Economist

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees

Bamenda, Cameroon

The Economist will work under the general responsibility and direct supervision of the project coordinator. The incumbent will work closely with Programme and Protection colleagues in addition to Senior Management, and UNHCR Economists, as well as with key external project stakeholders, including GIZ, relevant sectoral administrations, INS, BUCREP, BUNEC, decentralized local authorities, grassroots organizations, operational partners, among others.  

The candidate will be responsible for the main analytical products of all data collection relating to the internal displacement profiling, including target groups within the framework of the PESoP project. To this end, the post holder will have the main responsibilities set out below. 
Data use and strategic guidance of the profiling:

  • Contribute to defining and promoting a vision for the use of profiling data, particularly in planning, programming and advocacy at the country, regional and headquarters levels.
  • Facilitate the elaboration of a data use strategy and making sure serves as a guidance along the whole process. 
  • Facilitate the elaboration of a dissemination strategy once the final outputs have been created. 
Data Collection and Analysis:
Design
  • Serve as the technical lead in the design and implementation of the profiling in the framework of the PESoP, with support of the Oversee/lead the development of the methodology and data collection tools of the profiling exercise, including the planning and facilitation of technical development workshops;
  • Serve as technical focal point and engage with country operation, partners and government, as appropriate, in the design and implementation of data collection and research projects. 
Implementation:
  • For any field survey, assist in programming the instrument and developing protocols to ensure high-quality data.
  • Lead the development of training materials and implement and facilitate the training for enumarators;
  • Lead the piloting phase including the subsequent revision of data collection tools and process;
  • Manage data collection activities, as appropriate and under the oversight of the coordinator. 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).
Analysis:
  • Draft data analysis plan and lead joint analysis
  • Consolidate raw primary and secondary datasets into final datasets to be used for analysis, as needed.
  • Support the cleaning of all datasets and create all necessary indicators. 
  • Work with the research team to design a thorough plan for preliminary 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.
  • Oversee the data processing phase of the exercise; Lead the (qualitative and quantitative) data analysis and facilitate collaborative data analysis workshops;
Reporting
  • Lead the drafting of the analytical products related to the internal displacement profiling (2 reports, 2 policy notes, 2 infographics at least) 
  • 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.
Support for coordination
  • Ensure good communication and coordination among members of the country team, Governments, researchers and partners. 
  • Participate in official missions and deliver capacity building and training activities for partners and governments.
  • 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.
  • Perform other related duties as required.    
Relevant Job Experience
Essential
  • At least six (6) years of demonstrated experience in socioeconomics, analysing data and conducting research. Familiarity with processes of development partners, as well as with working with National Statistics Offices, councils, sectoral administrations, development organisations and research institutions. Extensive experience in drafting analytical documents from survey data.
  • Demonstrated expertise in utilization of relevant statistical software (R, Stata, Python). In-depth knowledge of the processes involved in drawing up development plans. Professional experience in the target area. 
Desirable:
  • Familiarity with displacement and development issues. Experience working in applied development economics. 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. 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.
Source: https://unhcr.wd3.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/External/job/Bamenda-Cameroon/Economist_JR2436394