Project Technical Officer - Economist P3

The position is located in the Development and Investment Branch (DEVINVEST) within the Employment Policy Department (EMPLOYMENT). EMPLOYMENT is responsible for promoting full and productive employment by developing integrated employment, development and skills policies that maximize the employment impact of economic growth, investment and development, and which are inclusive, gender sensitive, productive and sustainable.

The economic trajectory of African countries can be described as following a jobless growth pattern. Many African countries have displayed high growth performances over the past decade. However, economic growth did not necessarily materialize into more and better jobs for the population. For that reason, job creation is an integral part of African Union’s Agenda 2063.

Employment creation is also at the centre of the European Union Africa Strategy launched in March 2020. The Africa Strategy builds on the Africa-EU Alliance on Investment and Jobs launched in 2018. The Africa-EU Alliance seeks to leverage private investment in Africa, in partnership with International Financial Institutions (IFI), with a focus on decent job creation.

Realizing that employment outcomes differ between investment opportunities and local characteristics, the objective of this project is to assist the European Commission and partner countries in assessing the employment effects of supported investment and flagship development programmes in Africa. The parallel objective is to understand the impact of these investments by category of projects and financing instruments. Another objective is to improve the ability to take into account the employment dimension at different stages of the life cycle of the project.

The project will provide technical assistance in relation with employment impact assessment to the External Investment Plan and its stakeholders (including IFIs), EU Delegations and National stakeholders in the Sub-Saharan Africa. The project will recruit a macro-economist to develop the activities of the project related to employment impact assessments.

Reporting lines
The macro-economist will report to the Chief Technical Advisor / Project Manager in the Development and Investment (DEVINVEST) Branch, Employment Policy Department and perform his duties in full collaboration with the Sr. Coordinator, Structural Transformation and under the overall supervision of the Chief of DEVINVEST.

• Assist the Project/Program Manager or the CTA in the implementation of the project by providing technical inputs, planning, monitoring and evaluation of project activities.  Ensure conformity with ILO policies and project strategies, ILO programming guidelines and country/action programs, and Office procedures and practices.
  • Produce the employment impact assessment of investments and projects financed by the EU/DGDEVCO units such as the external investment plan, or EU Delegation both in terms of direct, indirect and induced employment creation
  • Liaise with evaluation specialist form the relevant DGDEVCO units to identify needs and to propose solutions in relation with employment impact assessments.
  • Work with Regional Office of Africa and ILO country offices in Africa to propose innovative tools in relation with employment impact assessments
• Provide technical advice and support to project staff and national partners in the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the project activities, in coordination with the ILO Field Offices and HQ Develop methodologies to analyse the employment impact of EU financed private and public investments as well as EU financed development projects. In addition, develop methodologies that fit the African context in particular the weaknesses of existing statistical systems.
• Maintain and implement existing tools developed within the DEVINVEST Branch:
  • Ability to perform input-output/SAM analysis to produce (direct, indirect and induced) employment impacts as well as production multipliers
  • Propose solutions to improve existing multipliers through the development of additional modules in particular in relation with the labour market
• Mobilize existing database and ensure an efficient collection of complementary data from National Institute of Statistics.
  •  Mobilizing large national account database : EORA, GTAP
  •  Understanding of national accounts in general and input-output tables, SAM in particular.
  •  Capacity to organize the collection of national IO tables from local National Institute of Statistics
• Ability to maintain and expand the work undertaken around census data in Africa
  •  Collect additional census data
  •  Conduct analyses related to local labour market / urban economics in African countries
• Conduct research and integrate technical inputs for regional and country analyses, reports and publications related to the project and prepare discussion notes. Prepare reports, working papers and other publications, Produce impact studies and country project reports
• Undertake other duties as required.
   

Advanced university degree in economics.  PhD in economics and specialization in macroeconomics is an advantage

• At least five years of professional experience in the field of macroeconomics/development economics, or at least three years at the international level.
• Academic publications related to macro model is a plus.

Excellent command of English and French

• Ability to mobilize macroeconomic tools to perform employment impact assessments of public investment, private investment and international cooperation projects.
• Ability to identify the needs of stakeholders and good ability to design and implement solutions.
• Ability to provide technical advice and to guide and coordinate the work of external collaborators, general service staff and young professionals in the area of specialization.
• Ability to conceptualise and design research techniques and analyse complex cross-national practices and data sets covering a wide range of issues in the specialized technical field.
• Ability to formulate new concepts and methodologies.
• Ability to draft reports and prepare guidelines relating to programme development and implementation.
• Ability to provide technical support to senior specialists, carrying out research, project formulation and implementation.
• Ability to participate effectively in technical missions and to provide technical inputs for the ILO Decent Work Agenda.
• Excellent analytical skills and knowledge of analytical tools and qualitative and quantitative techniques.
• Good computer skills.Ability to work in a multicultural environment and gender-sensitive behaviour and attitudes are also required.