Statistician

Organizational Setting

The Statistics Division (ESS) develops and advocates for the implementation of methodologies and standards for data collection, validation, processing and analysis, in the food and agriculture statistics domains. In these statistical domains, it also plays a key role in the compilation, processing and dissemination of internationally comparable data, and provides essential capacity building in support of Member Nations.

The Division also disseminates publications, working papers and statistical yearbooks, that cover agriculture and food security statistics, including prices, investments, production, trade and agri-environmental statistical data. Finally, as the ESS Director also plays the role of FAO Chief Statistician, the Division supports the various functions of the Chief Statistician, that is to ensure stronger governance of FAO's data and statistical system, foster consistency of FAO's Data and Statistical programme within the Strategic Framework, ensure statistical excellence through the implementation of statistical standards and quality assurance mechanisms, and position FAO's presence in data and statistical discussions at global level.

The incumbent will work in the Crops, Livestock and Food Statistics (CLFS) team within the Statistics Division, which compiles, validates and disseminates global annual statistics on the FAOSTAT digital platform, covering the three domains of crops and livestock: production of primary and processed crops and livestock commodities, trade of agricultural products, and supply utilization accounts/food balance sheets. The team provides capacity development and technical support to countries relating to the food balance sheets methodology and data validation and engages in interinstitutional cooperation with national statistics offices on streamlining their data collection and reconciliation processes.

The position is located in ESS at FAO headquarters in Rome, Italy.

Reporting Lines
The Statistician reports to the Senior Statistician/Team Leader of the CLFS team under the overall guidance of the Director of ESS.

Technical Focus

Updates and provides contribution to the improvement of statistics on crops, livestock and food supplies, i.e. the Production, Trade and Food Balance Sheets (FBS) domains published in FAOSTAT. Contribution to the implementation of methodological innovations in these data domains. Contribution to the implementation of new methods within the Statistical Working System (SWS). Availability and updates of related capacity development material. Involvement in capacity development programmes.

Key Results

Collection, analysis and review of information, data and statistics, and project/meeting services to support programme products, projects, publications and services.

Key Functions

• Participates in the development of improved and/or updated technical, statistical and/or analytical tools, systems, databases; participates in the collection, review, processing and/or analysis of key social/ economic/ environmental/ indicators, based on both traditional statistical methods/sources or on unstructured sources and data science methods, to support the delivery of economic and social development programmes of work, which can be focused on products, projects, publications or services.
• Participates in the design and conducts research, data collection, validation, analysis and/or reporting in support of the development of technical standards, international instruments, innovative tools and methodologies to be used within the Organization or by external stakeholders.
• Participates in the production of technical reports and provides input in technical documents, divisional publications and/or web pages.
• Supports in the response to requests and provides technical and/or policy advice, assistance and solutions to Regional, Subregional and Country Offices.
• Participates in multidisciplinary teams, collaborates with other Divisions/Offices/Centres on work groups and committees and promotes best practices.
• Collaborates in capacity development activities, including the planning and organization of training workshops, seminars, and major meetings, and in the preparation of related information, materials, on-line tools and information kits.
• Participates in multidisciplinary teams and short-term work groups, leads and/or participates in the Divisional teams, participates in Organization-wide committees, project teams and working groups and provides specialized expertise on international technical networks and or technical policy and standard setting bodies.
• Participates in the organization, conduct and follow-up of meetings, consultations and conferences, in the development and/or production of required materials and the provision of information and assistance to partners.

Specific Functions

• Contributes substantive technical inputs in the production, processing, analysis and dissemination of statistics on agricultural Production, Trade, Food Balance Sheets and Supply Utilization Accounts using different types of data sources and advanced statistical and data science methods.
• Collaborates on the development and implementation of new approaches to enhance the efficiency of the statistical workflow, pursuing the achievement of faster updates and extensions of Production, Trade, Supply Utilization Accounts and Food Balance Sheet time series; and increases in the response to FAO's statistical questionnaires.
• Contributes to the implementation of the corporate quality assurance framework for all basic data domains in FAOSTAT.
• Contributes to the enhancement of the presentation and accessibility of FAOSTAT data and addresses the needs of users for further statistical and economic analyses.
• Prepares briefs, papers and other communication materials for publication on ESS websites and delivers presentations in relevant international fora on subjects related to agricultural Production, Trade, Food Balance Sheets and Supply Utilization Accounts statistics.
• Performs other related duties as necessary.

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CANDIDATES WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE FOLLOWING

Minimum Requirements

• Advanced university degree in statistics, mathematics, economics, agricultural economics, or a related field.
• Three years of relevant experience in the compilation and analysis of food and agricultural statistics in national or international organizations.
• Working knowledge (proficiency - level C) of English and intermediate knowledge (intermediate proficiency - level B) of another FAO official 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.
• Strong command of statistical methods including: data presentation, analysis and descriptive statistics; main continuous and discrete random variables (binomial, normal, standard normal, log-normal) and their properties; probability distributions; conditional probability, probabilities of intersections of events, Bayes' theorem; correlation and rank correlation; sampling and sample size: simple, stratified, and multistage random sampling; Inference, confidence intervals, hypothesis testing and significance; linear regression (single and multiple) comparison of population means and variances, ANOVA; Chi-square and goodness of fit tests; nonlinear models: maximum likelihood estimation; elements of survey and questionnaire design.
• Extent and relevance of experience in collecting and analysing technical information and data.
• Extent and relevance of experience and knowledge of the main data sources used for the compilation of crops and livestock statistics.
• Extent and relevance of experience in the compilation, validation and analysis of crops and livestock statistics.
• Experience with capacity development programmes and ability to conduct trainings and tailored technical assistance.
• Extent and relevance of knowledge and experience in the use of quantitative statistical and econometric methods.
• Demonstrated ability to work under minimal supervision, effectively present statistics materials and produce high quality write-ups and papers in English.
• Extent and relevance of experience in designing and delivering capacity development programmes at country level.
• Extent and relevance of experience in software used for processing and analysing data, such as R and Stata.
• Ability to analyse complex statistical issues.