Job Summary

The Senior Statistician reports to the Chief of the Population and Development Branch, Technical Division. S/he is responsible for the overall technical leadership and strategic direction on the use of population data to inform the design, selection and location of interventions to advance the ICPD Programme of Action. S/he also provides technical leadership on indicator development, data acquisition, compilation, analysis, dissemination and utilization of population data. S/he assumes overall responsibility for the internal and external use of data from civil registration and vital statistics, population censuses, household surveys, such as the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS), and Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS), as well as administrative records, and s/he will advise on the potential use of big data.  

Job Purpose

UNFPA works at all levels - global, regional and country - to support national efforts for the generation and utilization of data and evidence as a solid foundation for policy formulation, programme design and to guide programme implementation, monitoring and evaluation.  This commitment to support data generation and utilization requires a clear and complete understanding of not only the existing data sources such as census, household surveys, vital registration systems, administrative records, and more recently big data, but also the institutional division of work, sensitivities and responsibilities relating to issues of data acquisition, analysis, dissemination and use for policy and programme development, monitoring and evaluation. 

The Senior Statistician provides strategic technical and programmatic leadership on population data to ensure that Regional Offices (RO’s), Sub-Regional Offices (SRO’s) and Country Offices (CO’s) remain abreast of the Fund’s population data policies as well as the current thinking and academic advance in the area of data for development. The Senior Statistician serves as a principle liaison to coordinate technical support to UNFPA’s regional and country offices regarding for the acquisition, compilation, analysis, dissemination and utilization of data, such as civil registration and vital statistics systems, administrative records, population census and household surveys (DHS and MICS);  this includes use of data for tracking progress in the fulfillment of the UNFPA 2014-2017 Strategic Plan, the implementation and fulfillment of the ICPD Programme of Action, the ICPD Beyond 2014, and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).  

S/he supervises a team of analysts, and works closely with the Branch Chief and others from the Division to prioritize and systematically respond to data needs and innovations.

The Senior Statistician will also support UNFPA’s strategic engagement within the UN statistical community, academic communities of practice, development partners, and donors, and assure UNFPA’s representation and leadership within a variety of inter-agency collaborations.  S/he will be responsible to provide oversight and quality assurance for statistical analysis and outputs sponsored by UNFPA, including population projections, analytic reports and monographs, population situation assessments, UNFPA databases and dashboards, and others.

The Primary roles of the Senior Statistician are:

·         Strategic Guidance

·         Capacity Development & Knowledge Management

·         Technical Representation

• Managerial oversight

Education: 

Post-graduate degree or equivalent (preferably Ph.D.) in statistics, technical demography, epidemiology, geography or related field.

Knowledge and Experience:

·         10 year of increasingly responsible professional experience, of which 5 years at the international level. S/he should have substantial work experience in one or more of the following areas:

o    Generation and use of official demographic, health and development statistics;

o    Analysis of population censuses and household surveys;

o    Quantitative research and analysis;

·         Proven analytic experience in the field of population dynamics (fertility, mortality and migration), and international development is essential;

·         Prior experience and familiarity with one or more of the following topics is desirable:  demographic dividend, ageing, sexual and reproductive health, gender equality, urbanization, or population and climate change;

·         Prior work experience in developing countries is essential;

·         Strong track record of technical leadership, and proven ability to produce demonstrable results;

·         Demonstrated capacity for team leadership, coordination, management, and external relations.