Statistics & Monitoring Specialist (Education), P-4, D & A, DAPM, NYHQ, Temporary Appointment 364 days

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, results

The collection, analysis, dissemination, and use of good quality, disaggregated data is the foundation of effective action on equity.  Governments and other stakeholders need to understand which children are thriving and who is being left behind.  Data and other evidence are also crucial to understand and improve the impact of policies and programmes for children, as well as to understand children’s own views and priorities. 

UNICEF supports governments to more effectively use data about children to inform investment decisions, policies, and programmes, as well as to strengthen national data collection and analysis systems.  UNICEF plays a key role in developing, testing and disseminating new data-related tools and methodologies.  UNICEF’s own databases and data analyses inform policy dialogue, advocacy, and campaigning at country, regional and global levels.

With the emphasis on data in the Sustainable Development Goal 4, and the UNICEF’s Education Strategy, UNICEF’s data work will become even more crucial in generating data, linking them to policies, and advancing results for disadvantaged children in the years ahead.

How can you make a difference?

The primary function of this post is to manage the project “Adapting the MICS-EAGLE Initiative to Improve Education Equity and Inclusion Within GPE Member Countries (2020-2022)” granted by the Global Partnership for Education.   With about 2 million USD budget, the project aims to improve equity and inclusion in education by expanding the “learning ecosystem” by remedying the profound data challenges in the education sector that currently prevent robust analysis and evidence-based decision making.  The project will deliver (a) country factsheets for all 58 MICS countries,(b) a global report and regional reports focusing on learning and equity, (c) implement a global workshop annually, (d) implementing capacity development workshops in collaboration with other UN agencies, governments, universities and academics, and (e) produce global public goods such as a household data analysis guide, databases, and other tools for data-policy integration activities.  The incumbent will be managing the project, deliverables of the project, and donor reporting under the guidance of the Senior Advisor Statistics and Monitoring.

Key functions, accountabilities and related duties/tasks:

1. Manage the MICS-EAGLE Initiative, implement planned activities, coordinate with the Education Program Division, regional and country offices and other internal and external partners.

• Mange the funding from the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) to implement the MICS-EAGLE Initiative.
• Lead a team for the MICS-EAGLE Initiative and manage consultants who support the implementation of the MICS-EAGLE Initiative.
• Lead development and finalization of tools needed to facilitate the MICS-EAGLE Initiative including TORs for data analysts, presentations and agenda for global, and regional and national workshops.
• Provide technical guidance to the implementation of the global and national MICS-EAGLE workshops.
• Support participating countries prior, during and after the MICS-EAGLE global workshop in regard to the methodology to analyze learning and equity in education using MICS6 datasets, as well as in organizational aspects of replicating MICS EAGLE in their countries.
• Monitor project progress and draft donor reports.

2. Data analysis, Report drafting, and Quality assurance

• Under the supervision of the Senior Adviser on Statistics and Monitoring (Education), finalize draft Country Reports or Country Factsheets, as well as regional and global reports if need be, through:
  • Conducting analysis and drafting chapters using various data sources,
  • Providing quality assurance and technical advice to MICS-EAGLE country reports and factsheets,
  • Conceptualize regional and global reports based on a series of discussion with relevant stakeholders,
  • Consolidating feedback received in the revision cycle and throughout the editing process to ensure the quality of the final publications.
• Finalize blogs, papers, factsheets, and other documents to disseminate the data analysis results from the MICS-EAGLE Initiative.

3. Support in producing various educational research outputs
   • Analyze the necessary data, review the literature and draft of one chapter on Inclusive Education in forthcoming publication on Children with Disabilities.
   • Coordinate the production of methodological papers discussing the impact of innovations in MICS6 for the education sector.
   • Draft research papers highlighting interesting the latest findings from education data using MICS as well as other data sources.
   • Present research findings in conferences, working groups and UNICEF network meetings.
4. Capacity building and country support
   • Organize global and national training exercises under the MICS-EAGLE Initiative for government partners aiming to enhance their capacity in using education data for situation analyses, sector planning, and policy action.
   • Lead training sessions in UNICEF programme countries in coordination with Country Offices and local governments, as well as universities and partner institutions whenever possible, to support stakeholders in the calculation of education indicators and monitoring of SDG4
5. Resource mobilization
   • Draft project proposals to expand and scale the MICS-EAGLE Initiatives
   • Conceptualize and develop proposals for new education modules in MICS7
6. Responding to ad-hoc requests
   • Conduct any other analysis and provide any other support to the Data & Analytics Section, depending on the organizational need.

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

• An advanced university degree (Master’s or higher) in economics, statistics, education, data management, public policy, or social sciences.
• A minimum of eight years of work experience at the international level in statistical data processing and data analysis, and education policy development.
• Proven experience analyzing, compiling and presenting data, with a focus on Education.
• Proven experience in data analysis and writing to disseminate key data and findings to technical and non-technical audiences, particularly related to Education.
• Proven experience in education policy discussion with senior policymakers.
• Proven experience in working with STATA or SPSS.
• Proven experience in working with data from household surveys, in particular, DHS and MICS.
• Proven experience in conducting extensive literature reviews and summarizing findings.
• Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) is an asset.  

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF’s values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, and Accountability (CRITA) and core competencies in Communication, Working with People and Drive for Results.

The functional competencies required for this post are…

• Analyzing II
• Applying Technical Expertise II
• Planning and Organizing III
• Coping with Pressure and Setbacks II

View our competency framework at

http://www.unicef.org/about/employ/files/UNICEF_Competencies.pdf

UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages all candidates, irrespective of gender, nationality, religious and ethnic backgrounds, including persons living with disabilities, to apply to become a part of the organization.

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 also adheres to strict child safeguarding principles. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. 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:

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