Statistician at African Development Bank - AfDB

Reference: ADB/17/227
Location: Côte d’Ivoire
Grade: PL6
Position N°: 50076508

The Complex

• The Chief Economist/Vice-President for Economic Governance and Knowledge Management is the Bank’s spokesperson on economic matters and the VP for the ‘Economics Governance and Knowledge Management Complex’.
• The Complex is responsible for (i) providing leadership and visibility for the Bank on economic, finance, financial governance and socio economic development issues; and coordinate the generation of analytical works to inform operational policy; (ii) systematically emphasize the critical role of knowledge, experience, lessons learnt and their tangible impact on sustainable, inclusive transformation of African economies.

The Hiring Department / Division

• The Statistics Department 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 Sustainable Development Goals agenda across Africa, (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 Directorate, the Economics and Social Statistics Division ensures that Regional Member Countries provide the Bank with timely, reliable, consistent and regionally comparable data on economic and social activities (trade, industry, agriculture, finance, infrastructure, population, demography, poverty, education, health, SDGs monitoring etc.).
• Its principal activities are: to develop and manage statistical systems needed to support the operational work of the Bank Group and its development research activities; and to prepare the Bank Group’s official statistical publications and provide statistics and statistical analysis for the Bank Group’s Annual Report, the African Development Report and other important Bank’s publications.

The Position

• The Statistician  will be responsible for contributing to the reliability of the bank's statistical data through the following main activities: (i) update country and sector information on Trade, Balance of Payment, Financial flows, Tourism, Foreign Direct Investment and Debt in the Bank’s databases, (ii) update country and sector reports for North African countries and support, statistical capacity building, AIKP (iii) preparation of Bank statistical Publications and briefs (iv) Statistical support for regional integration: develop and maintain a system to monitor regional integration.

Duties and Responsibilities
Under the supervision of the Division Manager Economic & Social Statistics and Chief Statistician, the Statistician will:

• Provide and maintain statistical database on Regional Member Countries to support the Bank's analytical work, in the specialized fields of Economic statistics (National accounts, Prices, Government Finance, Balance of Payments, Money and Banking, Financial Flows, Trade Statistics) and Bank Group Operations statistics.
• Provide support to estimate and analyse macroeconomic aggregate on Regional Member Countries and at the regional and sub-regional levels, identify indicators, develop models, and apply statistical methods such as trend analysis, forecasting methods to estimate aggregates.
• Contribute to the production of African Economic Outlook by (i) collecting data from countries; (ii) generating country economic forecasts; (iii) producing the charts and statistical annex tables.
• Generate of economic/social/financial aggregates figures (Africa, Regions Economic Groupings,) for several indicators.
• Promote the use of the Bank Data Portal, including the use of the Highway Information System within the Bank, in Regional Member Countries and among development partners.
• Undertake activities in the Africa Information Highway Initiative (SDGs , eGDDS, High 5s,…).
• Assist countries in the implementation of the AIH through trainings at country and regional levels on the Open Data Portal.
• Assist in developing and maintaining a framework for monitoring and evaluating development indicators to support the Results Measurement Framework for the Bank.
• Provide the statistical input for the Bank Group’s Annual Report, the African Development Report, the African Economic Outlook, the African Statistical Yearbook and other important Bank publications.
• Provide statistical and analytical support to meet the operational and research needs of organizational units throughout the Bank by providing advice and assistance on use of appropriate statistical methods and techniques, on data sources, its availability and quality, and by participating in missions where statistical issues are of particular importance.
• Assist in the printing process and the dissemination of the publications within the Bank and to officials and institutions in member countries.
• Undertake field mission or other duties as may be assigned by the Supervisor or the manager.

Selection Criteria
Including desirable skills, knowledge and experience:

• Hold at least a Master's degree or its equivalent in Statistics, Economics or a related domains.
• Specific degree or certificate relevant to database management systems, database software/web applications will be a plus.
• Have a minimum of four (4) years of relevant experience in the field of official statistics. Working experience should include statistical information system.
• Capability of developing and managing statistical information system.
• Strong background in quantitative methods and knowledge of data collection Methods and analysis.
• Ability to identify analysis biases (false data, data in deviation ...) and purify the database collected.
• Ability to synthesize the data collected and choose the most relevant modes of representation.
• Effective advisory skills with analytical and problem solving capabilities
• Excellent teamwork skills and ability to interact effectively with staff members at all level
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills in French or English, with a good working knowledge of the other language.
• Advanced knowledge of Excel and competence in the use of other Bank standard software applications (Word, Access and PowerPoint).