The UNFPA Arab States Regional Office, located in Cairo, Egypt, is mandated to support the Implementation of the ICPD Program of Action in the Arab Region within the framework of the global agenda 2030. Data generation and management requires capacity building in the development and conduct of censuses, CRVS and registry data, population projections, and the integrated use of various sources of population data including for UNFPA’s inputs toward Common Operational Datasets (CODs) to advance the preparedness and response to humanitarian crises, target those left behind, track SDGs and ICPD, and evaluate interventions.
The annual work plan of the Specialist will be jointly defined by the ASRO Regional Deputy Director and Chief of Population and Development at HQ, while day-to-day work will be supervised by the Regional Population Policies and Data Adviser. The Specialists will also work closely with the Regional Humanitarian Advisor, as well as UNFPA specialists in humanitarian data based in other ROs and in HQ.
JOB PURPOSE:
The Population and Humanitarian Data Specialist will support regional needs for population and development data, including demographic and programme data, addressing data needs across the humanitarian-development continuum. In addition to providing technical guidance, the Specialist will coordinate the development, implementation and execution of UNFPA’s data leadership and generate and execute a data capacity development package for COs and partners in the region with a focus on humanitarian settings.
The incumbent will support the scale-up of activities at country, regional and global level to use population census and related data for humanitarian preparedness and response. The specialist will provide technical advice on the generation, processing and use of modern census, the conduct of surveys, expansion of CRVS and registry data, and the use of these data for generating demographic intelligence. The incumbent will provide technical support to meet growing demand for national Common Operational Datasets on Population Statistics within relevant UNFPA programme countries; actively participate within the joint UN efforts to improve the scope and precision of vulnerable subpopulations of concern (e.g. pregnant women, youth/adolescents, persons with disabilities, age and sex disaggregated data, etc.) in humanitarian situations – including enhancements to UNFPA’s Minimum Initial Service Package (MISP) calculator, advice to country offices on Multi-sectoral Initial Rapid Assessments (MIRA), and support to UNFPA country offices contributing to Humanitarian Needs Overviews (HNOs) and Humanitarian Response Plans (HRPs); as well as provide analytic support to periodic estimations of those at risk of key poor reproductive health outcomes and/or human rights violations, e.g. Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), child marriage, gender-based violence (SGBV) – in both development and humanitarian settings. Given high rates of population displacement in the region, the Specialist will also provide innovative data support on migration related data in collaboration with MHub and other fora.
Responsibilities will include supporting country offices and liaising with HQ and relevant partners on population, development, and humanitarian data generation, processing, analysis and reporting for proper monitoring of ICPD-based SDGs, population trends and needs within humanitarian settings.
Education:
Post-graduate university degree or equivalent in the quantitative social sciences, such as public health epidemiology, statistics, demography, sociology, economics or related discipline. The graduate or post-graduate degree should be directly related to the substantive area identified in the post.
Knowledge and Experience:
• 7 years of experience in data collection, analysis, visualization, dissemination, database management and research within an academic or development institution
• Strong knowledge of statistical methodologies, including strong competencies in the use of statistical packages such as R, STATA or SPSS.
• Mastery of methods and techniques for data quality assessment, processing and analysis using a variety of health and population sources (DHS, MICS and population census)
• Ability to provide advice and guidance on the analysis, interpretation and application of data from project information
• Strong interpersonal communication skills
• Excellent report writing and compelling oral presentations
• Familiarity with the UN system is desirable
Languages:
Fluency in written and spoken English; proficiency in a second working language (French or Arabic) is an asset.