Organizational Setting
The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations is a specialized agency of the United Nations that leads international efforts to defeat hunger.
Our goal is to achieve food security for all and make sure that people have regular access to enough high-quality food to lead active, healthy lives. With 195 members (194 countries and the European Union), FAO works in more than 130 countries worldwide.
To this end, FAO implements a wide portfolio of projects, programmes, and initiatives across multiple sectors. These include animal production and health, fisheries, food and nutrition, food systems and safety, forestry, social protection, inclusive rural development, information management systems / data systems for monitoring and decision making, land and water, plant production and protection, and others. FAO has a growing portfolio of work in the development and humanitarian (emergency and resilience) sectors.
FAO evaluates the strategic alignment, implementation, efficacy, and efficiency of its portfolio of work through its independent Office of Evaluation (OED), which is led by a Director who reports to the FAO Governing Bodies and to the Director-General.
OED evaluates FAO strategies, initiatives, programmes, and projects at global, regional, and national levels. OED seeks to generate credible and useful evidence and insights to inform decisions, support oversight, and help FAO achieve its mission. In so doing, OED advances knowledge and provides results accountability to both Member nations and the Director-General. OED also participates in system-wide evaluation initiatives, thereby contributing to assessments of development and humanitarian effectiveness by the UN system.
OED values candidates who are highly motivated to excel and want to join OED colleagues in generating transformative knowledge for FAO, its Member nations, and others working in the fields in which FAO operates to achieve its mission of ending hunger!
The position is located in OED at FAO headquarters in Rome, Italy.
Reporting Lines.
The Senior Evaluation Officer (Impact Evaluations) reports to the Director of the Office of Evaluation.
Technical Focus.
Leadership in promoting high quality research and evaluations and serving as Senior Liaison Officer with donors and FAO Members.
Key Results
Designs and conducts evaluations of outcomes and impacts; provides quality assurance to enhance the quality of OED research and evaluations; publishes and serves as liaison with donors/Member nations and represents OED in national and international events thereby contributing to enhanced results-accountability to the Director-General, the Governing Bodies, and donors; enriched learning by FAO and others working in the fields in which FAO operates; and mentoring of junior evaluation staff.
Key Functions.
Provide technical leadership in research and evaluations.
Design and lead rigorous evaluations of projects, programmes, and operations, especially impact evaluations.
Apply (and enforce in others) rigorous analytic thinking in leading/conducting analyses (qualitative and quantitative) and
preparing dissemination materials (reports, papers and journal articles, presentations, and so on).
Participate actively and productively in multidisciplinary evaluation teams, often with internal and external partners.
Provide substantive leadership and expertise in at least one area of FAO's work such as agriculture, agrifood systems,
climate change, nutrition, water, women's economic empowerment, and other areas in development and emergency settings
and one cross-cutting theme or accelerator of change per FAO's Strategic Framework, such as private sector engagement,
data and technologies, and innovations.
Serve as liaison officer
Represent the Office of Evaluation before donors and Member Nations
Strengthen relationships with donors and Member Nations through the conduct of the work
Promote use of evaluation findings and response to recommendations
Provide quality assurance across the portfolio of evaluations.
Review evaluation outputs and provide detailed feedback (such as evaluation designs and reports)
Assess evaluation outputs to provide approval (for release or publication, payments to partners, and so on)
Maintain technical leadership
Keep abreast of methodological developments in evaluation
Perform other duties as required.
CANDIDATES WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE FOLLOWING
Minimum Requirements
Advanced university degree (Master’s degree or equivalent) in a social science field (such as economics, sociology, or psychology) or evaluation, with a focus on research and evaluation methods.
Ten years of experience conducting rigorous evaluations, especially impact evaluations.
Three publications in peer-reviewed journals.
Working knowledge (proficiency - level C) of English.
Intermediate knowledge (intermediate - level B) of another official FAO language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish).