Data Consultant for Strategic Foresight, Forecasting and Capacity Building
JOB DETAIL
Background/Context
UN Women, grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, works for the elimination of discrimination against women and girls; the empowerment of women; and the achievement of equality between women and men as partners and beneficiaries of development, human rights, humanitarian action and peace and security.
UN Women is embarking on the development of a new strategic plan to guide the organization’s work until 2029 and into the future. To ensure a robust and forward-thinking strategy and in line with the UN 2.0 pillar on data, UN Women will focus on the use of robust data to inform and enhance strategic decision-making.
To support the development of the Strategic Plan and its various workstreams, UN Women seeks a data consultant with advanced data science and Artificial Intelligence expertise. The consultant will play a critical role in leveraging data from different internal and external sources to strengthen UN Women’s strategic foresight, financial forecasting and planning capabilities and build data capacities across the organization. The consultant will work within the Strategic Planning Unit (SPU) and closely collaborate with teams across UN Women including headquarters divisions, as well as regional offices and country offices. The consultant will be reporting to the Programme Specialist – Results Management with SPU/SPRED and will be supported by team members within SPU.
Description of Responsibilities/ Scope of Work
The objective of this consultancy is to:
- Provide data analysis and insights into financial forecasting and organizational effectiveness as well as development results trends to guide future strategic decisions.
- Integrate data from multiple sources (e.g. consultant’s own analysis, strategic foresight exercise, trends analysis, Mid-term review of the strategic plan, UN Women’s existing systems, and publicly available data) for a comprehensive analysis.
- Build capacity across the organization to use data analysis tools and artificial intelligence.
This work will enable UN Women to anticipate and prepare for future trends, opportunities and challenges in gender equality and organizational development, ultimately aiding in the design of better strategic futures.
Key responsibilities include:
- Conduct advanced data analysis and apply machine learning and/or artificial intelligence solutions to support various workstreams of the strategic plan development process, including strategic foresight.
- Develop predictive models to assess and forecast organizational performance.
- Analyze organizational effectiveness and efficiency as well as development results metrics.
- Identify and assess factors associated with results acceleration/attainment.
- Perform financial forecasting to inform strategic decision-making.
- Integrate data from various sources into a cohesive analytical framework.
- Create data visualizations and interactive dashboards to communicate insights effectively.
- Provide data-driven recommendations for strategic initiatives.
- Collaborate with teams across UN Women, including headquarters divisions, regional offices, and country offices.
Deliverables
- A comprehensive data analysis report and accompanying PPT presentation that includes a trends analysis for organizational effectiveness and efficiency, a financial forecast analysis, predictive models and strategic recommendations.
- An internal interactive dashboard integrating data from multiple sources (consultant’s own analysis, strategic foresight exercise, trends analysis, Mid-term review of the strategic plan, UN Women’s existing systems, and publicly available data).
- Data visualization assets based on the analyses that can be used for external communication purposes as well as in other reports developed as part of the Strategic Plan development process.
- Learning materials and sessions on data analysis, forecasting and artificial intelligence based on the work conducted.
- Full accompanying data pipeline management and analysis programming scripts, together with all working files.
Consultant’s Workplace and Official Travel
This is a home-based consultancy.
Competencies:
Core Values:
- Integrity;
- Professionalism;
- Respect for Diversity.
Core Competencies:
- Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues;
- Accountability;
- Creative Problem Solving;
- Effective Communication;
- Inclusive Collaboration;
- Stakeholder Engagement;
- Leading by Example.
Please visit this link for more information on UN Women’s Values and Competencies Framework:
FUNCTIONAL COMPETENCIES:
- Ability to analyze and integrate data from various sources, identify patterns and trends and use them to inform decision making with a long-term view.
- Ability to visualize and communicate data for a wider range of stakeholders.
- Strong planning, goal setting, prioritization and organizational skills.
- Understanding of data and foresight analysis in an international development context is an advantage.
- Excellent English communication skills, with the ability to explain complex data concepts to non-technical stakeholders.
- Excellent analytical skills with strong drive for results and capacity to work independently.
- Understanding of organizational effectiveness principles and measurement.
- Knowledge of Microsoft Azure AI studio.
- Strong programming skills in Python, R, SQL or similar languages.
- Strong proficiency with data visualization tools (especially Power BI).
Education and Certification:
• Master’s degree in data science, statistics, or a related field
• A first-level university degree in combination with two additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree.
Experience:
- At least 5 years of progressively responsible work experience in data science and analytics is required.
- Experience and expertise in machine learning, AI, statistical modeling, and predictive analytics is required.
- Experience and expertise developing qualitative and quantitative analysis methods integrating various data sources and types is required.
- Experience with the application of artificial intelligence and machine learning solutions to strategic foresight is an advantage.
Languages:
- Fluency in English is required.
- Knowledge of French or Spanish or any other UN official language is an asset.
Statements :
In July 2010, the United Nations General Assembly created UN Women, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. The creation of UN Women came about as part of the UN reform agenda, bringing together resources and mandates for greater impact. It merges and builds on the important work of four previously distinct parts of the UN system (DAW, OSAGI, INSTRAW and UNIFEM), which focused exclusively on gender equality and women’s empowerment.
Diversity and inclusion:
At UN Women, we are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment of mutual respect. UN Women recruits, employs, trains, compensates, and promotes regardless of race, religion, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, ability, national origin, or any other basis covered by appropriate law. All employment is decided on the basis of qualifications, competence, integrity and organizational need.
If you need any reasonable accommodation to support your participation in the recruitment and selection process, please include this information in your application.
UN Women has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UN Women, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to UN Women’s policies and procedures and the standards of conduct expected of UN Women personnel and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. (Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.)
