Senior Statistician

The position is located in the ILO Decent Work Technical Support Team (DWT) for Eastern and Southern Africa and Country Office for South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland (DWT/CO-Pretoria). DWT/CO-Pretoria covers 18 countries: South Africa, Botswana, Burundi, Comoros, Lesotho, Madagascar, Mauritius, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, Swaziland, Republic of Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Seychelles, Zambia and Zimbabwe.   It provides overall technical support for the preparation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of Decent Work Country Programmes in the countries under its geographical competence.

The Senior Labour Statistician will be responsible for providing technical advisory services in the field of labour and decent work statistics and supporting relevant development cooperation projects in the region. The position is the focal point in DWT/CO-Pretoria for a coordinated network of statistical activities managed by the Department of Statistics (STATISTICS) at headquarters that include: (1) compilation and dissemination of labour and decent work statistics, (2) provision of technical assistance to constituents in ILO member States, (3) setting the international statistical standards in the four strategic objectives  of the Decent Work Agenda, and (4) capacity building in quantitative skills.  The position will provide technical and policy advisory services to the secretariats of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) and East African Community (EAC).

The position will report to the Director of DWT/CO-Pretoria and will receive technical guidance and advice from the Director of STATISTICS. He/she is expected to collaborate with other DWT technical specialists, the Regional Labour Statistician as well as with members of the ILO’s Global Technical Team on Statistics.

1.  Plan, and coordinate the implementation of technical assistance to countries covered by DWT/CO-Pretoria and development cooperation projects involving data collection, including household surveys (e.g. labour force, child labour, and income and expenditure surveys), establishment surveys, and administrative data records. Provide technical guidance on survey questionnaire development in accordance with international standards for measuring statistical concepts as well as on sample design, data processing and tabulations and data quality assessment. Identify needs, share findings with STATISTICS to further refine data collection tools and methodologies.
2. Provide advice and support to ILO constituents in the application of international standards on statistical concepts, definitions, classifications and methods. Guide them in their statistical development while ensuring international comparability, in agreement with the resolutions, guidelines and recommendations of the International Conference of Labour Statisticians. Based on specific needs of the constituents in the region, provide feedback and substantive analysis to STATISTICS to further develop implementation guides and manuals.
3. Provide technical assistance to countries in collecting, processing and reporting data on decent work indicators and Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) indicators. This includes assistance on nationalizing indicators to monitor progress towards the SDGs.
4. Facilitate discussions, negotiations and work directly with national statistical offices, ministries of labour, social security institutes and other relevant national agencies responsible for producing and analysing official statistics regarding labour and decent work-related data and metadata with a view to maximising completeness, internal consistency, and plausibility in order to resolve data anomalies and definitional issues.
5.  Strengthen and coordinate partnerships with other organizations involved in the collection, dissemination and analysis of statistical information in the region, including the African Union Commission (AUC), SADC, EAC, United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), African Development Bank (AfDB),  the World Bank and others with a view to closer collaboration in the design and implementation of joint programmes.
6. Perform other relevant duties, as assigned.

These specific duties are aligned with the relevant ILO generic job description, which includes the following generic duties:

1. Responsible for the development of a work programme in a selected field of labour statistics and other related topics. Initiate, coordinate and ensure the collection, evaluation, processing and dissemination of statistical data. Develop appropriate methods, plan surveys and other statistical inquiries for obtaining the relevant data.
2. Supervise and coordinate establishment of databases.
3. Ensure the quality of collected data for accuracy, consistency and comparability.
4. Develop new or revise existing statistical methods and quantitative models for analyses and estimates.
5. Develop and revise international standards on statistical concepts, definitions, classifications and methods and write manuals to assist countries and other constituents in their statistical development while ensuring international comparability.
6. Provide administrative and technical backstopping, guidance and advice to other ILO technical departments; field experts and constituents of the Organization in the planning, operation and evaluation of statistical programmes.
7. Organize seminars, workshops, training sessions, expert meetings etc. within and outside the Organization. Represent the Organization at various meetings. Prepare relevant reports.
8. Promote cooperation and maintain liaison with other related fields within the organization and with relevant statistical agencies, both national and international.

Advanced university degree in the field of statistics; or in economics or other related disciplines with training in basic and applied statistics or similar studies. Good knowledge of statistical software packages such as Stata, SPSS or others is essential. 

Eight years of professional experience at the national level or five years at the international level, including in a national statistical office with proven experience of having led labour force and other related surveys.

Excellent command of English and working knowledge of French.

In addition to the ILO core competencies, this position requires:

Technical

Ability to: conceptualize statistical problems and find solutions; negotiate and agree on the transfer/exchange of information and to ensure the relevance and validity of statistical information for dissemination; initiate and execute projects; synthesize research and reach empirically based conclusions on related topics; formulate new concepts and methodologies, training materials, alternative courses of action and project proposals; prepare technical reports and  advice, recommendations and standards; to evaluate and monitor development cooperation activities and projects and supervise the work of junior staff.

Behavioural

Good communication, presentation and negotiating skills, and appreciation of the tripartite structure and procedures of the ILO. Strong diplomatic skills. High standards of integrity, professionalism, personal discipline and impartiality.

Good interpersonal skills and proven team player; Ability to prioritize work and meet tight deadlines. Ability to work in a multicultural environment and demonstrate gender-sensitive and non-discriminatory behaviour and attitudes.