Statistics & Monitoring Officer (Child Mortality), P-2, Fixed Term, Data & Analytics, DAPM

Contract

This is a P-2 contract. This kind of contract is known as Professional and Director staff. It is normally internationally recruited only. It's a staff contract. It usually requires 2 years of experience, depending on education.

Salary

The salary for this job should be between 108,633 USD and 147,551 USD.

Please keep in mind that the salary displayed here is an estimation by UN Talent based on the location and the type of contract. It may vary depending on the organization. The recruiter should be able to inform you about the exact salary range. In case the job description contains another salary information, please refer to this one.

UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfill their potential.

Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone.

And we never give up.

For every child, a future

The Division of Data, Analytics, Planning and Monitoring (DAPM) was established in 2019 to drive decision making and organizational learning, improve effectiveness and achievement of results of UNICEF and its partners to realize the rights and improve the life of every child. DAPM promotes the use of data and monitoring to achieve transformative impact on lives of children.

The Division is responsible for driving, shaping and guiding UNICEF’s evidence-informed analysis, strategic planning, programme monitoring and organizational performance management. As such, DAPM enables the organization to deliver on results in a more coherent manner, based on agile and contextualized programming process, and on data, evidence, and analysis, as well as the application of human-rights based and results-based management approaches.

Within DAPM, the Data Team (DAT) is the global go-to for data on children. It leads the collection, validation, analysis, use and communication of the most statistically sound, internationally comparable data on the situation of children and women around the world. For this purpose, both traditional and innovative data and analysis – including administrative and household survey data as well as geospatial analysis, big data and machine learning – are used. DAT upholds the quality, integrity and organization of these data and makes them accessible as a global public good on the data.unicef.org website.

DAT provides leadership, strategic and normative guidance and technical support to generate data and evidence on children. The team works together with other teams within UNICEF as well as partner organizations, to support statistical systems strengthening at the country level. DAT is also fostering a data-driven transformation in how UNICEF works internally and together with partners that includes positioning UNICEF as a leader on data for children, protecting children through governance of data and building an organization-wide culture of data.

How can you make a difference?

UNICEF has played a critical role in producing reliable mortality estimates, monitoring child survival, as well as providing evidence-based analysis for policy making and planning for decades. UNICEF’s Strategic Plan and the Global Strategy for Women’s, Children’s and Adolescents’ Health call for stronger evidence to accelerate the progress to prevent stillbirths, newborn, child and adolescent deaths. UNICEF is the custodian agency for the child mortality indicators in the context of the SDGs and leads the data work. In the context of the SDGs and UNICEF’s Strategic Plan more in-depth country consultations, further disaggregations, analyses on child mortality are required as well as focusing on stillbirths and older children and adolescents.

The Statistics & Monitoring Officer (Mortality) will work to support the statistical, monitoring and reporting work in the areas of stillbirths and child mortality. The primary function of this post is to update and optimize the global mortality databases by age and other disaggregation, support the estimation of mortality indicators for children and adolescent as well as the country consultation process, to assist with analysis of mortality indicators. The post includes provision of support to coordination and facilitation of the UN IGME meetings and of its Technical Advisory Group. In addition, the post includes preparing for reports on child mortality under the supervision of the Statistics Specialist in the Data and Analytics Section, DAPM.

Data compilation, quality assessment and estimation of mortality. The incumbent will ensure a particular focus in the following

• Conduct UNICEF global, regional and country level data compilation mainly at the outcome/impact levels of relevant indicators.
• Conduct quality assessment on mortality data and relevant data.
• Support stillbirths and child mortality estimation work to generate reliable estimates for monitoring child survival goals.
• Support country consultations and technical meetings.
• Support methodological work on estimation and relevant areas, including the application of innovation for analysis.

Data analysis and report

• Carry out data analysis to be included in inter-agency reports, UNICEF flagship publications, other relevant reports and documents (including material that can be used for advocacy and fundraising), as well as peer reviewed journal articles.
• Support report preparation and production, including coordination with other divisions (Programme Group, Global Communication & Advocacy)
• Respond to ad hoc requests for data analysis (global, regional, country levels)

Data dissemination and advocacy

• Update relevant UNICEF-related website pages for mortality related indicators.
• Support innovative ways to best serve UNICEF’s in-house mortality data and information that is needed at country, regional and global levels.
• Support dissemination of data, estimates and other products to maximize the use for advocacy, programming and planning purpose.

Capacity development and country support

• Contribute to the capacity development of countries (UN- and UNICEF staff, governments and other national stakeholders) to monitor mortality indicators. The incumbent will support the development of training materials (and presentations), support the organization of regional workshops, and providing technical support to countries (including potential in-country support), as applicable.
• Contribute to developing the capacity within the organization for evidence-based policy, planning, programming and advocacy by developing/presenting materials on mortality data.

Support to the overall workplan and objectives of the UNICEF DAT Team

• Support, when time allows, data analysis efforts within the DAT Team
• Actively contribute to division-wide initiatives and priorities
• Contribute to upholding the UNICEF Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, Accountability and Sustainability (CRITAS) values within the unit, the DAT Team and within DAPM

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…

• An advanced university degree (Master’s or higher) in demography, statistics or a related field.
• A minimum of [insert years] of progressively responsible professional experience in demography and specifically child mortality estimation and demographic modeling or other relevant fields.
• Experience in database management, data analysis, data visualization and interpretation and use is required.
• Experience in statistical modelling and applied statistics is required.
• Advanced Skills and proven experience in working with statistical programming (R), and strong computer skills including Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint), data bases (Access), and other statistical analysis software (SPSS, Stata) is required.
• Good writing skills and experience writing technical reports and/or peer reviewed journal articles are an asset.
• Developing country work experience and/or familiarity with emergency is considered an asset.
• Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) or a local language is an asset.

For every Child, you demonstrate...

UNICEF’s Core Values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust and Accountability and Sustainability (CRITAS) underpin everything we do and how we do it. Get acquainted with Our Values Charter: UNICEF Values

UNICEF competencies required for this post are…

(1) Builds and maintains partnerships (2) Demonstrates self-awareness and ethical awareness (3) Drive to achieve results for impact (4) Innovates and embraces change (5) Manages ambiguity and complexity (6) Thinks and acts strategically (7) Works collaboratively with others.

During the recruitment process, we test candidates following the competency framework. Familiarize yourself with our competency framework and its different levels: competency framework here.

UNICEF is here to serve the world’s most disadvantaged children and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to include everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, age, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, or any other personal characteristic. We offer a wide range of benefits to our staff, including paid parental leave, breastfeeding breaks and reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities. UNICEF strongly encourages the use of flexible working arrangements. UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. UNICEF is committed to promote the protection and safeguarding of all children. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks, and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles. Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.

Remarks:

The Division is currently undergoing organizational changes, therefore the exact location of the post is still under consideration. As such, the selected candidate has the option of starting the assignment remotely or should the candidate move to New York, s/he would be expected to relocate to another location as the case may be, during the contractual period.

Mobility is a condition of international professional employment with UNICEF and an underlying premise of the international civil service.

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.

UNICEF appointments are subject to medical clearance. Issuance of a visa by the host country of the duty station, which will be facilitated by UNICEF, is required for IP positions. Appointments are also subject to inoculation (vaccination) requirements, including against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid). Government employees that are considered for employment with UNICEF are normally required to resign from their government before taking up an assignment with UNICEF. UNICEF reserves the right to withdraw an offer of appointment, without compensation, if a visa or medical clearance is not obtained, or necessary inoculation requirements are not met, within a reasonable period for any reason.