Result of Service

The project is to strengthen national statistical systems in the region to produce and disseminate high quality demographic and social statistics to support and drive evidence-based policy making in the region.

Work Location

UN-House ESCWA / Hybrid

Expected duration

6 Months

Background: The Demographic and Social Statistics team at ESCWA is dedicated to strengthening the capacity of National Statistical Systems in Arab states, focusing on key areas such as data collection, analysis, and dissemination across demographic and social statistics domains, including population, health, education, labor, housing, and living conditions. Within this framework, the project entitled “Supporting the Enhancement and Modernization of Demographic and Social Statistics in Arab States” aims to monitor data availability by tracking trends in a set of essential demographic and social indicators.

This not only sheds light on the demographic and social realities of the region but also highlights the evolution of data availability, whether through improvements or deterioration over time. In addition to reporting these trends, our Technical Advisory Groups (TAG) meetings play a critical role in shaping a regional strategy aimed at enhancing data availability. This is achieved through close coordination with National Statistical Offices across the region, coupled with the provision of targeted statistical support to strengthen their capacities. However, significant challenges persist across the Arab region. Due to a combination of limited technical and financial resources and instability in certain countries, substantial gaps remain in demographic and social trend data, which are critical for effective policy monitoring and development planning.

These gaps underscore the pressing need for improved national data collection procedures, strengthened data processing, analysis, and estimation capacities, and more robust statistical dissemination systems. These challenges have been consistently identified by the Demographic and Social Statistics team through comprehensive questionnaires and numerous Expert Group Meetings with representatives of National Statistical Systems. During these engagements, officials have highlighted ongoing difficulties in producing reliable and timely demographic and social data. As planned in the project, the section will organize a series of activities (regional meetings and workshops on population and housing censuses, civil registration and vital statistics (CRVS), and other related matters, as well as related technical materials)

Duties and Responsibilities:

To provide research substantive and administrative assistance in the implementation of the project in the ESCWA region. The incumbent will be tasked with the following:

• Assist in the preparation of the report entitled “Report on progress made in digitalizing civil registration and legal identity in Arab states“, including drafting a questionnaire, collect, analyze results and help in drafting a brief analysis of the outputs.

• Assist in finalizing the report on “Future censuses in the Arab region”..

• Assist in the implementation of the meetings in the project

• Update the project’s webpage.

• Assist in updating database.

• Contribute in drafting chapters in Arab Society .

• Drafting substantive reports and presentations needed for the project activities, CRVS, Technical Advisory Groups, Census, and social statistics-related matters.

• Follow up with experts, consultants, partners on the different activities of the project.

• Take notes during the meetings and contribute to the preparation of the related meetings’ reports.

• Develop, review, prepare and translate materials and reports related to the project.

• Compiling, processing and manipulating data sets derived from a variety of sources.

• Respond to queries/requests.

• Other related tasks as needed.

A Bachelor’s Degree in Statistics, Demography, Population, or other social science such as epidemiology, health, sociology or education is required. All candidates must submit a copy of the required educational degree. Incomplete applications will not be reviewed. A minimum of 12 years of professional work experience in demographic and social data is required. Expertise in statistics, project/office administration, and analytical reporting is required. Good research and drafting skills are required. Computer knowledge and skills in Microsoft office and drafting reports is required.

English and French are the working languages of the United Nations Secretariat; and Arabic is a working language of ESCWA. For this position, fluency in English and Arabic is required. Knowledge of French is desirable. Note: “Fluency” equals a rating of ‘fluent’ in all four areas (speak, read, write, and understand) and “Knowledge of” equals a rating of ‘confident’ in two of the four areas.

Additional Information

Recruitment for this position is on a local basis. The incumbent is required to have the legal right to live and work in the specified working location.

No Fee

THE UNITED NATIONS DOES NOT CHARGE A FEE AT ANY STAGE OF THE RECRUITMENT PROCESS (APPLICATION, INTERVIEW MEETING, PROCESSING, OR TRAINING). THE UNITED NATIONS DOES NOT CONCERN ITSELF WITH INFORMATION ON APPLICANTS’ BANK ACCOUNTS.