunities.

The consultant will conduct economic and financial impact analysis of different types of investments such as agriculture and food systems commodity value chains, farm enterprise models, SME processing business models, post-harvest handling facilities, mobile warehouse models and capacity, storage unit models and capacity, potential markets, market prices, internal and external market demand and possibly other models as needed, to compare with and without project situation with regard to farm budgets, income generated, jobs, possible environmental impacts (e.g. GHG emissions using the FAO EXACT) amongst others.

Specifically, the following will be required:

• The total cost of each investment case
• Net Present Value (NPV)
• Internal Rate of Return (IRR) on investment
• Income increase per capita
• Number of beneficiaries
• Emissions reduction per capita

The assignment includes designing data collection templates in consultation with national, agribusiness, agriculture, livestock, crop or other technical experts as needed.

Reporting Lines

Under the overall supervision of the FAO Representative (FAOR) of URT, and direct supervision of the Assistant FAO Representative (Programme), and working closely with the Hand in Hand Initiative focal persons at the FAO country office and the Ministry of Agriculture. S/he will also report to the HiHI task teams and Lead Technical Officer (LTO).

Technical Focus

• Guide HiHI country task team, government and other counterparts in terms of economic and financial analysis of selected priority investment opportunities by focusing on Soybean, Wheat, Sunflower, fisheries and livestock value chains in Tanzania.
• Designing data collection templates and conducting data collection in consultation with national, agribusiness, agriculture, livestock, fisheries, crop or other technical experts as needed.
• Analysis of at least 3 investment cases for each value chain (Soybean, Sunflower and Wheat) focusing on small and medium-scale enterprises, large-scale investments and processing units along the value chains targeting internal, regional and international markets.
• Development of investment notes summary (5 pages each) for each of the selected value chains investment cases developed.

Tasks and responsibilities

• Design, in collaboration with the HiHI country task team, other technical consultants as relevant and government technical focal points, data collection templates for data needed for the analysis for use by the consultant;
• Guide and lead the development of the financial and economic needs and impact analysis for different types of investments as feasible/necessary in the selected value chains and locations;
• Prepare indicative budget and timetables for the proposed investment based on activity costs and expected impacts;
• Provide the analysis in excel format including a summary description;
• Provide inputs to colleagues in HiHI task team members;
• Develop a draft PPT[1] on the investments covering the data generated, and using the format and scope as per the country examples from the 2022 IF (see https://www.fao.org/hand-in-hand/investment-forum-2022/en) and based on the government investment and development priorities;
• Share the draft PPT with the Government counterparts and the HiHI team working in the country for their input, suggestions and improvements;
• Finalize the PPT for use by the Government at the 2023 Investment Forum to be held in Rome in October 2023.
• Draft a 5 page investment note on each of the selected investment cases using again the examples from the 2022 HiHI Investment Forum[2].

CANDIDATES WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE FOLLOWING

Minimum Requirements

• Masters or advanced degree in Agricultural Economics, Finance, Business Administration, Accounting, and Economics and related financial disciplines.
• Excellent quantitative reasoning, statistics and mathematic skills.
• Strong communication skills, both orally and through writing.
• 5 years of proven experience and relevant certification in Investment Management Analysis is an added advantage.

FAO Core Competencies

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

Technical/Functional Skills

• Practical experience in the development of investment plan analysis especially for the agriculture sector.
• At three years experience of working in the field of investment plan analysis or related to economic, business model development or financial analysis.
• Excellent working knowledge of English and Kiswahili and an understanding of the agricultural sector investment in Tanzania are preferred.
• Strong interpersonal skills to work with various stakeholders.
• Excellent computer skills especially excel and report writing.

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