Senior Economist

Contract

This is a UNV National Specialist contract. This kind of contract is known as National UN Volunteer. It is normally only for nationals. More about UNV National Specialist contracts.

Eligibility criteria

Minimum age: 22 years old. Applicants must be nationals of or legal residents in the country of assignment.

Description of task

In the aftermath of Beirut explosion and in response to COVID19 outbreak, the UNDP office in Lebanon is providing support the Lebanese people to recover the multi-levelled economic, social, environmental, and financial shocks. Towards this end, the UNDP team is working on several tracks to: i) mitigate the immediate implications of the crises, ii) manage the recovery phase; iii) and provide the Lebanese society with better tools, mechanisms and policies to strengthen the country’s resilience to shocks and crises. UNDP support spans wide area of initiatives including carrying out relevant impact assessments, providing implementation support, performing advocacy, connecting with donors, and supporting central and local governments to respond to and sustain shocks.

One of the core aspects to be addressed, within the context of the multi-layered crisis, is the economic and social fragility of Lebanon, and the inability of the fragmented social protection systems and policies to properly respond to the crisis and mitigate its implication.

Towards this end, a senior economist is needed to support the UNDP Country Office and to be part of the economic support team guiding UNDP’s programmes and interventions.

The UNV shall have the following tasks and responsibilities:

• Update and maintain macro-economic, social, fiscal and financial datasets
• Perform data crunching and data analysis in variety of socio-economic domains
• Contribute to the preparation of policy briefs, background papers, concept notes, reports, proposals and factsheets.
• Prepare minutes of meetings and briefings whenever needed
• Carry out research in various economic areas including poverty, productive sectors, social protection, public finance, funding flows, etc.
• Review documents and papers and provide comments
• Initiate and maintain links with partners including Government agencies, NGOs, and programmes.
• Respond to ad hoc requests forwarded by UNDP higher management

Qualifications/Requirements

Required degree level:

Master degree or equivalent

Education - Additional Comments:

• Master's degree in Economics, Social Studies, Finance or closely relevant subject.

Required experience:

36 Months

Experience remark:

• At least 3 years (up to 15 years) of high-quality applied research and experience in the macroeconomic field – including social protection, poverty reduction, international trade and fiscal and monetary
• Strong communication skills;
• Familiarity with processes of UN agencies and/or IFIs an asset;
• Work individually as well as part of a team towards common goals;
• Good knowledge of the public sector is a plus
• Familiar with the work of donors and international organizations
• Good knowledge of statistical analysis tools is preferable such as Stata, SPSS, or others.
• Excellent team player and proactive contributor.
• Ability to work independently and meet deadlines.
• Resourceful and well connected

Language skills:

• English(Mandatory), Level - Fluent
• Arabic(Mandatory), Level - Fluent

Area of expertise:

Macroeconomics and public finance

Area of expertise details:

Functional Competencies:

• Knowledge of macro and micro economics – including multi poverty reduction, social protection, macroeconomic modelling international trade - concepts, principles and policies and ability to apply to strategic and/or practical situations;
• Understanding of poverty dynamics, social protection principles and their application to current national economic and development issues; proven capacity to deal with policy analyses and poverty research;
• Knowledge of global macroeconomic trends and ability to collect and analyse macro and micro economic data at country level; Knowledge of impact assessment methodologies;
• Knowledge of Economic Planning and Recovery concepts and the ability to apply to strategic and/or practical situations;
• Knowledge of data and statistics analysis for 2030 Agenda for development and the ability to apply to strategic and/or practical situations;
• Knowledge of sustainable development concepts, principles and issues and the ability to apply to strategic and/or practical situations, covering the economic, social and environmental dimensions.

Driving license:

No

Competencies values:

Accountability, Ethics and Values, Planning and Organizing, Professionalism, Respect for Diversity, Self-Management, Technological Awareness, Working in Teams

Application procedure:

* Not yet registered in the UNV Talent Pool?

First register your profile at https://vmam.unv.org/candidate/signup.

Important: After creating your account, complete all sections of your profile and submit it. Then go to ‘My Page’ at https://vmam.unv.org/candidate/mypage and click on the ‘Special Calls’ hyperlink. Lastly, select the special call to which you would like to apply.

* Already registered in the UNV Talent Pool?

First update your profile at https://vmam.unv.org/candidate/profile.

Then go to ‘My Page’ at https://vmam.unv.org/candidate/mypage and click on the ‘Special Calls’ hyperlink to select the special call to which you would like to apply.

This is a national UN Volunteer assignment, therefore only nationals of Lebanon and legal residents in the Lebanon with a residency permit, the status of refugee or with the status of being stateless are eligible to apply.

Candidates with long-term experience are encouraged to apply. Provided that the respective requirements are met, the assignment might be considered as UN Volunteer expert, including 40% additional VLA or as UN Volunteer Senior Expert (15 years of experience incl. international experience), including 100% additional VLA.

Application deadline: 30 September 2020