Economist, NOC

The Economist provides strategic economic, policy and financing analysis to support the UN Resident Coordinator, Resident Coordinator Office and UN Country Team in Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo. The role supports evidence-based policy advice, strategic prioritization, and identification of opportunities for sustainable economic transformation and SDG financing, while strengthening engagement with government, IFIs, development partners, private sector and other stakeholders.

Responsibilities

• Provides substantive economic analysis and supports evidence-based advice on sustainable development, economic transformation and SDG financing.
• Researches, analyzes and presents economic, social and sustainable development data and information, including emerging trends and good practices related to economic transformation, green and just transition, digital transformation, the future of work and SDG financing.
• Conducts economic and policy analysis to support the Resident Coordinator (RC) and United Nations Country Team (UNCT) in identifying challenges, opportunities and policy options for accelerating progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), with due consideration to gender equality and leave no one behind principles.
• Supports implementation and localization of global/corporate guidelines, tools and other materials related to economic transformation and SDG financing, including methodologies and tools related to integrated SDG analysis, strategic foresight, data-driven decision-making, digital transformation and innovation in close collaboration with the Regional Office and the SDG Coordination, Policy and Programme Division.
• Provides substantive inputs to analysis and briefing materials on economic transformation and SDG financing, including integrated SDG analysis, strategic foresight, data-driven decision-making, digital transformation and innovation.
• Supports the identification and analysis of entry points for integrated UN policy support related to economic transformation, including opportunities to promote more inclusive, productive, resilient and sustainable economic development.
• Collects, analyzes and interprets economic and development data relevant to UN country-level operations, identifies trends and gaps and proposes follow-up actions to strengthen evidence-based programming and decision-making.
• Prepares substantive inputs to policy papers, analytical notes, briefing materials, reports and other knowledge products on economic transformation, macroeconomic trends and SDG financing.
• Monitors national, regional and global economic developments and analyzes their potential implications for sustainable development and achievement of the SDGs at the country level.
• Conducts analysis on the role of the private sector in sustainable economic transformation and SDG financing and identifies potential opportunities for partnerships, innovation and blended financing approaches.
• Researches and analyzes emerging and innovative approaches to SDG financing, including initiatives developed by the United Nations, International Financial Institutions and other development partners.
• Prepares inputs for briefing notes, talking points and background materials for the RC and UNCT on economic transformation, macroeconomic developments and SDG financing.
• Supports UNCT initiatives related to SDG financing, including Integrated National Financing Frameworks (INFFs) and follow-up to Sevilla Commitments, as applicable.
• Provides economic analysis and substantive inputs to humanitarian-development-peace nexus approaches, as relevant to the country context.
• Examines the implications of demographic trends, particularly youth employment, skills development, women's economic empowerment and changing labour-market dynamics, for inclusive economic transformation.
• Uses, as appropriate, strategic foresight, scenario analysis and data-driven approaches to anticipate emerging risks and opportunities and inform longer-term policy choices.
• Supports the RC and UNCT's engagement with government counterparts, United Nations entities, International Financial Institutions (IFIs), development partners, the private sector, academia, think tanks and civil society on issues related to economic transformation and SDG financing.
• Maintains working-level collaboration and exchanges with economists across the UN system and other relevant institutions to facilitate information-sharing, policy coherence and joint analytical work.
• In close collaboration with relevant RCO colleagues, supports engagement with national planning, economic and finance institutions, IFIs, private sector actors and other partners to identify areas for collaboration on sustainable economic transformation and SDG financing.
• Monitors analytical work, policy developments, financing initiatives and capacity-development support provided by development partners and identifies opportunities for collaboration with the UNCT.
• Screens fiscal, debt, development-financing and investment trends and assesses their implications for the implementation of national development priorities and the SDGs.
• Identifies opportunities to strengthen alignment between national development priorities, public and private investment and available domestic and international financing.
• Analyzes opportunities to leverage the country's natural capital and climate and environmental assets to support sustainable development financing, including through climate finance, biodiversity finance, nature-based solutions and other emerging financing mechanisms.
• Supports engagement with private sector and civil society stakeholders to identify potential contributions to sustainable economic transformation and catalytic financing opportunities for achievement of the SDGs.
• Facilitates engagement, as appropriate, with data communities, innovation ecosystems, academic institutions, digital actors and foresight networks to strengthen analytical capacity and support the application of UN 2.0 capabilities in the country context.
• Contributes economic and financing analysis to the development and implementation of the United Nations Country Analysis (UNCA), United Nations Cooperation Framework, joint programmes, annual reports and other elements of the UN sustainable development programming cycle.
