Back Economist

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 position is based at the FAO headquarters in Rome, Italy, within the ESA team that coordinates and produces The State of Food and Agriculture (SOFA) report. The role will require close collaboration with FAO's other technical divisions as well as external partners. The SOFA team's primary focus lies in robust evidence generation on topics of general interest to agrifood system stakeholders with the objective of making agrifood systems more efficient, resilient and inclusive. This involves developing innovative economic analyses that may cover market structure in agricultural value chains, food security and nutrition, employment in agrifood systems, environmental sustainability and other issues of relevance for agrifood systems. The analyses are used to produce the State of Food and Agriculture report, which covers a different topic of general interest every year.

Reporting Lines

The Economist reports to the Senior Economist (SOFA), ESA, under the overall supervision of the Director of the Agrifood Economics and Policy Division (ESA).

Technical Focus

The Economist in this role will conduct economic analysis on a broad range of issues pertaining to the functioning of agrifood systems, including their sustainability and resilience, as well as their role in rural development and food security and nutrition. Likely areas of focus include market structure in agrifood value chains and employment in agrifood systems. The Economist will focus on providing technical expertise in advanced economic analysis, specializing in microeconomic techniques and tools. Depending on the topic being covered, this may include applying econometric methods, performing partial equilibrium or general equilibrium analyses, and framing these analyses for a general audience. The analyses will provide evidence-based support to and feed into the preparation of the annual FAO flagship publication of The State of Food and Agriculture report. The Economist will work in close collaboration and coordination with other FAO technical units and external partners who prepare technical background papers.

Key Results

Research and analysis of information, data and statistics, and the maintenance and updating of related tools, methodologies, and/or databases to support the delivery of programme products, projects, publications, and services.

Key Functions

• Researches and analyses agricultural, economic, trade, market, social, environmental, nutrition/food composition and/or gender related] data, statistics and information to provide technical, statistical and/or policy related information and analysis to support the delivery of economic and social development programmes work, products, projects, publications and services.
• Produces a variety of technical reports and input for technical documents, publications and/or web pages.
• Provides technical, statistical, and/or analytical services on various studies, projects, and/or assessments and provides technical backstopping to field projects.
• Participates in the development of improved/updated technical, statistical and/or analytical tools, methodologies, systems, databases, and/or key social/ economic/ environmental/ nutritional and/or early warning indicators, etc.
• Participates in multidisciplinary teams, collaborates with other Divisions, Offices and Centres on work groups and committees and promotes best practices.
• Collaborates in capacity development activities involving the planning and organizing of training workshops, seminars, and major meetings and the preparation of related information, materials, on-line tools and information kits.
• Promotes knowledge sharing and best practices at international meetings and conferences and influences partners in stakeholder consultations.
• Participates in resource mobilization activities.

   

  Specific Functions

  • Supports the SOFA team leader in planning and managing team activities, including the preparation and drafting of The State of Food and Agriculture report, and then revising the report based on expert inputs.
  • Contributes to the development of the evidence base that supports ESA's divisional mandate including, but not limited to, the preparation of the SOFA report.
  • Prepares briefs relating to the themes addressed in the SOFA report and other issues pertaining to any aspect of relevance to agrifood systems, agricultural and rural development and food security and nutrition.
  • Drafts journal articles and other written materials based on the evidence base and analyses developed in collaboration with SOFA team members and presents them at professional conferences and in other relevant fora.
  • Supports the SOFA team in identifying external partners, who can contribute to the topic at hand with technical background papers, managing their contracts and deliverables, as well as organizing meetings and workshops.
  • Advises the SOFA team leader on the latest developments in the field of artificial intelligence that may be of interest to the team to improve workflows.
  • Supports the SOFA team leader in disseminating the evidence generated by the SOFA team through academic and policy conferences as well as social media.
  • Liaises with other FAO teams and external partners as necessary for the preparation of the SOFA and other evidence-based products in coordination with the ESA Editorial Board.
  • Supervises staff at lower grades, consultants and interns as required.
  • Performs other relevant tasks as required.

     

    CANDIDATES WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE FOLLOWING

     

    Minimum Requirements

    • Advanced university degree in economics, econometrics, agricultural economics, spatial economics, development economics or a related field.
    • Five years of relevant experience in economic and quantitative analysis of agrifood system, including experience with econometric models, spatial analysis, management of large datasets, and research on food security and rural poverty.
    • 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, is desirable
        • Extent and relevance of experience and knowledge of applied quantitative research on major issues relating to food, agriculture and rural development.
        • Extent and relevance of experience in economic and policy analysis of issues in agrifood systems and food security at a national, regional and/or global scale.
        • Extent and relevance of experience in conducting quantitative economic analysis, economic modelling, and/or applying econometric techniques in one or more of the relevant subject areas above.
        • Excellent programming skills in specialized software, particularly R, but also others such as ArcGIS, Python or others are desirable.
        • Quality of both oral and written communication in English, including the ability to write clearly and concisely for publications, as evidenced by relevant publications.
        • Demonstrated ability to manage, analyse and present quantitative information clearly and effectively.
        • Capacity to work effectively in multidisciplinary teams with minimal supervision and to plan workflows to meet tight deadlines.