MAFAP Policy Analyst - Food and Agriculture Organization

The Agrifood Economics Division (ESA) conducts economic research and policy analysis to support 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.

ESA provides evidence-based support to national, regional and global policy processes and initiatives related to monitoring and analysing food and agricultural policies, agribusiness and value chain development, rural transformation and poverty, food security and nutrition information and analysis, resilience, bioeconomy, and climate-smart agriculture. The division also leads the production of two FAO flagship publications: The State of Food and Agriculture (SOFA) and The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI).

Within ESA, the Monitoring and Analysing Food and Agricultural Policies (MAFAP) programme seeks to establish country owned and sustainable systems to monitor, analyse, and reform food and agricultural policies to enable more effective, efficient and inclusive policy frameworks in 8 developing and emerging economies. MAFAP works with government institutions, research organizations and other partners to create sustainable policy monitoring systems and carry out a consistent set of policy and public expenditure analyses across a wide range of agricultural value chains.

MAFAP analyses are used to inform targeted food and agricultural policy reforms that will result in a more conducive environment for agricultural investment and productivity growth, especially for smallholder farmers. As such, MAFAP supports most of FAO strategic objectives, and in particular those of enabling inclusive and efficient agricultural and agrifood systems and helping eliminate hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition.

Reporting Lines

The Analyst will work under the overall supervision of the FAO Representative for Ghana and the Deputy Director, ESA, and the direct supervision of the Coordinator for MAFAP activities in Ghana. The Coordinator for MAFAP activities in Ghana will ensure technical supervision and will clear the reports produced by the Consultant as part of his/her deliverables in relation to the MAFAP programme. She/he will work in close coordination with the other members of the MAFAP team and/or the FAO Country Office in Ghana.

Technical Focus

The Analyst will support the work of MAFAP programme in Ghana on monitoring and analysing food and agricultural policies, with specific focus on trade, market, and price policies, and on public expenditures.

During the assignment, she/he will become familiar with specific analytical methods and tools (price incentives, public expenditure analysis and policy coherence).

Tasks And Responsibilities

The Incumbent will primarily carry out tasks related to policy monitoring activities. In particular, the Analyst t will undertake the following tasks:

• Collect the most recent data on prices (farm gate, wholesale, border and retail) for rice, maize, yam, groundnuts, palm oil, soybeans, poultry and tomato from the official government sources to update the price incentives analysis.
• Draft specific sections of the MAFAP Policy Monitoring Review for Ghana:
• Overview of the country context, of the Ghanaian food and agricultural sector, and of the main sectoral policies and strategies in the introductory chapter;
• Value chain context for 5-8 selected commodities (rice, maize, yam, groundnuts, palm oil + soybeans, poultry and tomato) in the chapter focusing on the analysis of Price Incentives.
• Assessing coherence of current policies (both commodity-specific and those covering the sector as a whole) with stated policy objectives in the chapter focusing on policy coherence analysis.
• Main recommendations issued from the analysis of public expenditures and price incentives in the concluding chapter.
• Assist to produce a policy brief associated with the Policy Monitoring Review for Ghana.
• Assist in the organization of stakeholders validation of the results of policy monitoring indicators.
• Perform any other duties as may be required.

CANDIDATES WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE FOLLOWING

Minimum Requirements

• Master’s degree in economics, agricultural economics, development economics, applied economics, political sciences or related fields;
• 5 years of relevant experience in agricultural policies or in economic and agricultural research; and at least 1 year of experience of working with governments, research institutions or development organizations in Ghana or in Sub-Saharan Africa.
• Working knowledge (Level C) of English.
• National of Ghana.

FAO Core Competencies

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

Technical/Functional Skills

• Extent and relevance of work experience with government, research institutions or development organizations in Ghana or in Sub-Saharan Africa.
• Extent and relevance of experience in conducting quantitative economic analysis of agricultural and food policies, including analysis of agricultural policy distortions and public expenditure for the food and agricultural sector.
• Familiarity with providing policy advice to governments in Ghana.
• Knowledge of current political economic conditions in Ghana, and ability to analyse the policy context at country level building on political economy tools.
• Capacity to interact with government officials on key policy issues affecting agriculture and food security.
• Experience in communicating with government officials and ability to present the key results in concise and effective manner.
• Extent and relevance of knowledge of the Ghanaian food and agricultural sector.
• Excellent writing and communication skills.