Consultant: Experto Internacional para la Formulación del Proyecto Regional sobre Estadísticas Agrícolas y Rurales

1. Background:

The Division for Latin America and the Caribbean of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), as well as other international actors, such as FAO, ECLAC and the World Bank have deepened their interest in improving agricultural production statistics and agriculture, which develop in the rural area and peri-urban to support the design of public policies and the development of public and private initiatives competitive and inclusive, with the aim of positively influencing the lives of men and women, small entrepreneurs and employees in the sector .

From the United Nations this interest is part of the efforts that are being developed for the design and implementation of a "global strategy to improve agricultural and rural statistics [1], and adopted at the 41st Session of the Statistical Commission Economic and Social Council of the United Nations held in New York, February 23-26, 2010.

In this context, IFAD has undertaken to promote, through a partnership with the Statistical Conference of the Americas [2] (CEA) and with international institutions and agencies interested in the topic, a demonstration project, to store in a timely fashion, a new methodological approach that contributes to the improvement of agricultural and rural statistics in Latin America and the Caribbean, so that they are useful and relevant to the design of public policies and development strategies and concrete actions in support of international organizations technical and financial.

For the development of this important initiative we have as a reference to the fact that the World Bank, which has been one of the institutions responsible for preparation of the "global strategy to improve agricultural and rural statistics, has other important steps forward, from strategy to action, by developing a research program on agricultural statistics in Africa within the framework of the Programme of studies measuring quality of life [3]. With innovative measurement methodologies from a multidimensional perspective, within the framework of a territorial continuum that involves the interactions between rural, peri-urban and rural, this project aims to lay foundation for sustainable national joint production of agricultural statistics for making decisions in rural development. This World Bank initiative, whose ultimate purpose is to contribute to poverty reduction, whose face is predominantly rural in our region for this project is another pillar of reference.

Despite the enormous importance of the rural population (75% of the world's poor live in rural areas) and the measurable impact that initiatives have rural-agricultural development in improving the quality of life for this population, agricultural statistics and rural areas show serious deficiencies to support the definition of public policies based on empirical evidence: (i) available information on rural population and the determinants of rurality are insufficient and conceptual frameworks are based on restrictive and (ii) there are serious problems for comparison between countries and regions, and, above all, (iii) are not suitable for the design of agricultural and rural public policy, because the way they are processed, analyzed and presented do not reflect the multidimesionalidad of this universe or its size real.

Taking advantage of the presence of numerous countries in the Statistical Commission United Nations, held in New York in February 2010, the President of the CEA [4] organized a meeting with members of the same and asked the Director of Division for Latin America and the Caribbean, IFAD to make a statement on the possibility of designing and implementing a demonstration project on agricultural and rural statistics in Latin America and the Caribbean [5]. This initiative has been welcomed with great enthusiasm by the countries members of the CEA and, therefore, IFAD is prepared to support its design and subsequently seeking resources for implementation.

This initiative was presented by the Chair of the CEA, in the formal meeting of the Executive Committee of the Statistical Conference of the Americas (CEA) in April 2010, to socialize all the countries of the Region, represented by the heads of offices statistical formally established, and leave your participation and / or collaboration.

The purpose of this regional project is to contribute to the improvement of agricultural and rural statistics in Latin America and the Caribbean, so they are useful and relevant to the design of public policies. This formulation must contain the features and changes that have been experiencing in the agricultural and non agricultural rural area, peri-urban and inter-relationships with urban space, as well as ecological sustainability, social and economic territory and economy as a whole. Should allow the development of demonstrative experiences in selected countries to operationalize the new framework and methodology can be considered as a model and enable the development of a replicable experience.

 
The participation of the countries of the Region to integrate the project should be led by their statistical offices, in coordination with ministries of agriculture and rural development and other bodies to support agricultural and rural development. To use the knowledge of producers of agricultural and rural statistics, it is intended that this participation is given in all the major phases of the project - from design, implementation and closure with the dissemination of results and lessons learned. Besides, it plans to develop a technical dialogue with recognized actors on the contemporary view of agriculture and rural development.

This participation should identify regional activities [6] and lifting activities or systematization of primary information at the national level. The latter should serve as demonstrative experiences in the region, which will be sponsored by the project in selected countries according to pre-established criteria.

IFAD, through its Regional Bureau for Latin America and the Caribbean, has undertaken to finance the development of this regional project with an initial donation of U.S. $ 50,000 under UNDP management. It is also committed to offering his good offices for obtaining institutional financial support necessary for its implementation.

