Statistics Specialist

Organizational Setting

In close coordination with the Statistics Division (ESS), and the Office of Chief Statistician (OCS) in FAO headquarters in Rome, the Regional Statistician for Latin America and the Caribbean (RLC) and Subregional Office for the Caribbean (SLC) coordinate the delivery and implementation of statistical support to member countries throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. 

The portfolio of work can be primarily divided into 4 areas. The first area is on technical assistance to build capacity to monitor the 21 SDG indicators under FAO custodianship. This work entails reviewing statistical operations, making recommendations for modifying questionnaires and sampling approaches, implementing pilots, and training country counterparts on data analysis and results interpretation. The second area is assistance on agricultural surveys and census. In this area work, FAO assists countries in every step of the design and implementation of agricultural surveys and censuses. The third area of work is supporting countries on the use of earth observation data for producing agricultural statistics. More specifically, FAO trains countries on the best ways of collecting in situ data, crop cover and mapping classification methodologies, and generating estimates and forecasts of key agricultural variables by combining in situ and earth observation data. Finally, FAO plays a key role in international coordination through organizing the regional technical commission for agricultural statistics, and participating in regional and subregional for a which promote agricultural statistics. 

Reporting Lines

Consultants and PSA subscribers will work under the immediate supervision of either the Regional Statistician or Sub regional Statistician. They are also required to work in close collaboration with FAO Divisions and Teams in country offices, regional and sub regional offices, as well as Headquarters. 

Technical Focus 

Consultants and PSA subscribers will work in one or more of the following statistical domains: 
•    Sustainable Development Goals indicators;
•    Postharvest losses, food losses and food waste statistics;
•    Food security and nutrition statistics;
•    Crops, livestock, fisheries, aquaculture and forestry statistics;
•    Prices, costs of production, investment and public expenditure statistics;
•    National Accounts Statistics and System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA) on crop, livestock, fishing and forestry sub-sector including capital formation;
•    Agro-environmental statistics including Fertilizers, Pesticides and Land Use;
•    Climate Change relevant statistics and indicators, including GHG emissions;
•    Poverty and rural poverty statistics, rural livelihoods statistics;
•    Agricultural surveys and censuses;
•    Agricultural and rural labour and decent work statistics, social protection statistics;
•    Territorial statistics, including rural and rural livelihoods statistics;
•    Geo-spatial statistical applications; Land cover/land use statistics;
•    Statistics on resilience, damage and losses from hazardous events;
•    Corporate statistical planning and corporate statistical policies;
•    Quality assurance of statistical processes;
•    International Definitions, Classifications and statistical standards;
•    Monitoring and Evaluation of corporate results frameworks.

Tasks and responsibilities

In one or more of the above-mentioned statistical domains, Consultants and PSA subscribers will contribute to and/or take responsibility for one or more of the following tasks:

•    Support methodological development (for data processing, analysis, imputation of missing data, validation and quality control)
•    Advise sampling design on farm or household survey
•    Process micro-data and computation of indicators from household surveys and farm surveys
•    Apply statistical software such as R and Stata to manage, analyze, and visualize data.Apply technologies for data collection (CAPI, Remote Sensing, Crowdsourcing, Web scrapping)
•    Design and adapt questionnaires for surveys in agricultural statistics.
•    Analyze data using item response theory to enhance measurement and assessment quality
•    Develop statistical capacity, including needs assessments
•    Advocate for, communicate, and implement statistical policies
•    Devolop and support strategic planning in agricultural and rural statistics
•    Integrate and utilize administrative data in agricultural and rural statistics
•    Archive, communicate, and disseminate statistical products 
•    Design, prepare, and manage statistical projects
•    They will perform other related duties as required.

FAO Standards and guidelines:

•    Liaison with OCC will be maintained, either directly or through an agreed focal point/coordinator, to ensure compliance with OCC standards, aligned messaging, and appropriate review and clearance processes.
•    All communication materials will follow FAO clearance processes and comply with FAO standards, including:
FAO Strategic Framework 2022-31: https://www.fao.org/strategic-framework/en  
FAO social media policy and guidelines: https://www.fao.org/2/socialmedia   
Social Media Branding Guidelines: https://openknowledge.fao.org/handle/20.500.14283/cb5044en 
FAOSTYLE https://openknowledge.fao.org/handle/20.500.14283/cb8081en 
FAO terminology http://www.fao.org/faoterm 
FAO Names of Countries https://www.fao.org/nocs/en    
Story guidelines, Story template, UN map standards, FAO logo policy and related branding guidelines (available to staff). 
•    Further guidance regarding FAO communications, policies and procedures can be found through the FAO intranet, OCC section.

•    Statistical activities and data outputs will comply with the principle outlined in the FAO Statistics and Data Quality Assurance Framework: https://openknowledge.fao.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/467e9cc0-0b77-4741-99d5-7f044bac7f13/content 

CANDIDATES WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE FOLLOWING

Minimum Requirements

•    University degree in statistics, economics, social sciences, environmental sciences, or a related and relevant field. 
•    Minimum of 1 year (for PSAs) / 3 years (for Consultants) of experience for Level C, 5 years (for PSAs) / 7 years (for Consultants) for Level B, and 10 years (for PSAs) / 12 years (for Consultants) of experience for Level A in data, statistics, survey sampling, use of earth observation data, or geospatial analysis. 
•    Working knowledge of either English or Spanish (level C) 

FAO Core Competencies

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