Statistics & Monitoring Specialist (Nutrition), (P-4), Fixed Term, Data & Analytics, DAPM, New York, #125812

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, data

The Division of Data, Analytics, Planning and Monitoring (DAPM) was established in 2019 to drive decision making and organizational learning, improve effectiveness and achievement of results of UNICEF and its partners to realize the rights and improve the life of every child. DAPM promotes the use of data and monitoring to achieve transformative impact on lives of children.

The Division is responsible for driving, shaping and guiding UNICEF’s evidence-informed analysis, strategic planning, programme monitoring and organizational performance management. As such, DAPM enables the organization to deliver on results in a more coherent manner, based on agile and contextualized programming process, and on data, evidence, and analysis, as well as the application of human-rights based and results-based management approaches.

Within DAPM, the Data & Analytics Team (DAT) is the global go-to for data on children. It leads the collection, validation, analysis, use and communication of the most statistically sound, internationally comparable data on the situation of children and women around the world. For this purpose, both traditional and innovative data and analysis – including administrative and household survey data as well as geospatial analysis, big data and machine learning – are used. DAT upholds the quality, integrity and organization of these data and makes them accessible as a global public good on the data.unicef.org website.

DAT provides leadership, strategic and normative guidance and technical support to generate data and evidence on children. The team works together with other teams within UNICEF as well as partner organizations, to support statistical systems strengthening at the country level. DAT is also fostering a data-driven transformation in how UNICEF works internally and together with partners that includes positioning UNICEF as a leader on data for children, protecting children through governance of data and building an organization-wide culture of data.

Purpose for the job:

The primary purpose of this post is to serve as UNICEF’s main focal point for data and analyses related to diets, and school-age, adolescent, and women’s nutrition. The incumbent will engage in methodological development and testing of new metrics and contribute to improving estimation methods for national, regional and global progress in these areas. The work focuses on overall oversight, management and expansion of the infant and young child feeding (IYCF) database, and establishing new databases for key indicators related to school-age, adolescent and women’s nutrition, as well as advancing innovations in the measurement of diets, women’s and school-age adolescent nutrition. Capacity development including provision of country support is a key component of the position.  The incumbent will also be responsible for analyses and drafting relevant sections of global reports.

Under the supervision of the Senior Advisor, Monitoring and Statistics (Nutrition) in the Data Analytics and Innovation Unit (DAIU) in D&A, and working with other colleagues in the team, the Statistics and Monitoring Specialist is accountable for the generation of valid and reliable estimates of children’s diets, partaking in improving methods for monitoring diets, school-age, adolescent and women’s nutrition, and provision of technical support to build the capacity of national stakeholders to collect and analyse data for the purposes of national monitoring and global reporting on nutrition. The incumbent is expected to collaborate with other UN agencies, universities, national statistical offices, donors, development partners, and other stakeholders and institutions with technical expertise in this area. 

How can you make a difference?

1. Global databases, data analysis and quality assurance

1. Lead the maintenance and update of UNICEF’s global databases on infant and young child feeding using a systematic approach for the review and analysis of key data sources and appropriate methods for generation of annual estimates.
2. Ensure the dissemination of data, estimates, analyses on children’s diets to maximize the use for advocacy, programming and planning purpose.
3. Lead the establishment of new global databases in the areas of women’s, school-age and adolescent nutrition, including data quality review criteria.
4. Coordinate or support the operations of technical advisory groups related to metrics and databases for assigned topics.
5. Manage and/or carry out analysis, interpretation and validation of data relevant to nutrition, including contributions to UNICEF flagship publications and other reports, strategic analyses as well as the preparation of peer reviewed journal articles.

2. Advance methodological work related to children’s and women’s nutrition

1. Facilitate the Technical Advisory Group on Infant and Young Child Feeding.
2. Engage in the development and pilot-testing of a rapid methodology to systematically collect data on children’s diets including during crises.
3. Participate and contribute to the interagency technical working group of the Healthy Diets Monitoring Initiative to enable country and global monitoring of the healthfulness of diets of children and adults to inform policies and programs.
4. Contribute to the on-going improvement of data quality at data collection stage and measurement of infant and young child feeding indicators through household surveys and routine reporting systems.
5. Contribute to the adaptation and uptake of the standardized nutrition module on infant and young child feeding for DHIS2/administrative data systems.
6. Play a key role in the methodological development of indicators and estimation methods for monitoring school-age, adolescent and women’s nutrition.

3. Contribute to implementation of organizational- and divisional priorities

1. Serve as the team focal point for reporting on assigned nutrition indicators in UNICEF’s Strategic Plan and related activities. 
2. Support preparation of global flagship publications, including the Flaship Child Nutrition Report, State of the World’s Children Report, and the preparation and quality assurance of statistical information included in such publications.
3. Work in close collaboration with colleagues within the DATA Team and within DAPM, other Divisions in HQ as well as across the organization on joint products and projects.
4. Contribute to resource mobilization efforts for the DATA Team.

