Associate Economist NOB - Temporary Appointment

IMPORTANT NOTE: This position is advertised to internal and external applicants. Candidates must be legally present in Mexico at the time of application, recruitment and hire. Only candidates holding a valid work permit in Mexico will be considered eligible.

Recruitment as a UNHCR staff member and engagement under a UNHCR affiliate scheme or as an intern is subject to proof of full vaccination, independently of contract type and duration. Associate Economist

Organizational Setting and Work Relationships

Framed by the Global Compact for Refugees (GCR) and UNHCR's mission to find solutions to refugee situations, strengthened cooperation with development and private sector partners is essential. The increasing number of refugees and internally displaced persons in protracted displacement situations, together with the increasing scale of irregular migration, large-scale refugee movements, and costs of responding to humanitarian situations, have placed forced displacement high on the global agenda. These elements have further driven the realization that humanitarian support must be complemented by development and private sector actors to lift displaced populations out of poverty, enable solutions, and encourage an area based approach to poverty reduction.

Within UNHCR, the Division of Resilience and Solutions (DRS) was formed to address these challenges, in part by broadening strategic partnerships with key actors in these areas, including importantly the World Bank and other multilateral development banks and in so doing aligning approaches by Government. To support investments by development actors in area based approaches including both forcibly displaced and their hosts, requires better data and standardized information about refugees and host community households, particularly in relation to their socio-economic status or multidimensional poverty status. Accurate data on welfare conditions is also needed for UNHCR and partner operations, including cash, livelihoods, and education programming, welfare targeting and monitoring of the Sustainable Development Goals. Finally, comparable information for both refugees and host community members is a pre-requisite for measuring changes in welfare required to inform medium-term programming with development partners and national governments. DRS together with the World Bank Poverty Global Practice supported by the UNHCR World Bank Joint Data Center manage the partnership and play the global coordination role for the institution in working with National Statistics Offices to include forcibly displaced into National Poverty Assessments.

The Associate Economist will contribute to the Global Compact for Refugees (GCR) objectives: 1 - Ease the pressures on host countries and 2 - Enhance refugee self-reliance. Concretely, the incumbent will contribute to the indicators measuring the success of the GCR and particularly the proportion of refugees living below the national poverty line in the host country. Depending on where s/he is based, the reporting lines will differ. If the Associate Economist is based in Headquarters, s/he will report to the DRS Partnership Analytics Research and Knowledge (PARK) section. If s/he is based in a country or regional office, will report to either the Representative or Deputy Representative (Programme), or in some cases Head of Sub-Office or Senior Operations Officer. In all cases, there will be a dotted line to DRS PARK for technical functional clearance of candidates and for technical oversight of economics products. The Associate Economist will work closely with Programme and Protection colleagues in addition to Senior Management in the operation as well as Bureaux and technical unit key, external stakeholders and development agencies, including the World Bank, government agencies, national statistical agencies, and other operational partners.

All UNHCR staff members are accountable to perform their duties as reflected in their job description. They do so within their delegated authorities, in line with the regulatory framework of UNHCR which includes the UN Charter, UN Staff Regulations and Rules, UNHCR Policies and Administrative Instructions as well as relevant accountability frameworks. In addition, staff members are required to discharge their responsibilities in a manner consistent with the core, functional, cross-functional and managerial competencies and UNHCR's core values of professionalism, integrity and respect for diversity.

Duties
Project Management
- Support the design and implementation of assessments and other data-driven products related to the socio-economic welfare of refugees, forcibly displaced persons and host communities.
- Facilitate and support collaboration with partners and activities in the collection of comparable socio-economic (poverty) data on forcibly displaced.
- Support data collection activities, as appropriate. This may take place at all stages of data collection (preparation, survey design, sampling, onsite data collection oversight and supervision and quality assurance, data analysis and report writing).
- Support data analysis using econometric programs (R, Stata).

Data Collection and Analysis
- Consolidate raw primary and secondary datasets into final datasets to be used for analysis, as needed. This will involve creating and merging various sources of data and may require programming matching algorithms, linking up with field staff for additional information, and performing manual matching.
- Provide secondary data analysis as appropriate.
- Clean datasets and support creation of necessary indicators.
- For any field survey, assist in programming the instrument and support development of protocols to ensure high quality data.
- Prepare and document relevant datasets for archiving on the UNHCR Microdata Library.
- Support the preparation of research papers including formatting and creating tables, graphs, and related analysis.
- Engage with country operation, partners and government, as appropriate, in the design and implementation of data collection and research projects.

Coordination
- Facilitate good communication and coordination among members of the country team, Governments, researchers and partners, serving as a link between these parties.
- Support drafting and writing of presentations, analytical reports, research and policy briefs.
- Identify research opportunities and contribute to proposals for research partnerships and funding.
- Support preparations of reports on achievements in data collection and analysis.

- Perform other related duties as required.

Minimum Qualifications
Education & Professional Work Experience
Years of Experience / Degree Level
For P2/NOB - 3 years relevant experience with Undergraduate degree; or 2 years relevant experience with Graduate degree; or 1 year relevant experience with Doctorate degree

Field(s) of Education
Economics; Statistics; International Business
(Field(s) of Education marked with an asterisk* are essential)

Certificates and/or Licenses
Not specified
(Certificates and Licenses marked with an asterisk* are essential)

Relevant Job Experience
Essential:
At least three (3) years of demonstrated experience in economics, analysing data and/or conducting research.

