Temporary Appointment - Economist

Vacancy Announcement for an Economist as Temporary Appointment

Title: Economist, P3

Duty Station: Dhaka, Bangladesh

Duration: 6 months initially

Contract Type: Temporary Appointment

Closing date: 2 June 2019 (midnight Geneva time)

Start date: 1 July 2019

Operational context
Framed by the Global Compact for Refugees (GCR), UNHCR¿s mandated responsibility for finding solutions to refugee situations requires strengthened cooperation with development and private sector partners accompanied by a greater push to include refugees into national development programmes. Despite efforts over many decades, the proportion of refugees and internally displaced persons in protracted displacement situations remains high and, together with the increasing scale of irregular migration, large-scale refugee movements, and costs of responding to humanitarian situations, have placed forced displacement high on the global agenda. These elements have further driven the realization that humanitarian support alone is insufficient to lift displaced populations out of poverty, enable solutions to their situations or assist them to realize their development potential.

Within UNHCR, the Division of Resilience and Solutions (DRS) was formed to address these disparate challenges, in part by broadening relationships with key actors in these areas, including importantly the World Bank and other multi-lateral development banks. Doing so, in turn, requires better data and standardized information about refugees and host community households, particularly in relation to their socio-economic status. Accurate data on welfare conditions is also needed for the purposes of cash-based programming, livelihoods, welfare targeting and monitoring of the Sustainable Development Goals. Finally, comparable information for both refugees and host community member is a pre-requisite for measuring changes in welfare required to inform medium-term programming with development partners and national governors.

The Economist (P3) will contribute to the work of the DRS Partnerships, Analytics and Research Service and to the Bangladesh Country Operation to improve the overall quality and consistency of data on refugee populations. Working under the Senior Development Officer in Dhaka, with a functional reporting role to the Senior Economist based in Geneva, the Economist is expected to engage across a range of internal and external stakeholders in the design, implementation and analysis of a variety of knowledge products related to refugee welfare and socio-economic profiling. Of particular relevance to this role is coordination in collection of a panel dataset in collaboration with Yale University and the World Bank. Key stakeholders for this work include UNHCR Bangladesh country operation, the Asia Bureau and technical units, development agencies, including the World Bank, and government agencies, including national statistical agencies.

Duties and responsibilities

Accountability (key results that will be achieved)
¿ Collection and use of data on socio-economic conditions and welfare of refugees at UNHCR is strengthened. Promote design and implementation of analytical products in a manner consistent with international standards for quality and consistency, with the objective of providing actionable information for programme strategy and monitoring.
¿ Analytical products are designed and implemented in support of the World Bank IDA 18 Refugee and Host Community Sub-Window, the UNHCR-World Bank Joint Data Center (JDC) on Forced Displacement and UNHCR country operations.
¿ A comprehensive mapping of research is developed and data collected and analyzed to support data-driven approaches to planning and decision making for protection and solutions programmes, as appropriate.
¿ UNHCR staff and partner capacity is strengthened in relation to use of socio-economic profiling of forcibly displaced.
¿ Strategic partnerships with academia, research institutes, UN agencies, World Bank, government institutions, international and local civil society organizations are developed and maintained. Specifically, with regards to socio-economic analysis/research of refugees and relevant resources in this regard.


Responsibility (process and functions undertaken to achieve results)
¿ Project Management
¿ Lead design and implementation of initiatives relating to socio-economic conditions of refugees and forcibly displaced persons in line with operational and strategic priority areas identified by the operation.
¿ Contribute to defining and promoting a vision for the use of socio-economic data, particularly in the planning and execution of programming at the country level.
¿ Maintain a strong understanding of the state of literature on poverty analysis for forcibly displaced.
¿ Manage data collection activities, as appropriate. This may include all stages (procurement, survey design, sampling and supervision and quality assurance).
¿ Conduct data analysis using econometric programs (R, Stata)

Coordination
¿ Ensure good communication and coordination among members of the country team both in Cox¿s Bazar and Dhaka, researchers and partners, serving as a link between these parties, ensuring to include the Development Officers in ongoing dialogue specifically with IFIs.
¿ 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.

Data Collection and Analysis
¿ Provide timely inputs to data collection planning, including design of data collection instruments, especially in regard to the panel dataset being collected by Yale University and the World Bank.
¿ Consolidate and clean raw primary and secondary datasets into final datasets to be used for analysis, especially at the level of UNHCR sector operations. 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.
¿ Work with the research team (internal and external) 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 each field survey, assist in programming the instrument and developing protocols to ensure high quality data.
¿ Properly prepare and document relevant datasets for archiving, e.g. on the UNHCR Microdata Library.
¿ Lead the preparation of research papers including formatting and creating tables, graphs, and related analysis.

Authority (decisions made in executing responsibilities and to achieve results)
¿ Provide technical support and guidance on strategy, design and implementation of data for analysis of refugee socio-economic conditions.
¿ Engage with country operation, partners and government, as appropriate, in the design and implementation of research projects.
¿ Reflect UNHCR's positions on policy and programming issues as they relate to the protection 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.

Essential minimum qualifications and professional experience required
¿ Advanced University Degree (Masters) in Development Economics, International Economics, Statistics, or a related field;
¿ At least five (5) years of experience in economics analyzing data and conducting research (4 year with a doctorate degree, e.g. PhD);
¿ Demonstrated skills and experience with measuring welfare through socio-economic profiling;
¿ Demonstrated experience with design and analysis of large datasets and ability to cope with limitations;
¿ Demonstrated expertise in utilization of relevant statistical software (R, Stata);
¿ Excellent conceptual and analytical capability and track record in developing tools/methodologies to ensure informed and responsible decision making;
¿ Strong understanding of processes of the World Bank, the African Development Bank or another international financial institutions;
¿ Ability to work independently with limited supervision and deliver high quality products;
¿ Excellent networking and communications skills;
¿ Strong analytical skills and report writing;
¿ Capable of multi-tasking and managing several programmes/projects at the same time;
¿ Attention to detail.
¿ Familiarity with displacement and development issues.
¿ Fluency in oral and written English required.

Desirable qualifications and professional experience
¿ Experience of working with the private sector;
¿ Experience working in applied development economics;
¿ Experience in poverty modelling;
¿ Experience of working with synergies between the humanitarian-development nexus.

Key Competencies
¿ Empowering and Building Trust
¿ Judgement and Decision Making
¿ Strategic Planning and Vision
¿ Analytical Thinking
¿ Technological Awareness
¿ Planning and Organizing
¿ Stakeholder Management

Location
The successful candidate will be based in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Deadline for applications: 2 June 2019 (midnight Geneva time).

The UNHCR workforce consists of many diverse nationalities, cultures, languages and opinions. UNHCR seeks to sustain and strengthen this diversity to ensure equal opportunities as well as an inclusive working environment for its entire workforce. Applications are encouraged from all qualified candidates without distinction on grounds of race, colour, sex, national origin, age, religion, disability, sexual orientation and gender identity. Please note that the closing date for applications to this TA advertisement is Sunday 2 June 2019 (midnight Geneva time)/