Support Specialist for the Economic Analysis of Agri-Food Systems Vacancy-Job Ref: BJGTFAO/0306/2025812

Support Specialist for the Economic Analysis of Agri-Food Systems Vacancy-Job Ref: BJGTFAO/0306/2025812

Guatemala City (Guatemala)

FAO strives to ensure gender, geographic, and linguistic diversity among its staff and international consultants in order to best serve the Organization’s Member States in all regions.

FAO is committed to achieving diversity in its workforce in terms of gender, nationality, origin, and culture.
Women, nationals of underrepresented or unrepresented Member States, and persons with disabilities who possess the necessary qualifications are encouraged to apply.

All individuals working for FAO must adhere to the highest standards of integrity and professional conduct and uphold FAO’s values.

As a specialized agency of the United Nations, FAO maintains a zero-tolerance policy toward conduct inconsistent with its statute, 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.

Organizational framework

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the Government of Guatemala signed the Country Programming Framework (CPF) 2022-2025, which defines the national priorities that FAO will address through country-level actions within the scope of their respective strategic frameworks. These priorities aim to guarantee FAO’s comparative advantages in contributing to the achievement of the goals established in State policy instruments such as the National Development Plan K’atún Nuestra Guatemala 2032 (CONADUR-SEGEPLAN, 2014), the National Development Priorities (SEGEPLAN, 2016), the General Government Policy 2020-2024, as well as the United Nations Cooperation Framework for Sustainable Development of Guatemala and the 2030 Agenda.

Guatemala’s MPP establishes three government priority areas that FAO will address: 1) More productive, prosperous, and inclusive territories for a better life; 2) Food security and improved nutrition; and 3) Resilience and a better environment. The outcomes contemplated in these three program areas will be achieved through the development of the Organization’s normative instruments and projects implemented by FAO, together with its partners, in the country.

The project “Support for post-crisis actions for the recovery and rehabilitation of livelihoods and assets of households in rural areas most affected by COVID-19” is aligned with the institutional efforts of the Government of Guatemala, especially with SESAN, MAGA and MINECO, to serve family farmers, agricultural producer organizations, and micro and small agricultural businesses affected by the COVID-19 pandemic in 15 municipalities in the departments of Huehuetenango, Quiché, and Alta Verapaz. These municipalities are estimated to have a higher percentage of indigenous population than the national average.

Through component four of this project, we seek to support public institutions in institutionalizing processes that support rural producers, organizations, and micro and small businesses in quickly recovering their livelihoods and promoting long-term resilience, as well as generating opportunities to boost the local economy.

It is proposed that this component contribute to political dialogue, the strengthening of strategic planning, and the design and implementation of policy instruments to position agri-food systems and food and nutritional security on the public agenda.

Currently, various spaces for dialogue are opening in the country, where the gaps, restrictions, and challenges of agrifood systems and their interconnection with socioeconomic and environmental systems are being analyzed and discussed.

Additionally, investment plans are being developed with the Ministry of Economy for priority chains: cocoa, coffee (with the participation of ANACAFÉ), cardamom, honey, avocado, and export vegetables. This effort also utilizes tools developed by HiH in the country.

Hierarchical dependence

The Specialist will work under the supervision of the Assistant Representative (Program).

Field of specialization

Provide technical assistance and support in technical dialogue with government institutions, academia and the private sector, the design of policy instruments, information analysis, the formulation of investment notes, technical documents and communication materials related to strategic processes linked to the interconnection of agri-food systems with socioeconomic systems

Tasks and responsibilities

Collaborate in the preparation of national and international events and dialogue spaces where topics related to the transformation of agri-food systems and their interconnection with socioeconomic systems are discussed.
Generate evidence, data, information, and documents that support dialogue processes in which proposals for the transformation of agri-food systems are discussed and investments that boost agricultural potential are promoted to advance toward better rural development.
Participate in spaces for dialogue and institutional planning in which economic measures are promoted that contribute to the transformation of agri-food systems.
Support the institutionalization and scalability of territorial actions, mainly linked to components 2 and 3 of the project.

Support the technical strengthening of the Ministry of Economy and the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Food and promote activities and processes that foster the complementarity of both sectors and their coordinated work, within the framework of the current Technical Cooperation Projects with each institution.
Support processes linked to FAO initiatives that promote the transformation of agri-food systems.
Design and implement training processes aimed at institutional staff.
Analyze data and evidence from secondary sources to support dialogue and planning processes.
Systematize political-technical dialogue processes and the design of policy instruments.
Develop policy instrument proposal documents.

Design and facilitate spaces for intra- and inter-institutional dialogue.
Generate evidence and knowledge from the project’s territorial experiences that support its scalability.
Maintain documents and dissemination materials that will be distributed at various events.
Accompany the Assistant Representative (Program) in technical discussions at the national level, using the material prepared to promote stakeholder involvement.

CANDIDATES WILL BE EVALUATED ACCORDING TO THE FOLLOWING CRITERIA:

Minimum requirements

Professional with a university degree in economics or related fields

Working knowledge of Spanish
Guatemalan nationality
FAO Core Competencies

Results-based approach
Teamwork
Communication
Establishing effective relationships
Knowledge sharing and continuous improvement
Technical/functional skills

Breadth and relevance of experience in preparing and writing technical reports and documents
Management of Statistical Analysis Software: SPSS /PSPP, Spectrum, Tableau Public, Power BI, R-Studio, Redatam, Stata, QGis, GRETL, EViews and TSW; TextSTAT (qualitative analysis).

Selection criteria

Knowledge of the English language is desirable (level B-intermediate)
Extensive knowledge of the country and particularly of the socioeconomic and agricultural sector
Experience in the development of economic studies and analyses related to the productive sector
Proven experience in advising and/or implementing investment planning processes and strengthening public institutions
Knowledge of the functioning of national and territorial institutions
Preferably with experience working in the public sector, international cooperation, especially the United Nations System
Ability to work in multidisciplinary teams, strategic planning and inter-institutional work.
the recruiting organization’s website.

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