Organizational Setting

The Regional Office for the Near East and North Africa (RNE) leads FAO’s support to countries in the Region in transforming their agri-food systems to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It identifies regional priorities for food security, agriculture and rural development and ensures the planning and implementation of FAO’s strategic response in the region through a multi-disciplinary approach. It implements approved programmes and projects, monitors programme implementation, and ensures that they contribute to addressing regional priorities.

RNE supports regional policy dialogues, facilitates the emergence of regional partnerships, and supports knowledge exchange, capacity development and resource mobilization for food security, agriculture and rural development in the region. It develops and maintains relations with region-wide institutions including the Regional Economic Integration Organizations (REIOs).

FAO RNE is supporting the member countries in developing their capacities for evidence-based policy design and implementation. In particular, through provision of timely and tailored data and analytics and evidence-based policy recommendations. The incumbent will help FAORNE in research, analysis and designing of the relevant policies in food and agriculture.

Reporting Lines

The incumbent will report to the RNE Senior economist, under the overall supervision of the Assistant Director-General.

Technical Focus 

The Policy and Programme specialists will support the regional programme in general, with specific assignments to support the strategy and policy related work for the member states and analytical outputs of the FAO regional office.

Tasks and responsibilities

–    Support the Regional Programme Teams in general, and the Strategy and Policy Unti team in particular, on matters related to agriculture, food security, nutrition and related research, analysis and programme implementation.
–    Support various regional programme teams, where appropriate, to further improve the capacity of the RNE office.
–    Support in collecting and presenting policies, economic and related indicators for food security and nutrition in the region, particularly the mapping of policies related to food security, in order to feed these into regional policy monitoring system.
–    Preparing reports of the collected information and data in order to support the policy monitoring function of the RNE.
–    Support the strategy and policy team in organizing relevant events.
–    Any other related tasks as may be required or assigned by the supervisor.

CANDIDATES WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE FOLLOWING

Minimum Requirements

•    Advanced degree in economics, business, law, policy, international relations or any other field relevant to FAO’s mandate.
•    Experience of at least one year in research, analysis, programme or project implementation of the above-mentioned areas.
•    Working knowledge of English. Limited knowledge of one of the other official FAO languages (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) would be an advantage.

FAO Core Competencies

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

Technical/Functional Skills

•    Experience in writing technical reports in English.
•    Be computer literate in standard software applications.
•    Have a demonstrated and keen interest in the work of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and have a personal commitment to the ideals of the Charter of the United Nations.
•    Have a demonstrated ability to successfully interact with individuals of different cultural backgrounds and beliefs, which includes a willingness to understand and be tolerant of differing opinions and views.
•    Experience with research and analysis of agriculture and food related policies is desirable.
•    Experience with policy monitoring and reporting, in the context of development, would be an advantage.
•    Experience with designing and/or implementing development sector programmes or projects is desirable.
•    Experience is the use of technologies supporting data science solutions relevant to economic and social issues is desirable.
•    Experience working with the United Nations system or in a social science field would be an asset.

Level of Education: Bachelor Degree

Work Hours: 8

Experience in Months: No requirements