Job Vacancy: Data Specialist

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Job Vacancy: Job title: Data Specialist

Job description: We are currently looking for a Senior Database Officer to support our team in Senegal.

Department: PANDA

Position: Senior Data Officer

Contract duration:12 months

Location: Dakar, Senegal (with regular travels to Abuja, Nigeria)

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Starting Date: ASAP

COUNTRY PROFILE

Senegal serves as a regional base for IMPACT Initiatives in West Africa. This position is based in Dakar, Senegal, yet fully dedicated to a Third-Party Monitoring (TPM) Project carried out by IMPACT Nigeria, in the BAY (Borno, Adamawa, Yobe) States of Nigeria.

Nigeria is confronted by multiple security challenges. The Insurgency of The Islamic State of West Africa Province (ISWAP) and Jamā’at Ahl as-Sunnah lid-Da’wah wa’l-Jihād (JAS) – more popularly known as Boko Haram – has entered its twelfth year and has spawned a humanitarian crisis rendering sections of Borno, Adamawa, and Yobe state inaccessible, limiting affected population`s access to basic infrastructure and services, and displacing millions. In the Norhtwest, banditry has emerged as a key challenge, becoming more sanguinary with every year. The high levels of crime and increased use of violence and kidnappings have led parents and authorities to pull millions of students out of school. The spotlight remains on the Northeast yet needs – both humanitarian and developmental – are rising in the Northwest, long-running discontent and militancy prevails in the Niger Delta, discontent is increasing between herders and farming communities spreading from the central belt southwards, and separatist Biafra agitations in the Igbo Southeast simmer on.

Against this backdrop, IMPACT Initiatives has developed a wide range of research cycles to provide an evidence-base for the humanitarian community. Historically, IMPACT Initiatives has been present in both the Northeast and Northwest of Nigeria. Thematically, across 2021 – 2023 IMPACT Initiatives fielded (MSNAs), (H2R) assessments, (ABA), (ROAR), (TA), (RA), and , while also playing a key role in Famine Monitoring, Nutrition and Food Security Surveillance, and the Joint Market Monitoring Initiative (JMMI).

PROJECT PROFILE

The position is recruited for the Third Party Monitoring (TPM) Project covering FCDOs Humanitarian and Resilience Programme (HARP) Facility. For this programme, IMPACT has entered into a consortium with CLEAR Global and FACT Foundation.

When in Senegal, the Data Specialist will be hosted by IMPACT’s global partner ACTED and will fall under the direct responsibility and management of ACTED’s Country Director and his/her delegates for all Administrative, Security, and relevant Logistics and Finance issues. S/he will therefore fully abide to ACTED’s Security, Administration, and relevant HR, Logistics and Finance rules and regulations.

When in Nigeria, staff shall be hosted by CLEAR Global and for his or her mission, the Country Coordinator will fall under the direct responsibility and management of CLEAR Global’s Country Director and his or her delegates for all Administrative, Security, Logistics and Finance issues. S/he will therefore fully abide by CLEAR Global’s Security, HR, Administration, and Logistics rules and regulations, and in coordination with CLEAR Global, ensure that all IMPACT staff abide by them.

FUNCTIONS

The REACH Senior Data Officer will fulfill the following functions:

Under the line management of the IMPACT Country Coordinator or his/her delegates in Nigeria, the Data Specialist ensures the validity and strengthens the quality and efficiency of all IMPACT research cycles in Nigeria, in accordance with IMPACT’s standards, partner expectations, and IMPACT’s ethos of facilitating an evidence-based response. In coordination with the Country Senior Management Team, the Data Specialist will provide technical inputs at all stages of relevant research cycles, including for secondary data reviews, assessment conceptualization, research design, data cleaning, data analysis, production of information products (inclusive of maps and factsheets), and dissemination of information products, etc. S/he will be involved in partner coordination, donor reporting, presentations, and will be required to provide input to the strategic development of IMPACT in Nigeria. The data Specialist will also be responsible for developing and implementing a continuous capacity building program for national and international team members, and (when relevant) for providing trainings to partners.

RESPONSABILITIES

Research planning and implementation

• Identify and organise all the necessary databases present in Nigeria to be utilised for Secondary Data Reviews for the TPM Project.
• For each ToR, provide a review with an especial focus on the sampling design, data collection methodology, data analysis plan, and data management plan.
• Where necessary, conduct the sampling design, and develop the data collection methodology, while actively supporting the RM and assessment team with the data analysis and data management plans.
• In close coordination with the RM and the assessment team, co-construct qualitative and quantitative data collection tools, ensuring data requirements of the research cycle or assessment are met.
• Create data cleaning processes, data cleaning R Scripts, data analysis R Scripts, and dashboards where needed.
• Support the RM and assessment team with the compiling of validation packages, paying especial attention to the data-related components.

