Nutrition And Food Systems Officer (Healthy Diet Metrics and Analytics)

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The length of appointment for internal FAO candidates will be established in accordance with applicable policies pertaining to the extension of appointments.

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• FAO is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality, background and culture
• Qualified female applicants, qualified nationals of non-and under-represented Members and persons with disabilities are encouraged to apply
• Everyone who works for FAO is required to adhere to the highest standards of integrity and professional conduct, and to uphold FAO's values
• FAO, as a Specialized Agency of the United Nations, has a zero-tolerance policy for conduct that is incompatible with its status, objectives and mandate, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination　　
• All selected candidates will undergo rigorous reference and background checks
• All applications will be treated with the strictest confidentiality
• FAO staff are subject to the authority of the Director-General, who may assign them to any of the activities or offices of the Organization.

FAO’s commitment to environmental sustainability is integral to our strategic objectives and operations.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) contributes to the achievement of the 2030 Agenda through FAO Strategic Framework by supporting the transformation to MORE efficient, inclusive, resilient and sustainable agrifood systems, for better production, better nutrition, a better environment, and a better life, leaving no one behind.

Organizational Setting

FAO's Food and Nutrition Division (ESN) provides technical expertise and normative guidance to support Members' actions to improve access to and consumption of healthy diets to raise levels of nutrition. Priorities include the generation and consolidation of data and evidence for decision-making, the development and mobilization of up-to-date guidance and guidelines across a variety of relevant topics, and the integration of nutrition into agrifood systems policies and actions from production, through value chain and market initiatives to consumers.

This position is located in the Food and Nutrition Division, at FAO headquarters in Rome, Italy.

Reporting Lines

The Nutrition and Food Systems Officer (Healthy Diet Metrics and Analytics) reports to the Senior Nutrition and Systems Officer, ESN, and works in close collaboration with colleagues in the Statistics Division (ESS) under the overall guidance of the Director, ESN.

Technical Focus

The aim of ESN's work on healthy diet metrics and analytics is to enable Members and interested organizations to generate and use healthy diet metrics for decision-making, monitoring and evaluating policy and programmatic actions aimed at increasing access to and consumption of healthy diets, and for Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) reporting, being ESN custodian of the minimum dietary diversity for women (MDD-W), SDG2 indicator. The technical expertise of this role provides analytical support including data compilation, analysis and reporting, as well as advancing the development, validation and utilization of healthy diet metrics and related guidance, in collaboration with other UN Agencies and partners. The incumbent will also support integrating diet quality metrics into FAO data platforms and flagship reports to facilitate wide dissemination and use of such information in policy and programme decisions.

Key Results

Research and analysis of information, data and statistics, and the maintenance and updating of related tools, methodologies, and/or databases to support the delivery of programme products, projects, publications, and services.

Key Functions

• Researches and analyses [agricultural, economic, trade, market, social, environmental, nutrition/food composition and/or gender related] data, statistics and information to provide technical, statistical and/or policy related information and analysis to support the delivery of economic and social development programmes work, products, projects, publications and services.

• Produces a variety of technical reports and input for technical documents, divisional publications and/or web pages.

• Provides technical, statistical, and/or analytical services on various studies, projects, and/or assessments and provides technical backstopping to field projects.

• Participates in the development of improved/updated technical, statistical and/or analytical tools, methodologies, systems, databases, and/or key social/ economic/ environmental/ nutritional and/or early warning indicators, etc.

• Participates in multidisciplinary teams, collaborates with other Divisions, Offices and Centres and agencies on work groups and committees and promotes best practices.

• Collaborates in capacity development activities involving the planning and organizing of training workshops, seminars, and major meetings and the preparation of related information, materials, on-line tools and information kits.

• Promotes knowledge sharing and best practices at international meetings and conferences and influences partners in stakeholder consultations.

• Participates in resource mobilization activities.

Specific Functions

• Provides support for the gathering and analysis of dietary data to generate and quality-assure diet quality metrics for use in FAO's programmatic activities.

• Prepares and implements, in collaboration with the Statistics Division, a concrete mechanism for gathering and analysing national data to facilitate routine global reporting of MDD-W by countries.

• Implements the validation exercise with countries to confirm national estimates on MDD-W.

