Organizational Setting

FAO's Subregional Office for Southern Africa (SFS) is responsible for developing, promoting, overseeing and implementing agreed strategies for addressing subregional food, agriculture and rural development priorities. It develops and maintains relations with subregion-wide institutions including Regional Economic Integration Organizations (REIOs). The Subregional Office is a subsidiary of FAO's Regional Office for Africa (RAF). The office provides technical assistance and support to governments and country offices in the sub-region developing policies, programmes and projects to achieve food security and to reduce hunger and malnutrition while using their environmental and natural resources in a sustainable manner.

About the Project

Phase 2 of the project Support Towards the Operationalization of the SADC Regional Agricultural Policy (STOSAR II) seeks to enhance the implementation of the SADC RAP by recognizing the important roles of (a) agricultural information, (b) enabling policies and strategies, and (c) coordinated prevention and control of crop and livestock pests and diseases of economic significance in competitively and sustainably transforming Southern Africa’s food systems to strengthen food and nutrition security, open up trade opportunities, boost farmer incomes and raise their standard of living.  The intervention adopts an inclusive value-chain development approach, that strengthens the policy and legal environment, galvanises, and coordinates regional action to control priority pests and diseases, strengthens value-addition performance of small and medium-scale producers (especially women and the youth in selected value chains), builds systems for compliance with international SPS standards for trade and improves agricultural statistics and the Food and Nutrition Security monitoring function. This will facilitate SADC’s access to global markets with high quality and safe products in line with the principles and approaches of agro-ecology and human rights. Under Phase I of the project access to reliable and timely agricultural information was enhanced by developing a Regional AIMS Strategy that was endorsed and adopted by all SADC countries. The Strategy provides guidelines to facilitate the flow and dissemination of official agricultural information between the SADC Secretariat and its member states. In addition, an integrated, multi-lingual web-based agricultural and food security information management system (AIMS) with twelve data entry and reporting modules (crops, livestock, aquaculture and fisheries, forestry, agricultural inputs, socio-economics, land cover, national accounts, public finance, trade quantity, production value/price, and animal and plant health), was developed. To further enhance capacities and promote the use of harmonized tools and strengthen the regional database, over 525 experts from the Ministries of Agriculture (MoA) and National Statistics Offices (NSO) in the 16 SADC MS were trained on AIMS principles and operations, data collection, analysis, storage and reporting and the use of QGIS, Kobo Collect, SPSS and Power-BI software for data visualization. Two countries piloted the integration of local databases into the broader regional AIMS platform, highlighting the possibility of creating interoperable and scalable regional digital infrastructure. Under STOSAR II more SADC countries will be supported towards regional integration. Using the AIMS platform STOSAR I enhanced access to timely and reliable data for its community of end users by investing in hardware and software infrastructure, All these efforts directly contribute to SADC’s main development objective of revitalizing agriculture, enhancing natural resource management, increasing food security, and promoting rural development and regional integration through a credible data source.

Reporting Lines

The incumbent will report to the Assistant FAOR Programmes, with technical oversight from the Information Technology Officer (CSI), in close collaboration with the STOSAR II Regional Coordinator, Information Systems AIMS Expert, SADC ICT Unit and AIMS Focal Point in country.

Technical Focus

National-level statistical support for AIMS dataset preparation, indicator harmonization, and metadata development

Tasks and responsibilities

•     Review and harmonize national AIMS indicators across priority thematic areas.
•     Align national indicator definitions with AIMS, CAADP, LIMS, and FAOSTAT requirements, as applicable.
•     Update and complete national AIMS metadata sheets, ensuring standardized units, classifications, disaggregation (including sex-disaggregated data where applicable), and data sources.
•     Provide direct technical support to the national AIMS Technical Working Group (TWG) to strengthen coordination, validation, and submission processes.
•     Support the development of a national AIMS data-update workplan to guide routine reporting cycles.
•     Apply a rapid data-quality assessment protocol suitable for a 3-month assignment.
•     Validate datasets produced by the assigned Member State across selected AIMS modules.
•     Prepare concise dataset validation notes highlighting gaps, inconsistencies, and corrective actions.
•     Provide practical guidance to national technical teams on AIMS data formats, metadata templates, coding standards, and indicator computation.
•     Support mapping of national datasets to AIMS indicator structures.
•     Provide statistical guidance to ensure national datasets are technically ready for integration with LIMS, and CAADP platforms, where relevant.
•     Conduct completeness, consistency, and plausibility checks prior to submission to the regional AIMS platform.
•     Support national teams in applying agreed indicator formulas and computation logic.
•     Ensure national datasets align with AIMS dashboard requirements and analytical outputs.
•     Deliver virtual technical coaching sessions to national AIMS focal points and TWG members on: Metadata preparation, Indicator harmonization, Data validation techniques, AIMS submission workflows
•     Provide targeted, practical guidance materials in English, French, or Portuguese, depending on country assignment.
•     Prepare brief monthly national progress summaries.
•     Produce a final national technical report outlining: Dataset status, Validation results, Harmonization progress, Practical recommendations to strengthen national AIMS workflows.
•     Assist national AIMS focal points in the accurate entry of validated datasets into the AIMS platform, ensuring adherence to prescribed templates and coding standards.
•     Perform quality checks on entered data to identify and correct transcription errors.
•     Document data entry protocols and provide on‑the‑job guidance to national staff on efficient data entry techniques.

CANDIDATES WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE FOLLOWING

Minimum Requirements    

•     Advanced university degree in Statistics, Agricultural Statistics, Data Science, or a related field.
•     At least 5 years of relevant experience in agricultural or national statistics systems.
•     Working knowledge (level C) of English 
•     National of Zimbabwe, or resident of the country with a valid work permit

FAO Core Competencies

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

Technical/Functional Skills

•     Experience with data harmonization, metadata development, and statistical methodologies.
•     Knowledge of SADC agricultural data systems and familiarity with LIMS, CAADP, and FAOSTAT indicators.
•     Proficiency in using statistical software such as R, STATA, or Python.
•     Strong analytical, communication, and reporting skills.