Programme Adviser, Data Analysis Use; Data Analytics Branch, Nairobi, P-5 at United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)

The Position:

• The Programme Adviser, Data Analysis and Use is located in the Data and Analytics Branch. They report directly to the Branch Chief who provides overall strategic direction. The Programme Adviser, Data Analysis and Use works in an integrated, coordinated, and systems strengthening approach which is fundamental to the Division's and UNFPA's overall strategy.

How you can make a difference:

• UNFPA is the lead UN agency for delivering a world where every pregnancy is wanted, every childbirth is safe and every young person's potential is fulfilled. UNFPA’s strategic plan (2022-2025), reaffirms the relevance of the current strategic direction of UNFPA and focuses on three transformative results: to end preventable maternal deaths; end unmet need for family planning; and end gender-based violence and harmful practices. These results capture our strategic commitments on accelerating progress towards realizing the ICPD and SDGs in the Decade of Action leading up to 2030. Our strategic plan calls upon UN Member States, organizations and individuals to “build forward better”, while addressing the negative impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on women’s and girls’ access to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights, recover lost gains and realize our goals.
• In a world where fundamental human rights are at risk, we need principled and ethical staff, who embody these international norms and standards, and who will defend them courageously and with full conviction.
• UNFPA is seeking candidates that transform, inspire and deliver high impact and sustained results; we need staff who are transparent, exceptional in how they manage the resources entrusted to them and who commit to deliver excellence in programme results.

Job Purpose:

• The Programme Adviser, Data Analysis and Use reports to the Chief of the Data and Analytics Branch, Programme Division. He/She is responsible for the technical leadership and strategic direction on the analysis and use of population data to inform the design, location, and evaluation of interventions to advance the ICPD Programme of Action, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and the achievement of the transformative goals of the UNFPA Strategic Plan.
• He/She assumes overall responsibility for the evaluation, acquisition, processing, analysis, and use of data from civil registration and vital statistics, population and housing censuses, household surveys - such as the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS), Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS) as well as administrative records, to show the value-for-money of national efforts towards sustainable development.
• The Programme Adviser, Data Analysis will provide quality assurance and guidance to UNFPA work on population projections, population estimates, small area estimation (SAE), integration of population and service location data for better operational planning, and the use of geospatial data to inform modeling of the SDG indicators, overseeing the continuous updating and revisions of UNFPA’s Population Data Platform as the transformative UNFPA initiative towards improved data access and decentralization.
• He/She will also oversee the capacity strengthening efforts and support of UNFPA to raise awareness on how such new applications can help the disaggregation of SDG and ICPD indicators and the identification of specific development shortfalls.
• UNFPA works at all levels - global, regional, and country, to address needs in sexual and reproductive health and rights, family planning, harmful practices, and gender-based violence in addition to its mandate around population and development and data. The Adviser provides leadership in the coordination of technical support to Regional Offices (RO’s), Sub-Regional Offices (SRO’s) and Country Offices (CO’s), assuming the role of primary liaison for research partnerships as well and promotes a vision integrating the Fund’s work in integrating core data sources to improve programme impact. He/She serves as a principal liaison to UNFPA’s regional and country offices in this regard, ensuring that authoritative data is used for tracking progress in the fulfillment of the UNFPA Strategic Plan, the implementation and fulfillment of the ICPD Programme of Action, and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
• The incumbent will also ensure consistency and collaborative approaches with other projects of relevance UNFPA is implementing or partnering on.
• The incumbent, supervises a team of analysts, including specialists in statistics, demography and Geographic Information Systems (GIS), working closely with the Branch Chief and other staff from the Division to prioritize and systematically respond to data needs and innovations.
• The position requires a clear and complete understanding of not only the existing data sources such as census, household surveys, vital registration systems, administrative records, and more recently big data, but also the UN institutional structures and work mandates as well as the diplomatic sensitivities and specific responsibilities to serve Member States and to promote constructive dialogue and policies relating to issues of data sharing, open access, and public dissemination.
• The incumbent will also support UNFPA’s strategic engagement within the UN statistical community, academic communities of practice, development partners, and donors, and will advance UNFPA’s representation and leadership within a variety of inter-agency partnerships and collaborations.