• Supports the preparation of macroeconomic, socioeconomic and SDG financing analysis for the UNCA and other analytical exercises, applying an integrated approach and drawing, where relevant, on data, digitalization, innovation and strategic foresight.
• Supports the integration of economic transformation, financing, climate, employment, digitalization and private-sector development considerations into the UNCA and United Nations Cooperation Framework.
• Identifies structural development challenges and opportunities and translates analytical findings into actionable policy recommendations and integrated UN policy support.
• Identifies economic trends, policy issues and emerging development challenges and provides substantive inputs and recommendations to support UNCT programming and integrated policy responses.
• Contributes to the development, implementation, monitoring and review of the United Nations Cooperation Framework, with particular attention to economic transformation, macroeconomic trends and SDG financing.
• Provides substantive support to the development of UN joint programmes related to economic transformation and SDG financing, including programmes supported by the Joint SDG Fund, as applicable.
• Supports UNCT Results Groups and other coordination mechanisms by providing economic analysis and substantive inputs relevant to the implementation of joint workplans and sustainable development priorities.
• Researches and proposes options to strengthen UN support to national and multi-stakeholder processes related to economic policy, financing and capacity development, including the use of data, digital technologies, innovation and foresight for sustainable development.
• Supports the RCO and UNCT in strengthening the use of data, digital technologies, innovation and strategic foresight in economic and sustainable development analysis.
• Identifies opportunities to improve the use of national and international data sources for monitoring economic transformation, SDG progress and emerging development risks.
• Supports data-driven analysis of priority issues in collaboration with the DMO such as employment, youth, gender equality, poverty and inequality, economic diversification, climate vulnerability, private-sector development and financing gaps.
• Applies strategic foresight and scenario-based analysis, where appropriate, to support the UNCT and national counterparts in anticipating future economic, social, environmental and technological trends.
• Contributes to the implementation and localization of relevant UN 2.0 approaches and tools in close collaboration with relevant regional and global UN entities.
• Contributes to knowledge management on economic transformation, macroeconomic trends and SDG financing to strengthen the UNCT's shared understanding of sustainable development challenges and opportunities.
• Participates in local, regional and global communities of practice and knowledge networks, including the UN Economist Network, and facilitates the exchange of relevant research, good practices and lessons learned.
• Researches and analyzes good practices and lessons learned from UN policy initiatives and programmes related to economic transformation and identifies their relevance to the country context.
• Monitors and analyzes approaches and successful models for SDG financing and contributes to identifying options that could inform national investment policies and programmes.
• Keeps abreast of emerging economic research, policy developments, analytical methodologies and innovative approaches relevant to sustainable development and proposes their application, as appropriate, to the work of the RCO and UNCT.
• Produces concise analytical products, including economic briefs, policy notes, issue papers, dashboards, briefing materials and strategic foresight products, tailored to the needs of the RC and UNCT.
• Participates in relevant regional and global communities of practice and knowledge networks and facilitates the sharing of research, methodologies, lessons learned and innovative approaches.
• Documents lessons learned and knowledge generated through analytical and programme-support activities and contributes to their dissemination within the Resident Coordinator system and UN Country Team.
• Supports knowledge-sharing and learning activities that promote the use of data, digitalization, innovation and foresight to strengthen sustainable development analysis and programming.
• Collects and analyzes data to identify trends or patterns and provide insights through graphs, charts, tables and reports using data visualization methods to enable data-driven planning, decision-making, presentation and reporting.
• Ensures that requirements, background information used for data analysis are documented.
• Performs other duties as assigned.

Requirements

• Advanced university degree (Master's degree or equivalent degree) in Economics is required.
• A first-level university degree in combination with two additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree.
• Successful completion of both degree and nondegree programs in data analytics, business analytics or data science programs is an advantage.
• A minimum of five (5) years of progressively responsible experience in economic research and analysis, macroeconomic or socioeconomic policy, applied economics, development economics, or a related area in the context of development cooperation is required.
• Experience in conducting economic and/or policy analysis and translating development trends and data into policy options, recommendations or other analytical products is required.
• Experience in SDG financing, development finance, public finance and/or innovative financing approaches is desirable.

Skills

• Economic Research
• Macroeconomic and Fiscal Policy
• Socioeconomic Policy
• Applied Economics
• Development Economics
• Economic Analysis
• Policy Analysis
• Data Analytics
• Business Analytics
• Data Science
• SDG Financing
• Development Finance
• Public Finance
• Innovative Financing
• Policy Recommendations
• Strategic Economic Analysis
• Stakeholder Engagement

Languages

English, French