• In collaboration with the Statistics Division, analyses, stores, quality-assures, consolidates and generates reports for the SDG2 reporting of MDD-W.

• Contributes to the design and implementation of capacity development activities in support of the utilization of MDD-W as an SDG2 indicator for global monitoring.

• Performs similar tasks for emerging healthy diet metrics.

• Contributes to the continual advancement of the development and validation of healthy diet metrics, in collaboration with other UN agencies and technical experts.

• Consolidates data on healthy diet metrics for FAO's reports, providing analytical support, generating data sets, visuals, written text and related materials as needed.

• Contributes written content to publications, including manuscripts and reports, especially in relation to describing statistical methods and interpreting and drawing inferences from dietary statistics.

• Provides support for integrating diet quality metrics into FAO data platforms and flagship reports to facilitate wide dissemination and use of such information in policy and programme decisions.

• Participates in internal meetings at FAO and with external partners and contributes to technical discussions in relation to the specific tasks.

• Performs related duties as required.

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CANDIDATES WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE FOLLOWING

Minimum Requirements

• Advanced university degree (Master’s degree or equivalent) in nutritional epidemiology, nutritional sciences, applied human nutrition, biostatistics with nutrition focus or a related field.

• Five years of relevant experience in analysing large datasets relevant for dietary intake and diet quality metrics.

• Working knowledge (proficiency - level C) of English and intermediate knowledge (intermediate proficiency - level B) of another official FAO language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish).

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Competencies

• Results Focus

• Teamwork

• Communication

• Building Effective Relationships

• Knowledge Sharing and Continuous Improvement

Technical/Functional Skills

• Work experience in more than one location or area of work, particularly in field positions, is desirable.

• PhD in nutritional epidemiology, nutritional sciences, applied human nutrition, biostatistics with nutrition focus or a related field is considered an asset.

• Extent and relevance of experience in generating, analysing, consolidating and reporting on healthy diet data and metrics.

• Extent and relevance of experience in facilitating the utilization of diet quality data in nutrition policy and programme initiatives within FAO's core areas of work.

• Proven knowledge and experience with the development, validation, and utilization of tools for collecting diet quality data.

• Proven experience with quantitative methods for data collection, analysis and reporting.

• Analytical skills and ability to write clear technical reports, publications and other relevant materials.

• Demonstrated ability to deliver clear presentations related to diet quality data to diverse audiences.

• Ability to analyse, document and report healthy diet related data for a variety of purposes and audiences.

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FAO staff are expected to adhere to FAO Values of Commitment to FAO, Respect for All and Integrity and Transparency.

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• Extension of fixed term appointments is based on certification of performance and availability of funds
• FAO reserves the right not to make an appointment.
• Appointment will be subject to certification that the candidate is medically fit for appointment, accreditation, any residency or visa requirements, and security clearances. 

CONDITIONS OF SERVICE

• To apply, visit the recruitment website at Jobs at FAO and complete your online profile. We strongly recommend that your profile is accurate, complete and includes your employment records, academic qualifications, and language skills
• Candidates are requested to attach a letter of motivation to the online profile
• Once your profile is completed, please apply, and submit your application
• Please note that FAO only considers higher educational qualifications obtained from an institution accredited/recognized in the World Higher Education Database (WHED), a list updated by the International Association of Universities (IAU) / United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The list can be accessed at http://www.whed.net/ 
• Candidates may be requested to provide performance assessments and authorization to conduct verification checks of past and present work, character, education, military and police records to ascertain any and all information which may be pertinent to the employment qualifications
• Incomplete applications will not be considered
• Personal information provided on your application may be shared within FAO and with other companies acting on FAO’s behalf to provide employment support services such as pre-screening of applications, assessment tests, background checks and other related services. You will be asked to provide your consent before submitting your application. You may withdraw consent at any time, by withdrawing your application, in such case FAO will no longer be able to consider your application
• Only applications received through the FAO recruitment portal will be considered
• Your application will be screened based on the information provided in your online profile
• We encourage applicants to submit the application well before the deadline date.

If you need help or have queries, please create a one-time registration with FAO’s client support team for further assistance: https://fao.service-now.com/csp

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