Data management, cleaning and analysis

• Ensure that all collected data is stored in line with IMPACT’s Data Management Guidelines, and with the Data Management Plan’s Annex in the respective Research ToRs.
• Clean raw data and ensure that all revisions are recorded.
• Support the RM and assessment team with data analysis, especially with R Scripts either for analyses that can be automated or for analyses that are especially complex.
• Support the RM and assessment team to ensure that data and analyses are validated by IMPACT HQ before the product drafting stage.
• Ensure that data and its analysis do not contain personal information and are validation by IMPACT HQ before sharing with FACT and Implementation Partners.

Drafting of products

• Maintain regular communication with IMAPCT HQ on progress and deadlines for data-related products. This is especially relevant for dashboards, which shall be developed and managed by the Senior Data Officer.

Team functional and line-Management

• For all data staff that are hired for the Nigeria mission, the Senior Data Officer shall provide technical support to line management.
• Conduct regular meetings with all international and senior national data team members to assess progress in all research cycles and to review work plans.
• Conduct bilateral management of international and senior national data team members as needed, including (in consultation with the CC) the support to or conduct of appraisals, and participation in staff career management. This would primarily be for data staff, and when the need arises perhaps as well for GIS staff.
• Generally, conduct regular support and technical backstopping.

Internal Knowledge sharing, Learning and Capacity Building

• Identify capacity gaps, and resolve to bridge these through targeted capacity building, training, performance monitoring, and backstopping where needed, especially related to data.
• Pro-actively monitor risks on data quality across all research cycles and ensure any issues flagged to management in country and HQ research design and data unit.
• Support data and assessment team to systematically review the efficiency and quality of research cycles and information products.
• Contribute to generating and documenting robust lessons learned at the end of relevant research cycles or assessments.
• Engage with the Global Units and global learning processes, such as methodology notes, lessons learn, Communities of Practice, etc.
• More generally, contribute to creating a culture of rigour, innovation, and learning within IMPACT Nigeria.

External Engagement

• Under the coordination of the CC, (remotely) engage in relevant technical fora in Nigeria (e.g. Information Management Working Group).
• In support of the CC, engage with other organisations involved in the maintenance of data in Nigeria, ensuring IMPACT databases are up-to-date and in line with Common operational Datasets (CODs) and Fundamental Operational Datasets (FODs).
• When warranted, support the CC with the presentation of data products to FCDO, Implementing Partners, or other stakeholders.

Data Confidentiality and Protection

• The Senior Data Officer will maintain the strictest confidentiality on all data collected and related processes. He/she will actively take measures to prevent the unauthorized sharing of any information and data belonging to IMPACT and its partners or collected during his/her assignment with IMPACT.

REQUIREMENTS

• Academic Excellent academic qualifications, preferably including a Master’s degree in a relevant
• discipline (Computer or Data Science, Statistics, Social Science, Economics, or related);
• Research skills Advanced experience in data science. Excellent data analysis skills.
• Software skills Advanced knowledge of R, STATA, Python or equivalent statistical software (with a
• willingness to learn R). Knowledge of ArcGIS or Power Bi an advantage;
• Years of work experience At least 2 years of relevant international working experience. Experience in humanitarian settings highly desirable. Field experience required and ability to operate in complex security environments.
• Familiarity aid system Familiarity with the aid system and with the research community.
• Training skills Ability to conduct trainings and mentor IMPACT teams and partners on assessment skills.
• Communication/reporting skills Excellent communication and drafting skills for effective reporting.
• Multi-tasking skills Ability to multitask with tight deadlines, on numerous research cycles.
• Level of independence Strong existing ability to work independently in support of colleagues and partners.
• Cross-cultural work environment Ability to operate in a cross-cultural environment requiring flexibility.
• Experience in geographical region Past experience in Sub-Saharan Africa is desirable.
• Language skills Fluency in English required, competency in French an asset.

CONDITIONS

• For this position, salary between 2’940 CHF and 3’120 CHF monthly (before income tax), etc as well as a monthly living allowance of 300 USD NB – IMPACT salaries are strictly determined by our salary grid depending on the grade of the position and the level of education of staff. A location-dependent security and/or isolation adjustment is then applied as a recognition that some staff are required to work in difficult places where living and working conditions are much more difficult than elsewhere.
• Accommodation and food provided in the guesthouse.
• Enrolment in Swiss private pension fund (Swisslife – approx. 9.975% of staff gross salary), health insurance, life insurance and repatriation assistance.
• Flight tickets every 6 months & visa fees covered (in-country travel costs and professional expenses are fully covered).
• Contribution to the luggage transportation: between 20 and 100 kgs, depending on the length of the contract (+ luggage and personal property insurance)
• Annual leave of 36 days per year. Public holidays of the country of assignment. Family/compassionate leave when applicable.
• Predeparture induction – 3 days at IMPACT Initiatives’s HQ in Geneva + one week pre-departure training in ACTED HQ in Paris, including a 4-days in situ security training;
• IMPACT prioritizes the psychological safety of its staff and the health insurance provided covers, among others, up to 1000 € per year of psychosocial counselling fees.

Location: Dakar – Abuja, FCT

Job date: Sat, 29 Jul 2023 22:18:32 GMT

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