Data Futures Analyst - IPSA 9 - Office-based

Contract

This is a IPSA-9 contract. This kind of contract is known as International Personnel Services Agreement. It is normally internationally recruited only. It usually requires 2 years of experience, depending on education. More about IPSA-9 contracts.

Background

Instructions to Applicants: Click on the "Apply now" button. Input your information in the appropriate Sections: personal information, language proficiency, education, resume and motivation. Upon completion of the first page, please hit "submit application" tab at the end of the page. Please ensure that CV or P11 and the Cover letter are combined in one file.

The following documents shall be required from the applicants:

Personal CV or P11, indicating all past positions held and their main underlying functions, their durations (month/year), the qualifications, as well as the contact details (email and telephone number) of the Candidate, and at least three (3) the most recent professional references of previous supervisors. References may also include peers.

A cover letter (maximum length: 1 page) indicating why the candidate considers him-/herself to be suitable for the position.

Managers may ask (ad hoc) for any other materials relevant to pre-assessing the relevance of their experience, such as reports, presentations, publications, campaigns or other materials.

Office/Unit/Project Description

The UN Reform Resolution tasks UNDP to provide countries with an “integrator function” to accelerate progress towards the SDGs by tackling multiple interlinked and interdependent development challenges. The UNDP Global Policy Network (GPN) draws on expertise globally to provide more effective responses to the complex development challenges countries face in achieving the SDGs and responding to crisis in an integrated and coherent manner. Anchored in the Crisis Bureau (CB) and the Bureau for Policy and Programme Support (BPPS), the GPN has the responsibility for developing all relevant policy and guidance to support the results of UNDP’s Strategic Plan, which is aligned with the 2030 Agenda Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).

An SDG Integration Team located with UNDP’s Global Policy Network (GPN) aims to build a coherent and consolidated menu of services (the SDG Integrator “offer”) emphasizing direct short-to-medium-term engagements to respond rapidly to requests from country offices for support on national implementation and monitoring of integrated policy solutions, qualitative and evidence-driven analysis for accelerated progress, and knowledge sharing and upscaling of innovative approaches to sustainable development.

Under the guidance of the Global Policy Advisor of the SDG Integration team, Bureau for Policy and Programme Support/Global Policy Network, the Data Futures Analyst will support the Integration Team with project management and economic analysis of a variety of data from different sources to strengthen the identification of emerging trends, improve understanding of evolving development issues and lead to the design of better development solutions. The Analyst should have a mastery in understanding and utilizing multiple forms of data (qualitative and quantitative) to make sense of a situation, identify patterns, correlations and causations, in order to perform the required economic analysis.

Institutional Arrangement

• The Data Futures Analyst will work under the guidance and direct supervision of Global Policy Advisor of the SDG Integration team, Bureau for Policy and Programme Support/Global Policy Network and will be responsible for the fulfilment of the scope of work mentioned above.
• The Analyst will be given access to relevant information necessary for the execution of the tasks under this assignment. The
• The Analyst will be responsible for providing her/his own laptop.
• Given the global consultations to be undertaken during this assignment, the Analyst is expected to be reasonably flexible with his/her availability for such consultations taking into consideration different time zones

Duties and Responsibilities

Scope of Work

The Analyst will contribute to the following tasks:

• Manage various projects and activities related to data and analytics support to UNDP Offices globally;
• Interpret data, analyze results and provide ongoing reports (policy briefs and reports reviewing literature, explaining analytical methods and presenting the results) that enable tracking various development trends over time (and in close to real time);
• Identify, filter, analyze, and interpret trends or patterns in complex data sets;
• Generate insights and analysis to support UNDP data platform in one or more GPN thematic area;
• Provide technical support to UNDP's Impact Evaluation work;
• Coordinate partnerships for collaboration for the Data Futures Platform within GPN and with partner stakeholders and Universities;
• Engage closely with UNDP Country Offices and Teams requiring support from the team.

Competencies

Minimum Qualifications of the Successful IPSA

Required skills

• Experience with macroeconomic or microeconomic analysis;
• Experience analysing data (quantitative and qualitative) and translating into policy insights and recommendations;
• Experience with data and innovation related project management.

Desired skills in addition to the competencies covered in the Competencies section

• Experience in policy scenario analysis using partial and general equilibrium or welfare analysis;
• Professional experience engaging with multiple, geographically dispersed stakeholders;
• Previous experience in an international organization or a large global company executing similar assignment. UNDP experience will be an added advantage.

Required Language(s)

• Fluency in written and spoken English;
• Working knowledge of another UN language is an advantage.

Professional Certificates

• n/a

Cross-Functional & Technical competencies

Thematic Area

Name

Definition

SDG Integration

Role of science, technology, innovation for SDGs

SDG Integration

Economy-wide analysis

Digital & Innovation

Data storytelling and communications

Skilled in building a narrative around a set of data and its accompanying visualizations to help convey the meaning of that data in a powerful and compelling fashion.

Digital & Innovation

Data literacy

Understand the potential as well as the limitations of using data driven innovation. Ability to use a mix of data sources (quantitative, qualitative or real-time techniques) to develop understanding, identify patterns to inform decision making or identifyopportunities for further exploration.

Digital & Innovation

Futures & foresight

Ability to look at information from the past and present, identify patterns and trends and use them to inform decision making with a long-term view. Being sensitive and able to scan horizons and pick up weak signals of change, explore their potential implications and assess their impact and urgency. Using creativity and imagination to communicate insights in compelling and engaging ways to challenge current mental models; ability to develop scenarios, speculative designs to present future visions or by making it experiential. Being able to facilitate debate and discussion about possible futures; help people to feel comfortable with the discomfort of uncertainty.

SDG Integration

SDG Acceleration and Bottleneck Assessment

Strategic Policy Engagement

Meso and macro-level impact and needs assessments

Required Skills and Experience

Minimum Qualifications of the Successful IPSA

Min. Education requirements

• Master’s degree or equivalent in Economics (any area of specialization) or related fields;
• Bachelor’s degree with additional two years of experience may be taken into consideration in lieu of Master’s degree.

Min. years of relevant work experience

• Masters degree with 2 years relevant experience in economic and data analysis for international development related topics, or Bachelors degree with 4 years relevant experience.