Senior Statistician (Infrastructure and Poverty Analyst) - ECST1 at African Development Bank - AfDB

Reference: ADB/18/092
Location: Côte d’Ivoire
Grade: PL5
Position N°: 50000881

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 lendingand 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
• 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 (RMCs) provide the Bank with timely, reliable, consistent and regionally comparable data on economic activities (trade, industry, agriculture, finance, infrastructure, 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 Senior Statistician will:

• Support RMCs in their survey programs aimed at generating poverty and inequality related statistics, standard of living indicators to inform poverty reduction policies ;
• Promote access to surveys data through the African Household’s Surveys data portal within the African Information Highway of Information (AIH) ;
• Support the AIKP team in the generation of statistics and indicators on African household’s access to infrastructure services (Electricity, Water, Sanitation, ICT and Transport); and
• Provide systematic statistical support to country programming and project cycle activities with the objective of mainstreaming results measurement in Bank operations and ensuring the effective monitoring and evaluation (M&E) of development impacts arising from these

Duties and Responsibilities
Under the supervision and guidance of the Division Manager, the Senior Statistician will:

• Provide most recent socio-economic information from surveys required for the monitoring and evaluation of Bank’s High 5s and SDGs;
• Design, implement and manage household surveys financed by the Bank in RMCs;
• Support the capacity of the National Statistical Offices (NSOs) in RMCs in designing, conducting and processing their household expenditures surveys data;
• Assist NSOs in the generation of national poverty and inequalities reports in RMCs;
• Harmonize and compile poverty and inequalities indicators at continental and sub-regional level using the most recent available data on Africa;
• Implement the Africa Infrastructure Knowledge Program (AIKP) including working with RMCs to compile infrastructure statistics, updating the AIKP database and generating infrastructure investment needs for RMCs
• Complement the Africa Infrastructure Knowledge Program (AIKP) data with Household surveys data and indicators related to the access of African households to infrastructure services (Electricity, Water, Sanitation, ICT, Transport);
• Contribute to the dissemination of data and knowledge briefs on the Bank’s AIKP web site;
• Update regularly and improve the dissemination and metadata documentation of the African Household’s Surveys available on the Bank’s Africa Information Highway (AIH) platform and in collaboration with the AIH team;
• Provide statistical support to the Bank’s operational work, including the preparation of Country Strategy Papers (CSP), the Bank’s lending program where poverty and inequality statistics are needed;
• Collaborate with Sector Departments on generating analytical work to inform sectoral work.

Selection Criteria
Including desirable skills, knowledge and experience:

• Hold at least a Master's Degree or its equivalent in Statistics, Economics and/or other related fields.
• Have a strong background in quantitative methods and data analysis specifically on survey data processing and poverty assessment methodologies.
• Hold a minimum of 5 years of relevant working experience in statistics in a multinational institution, Statistical Office or similar institution.
• A working experience including coordination and supervision of household surveys and statistical program is desirable.
• Experience in managing and monitoring projects (including leadership, communication, problem solving, client orientation, team working and relationship) in a complex and multicultural environment would be advantageous.
• Broadly skilled in information and communications technology mainly in applying statistical methods, including multivariate analysis, survey analysis, economic modelling through the use of statistical computer programs (STATA, R, SPSS, etc.) is essential.
• A good knowledge of a database management system such as SQL Server is desirable.
• Ability to communicate effectively (written and oral) in English or French, preferably with a working knowledge of the other language.