Assessment Specialist

Organizational Setting

The Country Office is in charge of preparing for and effectively responding to food and agricultural threats and crises, with the support from the Office of Emergency and Resilience (OER). As part of the OER, the Needs Assessment team, The Country Assessment Specialist is in charge of generating quality and timely evidence to inform decision-making and programming, including anticipatory action and emergency response, through three work streams:

• A dynamic monitoring system of agricultural livelihoods and food security in the context of various shocks, consisting of periodic household and non-household data collection (through phone and in-person surveys) and analysis;
• Ex-post assessments of the impacts of shocks on agricultural livelihoods and value chains, using phased methodological approaches such as remote-sensing, damage & loss analyses, Post-Disaster Needs Assessments (PDNA), and other food security & livelihood surveys.
• Risk profiles, which are derived from geographic baselines of past events and their impacts on agricultural livelihoods. The various outputs of these three streams are processed, visualized, and disseminated through FAO’s Data in Emergencies hub.

Reporting Lines

• The assessment specialist is responsible for leading and coordinating the collection and analysis of data to inform the impacts of shocks and hazards on agriculture, food supply and rural livelihoods. He will work under the direct management of Assistant FAO Representative and the technical supervision of the needs assessments team of the Office of Emergencies and Resilience based in Rome. Overall strategic direction to the data and analysis facility will be guided by a cross-departmental task force within FAO.

Technical Focus

• Understanding the magnitude and intensity of the impact of major shocks and hazards outbreak in agriculture production, food prices, market flows and trader activities, is crucial for better policy, programme and project targeting. In this regard, FAO has established a monitoring system to assess over time the multiple impacts of the COVID-19 crisis and other hazards on agricultural production, rural livelihoods, food prices, market flows and trader activities, in a context where development strategies and budgets are being realigned. This will enable to identifying and monitoring risk factors, assessing needs and informing anticipatory actions and response, avoiding the further aggravation of the chronic challenges faced by the agriculture sector and their impact on food security and rural livelihoods. The data and analysis facility information system will rely principally on remote data collection (mobile phone and on-line), collected either by FAO office itself or through international service providers. Field assessments may also be conducted using data collection tools such as Kobo or ODK. The Consultant is responsible for coordinating and conducting the needs assessment activities in –country-. He is accountable for the timely implementation of activities related to the monitoring system in accordance with the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs

Tasks and responsibilities

Under the overall supervision of the FAO Representative in Mozambique, and the direct supervision of the Assistant FAO Representative for programme, the consultant will:

• Regularly liaise with the country management team and the regional assessment advisors on the progress of the monitoring exercise and the alignment with strategic, technical and operational requirements
• Coordinate with national stakeholders (government, UN Agencies, NGOs, food security cluster) involved in food security and livelihoods assessments or surveillance, and promote multi-actors initiatives
• Contribute to advising and strengthening the capacity of the Ministry of Agriculture and local surveillance systems
• Monitor the publication of studies and data produced by other stakeholders in the country
• Collect and analyse baseline and secondary data to enable comparisons and triangulation. Secondary data can refer to food prices, agricultural inputs prices, international trade, food production and stock changes, food security outcomes, containment measures, social protection measures, remote-sensing-based seasonal monitoring, farming systems etc.
• Define survey objectives and areas of interest based on information gaps and programmatic needs
• Assist in the choice of data collection modalities (Computer-Assisted Telephone Interviews, web surveys, or face- to-face) and interfaces (international service provider, local partner, in-house call centre etc.)
• Search for existing sampling frames and consolidate lists of respondents with phone numbers
• Assist in the adaptation of generic questionnaires and monitoring tools to context-specific circumstances and objectives
• Contribute to the programming of tools (take the lead in case of Kobo / ODK interface)
• Develop training materials and participate to enumerator training sessions
• Communicate with relevant authorities on the implementation of the surveys
• Conduct additional semi-structured interviews with key informants in order to dig for specific issues, as needed
• Contribute to the analysis and interpretation of collected data and in the formulation of appropriate interventions and recommendations based on assessment findings
• Discuss and validate the results with the global assessment team, regional offices and hubs, GIEWS and any other relevant FAO units
• Help draft and review monitoring reports and visual products (e.g. dashboards), using standard templates
• Communicate assessment findings and reports to other actors, including national stakeholders involved in the development of response plans in the country, through Food Security Clusters for instance
• Contribute to Programme response and programme design as requested
• Participate to IPC or Harmonized Framework analyses
• Contribute to forward-planning and scenario building exercises, as requested
• Coordinate the realization of the assessment outputs of the TCP-Emergency projects
• Contribute to FAO corporate learning processes and documentation about COVID-19 impact assessments
• Support data collection and needs assessment activities for other major crises or disasters occurring in supported countries

Minimum Requirements

• Advance University degree in Agronomy, Rural Statistics, Agricultural Economics and relevant social or natural sciences, or other related discipline relevant to the mandate of the organization.
• Minimum of 5 years of relevant working experience in statistical analysis applied to agriculture and economic/environmental studies.
• 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.
• Nationality of Mozambique.
• Working knowledge of advanced statistics with ability to use statistical software packages (i.e. R, SPSS and/or STATA).
• Working Knowledge of Portuguese and English.

FAO Core Competencies

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

Technical/ Functional Skills

• Ability to manage high workload 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 Mozambique.
• 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.
• Expertise in remote data collection including phone or web-based surveys and/or remote-sensing would be a plus.
• Working knowledge of advanced statistics with ability to use statistical software packages (in particular SPSS, STATA and/or R).
• Experience in using and programming questionnaires in digital data collection tools (Kobo toolbox, ODK).
• Proven data visualization and reporting skills.
• Excellent communication skills, both verbal and written.
• Coordination skills with strong individual planning capacity.
• Knowledge of humanitarian principles.
• Proficiency in MS Office (Word, Excel, Access, Outlook).
• Ability to perform in multi-cultural and multi-disciplinary environment.
• Good knowledge of assessment methodologies, including sampling, data collection and analysis techniques.

Selection Criteria

• Extent and relevance of experience in assessments, surveillance systems, or monitoring and evaluation in the context of emergencies and food crises.
• Extent and relevance of experience in conducting quantitative analyses, analytical studies and methodological research in agriculture and economic/environmental statistics.
• Extent and relevance of experience in the formulation of technical assistance projects, provision of technical support and preparation/implementation of training programmes in the field of agriculture and economic/environmental statistics.
• Working knowledge of Portuguese and English will be considered as an additional asset.