Principal Statistician - Database Management Officer at African Development Bank - AfDB

Reference: ADB/17/366
Location: Côte d’Ivoire
Grade: PL4
Position N°: 50093735

The Complex

• The Chief Economist/Vice-President for Economic Governance and Knowledge Management (ECVP) is the Bank’s spokesperson on economic matters and the VP for the ‘Economics Governance and Knowledge Management Complex’.
• The Complex is responsible for 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; 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 (ECST) is responsible for the Bank’s statistical activities that focus on two main components: 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, 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 (ECST1) 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, Sustainable Development Goals' 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; 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 Principal Statistician - Database Management Officer will be responsible for contributing to the reliability of the bank's statistical data through the following main activities:

• Provide leadership and advice on data management and dissemination under the Africa Information Highway (AIH) initiative that informs the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the High 5s;
• Contribution to Development results measurement for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) agenda and the High 5s framework by providing support for effective generation of indicators for SDGs and High 5s;
• Improving technical capacities and data quality of the National Statistical Systems by managing the Bank’s data management and dissemination activities in all Regional Member Countries;
• Improving dissemination of statistics: Contribute to development and maintenance of the Bank's statistical databases; Manage cooperation arrangements and activities with partners such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank, World Health Organization, Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) on data management and dissemination issues;
• To lead the utilization by users in the Bank and in regional member countries of the Open Data Portal (ODP) that also incorporates a data submission tool that facilitates data exchange via the application of Statistical Data and Metadata eXchange (SDMX) standards.

Duties and Responsibilities
Under the supervision and guidance of the Division Manager, Economic & Social Statistics (ECST1), the Principal Statistician – Database Management Officer will:

• Promote the use of the African Information Highway (AIH) in the Bank, regional member countries and regional economic communities (RECs).
• Manage and maintain statistical databases for pillar 2 (development data) of the 1 Bank Data System (1BDS).
• Advise on efficient ways to prepare and disseminate statistical products and provide input into making data, analyses and reports accessible and available through various media, Develop Initiatives for improving statistical production in areas of expertise.
• Identify equipment needs, delivery systems, personnel requirements that ensure broad public dissemination of statistical information.
• Contribute to the dissemination of international and regional norms and standards defined in the areas of expertise in order to promote statistical harmonization and comparison of data and encourages RMCs to use and to develop appropriate conceptual and methodological tools.
• Participate in the strategic planning activities of the AIH including assisting in developing training plans and programs.
• Undertake joint missions with partner institutions to introduce countries to the Data Submission Tool (DST) and the Open Data Platform.
• Supervise the preparation of statistical publications of the Bank.

Selection Criteria
Including Desirable Skills, Knowledge and Experience

• Hold at least a Master's Degree or its equivalent in Statistics, Information Technology (IT) or related field with a strong background in quantitative methods.
• Have a minimum of six (6) years of relevant working experience in a statistical or development institution.
• Proven good command of SDMX (Statistical Data and Metadata exchange) artefacts.
• Private Sector experience is an added advantage.
• Competency in managing computer data bases.
• Ability to develop and implement statistical methods and procedures.
• Strong analytical and problem solving capabilities, coupled to manage innovation and change.
• Excellent teamwork skills and ability to interact effectively with staff members at all level.
• Excellent spoken and written English or French, with a working knowledge of the other language.
• Competence in the use of standard Microsoft Office Suite applications (Word, Excel, Access and PowerPoint).