Statistics Consultant

Contract

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Background

UN Women, grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, works for the elimination of discrimination against women and girls; the empowerment of women; and the achievement of equality between women and men as partners and beneficiaries of development, human rights, humanitarian action and peace and security.

UN Women’s global gender data programme, “Making Every Woman and Girl Count” (Women Count), delivered significant results in scaling up work on gender statistics availability, accessibility, and use during Phase I of its implementation. In the ongoing implementation of Women Count Phase II, with gender data being elevated as one of the strategic outcomes of UN Women’s 2022-2025 Strategic Plan, UN Women is steadfastly supporting Member States and leading efforts on mainstreaming gender perspectives in three key interventions:

• Enabling environment for the production and use of gender statistics: Put in place supportive policy, legal and financial environment to ensure gender-responsive national adaptation and effective monitoring of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
• Increasing the production of gender statistics: Increase availability of quality, comparable and regular gender statistics to address national data gaps and meet policy and reporting commitments under the SDGs, Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), and Beijing Declaration
• Increasing data accessibility and use: Ensure that gender statistics are accessible to all users (including governments, civil society, academia and private sector) and can be analysed, communicated, and used to inform research, advocacy, policies and programmes, and promote accountability.

Located in the Research and Data Section of UN Women (R&D), the Statistics Consultant works under the supervision of the Statistics Specialist/Inter-Regional Advisor on Gender Statistics of the Women Count programme to provide technical support in the implementation and delivery of statistical activities and delivery of statistical outputs of Women Count Phase II global projects, particularly those related to the joint project with PARIS21 on the assessment of countries’ gender data and capacity gaps, coordination of and technical support to Women Count countries on the planning and implementation of time use surveys, and the development and implementation of a framework on citizen data.

Through collaborative and consultative process, UN Women is jointly working with PARIS21 in producing a report, Gender Data Outlook, to be launched in January 2024, to provide an experimental assessment of countries’ level of statistical maturity in terms of gender data and capacity across four pillars: 1) enabling mechanisms; 2) data production; 3) data access; and 4) data use.

One of the four thematic areas of focus of the Women Count Phase II programme is women’s economic empowerment with a particular focus on time use data. In line with this, the programme is supporting more than 20 countries in the production and use of time data, some of which in partnership with other agencies (e.g., ILO, regional commissions).

Cognizant of the need to fill remaining data gaps for monitoring the SDGs and explore other data sources in the process, the first UN Expert Group Meeting on Citizen Generated Data (CGD) was held in November 2022. During the 54th Session of the UN Statistical Commission in March 2023, the group asked for the establishment of a Collaborative, with the development of a framework on CGD as one of its immediate priority areas of work. UN Women is working closely with UNSD, co-leading the work of the group, which includes members from various organizations such as CSOs, international NGOs, NSO, among others who are working on CGD (e.g., The Danish Institute for Human Rights, PARIS21, Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data).

Duties and Responsibilities

Based in the Women Count programme in UN Women HQ, the Statistics Consultant will work under the supervision of the Statistics Specialist/Inter-Regional Advisor to provide statistical support and assistance on the delivery of outputs for the Women Count Phase II. The tasks will include, among others:

1. Contribute to the delivery of high-quality statistical activities/outputs of the Women Count Phase II global projects

• Provide technical support in the implementation of activities and delivery of outputs of the Women Count global project with PARIS21
  • Coordinate and liaise with PARIS21 to ensure the effective and efficient delivery of project outputs
  • Review and provide technical inputs to the technical resources to be produced under the project
  • Contribute to the development of the Gender Data Outlook Report, to be launched in January 2024
• Promote and support the inter-regional coordination of Women Count initiatives on the production and use of time use data
  • Coordinate with Women Count Regional Advisors on the updates, achievements/outputs, learnings, as well as concerns of their respective time use initiatives
  • Review and provide technical inputs to planned time use activities as requested by field colleagues
  • Coordinate and serve as technical support staff for the project on the development of guidance materials on the core set of data items for time use surveys (in the context of Women Count Phases I and II experiences) as well as on enhancing the policy relevance of time use data by identifying new or more policy-relevant indicators
• Provide technical assistance in the international coordination of the production and use of CGD, in the context of the work of the Collaborative on CGD
  • Review and provide technical inputs to the development of a framework on CGD, in time for the 55th Session of the UNSC in March 2024

2. Provide technical support to Women Count Phase II regional projects

• Provide technical support and promote quality assurance to the delivery of the programme’s regional projects, particularly those related to standards and practices on survey data collection and production

• Provide technical support to the implementation of rapid gender assessment (RGA) on the impact of the cost-of-living crisis in Senegal (to be conducted in Q4 2023; results to be released early Q1 2024)

  • Coordinate and contribute to the development of technical resources as well as documentation, including maintaining repository of all data, materials, resources and literature used in the conduct of the RGA
  • Provide technical support to field colleagues in their engagement towards NSOs who will implement RGAs

3. Contribute to capacity development and overall implementation of Women Count Phase II

• Contribute to the strategic coordination of data and statistics priorities of Women Count Phase II across regional and global projects (i.e., women’s economic empowerment, violence against women, governance and participation, environment, administrative data systems, and modern technologies such as big data and AI)

• Contribute to the improvement of survey design and tools in planned surveys

• Assist in the design and delivery of capacity development initiatives to facilitate implementation of the programme
• Support the organization and implementation of seminars/webinars or other similar events

4. Perform other related duties as required

Competencies

Core Values:

• Respect for Diversity
• Integrity
• Professionalism

Core Competencies:

• Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues
• Accountability
• Creative Problem Solving
• Effective Communication
• Inclusive Collaboration
• Stakeholder Engagement

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Master’s degree in statistics, demography, gender, economics, or other related development or social science fields.
• A first-level university degree in combination with two additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree.

Experience:

• Background in gender statistics, demography, economics, or development studies with a focus on gender equality
• Minimum of five years of work experience in gender statistics, demography, economics, household surveys, or development studies with a focus on gender equality
• Experience in documentation and production of knowledge products on the development of gender statistics, in the context of national statistical systems or time-use surveys
• Experience working on non-traditional data sources, preferably citizen-generated data
• Experience with STATA
• Excellent attention to detail
• Willingness to work as part of a team, meet tight deadlines, and produce high-quality work

Language:

Fluency in oral and written English is required. Knowledge of another official United Nations language is desirable.