Desirable:
Familiarity with processes of the World Bank, the African Development Bank or other international financial institutions, bilateral development agencies or research institutions. Familiarity with displacement and development issues. Experience of working with the private sector. Experience working in applied development economics. Experience in poverty modelling. Experience leading primary data collection effort and data analysis. Experience of working with synergies between the humanitarian-development nexus. Demonstrated skills and experience with measuring welfare through socio-economic profiling. Demonstrated experience with analysis of large datasets. Demonstrated expertise in utilization of relevant statistical software (R, Stata). Ability to work independently with limited supervision and deliver high quality products. Demonstrated ability to think creatively, and to explore, harness and translate innovative concepts into relevant practical approaches for programming, policy, and advocacy purposes. Demonstrated ability to think creatively, and to explore, harness and translate innovative concepts into relevant practical approaches for programming, policy, and advocacy purposes.

Functional Skills
CO-Drafting and Documentation
SO-Networking
MG-Project Management
EC-Statistical and modelling software
DM-Data Collection and Analysis
IM-Statistics Analysis
(Functional Skills marked with an asterisk* are essential)

Language Requirements
For International Professional and Field Service jobs: Knowledge of English and UN working language of the duty station if not English.
For National Professional jobs: Knowledge of English and UN working language of the duty station if not English and local language.
For General Service jobs: Knowledge of English and/or UN working language of the duty station if not English.



All UNHCR workforce members must individually and collectively, contribute towards a working environment where each person feels safe, and empowered to perform their duties. This includes by demonstrating no tolerance for sexual exploitation and abuse, harassment including sexual harassment, sexism, gender inequality, discrimination and abuse of power.

As individuals and as managers, all must be proactive in preventing and responding to inappropriate conduct, support ongoing dialogue on these matters and speaking up and seeking guidance and support from relevant UNHCR resources when these issues arise.

This is a Standard Job Description for all UNHCR jobs with this job title and grade level. The Operational Context may contain additional essential and/or desirable qualifications relating to the specific operation and/or position. Any such requirements are incorporated by reference in this Job Description and will be considered for the screening, shortlisting and selection of candidates. Core Competencies:
Accountability
Communication
Organizational Awareness
Teamwork & Collaboration
Commitment to Continuous Learning
Client & Result Orientation

Managerial Competencies:
Empowering and Building Trust
Judgement and Decision Making

Cross-Functional Competencies:
Analytical Thinking
Technological Awareness
Planning and Organizing Proficiency in English and Spanish is essential. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted. No late applications will be accepted.

Shortlisted candidates may be required to sit for a technical assessment or written test and later on, invited for an oral interview.

UNHCR does not charge a fee at any stage of the recruitment process (application, interview, processing or any other fees).
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See below for this postion's Operational Context
======================================================================================================== OPERATIONAL CONTEXT

The current drivers of forced displacement in North of Central America (NCA) remain in place. In 2020, COMAR registered 40,567 asylum seekers. Despite the sharp decrease during the first half of 2020 in new applications as a result of COVID 19, the second half of the year saw an increase of applications and this trend it is expected to continue in 2021, probably reaching the same levels pre-COVID. In Mexico, UNHCR is supporting the Government and other actors to build a stronger asylum system that allows refugees to fully exercise their human rights, from the moment of entry into Mexico, to when a durable solution is found. There are promising options for local integration and tangible results have been achieved in this respect. The operation foresees to relocate 20,000 persons in 2022.
The success of the local integration programme is closely linked to a favourable legal and economic framework. Access to nationality is a possibility after two years of permanent residence. Relocation and local integration support increasingly appear to be the only viable option in order to reduce pressure on host communities and hence prevent xenophobia, as well as provide persons of concern with real local integration opportunities through job placement, school enrolment and psychosocial support, in communities, which are assessed as being safe for the population of concern. Additionally, the Durable Solutions Unit undertakes negotiations with federal and state authorities at senior level, negotiates funding and complementary activities with different representatives of the private sector, engages academia, research institutions and development actors, and coordinates inclusion and integration related activities in Mexico, including, but limited to, labour market inclusion, access to documentation, education, health, nationality, as well as family reunification.

UNHCR¿s Relocation, job placement and local integration programme enabled over 10.000 asylum seekers and refugees to be employed in the formal economy in Mexico since 2016. UNHCR established cooperation with federal and state authorities and employment offices as well as with over 140 private companies that were hiring refugees, including Mabe, Kolon, Kimberly Clark, Palliser, Lennox, General Motors, Femsa, Hyatt, Home Depot, Soriana, Holiday Inn, Nissan, Exxon Mobil, Uber, Procter & Gamble, Lear, Faurecia and others. The relocation program was first launched in Saltillo in 2016. In 2019, UNHCR expanded the program to Monterrey, Guadalajara, Aguascalientes, Querétaro, Puebla, Leon and San Luis Potosi in 2020. By the end of April 2022, over 20,000 refugees and asylum seekers from cities in southern Mexico, where opportunities for socioeconomic integration were scarce, were successfully relocated to municipalities located in the central and northern part of the country characterized by a higher demand for workers and a better absorption capacity in the education and health sectors. A permanent dialogue with chambers of commerce, private sector companies and local authorities guaranteed an efficient match between profiles of relocated refugees and the needs of the labour market. The closing date for submission of applications is May 22nd 2022 (midnight Geneva time).