Role Description:
The primary areas of work for the incumbent are:

• Strategic technical support
• Results-based management
• Capacity development
• Evidence and knowledge development and dissemination
• Technical representation and strategic partnerships

Under the guidance of the Chief, Population and Development Branch, and in collaboration with the technical advisers of the Programme Division, the Programme Adviser/ Data Analysis and Use assumes responsibility for the following key areas of work:
You would be responsible for:
Strategic technical support

• Provide overall guidance for data collation, analysis, dissemination, use & quality assurance focusing on core indicators and their linkages to the three Transformative Results and SDGs; and provide technical inputs and review of all major SDG and ICPD monitoring deliverables for quality assurance, with special attention to publications and country support work, and generation of evidence for use in country, regional and global advocacy and programmes
• Oversee quality assurance of all indicator data used in UNFPA flagship and sector-specific publications and reports, speeches, briefing notes, and blogs as well as development of data standards, data governance, protection, and ethical and responsible data collection and use throughout the life cycle.
• Provide technical advice on monitoring and reporting on strategic programme priorities as required, including responding to ad hoc requests to senior management, ROs, COs, partner organizations and others.
• Lead UNFPA’s global, regional, and country-level monitoring of relevant indicators related particularly to corporate priorities, SDGs, ICPD and other global commitments, in collaboration with international partners and governments.
• Lead and provide technical guidance in updating and maintaining UNFPA Population Data Portal focusing on population, health, and development data.
• Guide and conduct analyses and interpretation of data, including contributions to the UNFPA flagship publications, thematic reports, as well as the preparation of peer reviewed journal articles and other documents.
• Provide technical leadership for geospatial analysis and data visualization, and disaggregation to ensure LNOB and better intervention targeting.
• Produce thematic reports on key topics of relevance to UNFPA, SDGs and the ICPD PoA
• Lead and promote more use of routine facility or service provision data, e.g. health facility data, operations data in GBV centers, youth centers, etc; and combine with georeferenced population data, to analyze issues of coverage and programme impact, e.g. where distribution of services can be improved, and results of programme implementation, and advise on which programmes to scale.

Results-based management

• Support the development and utilization of programme indicators and indicator databases;
• Ensure incorporation of evaluation results, lessons learned and new knowledge in the updating of strategies, policies, tools and approaches aimed at the incorporation of an economic perspective to population issues in the national development plans and strategies, social policies and expenditure frameworks,
• Conceptualize, develop, manage, monitor and be accountable for the specific components of the Branch’s global programme; and
• Contribute to technical support efforts, in coordination with relevant internal divisions in the area of population and development linkages for the mobilization of additional resources.

Capacity development

• Contribute to the capacity development of countries to monitor indicators related to population, health, and development, in collaboration with regional and country offices and other partners.
• Contribute to developing the capacity within the organization for evidence-based policy, planning, programming and advocacy through research and data analysis
• Contribute to substantive technical capacity development of national and international institutions in data analysis and use, and monitoring and evaluation.
• Identify, develop and adapt training materials and manuals in the area of population and development monitoring and research, including in emerging areas such ageing and low fertility and ensure their availability for capacity development;
• Coach and manage junior professional staff and associates, direct expert consultants and facilitate working groups and task teams.
• Guide and oversee the technical work of up to 5 statistical and geospatial analysts within the unit, and assure their mentoring and career development;

