Careers opportunities: Economist – UNHCR United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees – Bafoussam, Cameroon

Hardship Level (not applicable for home-based)

D
Family Type (not applicable for home-based)

Non Family with Residential Location
Staff Member / Affiliate Type

CONS Local
Target Start Date

2024-03-01
Job Posting End Date: February 23, 2024

Terms of Reference

In 2021, the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) started implementing in Cameroon the project “Promotion of Economic and Social Participation of Internally Displaced Persons and the Host Population” on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development ( BMZ). The project’s target group is Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and vulnerable members of host communities. The project is being implemented in five communities in the West Region: Bafoussam 1er, Foumban, Dschang, Kouoptamo, and Mbouda. PESoP is, until now, based on two interrelated GIZ-implemented activity areas. Activity Area 1 aims to improve the economic participation of the target group through qualification and income-generating measures, such as cash-for-work, support measures for cooperatives, and the establishment and strengthening of MSMEs. The aim is to improve the economic situation of the target group quickly and across the board, especially women. Activity Area 2 aims to enhance social participation and social cohesion between the various target groups.
In 2023, GIZ and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) joined forces to expand the ongoing PESoP by adding two new activities: 1) an additional activity area led by UNHCR aiming at producing socio-economic profiling of IDPs and host populations living in 5 municipalities of the West region, including GBV information (Activity Area 3) and 2) an additional output led by GIZ to identify and mitigate GBV in target communities (Activity Area 4).

In the context of PESoP, UNHCR will carry out the following: i) the enrollment, in collaboration with the government and local authorities, of all IDPs in five municipalities, estimated between 15,000 and 20,000 IDPs. ii) the socio-economic profiling of a representative sample of IDPs and host community members. The enrollment will mainly collect the biodata of IDPs and GBV information, and UNHCR will work closely with communities to ensure the implementation of a reliable, harmonized, and centralized information and data management system for IDPs in the West Region. These activities aim at providing an overview of IDPs’ and host communities’ Protection (including information on GBV), living conditions, challenges, opportunities, and changes over time. To support the implementation and coordinate related activities of this component of PESoP, UNHCR in Cameroon is now looking for a Statistician Economist.

The Economist will work under the general responsibility and direct supervision of the project coordinator. The incumbent will work closely with Program and Protection colleagues in addition to Senior Management, and UNHCR Economists, as well as with key external project stakeholders, including GIZ, relevant sectoral administrations, INS, BUCREP, BUNEC, decentralized local authorities, grassroots organizations, operational partners, among others.

The candidate will be responsible for the main analytical products of all data collection relating to the internal displacement profiling, including target groups within the framework of the PESoP project. To this end, the post holder will have the main responsibilities set out below.

Data use and strategic guidance of the profiling
o Contribute to defining and promoting a vision for the use of profiling data, particularly in planning, programming and advocacy at the country, regional and headquarters levels.
o Facilitate the elaboration of a data use strategy and making sure serves as a guidance along the whole process.
o Facilitate the elaboration of a dissemination strategy once the final outputs have been created.

Data Collection and Analysis
– Design
o Serve as the technical lead in the design and implementation of the profiling in the framework of the PESoP, with support of the coordinator.
o Oversee/lead the development of the methodology and data collection tools of the profiling exercise, including the planning and facilitation of technical development workshops;
o Serve as technical focal point and engage with country operation, partners and government, as appropriate, in the design and implementation of data collection and research projects.
– Implementation
o For any field survey, assist in programming the instrument and developing protocols to ensure high-quality data.
o Lead the development of training materials and implement and facilitate the training for enumarators;
o Lead the piloting phase including the subsequent revision of data collection tools and processes;
o Manage data collection activities, as appropriate and under the oversight of the coordinator. 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).
– Analysis

o Draft data analysis plan and lead joint analysis
o Consolidate raw primary and secondary datasets into final datasets to be used for analysis, as needed.
o Support the cleaning of all datasets and create all necessary indicators.
o Work with the research team to design a thorough plan for preliminary data analysis and carry out the coding to perform this analysis. Common analytical tasks include production of descriptive statistics and regression analysis for various outputs such as briefs, presentations and academic papers.
o Oversee the data processing phase of the exercise; Lead the (qualitative and quantitative) data analysis and facilitate collaborative data analysis workshops;
– Reporting
o Lead the drafting of the analytical products related to the internal displacement profiling (2 reports, 2 policy notes, 2 infographics at least)
o Properly prepare and document relevant datasets for archiving on the UNHCR Microdata Library.
o Lead the preparation of research papers including formatting and creating tables, graphs, and related analysis.

Support for coordination
o Ensure good communication and coordination among members of the country team, Governments, researchers and partners.
o Participate in official missions and deliver capacity building and training activities for partners and governments.
o Represent UNHCR in negotiations and meetings relating to socio-economic profiling of forcibly displaced and wider partners research in country.
o Represent UNHCR in technical capacity with external actors.
o Perform other related duties as required.

Relevant Job Experience

Essential
At least six (6) years of demonstrated experience in socioeconomics, analyzing data and conducting research. Familiarity with processes of development partners, as well as with working with National Statistics Offices, councils, sectoral administrations, development organizations and research institutions. Extensive experience in drafting analytical documents from survey data. Demonstrated expertise in utilization of relevant statistical software (R, Stata, Python). In-depth knowledge of the processes involved in drawing up development plans. Professional experience in the target area.

Desirable
Familiarity with displacement and development issues. Experience working in applied development economics. Experience leading primary data collection effort and data analysis. Experience of working with synergies between the humanitarian-development nexus. Demonstrated skills and experience with measuring welfare through socio-economic profiling. Demonstrated experience with analysis of large datasets. Ability to work independently with limited supervision and deliver high quality products. Demonstrated ability to think creatively, and to explore, harness and translate innovative concepts into relevant practical approaches for programming, policy, and advocacy purposes. Demonstrated ability to think creatively, and to explore, harness and translate innovative concepts into relevant practical approaches for programming, policy, and advocacy purposes.

Functional Skills

MS-Drafting, Documentation, Data Presentation
MS-Networking
MG-Project Management
IT-Statistical software (eg. SPSS, Stata, R, Python, CSPRO, etc.)
MS-Statistics Analysis
MS-Data Collection and Analysis

An excellent command of French is required and a working knowledge of English is an asset.

The candidate will be based in Bafoussam