Project Officer (Database Manager)

Post Number : 1CAUIS0075PA

Grade : P-3

Parent Sector : UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS)

Duty Station: Montreal

Job Family: Education

Type of contract : Project Appointment

Duration of contract : 1 year

Recruitment open to : Internal and external candidates

Application Deadline (Midnight Paris Time) : 31-JUL-2022 (EXTENDED)

UNESCO Core Values: Commitment to the Organization, Integrity, Respect for Diversity, Professionalism

Duration of contract: initially 1 year, with possibility of extension subject to availability of funds and satisfactory performance.

BACKGROUND AND OVERVIEW OF THE FUNCTIONS OF THE POST

The UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) is the statistical office of UNESCO and is the UN depository for global statistics in the fields of education, science, technology and innovation, culture and communication.
The UIS is the official source of internationally comparable data used to monitor progress towards the Sustainable Development Goal on education. With custodianship of SDG 4 Global and Thematic Frameworks, the UIS hosts and co-chairs the Technical Cooperation Group on the indicators for SDG 4. 

The UIS was established to improve UNESCO's statistical programme and to develop and deliver the timely, accurate and policy-relevant statistics needed in today’s increasingly complex and rapidly changing social, political and economic environments. Within this mandate, the UIS has initiated and supported regions and countries in developing benchmarks for selected SDG 4 indicators and region-specific education indicators; and, under the leadership of the African Union, is responsible for reporting against the CESA framework.  As part of its strategy for collaboration, brokerage and the generation of public goods the UIS has worked with UNICEF, World Bank, OECD and the GEMR on the Joint Survey of national education responses to COVID 19 and is developing resources to support the monitoring of commitments for Mission: Recovering Education 2021. 

The UIS is developing a Global Education Observatory (GEO), with the vision of providing Member States and the international community with a gateway to education-related data that fulfils the need of national, regional and global stakeholders for easy access to information for decision making, which responds flexibly to short, medium and long-term priorities. 
To achieve this vision, the proposed Observatory has the following objectives: 

• Ensure that presentation is in a visually attractive ways of UIS datasets pertaining to the monitoring of SDG4 and SDG1 by preparing the database;
• In the medium-term, populate the gateway with data on the most important education policy priorities and form strategic partnerships with clear value added and complementarity, to ensure this gateway fulfils most stakeholders’ need with reference to achieving SDG 4.  

The GEO will compile and integrate information from existing data collection mechanism including the UIS annual data release and rapid response data collection mechanisms, providing policy makers with real time data. It will implement strategic partnerships; crowdsource existing data as needed; and leverage innovative data collection such as big data techniques.

MAIN RESPONSIBILITIES AND TASKS

Main responsibilities and tasks

• Coordinate and prepare the databases for the GEO website, ensuring its quality by checking the coherence and consistency against established parameters, and contribute to its development and gradual improvement.
• Coordinate the work on online data resources for the GEO website, including multiple online resources owned or co-owned by the UIS and manage the  evolution of the UIS data browser. 
• Coordinate and prepare the databases for the monitoring of the achievement of national SDG 4 benchmarks and maintain the Statistics, coordinate the work to report annually on progress towards the national SDG 4 benchmarks in collaboration with the Global Education Monitoring Report.
• Coordinate the preparation of the database to be submitted to UNSD as part of the global commitment. 
• Support the UIS in its role of custodian agency for most of the SDG global and thematic frameworks as per paragraph 18 of the Education 2030 Framework for Action. 
• Provide support to the cooperation and coordination mechanisms established to develop and implement the SDG 4 monitoring framework.
• Participate in other activities to ensure the success of the UIS work.

COMPETENCIES (Core / Managerial)

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REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

Education 

• Advanced university degree (master’s degree or equivalent) in statistics, economics, demography or a related discipline with strong statistical and data management component.

Work experience

• Minimum 4 years of progressively responsible relevant professional experience as a researcher and/or analyst working with administrative, finance, survey, and/or assessment data relating to education, especially with developing countries, of which at least 2 years acquired at international level; 
• Experience in designing, managing and implementing project and programme activities pertaining to data collection, analysis and dissemination, and developing innovative and effective information management systems;
• Experience in identifying, processing, and using data to advance decisions, strategies and execution is required; 
• Experience with relevant coding and database management languages (such as SQL, Python, Stata). 

Skills/competencies

• Familiarity with SDG 4/global, regional and national education monitoring frameworks.
• Demonstrated ability to explore innovative options to deliver data and analytical products, including understanding how to leverage on emerging methodological opportunities.
• Knowledge of data visualisation tools (e.g. Power BI, Tableau) 
• Experience working with and reconciling data from multiple sources.
• Demonstrated capability to prepare analytical and dissemination products on complex technical issues suitable for a more general policy audience. 
• Demonstrated capability to plan and manage projects; to maintain partnerships; to work effectively and collaboratively in a multi-cultural team environment. 

Language

• Excellent knowledge of English.

DESIRABLE QUALIFICATIONS

Education 

• A post graduate degree in public policy, technology, data management, or a closely related field or equivalent experience.
• An advanced degree in applied statistics / data science is highly desirable. 

Work experience

• Experience of working in developing countries for National Statistical Offices or Planning Units.

Skills/competencies 

• Knowledge of UIS databases and SDG 4 system of indicators is highly desirable.

Languages

• Working knowledge of French.

BENEFITS AND ENTITLEMENTS

SELECTION AND RECRUITMENT PROCESS

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