Evidence and knowledge development and dissemination

• Provide technical leadership in the formulation of UNFPA’s research topics and field research; development of protocols and approaches especially in operations research to ensure UNFPA programmes and interventions are informed by quality evidence and knowledge.
• Devise innovative ways to best serve UNFPA’s in-house data and information needs at country, regional and global levels through the Population Data Portal and other mechanisms, to inform strategic planning, advocacy, CPDs, CCAs, UNSDGCFs and sector specific strategies and plans.
• Advise on efficient and effective ways to prepare and disseminate products and provide input into making data, analyses and products accessible and available through different media and mechanisms.
• Guide methodological development of indicator measurement and monitoring of interventions particularly related to UNFPA strategic priorities and goals.
• Contribute to the ongoing improvement in data quality at the data collection stage, including through censuses, household surveys and routine monitoring systems.
• In collaboration with main partners (WHO, UNICEF and others), modify and adapt existing measurement indicators and tools and develop new tools where appropriate. Test tools in field situations, develop guidelines for their use and provide support for implementation at country level.

Technical representation and strategic partnerships

• Maintain and foster substantive, intellectual global partnerships with most relevant constituencies for advancing state-of-the-art knowledge on population data and statistics;
• Develop and manage substantive partnerships and collaboration with other UN agencies, including in the context of the UNDG;
• Represent UNFPA on substantive issues, elaborate UNFPAs substantive global perspective, and advocate for the substantive issues in international, inter-governmental, U.N., and other policy and technical meetings and fora;
• Lead, engage, manage and convene interagency technical groups on indicator development and monitoring of global and regional commitments and country strategies, including with UN Statistical Commissions and the SDG Interagency Expert Group, and thematic monitoring and evaluation groups such as the Health Data Collaborative, Expert Group on Census and CRVS, UN legal Identity Agenda (UNLIA), Network on Geospatial Analysis, among others.
• In collaboration with the Branch Chief ensures UNFPA’s representation to UN and Global matters relevant to the UNFPA mandates in demography, statistics and data, including in intergovernmental meetings (e.g., UN Statistical Commission), interagency collaborations (e.g., Committee for the Coordination of Statistical Activities, Inter Agency and Expert Group on SDG Indicators, Maternal Mortality Estimation Inter Agency Group), and in partnerships with the private sector and academia on data issues.

Qualifications and Experience:
Education:

• Advanced University degree in demography, statistics/biostatistics, epidemiology, quantitative sociology, geography, or related field.

Knowledge and Experience:

At least 10 years of increasingly responsible professional experience is required, of which 7 years at the international level. S/he should have substantial work experience in the following areas:

• Generation and use of official demographic, health and development statistics;
• Analysis of population censuses and household surveys;
• Quantitative research and analysis;
• Proven knowledge of geospatial analysis, GIS modeling, Bayesian estimation, and/or their application to public health is essential;
• Prior work experience in developing countries is essential;
• Strong track record of technical leadership and timely results;
• Demonstrated capacity for team leadership, coordination, management, and external relations.
• Prior work and familiarity in one or more of the following topics is desirable: demographic trends (urbanization, aging, migration, displacement); sexual and reproductive health; gender equality and women’s empowerment; harmful practices.

Languages:

• Fluency in English; knowledge of another official UN language is an asset.

Required Competencies:
Values:

• Exemplifying integrity,
• Demonstrating commitment to UNFPA and the UN system,
• Embracing cultural diversity,
• Embracing change

Core Competencies:

• Achieving results,
• Being accountable,
• Developing and applying professional expertise/business acumen,
• Thinking analytically and strategically,
• Working in teams/managing ourselves and our relationships,
• Communicating for impact

Functional Competencies:

• Conceptual innovation - Demonstrates ability to engage development partners at all levels in conceptual and methodological innovation that is pertinent to the global, national and local context for RH, population, gender and development, as well as population data systems.
• Building strategic alliances - Makes effective use of UNFPA’s resources and comparative advantage to strengthen alliances
• Expert knowledge of own discipline - Possesses expert knowledge of advanced concepts in primary discipline, a broad knowledge of related disciplines, as well as an in-depth knowledge of relevant organizational policies and procedures

Managerial Competencies

• Providing Strategic Focus
• Engaging internal/external stakeholders and Partners
• Leading, Developing and Empowering People/Creating a Culture of Performance
• Making Decisions and Exercising Judgment