Senior Analyst (Humanitarian)

The Humanitarian and Stabilisation Operations Team (HSOT) provides the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) with humanitarian services and the UK Government’s Stabilisation Unit with stabilisation support. HSOT works with FCDO to lead the UK Government’s response to humanitarian disasters in co-operation with the United Nations, the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, non-governmental organisations and governments of disaster-affected countries.

The Early Warning, Analysis and Reporting (EWAR) team is at the forefront of humanitarian information and analysis, working at the heart of government to inform humanitarian decision-making. The team monitors global events to provide early warning, alerts, and shape humanitarian responses by delivering insights through clear and targeted analytic products. This involves overcoming a challenging information landscape through mixed method approaches as well as developing and improving methodologies that ensures decision-making is grounded in the best available evidence.

This role is based in Central London and may be asked to deploy, often at short notice to sudden onset crises on in support of protracted crises.

Primary Duties and Responsibilities:

Prioritisation and Severity

• Develop a solid understanding of the FCDO humanitarian decision-making landscape and information needs, to proactively identify analysis needs.
• Design and generate analytical products to support prioritisation, as per information needs of FCDO.
• Provide advice and guidance on using a range of qualitative and quantitative data sources.
• Develop approaches to prioritisation tools and composite indicators required to support decision-making.

Early Warning Analysis

• The Humanitarian Early Warning Note (HEWN) is currently the core EWAR product, the post holder is expected to support production of the HEWN and contribute to thought leadership regarding its evolution.
• Build relationships with FCDO counterparts and seek to understand FCDO humanitarian early warning needs.
• Design and produce early warning products, as part of the HEWN product suite, in line with Humanitarian, Migration and Food Security Directorate (HMFD) information needs.
• Work closely with FCDO teams and externals partners to ensure HEWN products are situated in the broader HMFD, FCDO and cross Whitehall risk landscape.

Futures and Foresight

• Lead on EWAR’s humanitarian foresight toolkit and its implementation.
• Understand FCDO, Go Science and sector-wide methodologies regarding futures and foresight analysis.
• Integrate humanitarian foresight into risk and scenario products across FCDO.
• Lead and support humanitarian scenario building exercises.
• Plan and contribute to FCDO and xWH risk analysis processes.

Response Information Management and Analysis

• Contribute to 24/7 sudden onset alert monitoring system, including conducting occasional in and out of hours monitoring and surveillance on behalf of FCDO.
• During a humanitarian response launched by FCDO the Snr Humanitarian Analyst may be deployed in support of a rapid response team or surged into an on-going humanitarian programme during a spike in a crisis to generate key information products and analysis and provide briefings as needed.
• Establish and develop relevant information management systems and tools to support better informed response decisions.

Coordination, Engagement and Reporting

• Cross-team coordination and management as required.
  Maintain strong working relationships with key HMG and external stakeholders, including scientific or economic experts to inform prioritisation and early warning analysis.
• Accurate and timely recording of all project data to enable the highest quality reporting.
• Contribute to planning and executing transition of the EWAR’s capability to a successor programme, responding in a timely manner to information requests and tasks that ensure successful closure of HEROS 1 and smooth transition.
• Lead on EWAR’s data management and transfer during the transition phase.
• Engaging with teams across HSOT to work on the exit plan and undertake other duties as required during the transition period.
• Undertake any other duties as appropriate to the position, as requested.

Required Qualifications:

• Demonstrable knowledge and experience of humanitarian theory, practice and architecture, humanitarian risk assessment and planning and managing humanitarian responses.
• Knowledge and experience of using humanitarian response information tools and producing analysis to guide humanitarian response.
• Humanitarian needs assessment, analysis and/or operational research experience with INGO, UN or similar organisation.
• Demonstrated skills in quantitative methods and scientific thinking.
• Experience of producing concise, accurate and impactful reports and visualisations.
• Understanding of the workings of government and particularly FCDO (xFCO or xDFID).
• Familiarity with key quantitative humanitarian datasets and qualitative analysis products.
• Native fluency in English.

Please Note: This role requires right to work in the UK.