UNHCR Senior Economist, Field Operations Jobs in Kenya
UNHCR Senior Economist, Field Operations Jobs in Kenya
Organizational Setting and Work Relationships Framed by the Global Compact for Refugees (GCR) and UNHCR¿s mission to find solutions to refugee situations, strengthened cooperation with development and private sector partners is essential. The increasing number of refugees and internally displaced persons in protracted displacement situations, together with the increasing scale of irregular migration, large-scale refugee movements, and costs of responding to humanitarian situations, have placed forced displacement high on the global agenda. These elements have further driven the realization that humanitarian support must be complemented by development and private sector actors to lift displaced populations out of poverty, enable solutions, and encourage an area-based approach to poverty reduction.
Within UNHCR, the Division of Resilience and Solutions (DRS) was formed to address these challenges, in part by broadening strategic partnerships with key actors in these areas, including importantly the World Bank and other multilateral development banks and in so doing aligning approaches by Government(s). To support investments by development actors in area-based approaches including both forcibly displaced and their hosts, requires better data and standardized information about refugees and host community households, particularly in relation to their socio-economic status or multidimensional poverty status. Accurate data on welfare conditions is also needed by UNHCR and partners for programs including cash, livelihoods, and education programming, welfare targeting and monitoring of the Sustainable Development Goals. Finally, comparable information on both refugees and host community members is a pre-requisite for measuring changes in welfare required to inform medium-term programming with development partners and national governments. DRS together with the World Bank Poverty Global Practice supported by the UNHCR World Bank Joint Data Center manage the partnership and play the global coordination role for the institution in working with National Statistics Offices to include forcibly displaced into National Poverty Assessments.
The Senior Economist is the designated focal point for providing economic analysis and strategic support on behalf of DRS in support of the Global Compact for Refugees (GCR) objectives 1 and 2- Ease the pressures on host countries and Enhance refugee self-reliance. Concretely, the Senior Economist will provide key input regarding the indicators measuring the success of the Global Compact for Refugees and particularly the proportion of refugees living below the national poverty line in the host country. Depending on where the Senior Economist is based, the reporting lines will differ. If based in Headquarters it will map to the DRS Partnership Analytics Research and Knowledge Management (PARK) section. If based in a country or multi-country office, the incumbent will report to either the Representative or Deputy Representative Programme, or in some cases Head of Sub-Office or Senior Operations Officer. In all cases, functional supervision and guidance, including technical functional clearance of candidates and technical oversight of economics products, is provided by DRS PARK. The Senior Economist will work closely with Programme and Protection colleagues, the Global Data Service and DIMAs, in addition to Senior Management, in the operation as well as Bureaux and technical unit key external stakeholders and development agencies, including the World Bank, government agencies, national statistical agencies, and other operational partners.
Duties
Strategy & coordination
Provide strategic vision and lead engagement with senior management, internal business units and external partners for the design and implementation of research and analytical products generated from comparable socio-economic data.
Provide guidance/recommendations on obstacles and possible improvements to UNHCR¿s programming, ensuring effective links and coordination with Field Operations and stakeholders at Headquarters through the preparation and use of available economic statistics, industrial surveys and other available data.
Provide strategic vision for UNHCR comparable socio-economic data agenda and lead
the overall coordination with the relevant World Bank teams and Joint Data Center and associated workstream.
Provide guidance and input to the annual programme planning and review process to support the development and approval of sound operational plans and the effective allocation and use of resources for livelihoods, energy, environment, food security, solutions, health, shelter and water/sanitation.
Ensure good communication and coordination among members of the country team, Governments, researchers and partners, serving as a link between these parties.
Lead drafting and writing of presentations, analytical reports, research and policy briefs.
Data Collection and Analysis
Provide oversight, vision and guidance for the collection of raw primary and secondary datasets into final datasets to be used for analysis, as needed.
Supervise cleaning of all datasets and creation of necessary indicators for measuring livelihoods and other socio-economic indicators, impact and related. Work with the research team to design a thorough plan for data analysis including production of descriptive statistics and regression analysis for various outputs such as briefs, presentations and academic papers.
Project Management
Lead the design and implementation of assessments and other data-driven products related to the socio-economic welfare of refugees, forcibly displaced persons and host communities, wherever possible through coordination with the National Bureau of Statistics and World Bank Country Economist in inclusion of forcibly displaced into National Poverty Assessment.
Successfully manage all partnerships and activities in the collection of comparable socio-economic (poverty) data on forcibly displaced
Contribute to defining and promoting a vision for the use of socio-economic data, particularly in planning, programming and advocacy at the country, regional and headquarters levels.
Maintain a strong understanding of the state of literature on poverty analysis for forcibly displaced.
Manage data collection activities, as appropriate. This may take place at all stages of data collection (preparation, survey design, sampling, onsite data collection oversight and supervision and quality assurance, data analysis and report writing).
Conduct data analysis using econometric programs (R, Stata).
Guide colleagues and operations on factors influencing efficiency and effectiveness of programming
Minimum Qualifications
Years of Experience / Degree Level
For P4/NOD - 9 years relevant experience with Undergraduate degree; or 8 years relevant experience with Graduate degree; or 7 years relevant experience with Doctorate degree
Field(s) of Education
*Economics or other relevant field.
(Field(s) of Education marked with an asterisk* are essential)
Relevant Job Experience
Essential
At least 7 years of relevant professional experience in economics, analysing data and conducting research.
Familiarity with processes of the World Bank, the African Development Bank or other international financial institutions, bilateral development agencies or research institutions.
Demonstrated skills and experience with measuring welfare through socio-economic profiling.
Excellent conceptual and analytical capability and track record in developing tools/methodologies to ensure informed and responsible decision making. Ability to manage and supervise teams.
Ability to think creatively, and to explore, harness and translate innovative concepts into practice.
Capable of multi-tasking and managing several programmes/projects at the same time.
Language Requirements
For International Professional and Field Service jobs: Knowledge of English and UN working language of the duty station if not English.
How to Apply
For more information and job application details, see; UNHCR Senior Economist, Field Operations Jobs in Kenya
Find jobs in Kenya. Jobs - Kenya jobs. Search our career portal & find the latest Kenyan job positions, career opportunities & jobs in Kenya.
Jobs in Kenya - banking jobs, IT jobs, accounting jobs, NGO jobs, business administration, ICT, UN jobs, procurement jobs, education jobs, hospital jobs, human resources jobs, engineering, teaching jobs, and other careers in Kenya.
Find your dream job from 1000s of vacancies in Kenya posted and updated daily - click here!
Click here to post comments
Join in and write your own page! It's easy to do. How? Simply click here to return to NGO Jobs in Africa.
