Food Security and Agricultural Livelihoods Assessment Data Analyst at Food and Agriculture Organization Of the United Nations

Organizational Setting

• The main aim of the FAO country offices, which are headed by an FAO Representative, is to assist governments to develop policies, programmes and projects to achieve food security and to reduce hunger and malnutrition, to help develop the agricultural, fisheries and forestry sectors, and to use their environmental and natural resources in a sustainable manner.
• The incumbent will work in the FAO field office Damaturu, Yobe state in Nigeria and will be expected to support the implementation of FAO Nigeria emergency programme in the northeast and the overall country programming framework.

Reporting Lines:

• The Food Security and Agricultural Livelihoods Assessment data analyst reports to the FAO Representative (FAOR) and direct supervision of the Head of Office of the FAO North east office and in close collaboration with the Assistant FAOR Programme

Technical Focus:

• Contribute to FAO Nigeria efforts in conducting of agricultural livelihood and food security assessment for policy decision making.
• The Consultant is responsible for coordinating and conducting the needs assessment activities in Nigeria. He/she is accountable for the timely implementation of activities related to the monitoring system in accordance with the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs).

Tasks and Responsibilities

• Contribute to the development of a country roadmap (or annual work plan) and regularly liaise with the country management team and the regional assessment advisor on the alignment of the roadmap with strategic, technical and operational requirements;
• Lead the design of the surveys (instruments, sample, questionnaires, data collection modalities) by using and adapting the standard tools to the country circumstances, secondary data and roadmap;
• Coordinate data collection with partners (remotely for Computer-Assisted Telephone Interviews, with direct supervision and programming of digital tools for in-person surveys) and monitor data quality (including questionnaire testing and piloting, enumerators training, continuous control of interim datasets, quotas and audio recordings, production of a data quality report);
• Abide by the data management standards of the monitoring system, including data protection and storage, and hub-related workflow;
• Lead data analysis (including weights, statistical analysis and qualitative analysis);
• Lead the exploration and interpretation of dashboards on the staging hub, including the formulation of highlights and operational recommendations, and facilitate their validation by a panel of internal experts before publication;
• Contribute to the production of various analytical products including reports, presentations, meta-analyses, and Story Maps, using standard templates;
• Contribute to the dissemination of results and promotion of the Data in Emergencies hub. It can include hub demos and presentations of the survey findings to FAO country teams, Ministry of Agriculture, donors or Food Security cluster partners
• Contribute to the development of a country roadmap (or annual work plan) and regularly liaise with the country management team and the regional assessment advisor on the alignment of the roadmap with strategic, technical and operational requirements;
• Lead the design of the surveys (instruments, sample, questionnaires, data collection modalities) by using and adapting the standard tools to the country circumstances, secondary data and roadmap;
• Coordinate data collection with partners (remotely for Computer-Assisted Telephone Interviews, with direct supervision and programming of digital tools for in-person surveys) and monitor data quality (including questionnaire testing and piloting, enumerators training, continuous control of interim datasets, quotas and audio recordings, production of a data quality report);
• Abide by the data management standards of the monitoring system, including data protection and storage, and hub-related workflow;
• Lead data analysis (including weights, statistical analysis and qualitative analysis);
• Lead the exploration and interpretation of dashboards on the staging hub, including the formulation of highlights and operational recommendations, and facilitate their validation by a panel of internal experts before publication;
• Contribute to the production of various analytical products including reports, presentations, meta-analyses, and StoryMaps, using standard templates;
• Contribute to the dissemination of results and promotion of the Data in Emergencies hub. It can include hub demos and presentations of the survey findings to FAO country teams, Ministry of Agriculture, donors or Food Security cluster partners;
• Ensure the availability of data for other processes such as IPC, Harmonized Framework, Anticipatory Action scenario building, response analysis, programming exercises, and Humanitarian Needs Overview, and participate to these processes as required;
• Document lessons learnt and data uses;
• Participate to global and regional training workshops, and contribute to the worldwide Community of Practice.

Impact assessments and risks profiling:

• Provide technical inputs to country decision-makers in the aftermath of hazards by proposing a combination of adequate and phased assessment methodologies;
• Coordinate the implementation of impact assessments with relevant expert units, including the global Geospatial unit and other country units.;
• Develop an impact assessment preparedness plan for the main hazards identified in the country.;
• Contribute to risks profiling exercises, as needed.  

Minimum Requirements
Candidates will be assessed against the following

• Bachelor or advanced Degree in Agronomy, Rural Statistics, Agricultural Economics, relevant social or Natural Sciences, or other related discipline relevant to the mandate of the Organization;
• Minimum of 5 years of proven knowledge and experience in assessments, surveillance systems, or monitoring and evaluation in the context of emergencies and food crises;
• Working knowledge of English.
• Nationality of Nigeria.

FAO Core Competencies:

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

Technical/Functional Skills:

• Ability to work under pressure and adapt to an evolving and complex humanitarian context and within multidisciplinary and different cultural background teams;
• Strong analytical skills and knowledge of agriculture, food security, livelihoods, food systems and value chains in the context of Nigeria;
• Experience or familiarity with food security and livelihoods assessments methodologies, including surveillance or monitoring systems, Post-Disaster Needs Assessments, Damage and Losses assessments, agricultural production assessment, market analysis, and/or value chain analysis;
• Experience in survey design, sampling, data collection, data analysis, and interpretation for assessment processes in agriculture and food security;
• Working knowledge of advanced statistics with ability to use statistical software packages (in particular SPSS , STATA and/or  R);
• Expertise in remote data collection including phone or web-based surveys and/or remote-sensing would be a plus;
• Experience in using and programming questionnaires in digital data collection tools (Kobo toolbox, ODK);
• Excellent communication skills, both verbal and written;
• Coordination skills with strong individual planning capacity;