Principal Statistician (National Strategies for Development of Statistics), ECST2 at African Development Bank - AfDB

Reference: ADB/18/192
Location: Abidjan, Cote D'ivoire
Grade: PL4
Position N°: 50069084

The Complex

• The Economic Governance and Knowledge Management Complex (ECVP) mission is to generate, promote, and disseminate high-quality economic policy-oriented research to strengthen AfDB policy advice, technical assistance, and lending—and to improve governance, capacity, and policymaking for improving lives in Africa.
• Its role is to encourage and support learning by all development stakeholders, ensure that the best and most up-to-date knowledge from economic and other social sciences is continually available, customized, owned, and used effectively in all AfDB operations and in the development policies of African countries

The Hiring Department/Division

• The Statistics Directorate is responsible for the Bank’s statistical activities that focus on two main components: (i) Providing support for effective development of statistical capacity and systems in African countries for the provision of timely and reliable data to support development results measurement for the High 5s and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) agenda across Africa; and (ii) Mainstreaming results measurement in Bank operations to ensure their operational effectiveness as well as to support the Bank’s research, policy and financial services.
• As part of the Statistics Department, the Statistical capacity building Division ensures that national statistics offices in regional member countries (RMCs) and regional economic communities have adequate statistical capacity to provide timely and reliable data that meet internationally agreed quality standards. Its principal activities are to: manage, coordinate and implement statistical programs in key areas related to data strategies and economic, social and environment development. Emphasis is placed on enhancing the statistical infrastructures, streamlining and updating the methodological systems, and improving staff capabilities through training and other technical assistance means, including partnership with African statistical training centers.

The Position

• The purpose of this position is to enhance capacities in RMCs and RECs in development of strategies for development of statistics to support statistical production and dissemination for evidence-based policy-making and to support monitoring and evaluation in the RMCs. The strategic processes to be supported relate to all categories of official statistics.

Duties and responsibilities
Under the supervision and guidance of the Division Manager, the Principal Statistician will:

• Supervise the design and implementation of national Strategies for the development of Statistics in the region
• Support the design and implementation of regional strategies for the development of statistics
• Receive and handle requests for technical assistance support from RMCs
• Recruit and supervise consultants that support NSDS and RSDS development
• Secure buy-in from the RMCs to ensure that they develop their NSDSs and implement them
• Strategically engage NSOs in RMCs to assess their statistical capacity building needs
• Support the coordination of training workshops on leadership and management and other areas of interest
• Support the coordination of RMC peer learning on various statistical areas handled by the department
• Coordinate with Statistical Training centres to build statistical capacity in National statistical systems
• Explore potential partnerships for statistical capacity building and exploit them to the advantage of the Bank
• Support requests from RMCs for strengthening national monitoring and evaluation systems
• Work with country teams to contribute to the development of country strategy papers, country diagnostic notes and incorporating M&E issues in program and project cycles
• Participate in teams for handling common departmental assignments
• Represent the Bank at international and regional meetings on statistics as will be directed by ECST management
• Any other cross cutting issues in the Division

Selection Criteria

• Hold at least a Master’s degree or its equivalent in Statistics, Economics and/or other related quantitative fields;
• Hold a minimum of 6 years of relevant working experience
• Solid experience in strategy design and development
• Proven experience in designing sectoral strategies for the development of statistics at national level
• Client and results oriented individual holding “a can-do attitude” ;
• Effective consulting and advisory skills that enable clients and help them build their confidence and skills to deal with HR issues;
• Ability to deal with sensitive issues in a multi-cultural environment and to build effective working relations with colleagues;
• Ability to work independently with little supervision as well as part of a multicultural team;
• Ability to drive change;
• Ability to be flexible, open minded with integrity;
• Communication, Problem Solving, Client Orientation and Team working and relations;
• Broadly skilled in information and communications technology
• Ability to communicate effectively (written and oral) in English or French, preferably with a working knowledge of the other language.