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.

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 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!

FAO has a growing portfolio of programmes and projects that are being subjected to evaluations. The purpose of this call is to identify evaluation analysts, with expertise in qualitative data collection and analysis methods (see the Technical/Functional Skills section).

Reporting Lines

The analysts will work under the supervision of an Evaluation Officer.

Technical Focus 

The analyst will provide support to OED in qualitative analysis and evaluations concerning various areas of FAO’s mandate, including, among others, food security, resilience, agrifood systems, climate change, natural resource management, nutrition, etc.

Tasks and responsibilities

The analyst will contribute to the successful conduct of FAO evaluations. Some specific tasks include:

•    Conduct general data management tasks.
•    Contribute to qualitative analysis of both primary and secondary data.
•    Participate in qualitative data collection and analysis, as needed.
•    Provide quality assurance concerning qualitative data management and analysis.
•    Present findings at informal seminar within FAO and, as requested, at external conferences on behalf of OED.
•    Promote use and uptake of evaluation findings.
•    Other tasks as agreed with the supervisor.

The position may include international travel in support of project activities.

CANDIDATES WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE FOLLOWING

Minimum Requirements

•    University degree in a relevant discipline: evaluations, economics, agricultural/Development Economics or in any other social science field (such as sociology).
•    A minimum of three years of relevant experience in evaluation or conducting qualitative research and analysis.
•    Working knowledge (level C) of either English, Spanish, French or Arabic. Limited knowledge of a second FAO official language is an asset.

FAO Core Competencies

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

Technical/Functional Skills

•    Proven expertise in literature review, nonprobability sampling, content, narrative, thematic analysis, grounded theory, Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA), ethnographic research, case study, focus groups, open-ended survey, networking analysis, etc.
•    Extent and relevance of experience evaluating projects funded by international cooperation.
•    Familiarity with FAO’s technical areas of work is desirable.

Level of Education: Bachelor Degree

Work Hours: 8

Experience in Months: No requirements