Data and Analytics Specialist

The Data Analytics Specialist will support in data, evidence generations and analytics on the situation of children to enhance evidence-based programmes and policy actions to close child deprivations and vulnerabilities across Afghanistan. The incumbent will support Chief Social Policy, Evaluation, Analytics and Research in the strategic planning of data investments supported by and within UNICEF Afghanistan Office to optimize the use of current data for actionable insights that can be used by UNICEF management, sectors and field offices for learning and programming. In addition, the incumbent will contribute to the UNICEF office wide efforts to learning on data for children, situation monitoring and accountability on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) related to the rights of children in Afghanistan.

This role includes, pro-actively working with and supporting sectors (health, nutrition, education, water and sanitation, child protection and social protection), cross-sectoral teams (gender, social and behavior change communication) and UNICEF field offices in the area of data, evidence, analytics, management and usage – linked to UNICEF’s overall programmes.

In addition, the role will closely work with Planning, Monitoring and Data team who ensure structured and well-coordinated programme monitoring and data through sectors, clusters, field offices and partners to inform programmes design and implementation and progress towards achievement of results for children and women in Afghanistan.

Summary of key functions/accountabilities:

UNICEF Afghanistan Data Strategy development and operationalization

• Manage data as a strategic asset, and operationalize data governance, data quality and other competencies and controls to sustain the integrity of UNICEF’s data.
• Identify critical programme priority research questions and lead on analysis for priority issues.
• In collaboration with Planning, Monitoring and Data (PMD) section, advise and support sector analysis of programme monitoring data and situation monitoring data.
• Coordinate with planning, monitoring and data section, programme sections and field office teams on forward looking analytics to produce flagship quarterly analysis for UNICEF Country Management Team.
• Coordinate and support office efforts on the use of frontier data/big data

Data Collection and Analysis Capacity Building

• Support office situation monitoring mechanisms and ensure preparation of analytical reports on the critical issues of children and women.
• Make use of existing data on programmes, operational and situation data and generate actionable insights for country office management and sectors.
• In coordination with UNICEF programme colleagues and other stakeholders, support the design and implementation of further analysis (e.g., MICS and other relevant sources of data) to provide a regional, provincial, national and subnational perspective on progress towards the goals for children.
• In close collaboration with UNICEF partners, ensure that data collection and capacity building measures implemented, and corresponding activities are identified and implemented.

Data and Analysis for Situation Monitoring and Assessment.

• Facilitate consultations with sections, development partner and other relevant stakeholders to discuss and explore related opportunities, challenges, and priorities affecting children and women to identify issues and thematic areas in conceptualizing analytical products and further analysis.
• Contribute to sector’s strengthen data mining, analysis, and statistical capacity of UNICEF and partners to effectively pursue data driving results for children.
• Conduct thematic analysis of data of sectors/cross-sectoral issues to show unexplored relationships, subgroups, and subnational variations.
• Carry out qualitative and quantitative analyses (using statistical software such as, NVivo, Stata, SPSS,R, Excel, etc.) and secondary analysis on sectoral and cross-sectoral priorities.
• Conduct new and innovative data analysis and visualization to show some unexplored trends in data to support dissemination and advocacy on issues affecting children and women.
• Promote responsible data practices across the office (responsible sharing of data, compliance with UNICEF policies on personal data protection, application of responsible data).

Data visualization and dissemination

• Preparing periodic reports for program managers on both humanitarian and development interventions that effectively communicate trends, patterns, and predictions using relevant data. Such reports will include creation of engaging interactive data visualizations including interactive charts, maps and dashboards based on UNICEF’s data work and contribute to publications and media reports.
• Produce external facing outreach materials such as emails, social media cards, presentations, and infographics, as well as internal facing communications assets for internal use in discussions and meetings.
• Ensure the establishment and delivery of technologies, tools, approaches and methodologies to unlock the value in UNICEF data, including guiding data use and structures to remove data silos, and ensure responsible cross-fertilization of data across the organization especially between humanitarian and development.
• Using statistical tools to interpret data sets, paying particular attention to trends and patterns that could be valuable for diagnostic and predictive analytics efforts.

Networking and partnership building

• Support as Office data steward by coordinating and linking situational data (outcome and impact level indicators) with programme data (output and activity levels)
• Ensure effective partnership and collaboration with UNICEF Headquarters, Regional Office, UN System and development partners are pursued for data and analytics on women and children.
• Work with regional office and partners to mobilize and leverage resources for regional/country child data related efforts, including the implementation of the global UNICEF data for children strategy.
• Represent UNICEF and attend relevant regional and national data platforms. Similarly, pay attention to data and evidence generation networks to identify innovations and lessons learned that may be relevant for Afghanistan.
• Identifies other critical partners, promotes awareness and builds capacity of partners, and actively facilitates effective collaboration within the UN family.

Research, knowledge management and capacity building

• Ensure that the Country Office has high quality research outcomes in line with expected results established in annual work plans.
• Provide technical support to ensure that a set of research and assessments conducted, with inputs of all concerned partners in the context of the multi-year and annual IMEPs, the Annual Management Plan and Annual Work Plans.
• Coordinate with partners to ensure that research and assessment systems are properly designed, and that data collection and analysis from field visits are coordinated and standardized across programmes with special attention to humanitarian response.
• Contribute to drafting well-tailored and well-written concept notes and terms of reference in close consultation with key internal and external stakeholders.
• Actively seek partnerships with knowledge institutions for the identification of capacity gaps and development of strategies to address them.
• Identify, capture, synthesize and share lessons learned from evaluations for integration into broader knowledge development planning and management efforts.

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…

• An Advanced university degree in computer science, data science and machine learning, analytics, statistics, economics, or other relevant social sciences.
• A minimum of Five years of relevant professional work experience in data and analytics is required.
• Professional technical knowledge/expertise in quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods data analysis including theories, standards, models, and statistical inference methods is a strong asset.
• Advance skills and demonstrated experience in professional analytical writing is an added advantage.
• At least one instance of exposure to emergency/humanitarian context will be an asset.
• Understanding of tools and methods to assess needs of situation data and statistics for policy analyses and advice, advocacy, and programming.
• Knowledge of qualitative and quantitative data analysis and use of statistical packages for analysis and presentation of data and information.
• Knowledge of existing statistical measurement frameworks, classifications, and standards in collecting and compiling sectoral, cross-sectoral indicator data to assess the quality and suitability of data for different types of analysis.
• Knowledge of sector specific measurement challenges to develop suitable indicators for monitoring sector policy and programmes, the situation of children, and their prospects.
• Knowledge of data collection methodologies and how they can be applied to monitor the situation of children.
• Knowledge of statistical data analysis methods (univariate and multivariate) and tools to analyze and interpret data to monitor the situation of children.
• Developing country work experience and/or familiarity with emergency is considered an asset.
• Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) or a local language is an asset.

Source: https://jobs.unicef.org/cw/en-us/job/571647