4. Build and strengthen relationships with partners on nutrition data

1. Represent UNICEF appropriately in various foras; including global events, joint partner initiatives, media briefings, etc.
2. Contribute to relevant inter-agency groups and processes.

5. Capacity development and country support

1. Provide technical support to regional and country offices, countries and partners on data collection, analysis, use and quality assurance.
2. Build and strengthen capacity of countries to monitor nutrition through various activities including through the development of training materials, coordination and implementation of workshops, provision of presentations at these workshops and provision of technical support as applicable
3. Contribute to the development of capacity within the organization for evidence-based policy, planning, programming and advocacy by developing/presenting materials on nutrition data.

6. Software and IT tools
   1. Train team on
      1. Use of Git and GitHub for research
      2. Workflows to automate the creation of reports and research outputs
   2. Advise team on
      1. How to efficiently manage GitHub accounts and repositories
      2. Adoption of cloud software for research tasks 
7. Data Workflow Methodologies – from data collection to publication
   1. Guide team on efforts to
      1. Document current data management practices
      2. Develop solutions to current bottlenecks in data workflow
   2. Identify processes that can be improved by
      1. Reducing sources of human errors
      2. Workflow automation
      3. Increasing collaboration and synergy effects through standardization
   3. Promote further discussions within teams on processes standardization
   4. Continuously work with teams to support and listen to feedback to continuously improve methodologies suggested
   5. Lead the institutionalization of checks to ensure reproducibility of all results generated
8. Management

1. Contribute to outstanding management practices (human resources, financial management, etc), including through supervision of selected staff and consultants.
2. Supervise, manage, and direct technical staff, including appraisal of staff performance as relevant. Communicate standards of performance, and assign responsibilities for achieving results according to the defined tasks
3. Maintain close coordination with key internal stakeholders, including Programme Group, Emergency Operations, Division of Global Communication & Advocacy, Public Partnerships Division, and Regional Offices.

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

• An advanced university degree (Master’s or higher) in public health, nutrition, economics, public policy, epidemiology, statistics, computer sciences or a related field.
• A minimum of eight (8) years of relevant professional experience in professional experience at national and international levels in nutrition, statistics, economics, public policy and specifically diets or other related fields.
• Expertise in the analysis of household survey data (e.g., DHS, MICS, LSMS)
• Experience at the national and international levels in database management, data visualization, data analysis, and other areas of applied statistics, data interpretation and use.
• Experience in the development of methodologies for the collection, analysis and use of data in the area of child nutrition.
• Ability to build and strengthen relationships with partners on data.
• Strong computer skills including Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint), statistical analysis software (e.g. SPSS, Stata, R).
• Experience working with GitHub and designing data pipelines and workflows is an asset.
• Developing country work experience and/or familiarity with emergency is considered an asset.
• Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) or a local language is an asset.

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF’s Core Values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust and Accountability and Sustainability (CRITAS) underpin everything we do and how we do it. Get acquainted with Our Values Charter: UNICEF Values

UNICEF competencies required for this post are…

(1) Builds and maintains partnerships (2) Demonstrates self-awareness and ethical awareness (3) Drive to achieve results for impact (4) Innovates and embraces change (5) Manages ambiguity and complexity (6) Thinks and acts strategically (7) Works collaboratively with others (8) Nurtures, leads and manages people.

During the recruitment process, we test candidates following the competency framework. Familiarize yourself with our competency framework and its different levels: competency framework here.

UNICEF is here to serve the world’s most disadvantaged children and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to include everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, age, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, or any other personal characteristic.
We offer a wide range of benefits to our staff, including paid parental leave, breastfeeding breaks and reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities. UNICEF strongly encourages the use of flexible working arrangements.
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 is committed to promote the protection and safeguarding of all children. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks, and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles. 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:

UNICEF is currently undergoing organizational changes; therefore, it is expected that this position will relocate, possibly after 2 years (to be further announced). While candidates are expected to onboard in New York initially, they may be expected to relocate to a new location again during the initial contract or assignment period accordingly. 

Mobility is a condition of international professional employment with UNICEF and an underlying premise of the international civil service.

UNICEF appointments are subject to medical clearance.  Issuance of a visa by the host country of the duty station, which will be facilitated by UNICEF, is required for IP positions. Appointments are also subject to inoculation (vaccination) requirements, including against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid). Government employees that are considered for employment with UNICEF are normally required to resign from their government before taking up an assignment with UNICEF. UNICEF reserves the right to withdraw an offer of appointment, without compensation, if a visa or medical clearance is not obtained, or necessary inoculation requirements are not met, within a reasonable period for any reason.

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