Chief Statistician, ECST1 at African Development Bank - AfDB

Reference: ADB/20/092
Location: Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire
Grade: PL3
Position N°: 50000878

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 Chief Statistician is responsible for leading and overseeing the production, management and dissemination of statistics and analytical products focusing on: (i) statistical domains pertaining to the Bank’s Ten-Year Strategy and the High Fives, the SDGs and Agenda 2063; and (ii) data urgency as required by the preparedness for unforeseeable pandemics and the mitigation of pandemic impacts. Domains to be covered include but are not limited to Demographic and Social Statistics, Macroeconomic statistics, Infrastructure statistics, gender statistics, Civil registration and vital statistics, environment statistics, and pandemic related data.
• The Chief Statistician’s role involves: (i) The provision of conceptual and methodological advice to the Bank’s work on statistics; (ii) Support to RMCs on data matters, through the Bank’s Statistical Capacity Building Program; (iii) The supervision of the AIH; and (iv) The management of technical matters pertaining to 1BDS.

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

• Coordinate activities within the Bank & in Regional Member Countries for streamlining data management & dissemination through the Africa Information Highway initiative to inform policies, strategies & decision making.
• Coordinate 1BDS activities related to the provision and management of all categories of data assets and related metadata required by Bank units in their activities, as well as data and metadata assets stored by Bank units for further dissemination and utilization within or outside the Bank.
•  Define appropriate statistical methods to be used to estimate and forecast key macro, sectorial and social indicator in Regional Member Countries and contribute to the African Economic Outlook work (data collection; management; forecast analysis and generation of projections of economic indicators for all African countries).
• Develop and maintain a knowledge base on social and cross-sectoral statistics relating to the concepts, methods, classifications, best practices in such areas as demography, employment, health, education, poverty and living conditions, housing, environment, gender, governance, infrastructures, etc.
• Coordinate technical work and provide guidance on concepts, methods, classifications, best practices in such statistical domains as: Demography, employment, health, education, poverty and living conditions, environment, gender, governance, infrastructures and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
• Provide the Bank and member countries with comparative research analysis, socio-economic data and projections of the most widely used socio-economic parameters relating to Africa’s economy and Bank Group operations.
• Provide statistical and analytical support to meet the operational and research needs of organizational units throughout the Bank.
• Supervise statistical analyses in support of the activities and ensure accuracy and consistency in the use of statistical data throughout the Bank and provide guidance on statistical analysis and interpretation.
• Coordinate the development and maintenance of the Bank’s statistical databases, including access, interface and utilization.
• Represent the Department/Division in-country teams and interdepartmental working groups within the Bank; review operations documents, provide statistical inputs to Bank group’s Annual Report and other reports.
• Promote the implementation of the Strategy for the Harmonization of Statistics in Africa (SHASA), the African Charter on Statistics and other regional statistical strategies and principles, as well as agreed-upon quality assurance standards across Africa.
• Initiate, build and maintain partnerships with regional and international institutions which includes developing and implementing regional joint programmes, organizing and participating in meetings, conferences and interregional dialogues and networks
• Prepare publications for dissemination within the Bank and to officials and institutions in member countries; and review data for consistency, accuracy and reliability in Bank reports.
• Provide technical support and professional advisory services to heads of National Statistics Offices in leadership of National Statistics Systems and implementation of capacity development initiatives; promote increased availability of official statistics across RMCs, assuring the timely identification of gaps and assisting in filling the gaps.
• Provide leadership and oversee capacity development initiatives in Regional Member Countries (RMC) in order to ensure production of statistical indicators in compliance with international statistical standards and norms; improve capacities of statistical training centers to meet the needs of National Statistics Systems.
• Represent the Bank at international and regional platforms and meetings pertaining to statistics as will be directed by ECST management and provide guidance on statistical issues and applications.
• Provide technical guidance to junior staff oversee the production of statistical reports and publications
• Assist ECST.1 Division Manager in quality control of the work of the division and act as Officer-In-Charge in his/her absence.

Selection Criteria

• Hold at least a Master's degree or its equivalent in Statistics, Economics or a related quantitative area.
• Specific degree or certificate relevant to database management systems, database software/web applications will be a plus.
• Have a minimum of seven (7) years of relevant experience in statistical production, with sound experience in macroeconomic statistics, social statistics and statistical strategies. Additional experience in statistical coordination would be an advantage.
• Solid experience in statistical operations and management.
• Proven experience in national accounts, social statistics and statistical strategies.
• Client and results-oriented individual holding “a can-do attitude”.
• 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.
• 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).