UNDP Jobs - 103398- Statistics Consultant

Statistics Consultant

Location :

New York, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Type of Contract :

IPSA (Regular)

Starting Date :

Application Deadline :

07-Dec-21 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

IPSA-8

Duration of Initial Contract :

Languages Required :

English

Expected Duration of Assignment :

6 months

UNDP is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence. UNDP does not tolerate sexual exploitation and abuse, any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment, and discrimination. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks.

Background

Instructions to Applicants: Click on the "Apply now" button. Input your information in the appropriate Sections: personal information, language proficiency, education, resume and motivation. Upon completion of the first page, please hit "submit application" tab at the end of the page. Please ensure that CV or P11 and the Cover letter are combined in one file.

The following documents shall be required from the applicants:

Personal CV or P11, indicating all past positions held and their main underlying functions, their durations (month/year), the qualifications, as well as the contact details (email and telephone number) of the Candidate, and at least three (3) the most recent professional references of previous supervisors. References may also include peers.

A cover letter (maximum length: 1 page) indicating why the candidate considers him-/herself to be suitable for the position.

Managers may ask (ad hoc) for any other materials relevant to pre-assessing the relevance of their experience, such as reports, presentations, publications, campaigns or other materials.

Office/Unit/Project Description

The mission of the Human Development Report Office (HDRO)/UNDP is to advance human development. HDRO works towards this goal by promoting innovative ideas, constructively challenging policies and approaches that constrain human development, and advocating practical policy changes, through its research, data analysis, outreach, and advocacy work.

The first Human Development Report (HDR) in 1990 introduced the Human Development Index (HDI) as an alternative to GDP as a measure of human progress. Over time, HDRO has been working on incorporating additional dimensions of development challenges to human progress measurement for policy debate.

Institutional Arrangement

Statistics Consultant will be part of the Statistics team. Under the guidance and direct supervision of the Chief Statistician of HDRO, the Consultant will assist with the tasks outlined above.

Duties and Responsibilities

Scope of Work

The Statistic Consultant will contribute to the statistical work in the office and report to the Chief of Statistics. She/he will work closely with the entire HDR team in the production of the HDR, establish working relationships with international data agencies and other specialized agencies and research institutes in the process of data collection and measurement development, interact with UNDP Regional Bureaus and country offices to provide corporate support as well as with country governments and other external users of the Report for information outreach.

1.Contribute to the production of HDR’s Statistical Annex tables

Research sources of relevant statistics and conduct independent evaluation of data quality and reliability.
Apply statistical modeling and other quantitative techniques to obtain estimates as required.
Help produce the HDR’s Statistical Annex tables.
Take part in the editing and quality control of the HDR’s Statistical Annex tables to ensure accuracy, consistency, and clear presentation.

2.Contribute to statistical information outreach

Design and prepare materials for the launch of HDR and other HDRO activities, including presentation materials related to statistics and analysis.
Contribute to the overall understanding among the HDR team of the conceptual and methodological issues related to specific statistical indicators in fields related to human development.
Work with national and international statistical agencies and UNDP Regional Bureau and country offices to enhance the general understanding of the use of statistics in the report and to improve the international data availability and reliability of basic human development indicators.
Respond to media, government, UN, UNDP Regional Bureaus and country offices, and other external requests and queries on HDRO statistics both at the time of the launch of HDR and on an on-going basis.

3.Promote the innovative use and elaboration of human development statistics and measures for policy analysis and advocacy

Follow the current debates on key human development indicators in a broad range of thematic areas.
Work on human development measures, exploring new data and measures that reflect HDRO’s current work.
Provide feedback and inputs to development of innovative measures and indices for each year’s global HDR.
Contribute to the conceptual and methodological development of composite indices for measuring human development both for improving existing indices and for designing new ones.

4.Contribute to the thematic analysis of the HDR and support other HDRO activities and publications

As part of the Report team, participate in the brainstorming and team discussions on various aspects of the Report production, and contribute to the preparation and finalization of the structure and content of the Report.
Research sources of relevant statistics, collecting and assessing data from these sources; work with the chapter authors on the application of these statistics.
Apply statistical modeling and other quantitative techniques to obtain estimates as required by the analyses.
Produces tables, graphs and other statistical information for the chapters of the Report.
Draft texts to assist in the interpretation of statistical analyses in the chapters of HDR when necessary.
Provide statistical inputs for other HDRO activities and publications.

5.Cooperation with other units of HDRO

Liaise with the research team to ensure consistency between the report’s key objectives and the statistics used in the analysis.
Liaise with the outreach team on the conceptualization of components for HDRO knowledge management that extend and support outreach efforts and increase access to and dissemination of HDRO materials.
Contribute to the review and substantive assessment of national and regional HDR and the organization of discussions throughout the human development network.

Competencies

Professionalism: Shows pride in work and achievements; demonstrates professional competence and mastery of subject matter; is conscientious and efficient in meeting commitments, observing deadlines and achieving results; is motivated by professional rather than personal concerns; shows persistence when faced with difficult problems or challenges; remains calm in stressful situations. Takes responsibility for incorporating gender perspectives and ensuring the equal participation of women and men in all areas of work.

Communication: Speaks and writes clearly and effectively; Listens to others, correctly interprets messages from others and responds appropriately; Asks questions to clarify and exhibits interest in having two-way communication; Tailors language, tone, style and format to match the audience; Demonstrates openness in sharing information and keeping people informed.

Client Orientation: Considers all those to whom services are provided to be "clients " and seeks to see things from clients' point of view; Establishes and maintains productive partnerships with clients by gaining their trust and respect; Identifies clients' needs and matches them to appropriate solutions; Monitors ongoing developments inside and outside the clients' environment to keep informed and anticipate problems; Keeps clients informed of progress or setbacks in projects; Meets timeline for delivery of products or services to client.

Required Skills and Experience

Minimum Academic Education:

Master’s degree from an internationally accredited university in statistics, demography, economics, economic development, public policy or relevant social science with a strong training in applied statistics/quantitative analysis.

Minimum years of relevant Work experience:

Some relevant work experience with international data and statistics.

Required skills and competencies:

Knowledge of statistical software for analyzing data (particularly STATA), and other standard office software such as Excel and Word are required;
Strong analytical skills;
Excellent organizational and self-management skills;
Effective team player demonstrating commitment to UNDP values and displays sensitivity and adaptability;
Good communication and inter-personal skills;
Good understanding of the human development paradigm and its policy implications.

Desired additional skills and competencies:

Familiarity with the production of internationally comparable statistics is desirable;
Knowledge and experience of using household survey data for estimation and analysis of models, distributions and population parameters is desirable;
Knowleddge of analysis of models, distributions and population parameters is desirable.

Required Language(s) (at working level):

Proficiency in English (oral and written);
Working knowledge of French will be an asset;
Working knowledge of another UN official language is desirable.