Economist Officer – P3 (Evergreen)  

Job Requisition Type

Evergreen (Formerly known as talent pools, in order to have a balanced number of ready-to-hire candidates who can be deployed at short notice to a vacancy that best matches their skills. Evergreens are primarily used to fill Temporary Appointments.)

Current UNHCR staff members holding an Indefinite or Fixed-term Appointment in the international professional category who are looking for Internal Temporary Assignment (ITA) opportunities – instead of applying to an Evergreen profile – should contact the Emergency and Temporary Staffing Unit.

Call for applications – Economist Officer, P3

Location: Various location

Why should you join us?

UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, takes the lead in protecting people forced to flee wars and persecution around the world, providing life-saving aid including shelter, food and water to ensure their basic safety, rights and dignity. With 18,879 women and men working in 137 countries, we work tirelessly to make a difference in the lives of 89.3 million forcibly displaced people worldwide.

Our dedicated and professional staff work around the clock in roles including legal protection, community services, public affairs, health and more. Despite the challenges they can face, our staff are proud to work for UNHCR and determined to make a positive impact.

How can you make a difference?

The Economist will contribute to the Global Compact for Refugees (GCR) objectives 1 and 2- Ease the pressures on host countries and Enhance refugee self-reliance. Concretely the Economist will contribute to the indicators measuring the success of the Global Compact for Refugees and particularly the Proportion of refugees living below the national poverty line in the host country. Depending on where the Economist is based the reporting lines will differ. If the Economist is based in Headquarters, it will map to the DRS Partnership Analytics Research and Knowledge (PARK) section. If the Economist is based in a country or regional office, the Economist will report to either the Representative or Deputy Representative Programme, or in some cases Senior Development Officer, Head of Sub-Office or Senior Operations Officer. In all cases a dotted line will be to DRS PARK for technical functional clearance of candidates and for technical oversight of economics products. The Economist will work closely with Programme and Protection colleagues in addition to Senior Management in the operation as well as Bureaux and technical unit key external stakeholders and development agencies, including the World Bank, government agencies, national statistical agencies, and other operational partners.

Key responsibilities and duties:

Project Management

Lead the design and implementation of assessments and other data-driven products related to the socio-economic welfare of refugees, forcibly displaced persons and host communities, wherever possible through coordination with the National Bureau of Statistics and World Bank Country Economist in inclusion of forcibly displaced into National Poverty Assessment.

Successfully manage all partnerships and activities in the collection of comparable socio-economic (poverty) data on forcibly displaced

Contribute to defining and promoting a vision for the use of socio-economic data, particularly in planning, programming and advocacy at the country, regional and headquarters levels.

Maintain a strong understanding of the state of literature on poverty analysis for forcibly displaced. Manage data collection activities, as appropriate. This may take place at all stages of data collection (preparation, survey design, sampling, onsite data collection oversight and supervision and quality assurance, data analysis and report writing).

Conduct data analysis using econometric programs (R, Stata).

Data Collection and Analysis

Consolidate raw primary and secondary datasets into final datasets to be used for analysis, as needed. This will involve creating and merging various sources of data and may require programming matching algorithms, linking up with field staff for additional information, and performing manual matching.

Clean all datasets and create all necessary indicators. Work with the research team to design a thorough plan for data analysis and carry out the coding to perform this analysis. Common analytical tasks include production of descriptive statistics and regression analysis for various outputs such as briefs, presentations and academic papers.

For any field survey, assist in programming the instrument and developing protocols to ensure high quality data.

Properly prepare and document relevant datasets for archiving on the UNHCR Microdata Library.

Lead the preparation of research papers including formatting and creating tables, graphs, and related analysis.

Engage with country operation, partners and government, as appropriate, in the design and implementation of data collection and research projects.

Coordination

Ensure good communication and coordination among members of the country team, Governments, researchers and partners, serving as a link between these parties.

Lead drafting and writing of presentations, analytical reports and research and policy briefs.

Participate in official missions and deliver capacity building and training activities for partners and governments.

Identify research opportunities and contribute to proposals for research partnerships and funding.

Reflect UNHCR’s positions on policy, advocacy and programming issues as they relate to the protection, resilience and solutions of refugees with medium-term economic and social development programmes.

Represent UNHCR in negotiations and meetings relating to socio-economic profiling of forcibly displaced and wider partners research in country.

Represent UNHCR in technical capacity with external actors.

Who are we looking for?

Candidates with 6 years relevant experience with Undergraduate degree; or 5 years relevant experience with Graduate degree; or 4 years relevant experience with Doctorate degree.

Requirements

At least six (6) years of demonstrated experience in economics, analysing data and conducting research. Familiarity with processes of the World Bank, the African Development Bank or other international financial institutions, bilateral development agencies or research institutions.

Advantage

Familiarity with displacement and development issues. Experience of working with the private sector. Experience working in applied development economics. Experience in poverty modelling. Experience leading primary data collection effort and data analysis. Experience of working with synergies between the humanitarian-development nexus. Demonstrated skills and experience with measuring welfare through socio-economic profiling. Demonstrated experience with analysis of large datasets. Demonstrated expertise in utilization of relevant statistical software (R, Stata). Ability to work independently with limited supervision and deliver high quality products. Demonstrated ability to think creatively, and to explore, harness and translate innovative concepts into relevant practical approaches for programming, policy, and advocacy purposes. Demonstrated ability to think creatively, and to explore, harness and translate innovative concepts into relevant practical approaches for programming, policy, and advocacy purposes.

For a more detailed description, please review the job description:

https://www.unhcr.org/63d9210b4

COMMITMENT TO DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION

UNHCR’s workforce consists of many diverse nationalities, cultures, languages and opinions. We seek to sustain and strengthen this diversity and to ensure equal opportunities, as well as an inclusive working environment, for our entire workforce. Joining us means living, sharing and promoting these core values of inclusion, diversity and gender equality.

Applications are encouraged from all qualified candidates without distinction on the grounds of race, colour, sex, national origin, age, religion, disability, sexual orientation and gender identity.

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