The formulation of this project will have the facilities and logistical support of the President of the EAA, via the National Statistics Office of the Dominican Republic, which make possible the consultations and required communications and exchanges with countries and agencies involved. Technical IFAD, the ONE and the Ministry of Agriculture of the Dominican Republic, have developed the concept note on the regional project has been submitted to IFAD to start the backup process and the allocation of funds required and will support the technical consultant responsible for developing a regional project. For the formulation provides for the hiring of a consultant or an international consultant and one local.

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[1] [1] http://unstats.un.org/unsd/statcom/doc10/BG-AgriStats.pdf.

[1] http://econ.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/EXTDEC/EXTRESEARCH/EXTLSMS/0,, contentMDK: 22287818 ~ menuPK: 6194952 ~ pagePK: 64168445 ~ piPK: 64168309 ~ theSitePK: 3,358,997.00. Html

[2] The CEA is composed of statistical offices of countries in the Americas.

[3] http://econ.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/EXTDEC/EXTRESEARCH/EXTLSMS/0,, contentMDK: 22287818 ~ menuPK: 6194952 ~ pagePK: 64168445 ~ piPK: 64168309 ~ theSitePK: 3,358,997.00. Html

[4] held by the National Statistical Office of the Dominican Republic for the period 2009-2011 and represented by its Director.

[5] See, the Josefina Stubbs, "Rural Statistics in Latin America and the Caribbean: Challenges and Proposals" CEA ECLAC, New York, February 22, 2010 (PowerPoint presentation).

[6] For example, a measurement exercise of the rural population of all countries with a comparable methodology, training on new conceptual frameworks for rurality enlarged spread of results and lessons of the project,.

1. Activities

Formation of a virtual network with interested countries in the draft Rural Statistics to continue ensuring the participation of countries in the design and development of the project. This will include sending a message to President of the SCA-ECLAC and the participants at the informal meeting of members of the CEA-CEPAL who have expressed interest to participate in this initiative, held on 22 February in New York in framework of the 41st Session of the Committee on Statistics of the United Nations.

Synergies for joint work between the countries of the ECA, IFAD, FAO, World Bank, AECI, ECLAC, UNDP and other international agencies working in the field, in the framework of the "Global Strategy for improve agricultural and rural statistics, since the beginning of the project design.

Synergies for joint work between the National Statistical Offices and Ministries of Agriculture and Rural Development to integrate sustainable measures of statistics and agricultural and the rural nonfarm National Statistical System, which will be sponsored by the International cooperation agencies.

Document review and focus of the materials produced on the subject in the context of the 41st session of the Statistical Commission United Nations and the World Bank Project on "The Living Standards Measurement Study-Integrated Surveys on Agriculture (LSMS- ISA), led by the team of the Development Research Group (DECRG).

A special emphasis is made in the establishment of a strategic alliance with the World Bank that allows the aggregation of value both conceptually, as with similar experiences that makes this institution.

Collection, organization and analysis of agricultural and rural statistical operations raised by the participating countries to identify unmet information needs that are required to operationalize new forms of measurement and analysis and multidimensional approach to rural-urban territorial continuity.

Development of technical talks with senior experts on the date picture of the agricultural and non agricultural and rural development, territorial perspective rural area, peri-urban and its relationship to urban space and its measurement from the perspective of ecological sustainability, social and economic rural area and in particular the issue of their demographic size.

Design and validation of a regional project, using the instrument of IFAD projects, subject to funding, through a methodology that integrates the participation of agencies and interested countries in the CEA, to develop proven expertise Statistics agricultural and rural areas in at least six countries in the Region feasible to produce innovative results of measurements for the duration of the project

Management

• Demonstrated ability in leadership and management, particularly in local development programs focused
  Personal skills of support, supervision and adaptation to local cultural conditions of staff
• Decision-making ability, initiative, pro-activity and responsibility
• Negotiation and communication
• Positive and constructive approach
• Spirit Group
• Demonstrated ability to ensure a spirit of collaboration and group with UNDP staff and participate fully in the activities of UNDP.
• Technical / functional
• Ability to program coordination, implementation and evaluation
• Co-sharing of knowledge and experience
• Facilitate the exchange of experiences and knowledge to contribute to the compilation of best practices
• Ability to perform specialized activities related to program management
• IT Capabilities
   
   

Requirements

• Professional Economics, Statistics and / or related careers.
• Experience over 10 years in agricultural research through censuses, surveys, administrative records.
• Knowledge of geographic information systems agricultural estates.
• Experience working with regional projects.
• Knowledge of the conceptual framework of new rurality (rural enlarged).
• Good human relations, teamwork ability and excellent oral and written communication with ease in transferring knowledge in workshops and seminars;
• Fluency in basic information programs (word processing, Excel, PowerPoint or similar programs);
• Fully mastered English and Spanish;